פרשת בשלח - המלחמה בעמלק

(8) Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (9) Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some troops for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” (10) Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. (11) Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. (12) But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. (13) And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek with the sword. (14) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!” (15) And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi. (16) He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne of יהוה !’ יהוה will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.”

כי יד על כס יה BECAUSE THE HAND IS UPON THE THRONE OF JAH — the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised to swear by His throne that He will have war and enmity against Amalek to all eternity. And what is the force of כס — why does it not say as usual כסא? And the Divine Name, also, is divided into half (יה is only the half of the Tetragrammaton)! The Holy One, blessed be He, swears that His Name will not be perfect nor His throne perfect until the name of Amalek be entirely blotted out. But when his name is blotted out then will His (God’s) Name be perfect and His throne perfect, as it is said, (Psalms 9:7) “The enemy is come to an end, he whose swords were for ever” — and this refers to Amalek of whom it is written, (Amos 1:11; the paragraph is a prophecy against Edom — Esau — the father of Amalek) “he kept his wrath for ever”. The verse in the Psalm continues: “and thou didst uproot enemies, their very memorial is perished”, What does it say immediately after this? (Psalms 9:8) “But the Lord (the Divine Name as given here is the Tetragrammaton) shall now remain for ever” — you see that the Name will be perfect (after Amalek is entirely rooted out as is mentioned in v. 7); “He establishes his throne (כסאו not כס) in righteousness” — so you see that His throne will then be perfect (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 11).

(1) (Exod. 17:15–16:) ADONAI-NISSI.> AND HE SAID: BECAUSE A HAND IS UPON THE THRONE OF THE LORD. THE LORD HAS A WAR WITH AMALEK FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. It is taught in the name of R. Eleazar: The Holy One swore an oath and said: By my right hand, my right hand, my throne, my throne, if gentiles come from any of the peoples, them I will accept; but those from the seed of Amalek I will not accept. And David also acted in this way, as stated (in II Sam. 1:13): AND DAVID SAID UNTO THE YOUNG MAN WHO HAD TOLD HIM: WHERE DO YOU COME FROM? THEN HE SAID I AM THE SON OF AN AMALEKITE PROSELYTE. R. Isaac said: He was the son of Doeg the Edomite. Then David said to him (in vs. 16): YOUR BLOOD BE UPON YOUR OWN HEAD. [the written text (ketiv) is YOUR BLOODS.] You shed a lot of bloods in Nob, the city of priests.

(1) AND MOSES SAID TO JOSHUA. It would appear from here that from the day he came before him, Moses called him Joshua, and so it is also written: And Joshua heard the noise of the people. Scripture which states in the case of the spies, And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua, must then be referring to the beginning, [when Joshua first came to minister before him]. The verse informs us that this Hoshea the son of Nun, who was chosen to be among the spies, is the same one that Moses called Joshua. Our Rabbis commented [that Moses gave him this name of Yehoshua, which is a compound of Y-ah (G-d) and hoshea (help), because] he in effect prayed for him, “May G-d help thee that thou mayest not follow the [evil] counsel of the spies.” The intent of this comment is to state that because of this event of which Moses knew in advance, i.e., that Joshua was destined to go with the spies, he called him by that name [Yehoshua — Joshua] at the outset. We may also say that at that time [when the spies were chosen], Moses designated that name in front of the assembly, i.e., that his name henceforth be not Hoshea but Joshua. The reason that Moses commanded Joshua to fight with Amalek was so that he [Moses] might pray with the raising of hands on the top of the hill. He went up there so that he might see the Israelites engage in battle and train his sight on them to bring them blessing. They too, upon seeing him with his hands spread heavenward and saying many prayers, would have trust in him, and they would thus be endowed with additional valor and strength. In Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer, we find additionally: “All Israel went outside of their tents, and they saw Moses kneeling on his knees, and they did likewise. He fell on his face to the earth and they did likewise. He spread his hands heavenward, and they also did so. [From here, you learn the principle that] as the public reader of prayers recites, so do all the people respond after him. And thus the Holy One, blessed be He, caused Amalek and his people to fall by the hand of Joshua.” But if so, [i.e., if Moses’ hands were spread heavenward], the sense of the expression, with the rod of G-d in my hand, must be that when Moses went up to the top of the hill and saw Amalek, he stretched forth his hand with the rod to bring down [upon the Amalekites] strokes of pestilence, the sword and destruction, just as it is said in the case of Joshua: Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thy hand. From the moment Moses began to pray and his hands were spread heavenward, he held nothing in his hand. Moses our teacher did all this because Amalek was an enduring nation and very powerful. The Israelites, on the other hand, were not accustomed to battle and had never seen it, just as Scripture says, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war. In addition they were faint and weary, as it is written in the Book of Deuteronomy. Therefore, he [Moses] feared them, and it became necessary for all this prayer and supplication. It is possible that Moses feared lest Amalek be victorious with the sword, for he was the nation that inherited the sword by virtue of the blessing of the patriarch [Isaac], who said [to Esau, Amalek’s ancestor], and on thy sword you shall live. The first and final wars against Israel stem from this family, as Amalek is of the descendants of Esau. It is from him who stood at the head of the nations [in power] that the [first] war came against us. From Esau’s descendants, [namely, Rome], the [present] exile and the last destruction of the Sanctuary came upon us, just as our Rabbis have said that today we are in the exile of Edom. When he will be vanquished, and he together with the many nations that are with him will be discomfited, we shall be saved out of it [i.e., the exile] forever, just as [the prophet] said, And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion, to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Eternal’s. Now whatever Moses and Joshua did with them [the Amalekites] at first, Elijah and Mashiach ben Yoseph will do with their descendants. This was why Moses strained himself in this matter.

FOR THE HAND UPON ‘KEIS Y-AH’ (THE THRONE OF THE ETERNAL). “The hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised to swear by His throne that He will maintain [a state of] war and enmity against Amalek forever. Now what is the significance of the word keis, and why does it not say kisei [as usual]? Furthermore, even the Divine Name is divided into half! [The answer is that] the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that the throne will not be perfect and the Name will not be full until He will blot out the name of Amalek the son of Esau. And when his name will be blotted out, then will G-d’s Name be full and the throne perfect, as it is said, The foe — they are destroyed; perpetual ruins. [This refers to Esau, of whom it is said, And he kept his wrath for ever.] Their very memorial is perished. What is written after that? And the Eternal is enthroned for ever. Thus you see [that after Amalek’s memory has perished], G-d’s Name is full. He hath established ‘kis’o’ (His throne) for judgment. Thus you see that the throne will be perfect.” Thus far the language of Rashi, and it is a Midrash of the Sages.Some scholars explain the verse as meaning that “when there will be a ‘hand,’ [i.e., king, as explained further], upon the throne of the Eternal, the Eternal will have war with Amalek, and so shall it be from generation to generation.” The purport of this is that when there will be a king in Israel sitting upon the throne of the Eternal, he shall wage war against Amalek, thus alluding to Saul, the first king [of Israel]. And so shall it continue from generation to generation, that every king of Israel shall be duty-bound to fight with them until their name will extinct.The following is also a Midrash of the Gemara, as found in [Tractate Sanhedrin] in the chapter of the High Priest: “By saying, The hand upon the throne of the Eternal: the Eternal will have war with Amalek from generation to generation, Scripture intimates that the Israelites must first appoint a king over themselves [before they are to annihilate the offspring of Amalek], for the throne of the Eternal refers only to the king, as it is said, Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Eternal. In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, this is correct.And by way of the Truth, [that is, the mystic lore of the Cabala, the verse is to be understood as meaning] that the Hand, [i.e., the attribute of justice], which is upon the throne of Y-ah, and which is the war from the Eternal, will continue with Amalek from generation to generation, for the high attribute of justice will pursue his extinction forever from generation to generation. The Midrash of the Sages [mentioned above] concerning “the full Divine Name” and “the perfect throne” allude to this [interpretation by way of the Truth].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 G-d’s visitation upon the Egyptians], they trembled. Philistia, Edom, and Moab and the inhabitants of Canaan melted away from before the terror of the Eternal, and from the Glory of His majesty, whereas Amalek came from afar as if to make himself master over G-d. It is for this reason that it is said concerning him, and he feared not G-d. Besides, he was a descendant of Esau and related to us, a passer-by who meddles with a quarrel not his own.Yithro