Amalek as a Symbol of Militarism

Rav Avigdor Amiel: an important rabbinic figure and brilliant darshan in early twentieth century European Jewry who later moved to Israel and become a leader of Religious Zionism. This are selections from a teaching on Shabbat Zachor from his collection, Derashot El Ami, Vol. 3. This particular piece was written during World War I.

Even from a superficial point of view, we feel in Amalek the symbol of militarism, whose sword is not just a means to an end in life, but rather, it is the entire content of his life. They go out to war, not because they have to or because they have no choice, but they go out to war just to find a place to conquer and to emphasize their power and their ego.

“And Amalek came…” The Torah tells us in Parshat Beshalach - “to fight with Israel.” In the world, civilized nations act in a certain way, even though it is with the Yezter HaRa ruining them in their midst, nevertheless, they use diplomacy before they go out to war, or they send repeated warnings to the opposing side, called ultimatums, that if they don’t fulfill certain conditions, then the sword will decide, but this is not how Amalek behaves. He does not need to wait or prepare. He does not care about advance declarations and warnings, for why should he bother? For him, all of these international laws are scraps of paper, which is not worth someone mighty like him to care about it, but simply [the Torah says], “And Amalek came to fight Israel” in the middle of the Torah portion, with advance hint or warning of this, and already “his sword was drawn in his hand.”

Indeed, “When you see a thief, you fall in with him” (Psalm 50:18), and also when you see a murderer, you make excuses for him, and so Amalek found a pretense for their war against Israel - the so called mobilization of the people in the back, “and B’nai Yisrael went out from the land of Egypt armed” - armed with weapons, and how could Amalek see a mobilization of any nation, and not preemptively strike from their side to attack their right flank?

But truly, the Torah tells us that this pretense is nothing but slight of hand, for did Amalek not know that you were “tired and weary,” and were already demobilized instead of mobilized? Rather, for Amalek, mobilized, demobilized, what’s the difference? He does not split hairs, and only knows one thing: “Amalek came and fought against Israel.”

And indeed, God does not love war in the world; quite the contrary, Shalom is God’s name, thus there is only one commanded war and that is the war against Amalek, the war against war in general.

“God’s war against Amalek is for all generations.” Amalekitism hates the weak while Judaism hates the tough. Amalekitism seeks the pursuer, while the God of Israel seeks the pursued.

“And they came behind all of the weak people in the rear.” He did not just attack the rear, who are easier to attack, obviously. He attacked them with warriors, and also snuck up behind them, felt disgusted and revolted in their presence, because of their great sin - their weakness, and in the words of Chazal in the midrash, “And they hurled insults at them and said to God, ‘Take what you have chosen!” for how could God have chosen such weak people. This is precisely why God chose us, because we are the weakest and smallest of the nations.

“God’s war against Amalek is for all generations.” In the word of Chazal, “the sword and the book were given intertwined together from the heavens,” And Amalek merits the sword more than any nation in the world, and Israel - the book, and there is an eternal war between the sword and the book, and one is only built from the destruction of the other, when one rises, the other one falls, and this is the war between Israel and Amalek.

And how do we fight this war against Amalek, and against all warmongers (lit. sword-masters) like them? How and by what means does one think about ending militarism in the world?

In our days and in our eyes, we have seen a commanded war, a World War, who main essence is a war against militarism, and the results of this war are known to all.

The approach of Judaism is that the prosecutor cannot be made a defense attorney. Evil cannot be uprooted from the world with evil. Terror cannot be eliminated from the world by responding with terror. And so too one cannot fight a strong hand with a strong hand, and you cannot fight one sword with another sword.

When Judaism declares war against militarism, it’s not with militarism, but by means of “And God said to Moses, write this down in a book.” This means that the war against the sword is waged with the book. A book of paper or parchment will be stronger than any sword forged from any kind of metal in the world. It will defeat all of the swords and weapons of violence in the world. All of these will be beaten into plowshares, and the book alone will be the only thing that rules.

Let us praise the book, the bridge of paper, which is stronger than all of the bridges of iron, “write this down in a book.”