
As the Jewish people left the bondage of Israel behind amidst great miracles perform for them by G-d, the nation of Amalek was not moved. They cried out to the nations of the world, saying: Do not fear the Jewish people, for they are like any other nation not protected by G-d and we can overcome them. Our Rabbis teach us to what can this be compared - to a pot of boiling hot water. Amalek came along and said: We can jump in, and even though they were scorched, it still cooled down the water, meaning that the fear of Israel was diminished in the eyes of the nations. This was their objective, to show the nations that Israel is no different then any other nation, and not chosen by G-d for a heavenly mission.
Some forty years later, as the Jewish people were poised to enter the Land of Israel, once again Amalek came against us in battle. This time it was under the appearance of the Cananite people, coming to trick us into thinking that they were not Amalek but Cananite. But we called out to G-d and He heard our cry, and we were successful in overcoming them. Their objectives were not met, trying as hard as they did to stop the Jewish people from entering into the Land and building the Holy Temple, thus redeeming and fixing the world.
But they have never stopped trying. Throughout every generation, they have come in one way or another against the Jewish people to stop us in “correcting” the world - "tikun olam". The story of Purim is no different, Hamen’s wicked plot of killing the Jews off in one day came about because he understood that now was the time of redemption. The seventy years of exile that Jeremiah had prophesied were now over; a few years earlier, permission was given by King Cyrus to the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel. Ezra and Nehemiah led the returnees to Israel, to rebuild the Land and the Temple. That, of course, would mean the end of Amalek, for in the end of days the Amalekite nation will be wiped off the face of the earth. So Haman did all in his power to stop the Jewish people’s redemption, anything to make sure that Israel cannot succeed in its holy mission, anything to make sure that they would not return “home” and rebuild the Temple.
We have seen some 70 years ago how the modern Amalek, Nazi Germany, arose to wipe the Jewish people off the face of the earth. But why did the Holocaust occur when it did, at the beginning of the 20th century? The reason, as we have seen throughtout history, is that Amalek comes to stop the redemption process. At that time there was an awakening by the Jewish people to return to its “homeland”, the Land of Israel, and every time that they sense that the redemption process is picking up speed, they try to step in and stop it. Interesting to note that Haman the Agagite had ten sons, all of who were hanged when the Jews took their vengeance on the non-Jews. So, too, at the Nuremberg trial ten of Hitler’s cronies were hung after the trial. The last one, Julius Streicher, cried out while being taken to the gallows: “Purimfest 1946”.
Now, some 70 years later, with the return of the Jewish people to its Land and the rebuilding of its cities, we are at the point of completing the Redemption process, Once again, Amalek and his helpers have started to rise up against the Jewish people, for they feel the they must try to stop this process, try to turn back the clock. But try as they might, they can never succeed, just as they have never succeded throughout history. The Jewish people, though, cannot just sit back and watch, but must rise like the Lion of Judah that we all are, return at once to Zion, and destroy all the Amalekites who stand in our way.
Levi on YouTube re Purim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViO6lLs2-Vk
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