(1) And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. (2) Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said: ‘Give us water that we may drink.’ And Moses said unto them: ‘Why do you fight with me? why do you try the LORD?’ (3) And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?’ (4) And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying: ‘What shall I do unto this people? they are almost ready to stone me.’ (5) And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Pass on before the people, and take with you of the elders of Israel; and your rod, with which you hit the river, take in your hand, and go. (6) Behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you will hit the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.’ And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. (7) And the name of the place was called Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel, and because they tried the LORD, saying: ‘Is the LORD among us, or not?’ (8) Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. (9) And Moses said unto Joshua: ‘Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.’ (10) So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12) But Moses’hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. (13) And Joshua made Amalek and his people weak with the edge of the sword. (14) And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Write this for a memorial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.’ (15) And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Adonai-nissi. (16) And he said: ‘The hand upon the throne of the LORD: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’
1. Read the text with your Havruta. What questions do you have about the text? What do you notice about the text?
2. What do we learn from this text about how to relate to others?
(ח) ויבא עמלק וגו' . סמך פרשה זו למקרא זה, לומר תמיד אני ביניכם ומזמן לכל צרכיכם, ואתם אומרים (פסוק ז) היש יהוה בקרבנו אם אין, חייכם שהכלב בא ונושך אתכם ואתם צועקים אלי ותדעון היכן אני משל לאדם שהרכיב בנו על כתפו ויצא לדרך, היה אותו הבן רואה חפץ ואומר, אבא טול חפץ זה ותן לי, והוא נותן לו, וכן שניה וכן שלישית, פגעו באדם אחד, אמר לו אותו הבן ראית את אבא. אמר לו אביו אינך יודע היכן אני, השליכו מעליו ובא הכלב ונשכו:
Amalek came, etc.: He [God] juxtaposed this section to this verse, ["Is the Lord in our midst or not? "] implying: “I am always among you, and [I am] always prepared for all your necessities, but you say, Is the Lord in our midst or not?’ By your life, the dog will come and bite you, and you will cry out to Me, and [then] you will know where I am ” This can be compared to a man who mounted his son on his shoulder and set out on the road. Whenever his son saw something, he would say, “Father, take that thing and give it to me,” and he [the father] would give it to him. They met a man, and the son said to him, “Have you seen my father?” So his father said to him, “You don’t know where I am?” He threw him [his son] down off him, and a dog came and bit him [the son]. — [from Tanchuma, Yithro 3; Exod. Rabbah 26:2]...
Rashi: and acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a medieval French rabbi who wrote an extensive commentary on the Torah and the Talmud.
1. Rashi is usually answering a question or difficulty that he has in the text. He does not tell us what that kushia is, but gives us the answer. What is the kushia that Rashi is addressing here?
2. How does Rashi answer this question?
3. According to Rashi, what was the sin of the Israelites?
4. Do you think the punishment fits the crime, why or why not? If not, what is the appropriate punishment?
5. How does Rashi's comment add to our understanding of how we should act in relation to other people?
A Moral Question: What do we do when the Torah seems to command genocide?
Potential Responses (based on Eugene Korn's Moralization in Jewish Law: Genocide, Divine Commands, and Rabbinic Reasoning. http://www.edah.org/backend/JournalArticle/KORN_5_2.pdf):
- God's commands trump morality.
- There is no real contradiction; God's command is morality.
- Moral standards trump the commandment.
- Use moral reasoning to justify the command despite its obvious moral incorrectneses.
Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides, 13th C. Spain), Commentary on Exodus 17:18
Now the reason for the punishment of Amalek, i.e. why punitive measures were meted out to him more than to all other nations is that when all the nations heard [of God's visitations upon the Egyptians], they trembled...Amalek came from afar as if to make himself master of God.
Rabbi Isaac Abarbanel (15th C. Spain), Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:17
...All that do such things (like Amalek), and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord your God...Everyone should thus keep away from iniquity, as he will be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous.
Israel was not passing through their land and coming to fight against them when they [Amalek] declared war...Israel also had no land that Amalek could conquer of covet...
Amalek attacked like thieves in the night...and because of their baseness, and the fear that they would lack the strength to fight Israel face to face...they waged war against the frail, who straggle behind the army...