“An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter HaShem’s congregation, even the tenth generation; they will not enter HaShem’s congregation till eternity... You shall not seek out their peace or their welfare, all your days, forever. You shall not abhor an Edomite, because he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a foreigner in his country. Children who are born to them in the third generation can enter HaShem’s congregation” (Deuteronomy 23:4-9).
“Remember what Amalek did to you on your way out of Egypt – how he chanced upon you on the way, striking all the weakest among you from behind, when you were tired and worn out, and he did not fear G-d. And when HaShem your G-d will grant you respite from all your surrounding enemies, in the Land which HaShem your G-d gives you as an inheritance to possess it – you shall eliminate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. You shall not forget” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19).
Our Parashah contains 74 of the 613 mitzvot – more than any other Parashah in the Torah.
13 of these 74 mitzvot relate specifically to warfare and how to relate to enemy nations; of the remaining 61, 11 apply solely within the Land of Israel. (This follows the mitzvah-count of the Rambam in his Sefer ha-Mitzvot, which in turn was followed by the Sefer ha-Chinuch, Mahara”m Hagiz, and others.)
The difference between the way that the Torah commands us to relate to an Ammonite, a Moabite, and an Egyptian on the one hand, and to Amalekites on the other hand, is striking. Of these four nations, Egypt caused the most grief: we were in exile there for 210 years, and in actual physical slavery for 87 years. Egypt murdered untold numbers of Jews, including Pharaoh’s notorious decree of genocide, that every Jewish boy born be murdered (Exodus 1:15-22). If any nation earned a Torah-decree of extermination, should it not have been Egypt?
Ammon and Moab attacked us as we were on the verge of entering the Land of Israel, in the final year of our desert wandering (Numbers 22-25), and ultimately caused 24,000 Jewish men to die (Numbers 25:9). They, too, would appear to be contenders for extermination.
Yet we have no inherent enmity towards these three nations: as long as they leave us alone, we will them alone. To be sure, there are severe restrictions on accepting their people as converts to Judaism, and even if they convert there are restrictions on marrying those converts (Rambam, Laws of Forbidden Relationships 12:17-18; Shulchan Aruch, Even Haezer 4:2) – but then again, how many Egyptians, Ammonites, or Moabites would ever want to convert into Judaism?!
Amalek attacked us in what appears to be no more than a brief desert skirmish (Exodus 17:8-16). The Torah’s account is so laconic – a mere nine verses – that it gives no details: when precisely the battle occurred (it was some time after crossing the Red Sea and before the Giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai), how long the battle lasted, how many were killed on both sides, or any other details.
Yet Amalek earns a harsher response than all the others: we are commanded to hunt down and destroy Amalek without respite, even in the time of peace “when HaShem your G-d will grant you respite from all your surrounding enemies”. The Targum Yonatan paraphrases: “And it will be, when HaShem your G-d gives you respite from all those who hate you surrounding the Land which HaShem your G-d gives you as an inheritance to inherit – eradicate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. And even in the days of the Mashiach the king – do not forget”. So Amalek will not even merit to enjoy the universal peace of the messianic age.
Why this difference?
Three of these nations – Egypt, Ammon, and Moab – had their reasons for attacking us. Egypt, in the first stage, wanted cheap slave labour; later they were concerned that the Hebrews would take over their country by sheer force of numbers, or side with an enemy in some future conflict. These fears were not rational or justified – but they nevertheless made sense to the Egyptians, who did what they believed to be necessary to defend themselves. Had we not been in Egypt, then the Egyptians would not have pursued us outside of their own territory.
Ammon and Moab wanted to preserve their territorial integrity, and therefore refused to let the Israelites traverse their lands. Selfish, no doubt; vicious, of course. But even so, they had their valid motives – defending their nation and their land against a perceived threat. Had they not happened to be on our way to Israel, had they not perceived us as a threat, they would not have gone out of their way to attack us.
But Amalek had no such consideration. His attack was hatred of Israel for sake of pure evil – hatred of Israel and hatred of G-d. Amalek attacked us in the desert, when we were threatening no one – indeed, when we were not even interacting with anyone. Four days after the Israelites left Egypt (Seder Olam Rabbah chapter 5), “it was told to the king of Egypt that the nation had escaped” (Exodus14:5).
Although the Torah gives no indication who told him this, the Midrash (Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yochay 14:5; Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Beshallach, Masechta de-Vayehi 1; Yalkut Shimoni, Beshallach 230) tells us that the informer was Amalek. Then, having tried and failed to get Egypt to destroy us, Amalek, in order to attack us in the desert, travelled 400 parsah (about 1,750 km/1,090 miles) in a single night (Targum Yonatan, Exodus 17:8; Tanhuma, Beshallach 25, Ki Teitze 9; Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yochay 14:8; Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael, Beshallach, Masechta de-Amalek 1).
This, then, is the difference between Amalek and other nations who attacked us. Amalek is the enemy who circumnavigates the world in order to attack Jews. And our relationship to Amalek is middah kenegged middah, measure-for-measure: all other enemies – Moab, Ammon, the seven Canaanite nations – if they leave us alone, we leave them alone. Only Amalek do we have to hunt down and destroy, even outside of the Land of Israel, even in the days of Mashiach.
And this is because as long as Amalek still exists in the world – though he be powerless, anonymous, unknown – G-d’s sovereignty is defective: after Israel’s victory over Amalek in the initial desert skirmish, Moshe built an altar, saying “For the hand is on the Throne of HaShem” (Exodus 17:16). Two words in this phrase are deficient: “throne” appears as kes (kaf-samekh), instead of kissé (kaf-samekh-alef); and HaShem appears as Yud-Heh, instead of Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh.
“G-d swore that His Name is incomplete and His Throne is incomplete until Amalek’s name be entirely eradicated; and when his name will be eradicated, then His Name will be complete and His Throne will be complete” (Rashi, Exodus 17:16; Tosafot, Brachot 3a, s.v. ve-onin yehey shmeih ha-gadol mevorakh). “Yours, O HaShem, is the Kingdom” (1 Chronicles 29:11) – “This refers to Amalek” (Brachot 58a), on which Rashi comments: “By means of HaShem’s war against Amalek, His Throne becomes exalted”.
King David described the messianic age with the words, “HaShem reigns – exult, O earth! Rejoice, multitude of islands!” (Psalms 97:1), on which Rashi comments: “HaShem reigns – when he takes the kingship away from Amalek”.
Amalek was the grandson of Esau, who was renamed Edom; hence the Amalekites are closely related to us – closer even than the Ishmaelites. The Torah forbids us to abhor the Edomite, “because he is your brother”. Nevertheless, this “brother” has been a bitter enemy to Israel over the millennia. Though we are enjoined not to abhor him, his rule over us nevertheless has been bitter and cruel.
On Psalms 97:1, the Midrash Tehillim expounds: “This teaches that there is no rejoicing in the world so long as Edomite reign continues; and G-d’s Name is incomplete and His Throne is incomplete, as it says, ‘For the hand is on the throne (kes) of HaShem (Yud-Heh)’. And as soon as G-d will reign in the midst of the fourth exile [i.e. the Edomite/Roman exile, the one that is currently drawing to its close], then immediately ‘HaShem will become King over the whole world – on that day HaShem will be one and His Name will be one’ (Zechariah 14:9)”.
Our Parashah begins with the words, “When you go out to war against your enemies…” (Deuteronomy 21:10). The purpose of our wars is not mere vainglory or sterile nationalism; the purpose of our wars is to establish a Torah society, governed by G-d’s laws. Last week’s Parashah, Shoftim, gives us the rules governing the Jewish monarchy, including the injunction: “You will assuredly set a king, whom HaShem your G-d will choose, above yourself. From among your brothers you will place a king – you cannot place a foreign man, who is not your brother, above yourself” (17:15).
And the Rashbam comments so simply: “‘A foreign man’ – to fight your wars”. Of course a non-Jewish ruler cannot fight our wars, which are G-d’s wars. Of course as long as we are in exile, or in our Land under foreign rule, we cannot fight G-d’s wars. And of course no other nation can fight our wars for us: Kiddush HaShem [Sanctification of the Name of G-d] occurs solely when Israel fights and wins its own wars.
And of course as long as we do not have Torah leadership in an independent Jewish state in the Land of Israel, we cannot go out to war, we cannot eliminate Amalek, and G-d’s Name will remain incomplete and His Throne will remain incomplete. And we, in our generation of redemption, have it within our grasp to restore the Jewish monarchy, to eliminate Amalek, and to complete the process of redemption which has – so painfully – already begun.