Wiping out Amalek

In Parshat Ki Tetze, Dvarim 24:17-19, we are commanded to wipe out Amalek:

Remember what Amalek perpetrated against you on the way when you left Egypt. When he chanced upon you en route, when you were tired and exhausted, striking down all of the stragglers in your rear, with no fear of God. It shall be when HaShem, your God, gives you rest from your enemies all around, in the Land that HaShem, your God gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven-you shall not forget.

Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook in his Sichot asks why Amalek started up with B’nai Yisrael.

His answer is that Amalek is the opposite of the Kingship of God, the Kingship of Israel, the spirit of Israel, the Shechina (Divine Presence) of Israel, the holiness of B’nai Israel, the Land of Israel, the Torah of Israel and everything that belongs to Israel and therefore God’s war on Amalek is throughout the ages.

Even though we don’t know who Amalek is genetically today, we have still been suffering from different incarnations of Amalek in every generation.

Rav Soloveitchik writes in Kol Dodi Dofek that in the 1930s and 1940s that the Nazis filled the role of Amalek. Next was Nasser and the Mufti who continued along that path. We must speak out against them. If we remain silent, I don’t know how we will be judged before God.

There are two mitzvot connected with Amalek. One is particular (the lineage of Amalek) and one is national (self defense).

Rav Soloveitchik brings the following idea in the name of his father:

1. Wiping out individuals only applies to the lineage of Amalek, “wipe out the memory of Amalek.”

Today, we don’t know who the lineage of Amalek is, so this mitzvah is not in effect.

2. When a nation wants to utterly destroy us, we are commanded to fight that nation. This is considered a Milchemet Mitzvah, an obligatory war as we read in Parshat Beshalach, Shmot 17:14-16:

God said to Moshe, “Write this as a remembrance in the Book and recite it in the ears of Yehoshua, that I shall surely erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens.” Moshe built an altar and called its name “HaShem is My Miracle”; and he said, “For the hand is on the throne of God: HaShem maintains a war against Amalek, from generation to generation.

The Amalek whose goal is to obliterate the Jewish people must be destroyed.

May we see peace in Israel and may we prevail over our enemies.