HaRav Shmuel Eliahu is Chief Rabbi of Tzfat.
At first glance, the commandment to wipe out Amalek appears opposed to the spirit of the entire Torah.
There is a positive commandment from the Torah to destroy the seed of Amalek. There is also another commandment not to forget the evil of Amalek, and another commandment to hate him and not allow this hatred to be forgotten (Sefer HaMitzvot 188-189). This is a commandment that is difficult for the descendants of our forefather Abraham, whose role is to bring blessing to the world . Abraham himself was commanded to be the father of a multitude of nations. It is a commandment that appears to be against the Torah, whose “ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace."
Therefore King Saul asked how it is possible to erase Amalek. The Torah is so strict about bloodshed. If a slain person is found and his murderer is not found, the public demands an accounting from the leaders and educators who did not do enough to prevent the murder. Saul weakened in the war against Amalek and did not kill Agag the Amalekite, nor the sheep and cattle.
We Paid for Saul’s Mistake with Our Lives
The price of Saul’s mistake was almost paid with the lives of the Jews in the world who lived in the time of Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Saul erred because he did not see far enough into the future. He did not see the wicked Haman who would emerge from Agag, king of Amalek. In contrast, Samuel saw that from Agag, king of Amalek, a cruel, vengeful, evil kingdom could grow which could destroy the entire world. He saw that God, who creats souls, knows that mercy toward Amalek is cruelty toward Israel and toward all humanity.
The Enormous Price We Paid in the Holocaust
Through Mordechai and Esther, the People of Israel were saved in that generation from the decree of Haman. In the generation of Hitler, we did not have Mordechai and Esther to remind us of Amalek and his path. Save for a few unheeded voices there was no one to warn us about Hitler who destroyed one-third of the Jewish people with unimaginable cruelty.
We did not remember the Torah’s warning about Amalek. We did not believe that Hitler would carry out what he said, even though we suffered pogroms, expulsions, blood libels, and endless persecutions at the hands of enlightened Europeans. We did not believe that the seemingly advanced and cultured Europe would participate in the destruction of a people. We did not believe that the respectable citizens of France and Poland, Switzerland and Holland, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Romania and Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia would cooperate with the arch killer of all time.
We did not believe that the British and Americans would stand by. We did not believe that all the progressive nations of the world, which championed religions of love and kindness, would remain silent in the face of this terrible crime. With endless innocence, we boarded the trains that led us to the crematoria of Auschwitz.
Khamenei Wants to Complete the Plan of Haman and Hitler
Our innate innocence in this generation has served Khamenei - a persecutor who declares that he wants to complete what Hitler and Haman did not succeed in completing. The United Nations explained to us that the Iranians were planning nuclear power only for peaceful purposes. When our Prime Minister understood that there was an existential danger to the People of Israel, he was neutralized by heads of the Israeli security establishment who had not read Parashat Zachor.
Those irresponsible leaders believed the agents of Khamenei in Gaza and Lebanon and gave them money, which they used to build a well-oiled machine of destruction whose purpose is to complete the plan of Haman and Hitler. All of this happened because we did not fulfill the commandment: “Remember what Amalek did to you; do not forget."
Who Is Amalek?
There is a halakhic difficulty with the commandment to erase Amalek. On the one hand, the three commandments concerning Amalek apply for all generations (Rambam, Laws of Kings, Chapter 5). On the other hand, we know that the nations were mixed in the days of Sennacherib: “When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, arose, he confused all the nations and mixed them with one another and exiled them from their places. And these Egyptians who are now in Egypt are different people. And so too the Edomites who are now in the land of Edom" (Laws of Forbidden Relations, Chapter 12, Law 25).
Regarding the seven nations, the Rambam wrote: “Their memory has already been lost" (Law 4). Despite this mixing, he did not write that the memory of Amalek was lost. This implies that Amalek still exists, even though the nations were mixed.
This Will Be Israel’s Final War
The Ramban (Nachmonides) wrote that the war with Amalek was the first war of Israel and will be the last war. “For the war with this family is the first and the last for Israel. Regarding it, it was said: ‘And saviors shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.’ And behold, all that Moses and Joshua did to them at first will be done by Elijah and the Mashiach son of Joseph to their descendants. Therefore Moses strengthened himself in this matter."
The Haters of Israel Are Amalek
Therefore Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik, of blessed memory, wrote that despite the mixing of the nations, the memory of Amalek was not lost, and we can and must identify them by their great hatred of Israel. In his opinion, all the haters of Israel are Amalek, upon whom the obligation of eradication applies. Rabbi Soloveitchik follows the path of the Targum, which says that the nations killed in Shushan were Amalekites: “And the king said to Queen Esther: In Shushan the capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men of the seed of Amalek and the ten sons of Haman…" (Esther 9), even though Haman lived after Sennacherib.
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu - Practical Halakha
My cherished father, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, of blessed memory, thought likewise. In his opinion, Iran and all its agents in Gaza, Lebanon, or anywhere else have the status of Amalek. They are essentially haters of Israel. Anyone who strikes the Revolutionary Guards, or Sinwar, Nasrallah, and their associates fulfills the commandment of erasing Amalek. Every soldier should have this intention whenever he fires at these enemies. Every commander should have this intention when strengthening the fighting spirit of his soldiers. This is how one must act in areas where Iranians or their agents operate with the spirit of Amalek.
It must only be remembered that unlike the regular war against Amalek, in which all must be erased, here only those who hate us and are our enemies must be erased according to the law of Amalek.
The members of Knesset who are working to impose the death penalty on the terrorists who invaded Israel on Simchat Torah to destroy, kill, and annihilate are acting properly. We must stop having mercy on the cruel who continue to incite toward the destruction of Israel - may Hashem have mercy and overturn their evil designs, just as He did in the past.