naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (02/27/85)
<munch, munch> Remember if you reply to this article please change the "To:" line to >> Avi Feldblum >> uucp: {ihnp4, allegra}!pruxa!ayf or >> !erc3ba!gth ----------------- begin forwarded message ---------------- I would like to first thank all those who responded to my earlier posting. I have to date received 18 responses (including those to the net) all of which have been in favor. In addition, there are several people who have offered to help write. I will get back to those who have offered in the next week or so. In the meantime I will begin posting a weekly dvar torah to the net. In addition I plan to make a glossary file with english explanations of any transliterated words. I hope to have the time to keep it up to date. In order to take the finite time for things to traverse the net, I will try to post the articles on Tues. or Wed at the latest. As my site is not currently posting, just reading, this will be posted by others (thanks to those who offered to help). One last remark before I begin with the Parsha (portion of the week), I apologize in advance for my spelling errors. This week is one of the four special section readings, the week of Parshas Zachar - Remembering Amalak. First a little bit of Halacha. One of the mitzvot asah -positive commandments is to remember what Amalak did to the nation of Israel when they left Egypt. This mitzvah requires not only mental recall but an explicit verbal expression at least once a year. Chazal - the Sages added that it must be read from a kosher sefer torah, in the presence of a minyan, and established the time to be the shabbos before Purim. The connection with Purim is that Haman was of the descendents of Amalek. As a result, with this week's torah reading, you fulfill a d'orica (torah required) obligation. In addition, even if the d'rabonon (Sages required) part is time dependent, so that women would not be obligated, the d'orica is not time dependent and (in the view of most poskim) women are equally obligated, so everyone should try to make it to shul this week for the torah reading. One final point of interest, in the opinion of some poskim, you must understand what is being read as well as listen to it, so I've included here a translation of the reading. Devorim 25:17-19 17) Remember what Amalek did unto you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt; 18) how he met you by the way and smote the hindmost of you, all that were enfeebled in your rear, when you were faint and weary; and he feared not God. 19) Therefore it shall be when the lord thy God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God gives you for an inheritance to posses it, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget. One point that I have found interesting is to try to understand why the battle with Amalak is of such importance. There have been many nations that did battle with Bnai Yisrael (the children, i.e. people, of Israel) both in the dessert and in the land of Canan (Palistine). What was so different about Amalak. There are two references to the battle, one at the time it occured in Shemos (Exodus) 18:8 and the second in Devorim (Deuteronomy) 25:17. In Shemos we read: Ki yad al cas yah, milchoma le'Hashem ba'amalak me'dor dor. For the hand upon the throne of Hashem (God), Hashem will have war with Amalak for all time. What we see here, is that in some sense, there exists an everlasting battle between Hashem and Amalak. While the concept of battle between Hashem and his creations is difficult to comprehend, it is clear that there must have been a grave offense against Hashem by Amalak to provoke this response. Given the above, it would be easy to sit back and say that if Hashem is doing battle, we can sit back, as indeed Moshe told Bnei Yisrael by the splitting of the Yam Soof (Red or Reed Sea). It is exactly this point that Moshe deals with in this weeks reading. 'Remember what Amalak did to you', to you and not only to Hashem, and as such there is a requirement upon the nation of Israel to distroy utterly the very memory of Amalak. So what was the nature of Amalak's act? Several of the commentators (see esp. the Abravanel) explain that there are several reasons why nations engage in war, none of which apply to the battle between Bnai Yisrael and Amalak. Firstly, to conquer new territory and expand their borders. In this case, the battle occurred 'in the way, when you left Egypt'. We had no land for Amalak to conquer, we had just left Egypt and were traveling in the uninhabited dessert. Secondly, nations go to war to defend thier borders against nations engaged in reason one above. But here 'he met you by the way', you were not headed toward his land and were no threat to him. Third, he did not meet with you face to face to do battle, but acted in a cowardly way, attacking the stragglers and weakest, those who trailed the main camp and feared attacking directly, even though 'you were faint and weary'. The Malbim explains it somewhat differently, more in line with the first two. The third reason for war is to gain "glory" by attacking a nation that is seen as being powerful or important and defeating it. But you had just come out of Egypt and were weak, and they could gain no such glory by attacking you. Why then did Amalek attack. Because 'he feared not God'. The purpose of the miracles surrounding the leaving of Egypt was to proclaim to the nations of the world that Hashem is master of the world and maintains his active rulership. 'In order that you shall know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth (Shemos 8:19)'. It was this concept that Amalek challenged. God does not interfere. We (Amalek) do not hesitate to attack this puny nation that has left Egypt. We will crush him and his God. The attack of Amalek on Bnai Yisrael was a direct challenge to all the wonders that Hashem had performed in taking the Jews out of Egypt. It was for this reason that the response required was a "personal" battle between Hashem and Amalek. But at the same time we must remember that we, as a nation, must strive to show that Hashem is the ruler "in" the land, and so we too must try to eradicate the philosophy behind the attack of Amalek. Have a good Shabbos and a Happy Purim to all. Avi Feldblum uucp: {ihnp4, allegra}!pruxa!ayf or !erc3ba!gth -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ahuta, maxvax, cbosgd, lzmi, ...]!pegasus!naiman
naiman@pegasus.UUCP (Ephrayim J. Naiman) (02/27/85)
<munch, munch> > The Malbim explains it > somewhat differently, more in line with the first two. The third reason > for war is to gain "glory" by attacking a nation that is seen as being > powerful or important and defeating it. But you had just come out of > Egypt and were weak, and they could gain no such glory by attacking you. They may have been weak but -- A) Who says anyone else knew that ? B) Even if people knew that the Israelites were tired, it still would have been glorious to defeat them because of their triumphs over Egypt. I'd say that the "Splitting of the Reed Sea" could be viewed as powerful even though it wasn't the people who did it. -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, ahuta, maxvax, cbosgd, lzmi, ...]!pegasus!naiman