Yet just like with the false premise of the Balfour Declaration, the critics assume they understand what wiping out Amalek means.
They don't.
Once again, they get all persnickety about a false premise.
How Amalekites Differ from Khaybar's Jews
But the accurate interpretation of the Torah reveals the truth with many valuable lessons.
For example, the commandment from Hashem to wipe out the nation of Amalek only occurred after Amalek behaved appallingly and mercilessly toward Am Yisrael.
Furthermore, anyone born with an Amalekite soul lacks the potential for genuine goodness.
This is a fact of spiritual physics.
Every Amalekite soul yearns to annihilate not just an actual Jew, but the essence of Judaism, including its superior morality and code of ethics.
(This is why, for example, the Nazis offered the Jews in death camps scrumptious foods davka on major fast days like Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, plus Nazis carried out brutal aktions on Simchat Torah and Shavuot. They also strove to dehumanize the Jews before murdering them.)
Incorrectly, much of the world looks at the commandment to wipe out Amalek as a primitive genocidal notion.
They view it in conjunction with the oft-chanted Islamic verse: "Remember Khaybar, O Jews; Mohammad's army will come back to you!"
This recalls the Mohammad-led decimation (via murder, enslavement, abduction, and exile) of nearly all Jews in Khaybar in 628.
It was a revenge massacre for perceived break in a treaty by the Quraysh Jews.
In reality, Mohammad broke the treaty first by refusing to send back a Jewish woman after her two Quraysh brothers came to request for her return.
According to the treaty, Mohammad should have released her.
Then Mohammed started breaking this aspect of the treaty frequently. After that, allies of the Quraysh acted aggressively against allies of the Muslims.
The Muslims anyway never liked the original treaty. So Mohammed attacked the Jews settled in the Khaybar oasis near Medina in today's Saudi Arabia.
He and his forces murdered over 90 Jewish men — torturing the Jewish leader to death — took the Jewish women and children captive, exiled the rest of the Jews while forcing them to leave behind their money, and allowed some Jewish farmers to remain — as long as those Jewish farmers forked over half their produce every year for as long as the Muslims demanded it.
This is very different than the commandment to wipe out Amalek, starting with the fact that the Amalek soul innately lacks compassion and feels attracted to the destruction of purity and goodness.
The Jews of Khaybar, on the other hand, far outshone their murderers in all aspects of morality and spirituality.
Just as important, Mohammed gave the command to attack the Khaybar community — and he did so as a false prophet.
The commandment to wipe out Amalek came from Hashem Himself.
Had Shaul Hamelech not hesitated in wiping out every single Amalekite in his time (as commanded by the Borei Olam), we would never know of Haman. We would never know of the Nazis.
And we wouldn't know of the barbaric savages who committed the Great Horror near Gaza.
Furthermore, the pity on the same preteen Gazans, partly because of whom Israeli military decided against an all-out bombing in 2014 grew up to become the torturers and murderers of the very Jews who protested on behalf of the lives of those same Gazan preteens.
Gazan children's lives saved by Israeli volunteers and Israeli hospitals grew up to torture, kidnap, and murder their saviors.
We also know from the sick videos that women, 10-year-old boys, and elderly men participated in the Gazan Horror.
You can see the glee and eager anticipation on their faces as they enter Jewish areas behind their armed brethren, joining in the atrocities and scavenging Jewish bodies, still warm from having been murdered moments before the Gazan "vultures" pick their pockets.
What Jewish Soldiers Really Mean When They Say That
They'll say they're thinking of wiping out the same irredeemable terrorists who tortured and massacred their brothers and sisters.
They aren't fantasizing about annihilating babies or abusing women. (In fact, the Divine Directive to wipe out Amalek includes killing only, and not torture or any kind of sxual abuse.)
We know this because — well, because we all know Israeli soldiers and we know what they think.
But we also know this because Israeli soldiers have not violated any Gazan Arab, not female nor male, neither child nor adult.
Furthermore, when Israeli soldiers came across an Arab baby on his own in an abandoned building, they took care of the baby until they could pass the baby into the hands of more capable caretakers.
Another video in circulation shows an Israeli soldier cutting up his own apple to feed a 3-year-old Muslim-Gazan girl.
Recently, a video came out of Israeli soldiers who found a wizened elderly Arab woman, starving and injured, handcuffed to the place by her fellow Muslim-Arab Gazans who wanted to use her against Israel.
The soldiers dealt with her gently and compassionately, transferring her to the care of the Red Cross.
Another video shows an Israeli soldier with a reassuring arm around a barefoot Gazan Arab child. The caption describes the video as the soldier hugging the trembling child to protect the child against the cold, but there is an Arab woman reclining behind them wearing a large shawl that, if the woman would hug the child to her under the shawl, would warm the child much better than the child standing barefoot on rubble with the soldier's hand on the child's shoulder.
It looks more like the child trembles from fear, and when the sounds of battle increase, the child trembles more and the soldier pats his shoulder reassuringly.
Regardless, these soldiers are clearly Jews with no intentions of a genocidal free-for-all when they chant the verse, "Wipe out the memory of Amalek!"
A Philosophical Digression:
Currently Compassionate to the Potentially Cruel? Or True Compassion?
How many Jews saved the lives of Gazan children, only to be tortured, kidnapped, and murdered years later by those same children?
Former prison director, Betty Lahat, recalls at least 2 terrorists who entered her prison, who, as children, suffered from cancer, brought to Israeli hospitals by Jewish volunteers (who paid for everything out of their own pocket) and treated for free at Israeli hospitals — and completely cured.
It's such a pity all those Jews helped them so much because these they essentially helped these Gazan children to survive to murder Jews.
That right there is Amalek. They're born that way and no amount of goodness or compassion can change them.
And that pitiable elderly Arab woman handcuffed by her brethren to die a slow torturous death of starvation or at the hands of the military — did she not raise her own children and grandchildren to hate Jews and aspire to become terrorists?
Did she not frightening her children into obedience by threatening them, "If you don't do what I say, the Jews will come for you" — as is common in every Gazan home?
In other words, does she not share responsibility for all the Jewish death and suffering perpetuated by her offspring?
On the other hand, maybe Hashem orchestrated her salvation because she actually opposed all the Jew-hatred.
And maybe those children deserve Jewish compassion because they will grow up to be decent people and not Jew-haters.
(Unlikely in all the above scenarios, but I'm throwing this out to be fair and consider all sides. After all, we don't understand Hashem's Ways.)
However you want to view the above, these Jewish soldiers clearly lack the intentions ascribed to them by crazed Jew-haters when Jews chant the verse, "Wipe out the memory of Amalek!"
Initial Discussion of Amalek Resumed...
When someone starts frothing at the mouth over Jewish soldiers singing about wiping out Amalek as they go off to combat, the first thing you must do is grab your mind and think, They're right. And how wonderful to see Jewish boys so connected to Torah ideas and ready to apply them in all situations!
At least in your own mind, do not accept the hysteric's false premise that wiping out Amalek is a bad thing.
It's not.
Wiping out Amalek is a good thing, a true service to humanity.
The mitzvah lives on, only we never seek to act on it because we no longer know who is a bonafide Amalekite today.
But if someone, like a bloodthirsty Nazi or terrorist, behaves like a bonafide Amalekite, you can certainly kill him in self-defense (another mitzvah) and also associate it with fulfillment of this Torah mitzvah to wipe out Amalek.
And that's what Jewish soldiers in the IDF are doing when they chant about wiping out Amalek.
A Brief Intercession from Rav Miller: "Don't Grab a Dog by the Ears."
For example, Rav Avigdor Miller utilized ways of peace, even when he was in the right against troublesome people, and even when the non-Jewish police stood firmly on his side. Please see this role to follow (based on the verse from Mishlei 26:17 about not grabbing the ears of a dog):
I was walking home from shul – this was more than ten years ago – with a group of people and there was a gang of goyim in the street.
They were always there, but this time one of them started fighting with one of my men. I have a tough fellow in my shul and the goy started up with the wrong one and now they’re wrestling; they’re duking it out on the street.
So the police started coming. At least fifteen police cars came, fifteen without a guzma. On all sides the neighborhood was screaming with sirens.
And the sergeant came over to me and asked me if we wanted to press charges.
So I was thinking about this possuk and I was considering the options; and I told the policeman that I didn’t want to do that.
And I walked over near to where the goyim were standing and I said out loud, “We want to be friends with these people.”
I said it loudly they should all hear. I said, “Let him go. We’re OK with them.”
Make Peace, Not War
People forget that there’s a command of the Chachomim of darkei shalom.
We have to live in peace with gentiles; we want to live in peace with the whites and the negroes and the Chinese and the Irish.
And even if they say things sometimes, even if they make trouble sometimes, be careful not to seize the ears of that dog. Learn to swallow down the insult and go home.
Because what’ll happen otherwise? The courts aren’t going to be much help.
And even if you’ll win out, sometimes they come back and make even more trouble. A Jew shouldn’t go and tcheppe back against a goy; it’s grabbing the ears of a dog.
Now, the policeman wasn’t so happy. He already had the hoodlum by the hand and this young policeman wanted to have at least one arrest to his credit and here was a chance.
It was a white boy too; a white boy is a good one to arrest. The other ones, not so much.
But I made a public demonstration about it. I said, “We want to be on good terms with these boys. Let him alone.”
And the policeman said to him, “You see how lucky you are. This rabbi wants to be peaceful with you.”
And that’s how the incident ended. From now on when I walk on the street, the same gang is there and everything is quiet.
It pays to be on good terms with the gentile neighbors.
Of course, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stand up for your rights.
There are good ways of doing it, wise ways and even forceful ways.
I say forceful with an accent on the word force, but it’s not to be administered by recklessness.
You need sage counsel.
Because among the considerations, one of the important ones is this one:
"Don’t grab onto the ears of a dog."
torasavigdor.org/parshah-booklets/vayishlach-5784/
Sometimes, they also cause the unnecessary death or suffering of innocent Muslims or Druze.
In other words, they can never seem to get it right.
Having said that, my main problem with this war is the horrific rate of death and severe injuries of my fellow Jews sent in as foot soldiers.
To Speak Up or Not to Speak Up? It Depends...
I don't. Well, I do. But they're all frum and not self-hating Leftists.
Not everyone is so lucky.
And for many of you, these confrontations aren't something you receive in your email or read about in the news, but you actually encounter people who start blaring in favor of all the anti-Israel talking points.
I can't say what to do in every situation because so much depends on the dynamics and the personalities of everyone involved.
But just to know within yourself: Those soldiers are speaking correctly. I agree with the concept.
This enables you to project something completely different than if you feel the need to engage in apologetics, and especially if this particular mitzvah has always caused you some discomfort within yourself.
But now you have your mind straight.
And that's the most important, more important than convincing anti-Israel Leftists (even if they're also Jews, rachmana litzlan).
It's a wonderful life-preserving mitzvah. We just don't do it because "beyond a reasonable doubt" isn't good enough — we want to be ABSOLUTELY certain of the Amalekite identity.
So how you respond is up to you.
But depending on the dynamics, you can point out the person's misunderstanding of the verse and the soldiers' intentions.
You can just say, "There's a misunderstanding here. The media doesn't understand it either, so they're misrepresenting the situation. The verse doesn't mean what you think it does and the soldiers don't mean what you think they mean. The Jewish soldiers don't mean what a Muslim mob means when they recall the Khaybar massacre."
You can engage in a detailed discussion of the issue and where the person is wrong. (Usually, that's not an option because the other person wants to self-righteously froth at the mouth with no interest in truth.)
You can also remind them the Gazans brought this on themselves as described here:
- yet-another-expose-on-the-innocent-civilians-of-gaza-attacking-a-red-cross-vehicle-filled-with-elderly-and-child-captives.html
- how-to-answer-an-apikoris-and-a-leftist-and-a-centrist-and-a-superficialist-and-so-on.html
- the-phone-call-that-acted-as-my-personal-wake-up-call.html
But the main goal is yourself.
Also, if arguing with inconvincible people who lack brains and hearts stresses you out, it really may not be worth it.
So either way, prioritize your own mind and heart.
YOU need to be pro-Am Yisrael and pro-Torah — even when you can't say a word.