Israel At War 5785: Beshalach – Fighting Egypt, or Fighting Amalek?

What kind of enemy does Israel fight today, and how should Israel fight them? This week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, may hold answers.

Beshalach opens with the newly freed Hebrew slaves beginning their trek out of Egypt. Pharaoh had sent his cavalry to pursue them, catching up with them at the Sea of Reeds. The people, terrified, asked Moses if there hadn’t been enough graves in Egypt that he had to bring them here to die. Moses’ reply was unequivocal:

“Do not fear! Stand firm and see the salvation of Hashem that He will perform for you today… Hashem will wage war for you.” (Exodus 14:13, 14)

And so He does, drowning the Egyptians as the people watch from the shore.

Thus Beshalach opens. It ends with an unprovoked attack by the Amalekites, a nomadic horde, in the wilderness. But this time, instead of Hashem doing battle for them, the people do the fighting, and win.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks noted not only the contrast between how these two enemies were fought, but the difference between the two foes themselves. Even though the Egyptians enslaved the people and killed their firstborn sons, the children of Israel were told, as they were about to enter the Promised Land:

“…do not despise an Egyptian, for a sojourner you were in his land.” (Deuteronomy 23:8)

But about Amalek, Moses said:

“…war against Amalek from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:16)

Rabbi Sacks pointed out that the Egyptians feared the Hebrews in their midst would be a fifth column. While their fear was incorrect, it was at least rational. Once the Jews escaped Egypt and there was no possibility of returning them, Egypt’s reason for hatred ended and they ceased to be enemies. Although later there would be discrete instances of enmity and war, they did not last.

Amalek’s hatred, on the other hand, was baseless. “…he cut down among you all the stragglers in your rear, and you were faint and exhausted…” (Deuteronomy 25:18) They attacked because they saw someone weaker and because they could. When there is a rational basis for enmity, it is possible to reason with one’s enemy and reach peaceful resolution. Not so when the hatred is without reason.

Bernard Henri-Levy writes in his new book, Israel Alone, about the October 7th atrocities, “Evil was there. Pure evil, plain-faced, gratuitous, senseless. Evil for nothing and no reason; evil raw and unadorned.”

On October 7th, Amalek showed his face. And with every hostage release and rescue since then, we have seen more of the enemy’s gratuitous evil and cruelty.

For decades, Israel has sought a lasting peace with neighboring countries and the radical Islamists who war against it. With Jordan and modern Egypt, Israel has had some success. Like ancient Egypt, these nations got past their former enmity. But the Palestinians and their allies have been a harder nut to crack.

If the Palestinians’ claimed grievance, that Israel took their land and created refugees, were their true complaint, solutions could be agreed to. The land can be divided. (Israel has tried to do so and been rejected every time.) Restitution could be paid to refugees and their descendants.

But if Palestinians and Iranians and their various proxies hate the Jews because they are Jews, if their grievance is not that they lost some land but that Jews have no right to sovereignty in any one-time Muslim land, ever, then there is no compromise to be had. Even less so, if they believe all Jews everywhere should be killed, if they preach that the non-Muslim world must be conquered for Islam. Only total defeat of one side or the other can end this war, which, as Moses prophesied, has persisted for generations.

Then how to win this fight? We have seen that there were two kinds of battles described in Beshalach. The first, at the Sea of Reeds, was fought not by the freed slaves but by Hashem. The second, against the Amalekites, was fought by the people, the first time they had had to fight for themselves. While they still relied on G-d for their victory, with Moses appealing with raised hands to the heavens, they had to make an effort.

Which kind of battle is the current war? Despite the insistence of some haredim that their prayers will suffice, the time when G-d would fight our battles for us, without any participation on our part, ended at the Sea of Reeds. Starting with Amalek, on through the Canaanites to the Arabs, Jews have prayed as if everything depended on G-d but fought as if everything depended on us. And that is how it must be today.

The war with Hamas and Hezbollah has paused as Israel again negotiates for a release of her hostages. G-d willing, they will all be home soon. But to forestall any repeat of October 7th, or worse, the war with Amalek cannot cease.