PURIM AND THE ANNIHILATION OF AMALEK

by Rabbi Yoel Schwartz

The holiday of Purim is a Jewish holiday intended for thanking the Lord for saving the nation from the decree of Haman who had decided to destroy it. Many peoples have tried to wipe out the Jewish nation, which is why we declare on the night of the Passover Seder: “For it was not only one nation that threatened to wipe us out, but rather in every generation there arise some people that strive to annihilate us – but the Almighty rescues us from their hands”. For this reason the miracle of the survival of the Jewish nation, beaten and humiliated as it is, is so wondrous a miracle that Rabbi Jacob Emdin wrote in the prayer book that he compiled, that in his eyes this miracle – continuing through all generations – is greater than the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt which took place in a certain period of time only. This miracle can and should convince any doubter of the existence of the G-d who made His people this promise.

Opposing the survival of our nation there exists in this world an evil power called Amalek. There was also an historic people known as Amalek: while no one knows just which people that is, the strength of this wicked nation exists in Jew-haters throughout the ages. Our Sages have taught us that whenever the Jewish people returns to its Land, it has to contend with Amalek. This was so when Jacob returned from his sojourn with his father-in-law Laban, when a human-like figure wrestled with him until the break of dawn but was unable to overpower him. Nonetheless this figure did injure Jacob by dislocating his thigh (Genesis 32:25). When the Israelites were delivered from Egypt – Amalek appeared on the scene and attacked the weak and straggling members of the nation. Furthermore, before the Jewish people returned to their homeland in our period, there occurred the terrible Holocaust, when the Amalek of this generation attempted to wipe out the Jewish people, and succeeded in murdering six million. Yet Amalek was unable to annihilate the nation. And on the day of Hosha’na Rabba of the year 5707 (1946) ten of the Nazi leaders were executed by a tribunal of the nations of the world. One of those condemned to death declared that this was the new holiday of Purim of the Jews, “Purim – 1946”. These even seem to have been hinted at in the Bible (Esther, chapter 8), where amongst the letters of the names of the ten sons of Haman who were hanged at the time of the Purim miracle, there are three small letters: tav (ת), shin (ש), zayin (ז), the year in which ten leaders of Amalek were put to death.

The Jewish nation was commanded to wipe out Amalek, both physically and otherwise – to put an end to “Amalek-ness”, as Maimonides wrote (Kings 6:4), that if the Amalekites sue for peace with Israel, we are not to wipe them out. R. Avraham ben David explained that this is dependent on their acceptance of the Seven Noahide Laws. The Kesef Mishneh commentary notes there that if they have undertaken to uphold the seven Noahide laws, they have ceased to be Amalek – “and are just like all the righteous Noahide Gentiles”. It is our responsibility to put an end to “Amalek-ness”. The Amalek of our generation fought against Israel both physically and spiritually – Bible criticism and the death camps, as their leader Hitler stated: “The Jews have caused mankind two blemishes: physical circumcision and spiritual conscience!”

Thus Purim denotes the victory of the spirit over Amalek, and in particular – because the Jewish nation in the period of the Purim miracle completed its acceptance of the Torah it had been given at Mount Sinai, as our Sages have explained (Shabbat 88a).  Therefore, for Noahide gentiles, this is a day on which a study can be made of the role of the Jewish people in this world, for the world reads the Bible – which was given to the world by G-d for all of humanity. The Jews have assisted the world not only in spiritual matters but also in material affairs: Spain was reduced to a second-rate power after the Spanish expelled their Jews; a similar process is transpiring in the Europe that murdered its Jews. Contrary to Europe, the United States has grown stronger and its sound status is linked to what the Jews have given to that land. When anti-Semitism began to spread in the United States, in the wake of the rise in fuel prices, because of the embargo the Arabs imposed on oil sales – at the time of the Yom Kippur War, an article appear in the press that calmed everybody down. The title of the article was: “Jews, go home!” The article itself said: “Go home, but who will then educate my children?” The writer attached a long list of great American educators who were Jewish. “Who will teach us science?” And then the writer adduced a list of Jewish scientists. “Who will heal us?” – followed by a list of famous Jewish doctors. At last, after the writer had dealt with a few more fields of endeavor in the same way, he closed his article with the following words: “Go home, but when you go home, don’t forget to pass by my house and to take me with you, for I refuse to remain here without you!”

And so on Purim, one should participate in attempts to explain the contribution of the Jews to the world and to fight against anti-Semitism, a part of that “Amalek-ness” still existing in our generation.

Thanks should also be given to G-d for saving His people that contributes so much to the world. One can add to one’s meal on this day various Purim delicacies, three-pointed cakes filled with poppy-seeds and known as Hamentaschen, pockets of Haman. In this way one will feel a connection to the miracle of Purim and even recite the ‘al ha-nissim prayer – thanking the Almighty for the miracles done for the Jewish people during the days of Mordechai and Esther in the Persian capital of Shushan, when wicked Haman was a high, appointed official who intended to wipe out, to murder and to do away with all the Jews, from young people to the elderly, including babies and women – all in a single day, the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and to confiscate their property. But the Almighty in His manifold mercy overturned Haman’s plan and confounded his thinking and even repaid him for his evil schemes by hanging him and his sons on the gallows from which he had planned to hang Mordechai. In this way the descendants of the peoples learned from the Jews – Torah and its commandments.