AMALEK:
ATTACK AND AWAKENING – PARSHAT CHUKAS
Shira
Smiles shiur - June 2012/Tamuz 5772
Summary
by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Bnei Yisroel have
completed their forty years of wandering in
the desert. Bnei Yisroel are now again about to enter the land promised
to
them. Aharon has died and the clouds of glory surrounded Bnei Yisroel
in his
merit have disappeared. Once again, they are attacked by an enemy
trying
to block their advance. The Torah relates the events:
The Canaanite king of
Arad, who dwelled in the south, heard
that Israel had come by the route of the spies, and he warred against
Israel
and took a captive from it. Israel made a vow to Hashem and said,
“If He will
deliver this people into my hand, I will consecrate their
cities.”
Who was this Canaanite
king and why did he choose to attack
now? If defeating Israel was his goal, why did he just take one captive
instead
of waging an all out war? What is the significance of the ambiguous
wording of
the prayer Bnei Yisroel uttered, and why did they consecrate the spoils
of this
battle specifically to Hashem? Further, what is the significance
of the
route they were now taking? These are some of the questions raised by
the
seemingly extraneous words in these few verses.
Rashi sheds
light on the first of our questions, and
his response sheds tremendous light on the remaining difficulties. Arad
and his
Canaanite nation were in fact Amalek who dwelled in the south
and who
are the eternal enemy of Bnei Yisroel. But if they were Amalekites, why
are
they identified as Canaanites?
Therein lies the
subtle deception Amalek is always capable
of. Amalek was aware that the strength of Bnei Yisroel lay in its power
of
prayer. After all, Amalek’s grandfather Esau must have told him
how Yaakov
“stole” the blessings from him and that Yitzchak had
verbalized the difference
between the twins, “Hakol kol Yaakov, vehayadim yedei Esav,
the power of
Yaakov is in his voice, his power of prayer, while the power of Esau
lies in
his hands, his physical might, his sword”. As the Oznaim
LaTorah
explains, it wasn’t just that Bnei Yisroel were now vulnerable
because the
clouds of glory vanished; it was a matter of undermining the voice of
Yaakov.
If Amalek could weaken the prayers of Bnei Yisroel, explains Rabbi
Dovid
Hoffsteder in Drash Dovid, then Bnei Yisroel would lose their
power and
they, Amalek, would be victorious. So the Amalekites disguised their
voices,
speaking like the Canaanites, so that Israel would pray to be
victorious over
the wrong nation. They take one captive, a prisoner of a former war,
hoping to
instill fear into the hearts of Bnei Yisroel so that they would want to
return
to the safety of Egypt instead of moving forward to the Promised Land.
But Bnei Yisroel is
not taken in by this ruse. They react
appropriately by praying to Hashem and thereby being unafraid. They
noticed
that the enemy spoke like Canaanites but retained the uniforms of
Amalekites.
Unsure of who the enemy was, their prayer was composed as a prayer
against a
generic enemy, this people. And to fortify their prayer, they
coupled it
with an action, a vow to consecrate the enemy and its cities to God.
Nevertheless, Amalek
hoped to weaken the prayers of Bnei
Yisroel. According to Rabbi Druck in Darchei Mordechai, if Bnei
Yisroel
saw that this enemy was Amalek, their prayers would be deep and
fervent, for
they were already familiar from previous experience with the havoc
Amalek could
wreak. If, on the other hand, Bnei Yisroel thought the enemy was just
Canaan,
perhaps their prayers would not be as heartfelt and therefore would be
less
powerful.
While Bnei Yisroel did
not fall prey to the ruse of Amalek,
continues the Drash Dovid, the experience nevertheless left an
impression on Bnei Yisroel, just as Yaakov was left limping even though
he was
victorious in his battle with Esau’s guardian angel. Therefore,
although Bnei
Yisroel had full faith in Hakodosh Boruch Hu, they now realized how
fully
dependent they were on Hashem for everything, for every morsel of food
and
every sip of water. Therefore the parsha continues with Bnei Yisroel
complaining about their food and water, for they were afraid they could
not
live constantly on such a high spiritual level to merit such
benevolence. Bnei
Yisroel were already becoming unglued with the death of Aharon, as
Rabbi Frand
points out, citing the Ateres Mordechai. Aharon had united the
people in
peace and brought them to a higher level of intimacy with Hakodosh
Boruch Hu.
With his death, the unity that had protected Bnei Yisroel from harm
dissipated,
and the clouds of glory left as a result.
Nevertheless, Bnei
Yisroel prayed. But, as Rabbi Gavriel
Rabinowitz explains in Tiv HaTorah, prayer needs to be
strengthened with
other components. Seeing the enemy up close and personal brought Bnei
Yisroel
to a point of introspection, to question themselves why Hashem saw fit
to bring
this danger to them. They did teshuvah. They further coupled
their
prayer with action, with resolution, to dedicate all the spoils of this
war to
God. They created the threefold cord of teshuvah, tefillah and
tzedakah,
introspection and atonement, prayer, and (charity) action, and were
thus able
to vanquish the enemy.
Let us now return to
the scheming practices of Amalek. They
had changed their language but not their clothes. As Mizkeinim
Esbonan
explains, one can dissemble with words, but once one adopts the
clothing of
another culture, one is changing oneself in many other ways. After all,
clothes
make the man. So while Amalek tried to trick Bnei Yisroel into
believing this
was not really Amalek, this evil nation never changed. They remained
the Amalek
they had always been.
The Taam Vodaat
elaborates on this point. Amalek was
the paradigmatic non believer. They may not have believed in the power
of
prayer at all, but they wanted to throw Bnei Yisroel off its defenses.
They
didn’t declare all out war, but just took one captive to show
good intentions.
They changed their language to a language of peace, saying we can
coexist. In
this way, they hoped to entrap Bnei Yisroel and catch them off guard.
Their
real motive, their real identity of Amalek as manifest in their
clothing, to
destroy Bnei Yisroel never changed.
The Shaarei Chaim
takes this idea one step further.
Amalek always symbolically represents the yetzer horo, the evil
inclination whose purpose is to lead us to self destruction through
sin. It
hides, it entices us with friendly language. But we must be wary of
these
friends. They are emulating their progenitor Esau who knew how to
entrap others
through his sly power of speech, ki tzayid befiv. Our job is to
recognize this as the ploy of the yetzer horo and to let go of
the rope
he’s using to entangle us. As Rebbetzin Sara Yocheved Rigler
points out, the
yetzer horo has imprisoned us, and we need outside help to get the
key to
release us; we must pray to Hashem for His help.
Because Amalek/yetzer
horo is so adept at
dissimulation, it is often difficult to recognize him. In fact, says
Reb Chaim
Shmulevitz in Sichot Mussar, that initial struggle of Yaakov
with Esau’s
angel points to this very problem. When Yaakov asks the angel for his
name
after fighting with him, the angel answers, “Why do you ask my
name,” for in
fact, his identity constantly changes as his programs and schemes
evolve.
On a parallel track,
the Drash Mordechai cites Rabbi
Yitzchak Isaac Sheer and gives us another explanation. Amalek is within
us. We
know intellectually that we are nothing but dust and ashes, yet we
cannot
reconcile that with our desire to live our lives on an almost totally
physical
and materialistic level. We cannot shed our external clothing even as
our inner
voice tells us differently. Just as Amalek knew the power of Bnei
Yisroel’s
prayer but couldn’t resist the temptation to try to annihilate
them as soon as
they saw them, so too are we often in the grasp of what we see and what
we
physically want. Our task is to wrest control from the physical world
around
us, the world of illusion and dust, and strengthen ourselves in the
world of
the spirit and truth. Let our minds rule our hearts.
But just as our
environment has an impact on us, so do we
leave an impression on the world around us. These impressions remain
long after
we leave the place. Rabbi Goldwicht discusses this idea in Asufat
Maarachot
and explains why the path Bnei Yisroel took now, the same route
originally used
by the spies some thirty nine years earlier, was relevant. If this was
the
place that struck fear in the hearts of Bnei Yisroel earlier at the
return of
the spies, reasoned Amalek, we can use the negative energy created then
to our
advantage and try to destroy Israel in this very same place. Indeed, if
you
want your Torah learning to have an impact on your life rather than
remaining
inert and empty, find the proper environment for your studies.
Using this theme, Rav
Reiss in Meirosh Tzurim explains
how at the end of days a lion and a lamb will live in peace. At that
time, says
Rav Reiss, when “nation will not lift up sword against nation and
man will no
longer study war,” the peaceful energy generated by humans will
impact nature
itself, and the animals too will live together in peace.
We have to build this
sanctuary of sanctity, says Halekach
Vehalebuv. Every time our hand is stretched out to give tzedakah
or
do chessed, it retains an element of kedushah. Every
week we
sanctify the space of our homes with the kedushah of Shabbos.
Let us try
to extend that spirituality and peace to the rest of the week.
Let us be sensitive to
the nuances of the world around us so
that we can recognize the various guises of the yetzer horo. Let
us work to merit winning the final national and personal battles with
the
Amalek that surround us on all sides.