The War Against Amalek: Commentary in 5784

יום ראשון בראש חודש חֶשְׁוָן – פרשת נח – תשפ”ד

יאוַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס

Now the Earth was infront of Hashem and full of robbery (ḥamas).

כִּי־יָד֙ עַל־כֵּ֣ס יָ֔הּ מִלְחָמָ֥ה לַֽיהֹוָ֖ה בַּֽעֲמָלֵ֑ק מִדֹּ֖ר דֹּֽר
“For there is a hand on the throne of the Eternal, [that there shall be] a war for Hashem against Amalek from generation [to] generation” (Shemot/Exodus 17:16).

On Shabbat Shemini Atzeret of 5784, I started Shabbat in a different part of Yerushalayim than where I live because I wanted to be in the shtiebel that one of my favorite Jewish singers was association with, and the Jews of Southern Israel were under attack. I did not know about this during the hours that it happened.

On Leil Shabbat (Friday night), Hamas shot off a large quantity of rockets into Israel. The Jews of Southern Israel were hiding during this time. Barukh Hashem (ברוך השם), I was safe in Yerushalayim, so didn’t hear any sirens on Leil Shabbat…Hamas was using this as a fear-oriented cover-up scheme so they could destroy the security system(s) that have prevented them from coming into Israel. Their intention was to destroy the Israeli air force and incentivize the Jordanians/Palestinians, in the West Bank to join them in the extermination of the Nation of Israel. This did not happen. ברוך השם.

Hamas also wanted Hezbollah to join them, but the geopolitical differences between Hamas and Hezbollah prevented this collaboration. That was the biggest miracle on October 7th. ברוך השם.

After dancing with the Torah on Leil Shabbat, I walked back home thinking that everything would be fine knowing that I’d have to retrieve the muktzah items, that I left on the other side of town, would have to be retrieved by me later on Motzaei Shabbat. This included my phone…

During the night, I woke up much earlier than I had anticipated. It was still night (pitch-black) outside. I was up for a while thinking of the meaning of life. Eventually, I fell back asleep right at the start of Alot Ha-Shaḥar (עלות השחר) – the break of dawn.

Two hours later, I woke up to full sunlight while hearing what sounded like a tornado siren except I knew, certainly, that this was not a tornado warning but, unfortunately, a rocket alarm.

I heard women and children walking into the apartment complex, but when looking out the window, I see some men walking to the synagogues near me. These Jewish men felt safe enough to pray in the synagogue and celebrate the Simchat Torah. Fortunate are those who had the opportunity to celebrate this awesome holiday safely.

On Motzaei Shabbat (when Shabbat is finished), I went to the house of my mentor where I hear the radio which mentions the Milḥamah (war) that started taking place with rockets coming from Azzah (עַזָה) – Hebrew for Gaza. Some rockets headed towards Ha-Merkkaz (Central Israel) where sirens were heard in Tel Aviv and Bnei Braq. This is the first war that I experienced since living in the holy land. I didn’t even have the means to retrieve my phone that night…

Only the next morning did I find out that hundreds of Jewish people were murdered in Southern Israel by Hamas. Eventually, I found out that they murdered children and even infants!

The war is on-going, and I would like to say that we’re not dealing with people who happen to evil, we’re dealing with the worst of humanity! These are animals! These disgusting terrorists are worse than Nazis.

These wild animals, who many identify as Yishmael (ישמעאל) had the ḥutzpah (audacity) to publicize their crimes against humanity openly to the public on the world wide web, and some reason some wretched people , who happen to be born Jewish, did not find the aforementioned crimes against humanity, to be of disgust to them.

Anyone who sympathizes for Hamas is a disgusting person who has the status of a Rasha (רשע) – a wicked person. Any Jew, who didn’t mourn when he or she found out that hundreds of Jewish people were murdered, does not have a Jewish soul.

I believe that we’re dealing with Amalek (עמלק). We’re dealing with people who are part of the plot of Gog uMagog – the attempt to destroy the nation of Israel in which בעזרת השם they will fail to do so.

We’re dealing with an enemy that must be defeated. Gog is from Yafet just like Persia. The Republic of Iran (Persia) is directly involved with supporting Hamas and was even proud of their job at the massacre of hundreds of Jewish people including infants!

The War Against Amalek

וְהָיָ֡ה בְּהָנִ֣יחַ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֣יךָ | לְ֠ךָ֠ מִכָּל־אֹ֨יְבֶ֜יךָ מִסָּבִ֗יב בָּאָ֨רֶץ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יְהֹוָה־אֱלֹהֶ֠יךָ נֹתֵ֨ן לְךָ֤ נַֽחֲלָה֙ לְרִשְׁתָּ֔הּ
תִּמְחֶה֙ אֶת־זֵ֣כֶר עֲמָלֵ֔ק מִתַּ֖חַת הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם לֹ֖א תִּשְׁכָּֽח
[Therefore,] it will be, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget! (Devarim 25:19).

The day after Shemini Atzeret (October 7th), it was estimated that 700 Jews were murdered. This attack on our nation was an intentional, unprovoked massacre by the wicked Amalek (עמלק)

There were hundreds of people kidnapped by Ḥamas (עמלק) to be used as hostages. This might be what allows them to also have leverage as to prevent us from leveling the entire city of Azzah (עזה) – Gaza.

Thousands of years ago, Shimshon (Samson) was captured by the Philistines and died in this very city. He was able to kill many Philistines in the process, but there were no other captives, there, at that time.

The Latin name “Palestina” is what the Roman government decided to name Israel (then “Judaea”) as a way to erase the Jewish identity from the holy land. The Western vocabulary was actively calling the land “Palestine” long before Catholics and Muslims had come and stolen the holy land.

Talmud Yerushalmi is often mistranslated, in English, as “Palestinian Talmud” even though the term “Yerushalmi” is the adjective form of “Jerusalem”. It should be called the “Jerusalemite Talmud” in English.

The British called the colony of Eretz Yisrael and Yarden as “Palestine”. The Arabs went along with it and some of these Arabs started identifying as “Palestinian” even though many Arabs, in Israel, identify themselves as Arab-Israeli.

Because of the dangerous threat that עמלק has to the Holy Nation of Israel, there is a duty to destroy עמלק. According to Rav Yosef Ber Solovetchik (The Lonely Man of Faith, 101) in the name of his father (Rav Moshe Solovetchik Z”L), that if a group of Goyim believe that it is their explicit duty to exterminate the Jewish people, then those Goyim have the status of עמלק. According to the Rambam (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim 5:4-5) you don’t need a Beit Din or Sanhedrin (Jewish courts) to declare war against עמלק.

Currently, עמלק is not exclusively associated with a specific, consistent genetically identifiable ethnic group in the modern world. Rav Solovetchik thought that in the time of Nasser and The Mufti, whom he thought were עמלקים and that Jews should not be silent about the crimes of עמלק.

Rav Solovechik said that we shouldn’t trust the Liberalism of Western society and its subjective morality especially on the topic of warfare. The Rav said that 15 years before, during the era of Hitler ימח שמו, that the Liberals knew that millions of Jews were being murdered by the Nazis but did nothing until it was too late.

In the time of Nasser and The Mufti, the Rav thought that the American Jews were not sensitive enough about the situation in Europe to flee Eretz Yisrael during that era. And the British ימח שמם had a quota on how many Jews could come.

You can not make peace with עמלק. They’re not interested in peace. Their goal is one thing only. They want to destroy the Jewish people by any means necessary. It is our land and our commandment to destroy עמלק.

In the current hostage situation, there is another threat that people don’t realize. It’s the evil pacifist organization known as the Red-Cross. The very name of this organization is the symbol of the oppression that Jewish people have faced for thousands of years! In Hebrew, the word “Edom” means “red. They are the same thing! Red is the color of the Romans! They oppressed us and brought us into the current exile. The Cross is the symbol of a religion that historically oppressed Jewish people in multiple continents simultaneously.

The Red Cross are trying to treat the injured Islamic terrorists who just murdered Jewish children while doing nothing to even notify the Israeli or other authorities about the welfare of the hostages. There are an evil organization who is not interested in the welfare of Jewish hostages or even the non-Jewish hostages Hamas since there were some Bedouin and Oriental hostages that Hamas kidnapped! And the evil Liberal media doesn’t care about this because there goal is to promote the naivety of the situations that are in or near the holy land. May the Res-Cross be blotted out from the face of the earth.

Mussar

Because of the unfortunate turn of events, I thought that it’d be necessary for me to break my silence. I am distantly related to one of the murdered victims of the initial massacre of Jewish people. She was not an armed combatant, she was not a threat to עמלק or their allies, and she was not in or near a military base. She was killed because she was a Jew.

What disgusts me the most is that a small number of holier than thou Jews have no care or sensitivity for the victims. Of course, many were partying on Shabbat which was also a holiday where Jews dance around a Sefer Torah. But do you expect most Jews to know this? Not every secular Jew (today) had a parent that had preserved Jewish tradition and passed it on to their children. It’s not like these people had voluntarily decided to abandon the tradition of their ancestors. They are not guilty. These were not people living in the holiest city of Israel. They are not likely to have regular [social] exposure to Traditional/Orthodox Jews. Some of the might come back in another life. Some might have died Al-Pi-Kiddush Hashem (על פי קידוש השם) – via sanctifying the name of G-d. You don’t know that unless you were there and survived to tell the story. Nevertheless, it is important to care for the souls of all Jews.

Unfortunately, there are Jews who, in previous years, who had vilified me for showing my desire to live in Eretz Yisrael and my utmost care for Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael and a lack of tolerance for עמלק who’ve brainwashed their own children to believe that killing Jews is a good thing. Apparently, there’s many Jews who can’t handle the truth about the other nation of the world. And some of these Jews are religious on the outside. Any God-loving Jew should be disgusted by the existence of such people.

The corrupted propaganda of the Neturei Karta shouldn’t be infiltrating the holy halls of Yeshivot in America and Canada! Unfortunately, you let it happen. You did not vilify this corrupt ideology and eradicate it from your synagogues by banning these people from your houses of worship. Of course, Satmar did, but that’s because the NK was attempting to infiltrate them.

When it comes to Hamas, we’re dealing with people worse than the Nazis! The SS tried to hide their crimes against humanity. The Nazi officials tried to hide in foreign countries. On the other hand, Hamas broadcasted their crimes of attempted genocide against the Jewish people. Hamas is the Pol Pot of the Arab world.

But this on-going conflict didn’t start in 5784. This war might have started this year, but the general conflict has been going on for generations. And Jewish people have tried to throw this issue aside. Religious Jews should not throw aside national issues that affect ALL Jews. Anyone who does so is not loyal to Aam Yisrael – the Nation of Israel. And don’t think that I’m trying to bash most religious Jews. It’s just a vocal minority of them. The number of Pro-Amaleki Jews are mostly secular, Liberal, self-hating Jews. Some of them are in positions of social influence. These people hate the Torah and our traditions!

I was repeatedly, publicly humiliated, by those who appear to be Observant Jewish people, for believing that it’s beneficial for Jews not to trust these specific Muslims since they’re likely to not like Jews, and maybe Hashem wants them to hate us too. Of course, there is nothing in the Torah that claims that this is wrong. Hashem doesn’t want us to be to close to the uncivilized nations of the world. Hashem does want us to see them as disgusting and hate them and their idolatrous beliefs.

I was repeatedly vilified in Monsey, NY and Lakewood, NJ, by supposedly religious Jews, for caring about the welfare of other Jewish people. Well, I’ll be honest. I don’t give a damn what fake Jews think of Israel or what “holier than thou” Jews think of the holiest land on God’s blue Earth. There are reasons why I will never return to Monsey or Lakewood, and this is one of them! You people should be ashamed of yourselves!

In fact, whenever I wanted to claim that we shouldn’t trust most Arabs, I was met with opinions attempting to coerce if-not guilt-trip me into believing otherwise. One of such pathetic pieces of trash is a self-proclaimed “rabbi” who speaks at the biggest Yeshivah in America who went as far to say that because Jews are acquiring land from non-Jews that the non-Jews are justified in wanting to murder us. Your perverted ideology is based on guilt-tripping and manipulation! You should be ashamed of yourselves!

I have the full-right to be angry as hell when people make comments that are dehumanizing towards Jewish people. And these comments weren’t discovered during the current war; this was several years ago. You people sicken me to no end! There is no way in hell that I could forgive such crooked rabbis and their repulsive followers. You are an embarrassment to Klal Yisrael! You should be ashamed of yourselves!! If you can’t tell the difference between opposing Secular Tzionism and Opposing Anti-Semitism, then you’re an incompetent fool!!! !השם ירחם עליכם. May Hashem have mercy on them.

The conflict with the enemies of Yisrael was never about challenging Tzionism or any other secular ideology. They hate us because that’s how Hashem made them. They were born with the predestined interest of hating Jews. The innocent people, abducted by Hamas, were only abducted because they were Jews or associates of Jews. They consider anyone, willing to be present in Israel, to be their enemies even if they’re Bedouin or Cambodian! The victims of Hamas were not hated because of any legitimate affiliation with a socio-political ideology such as Secular Tzionism. They targeted people who they believed to be Jews! They hates us because we’re Jews! You ignorant fools should know that it was never about Tzionism.

The members of Hamas are completely evil. They are vile beasts. They are not worthy of any sympathy, and no one should justify their actions! If you think that they’re justified in their attempted genocide, you’re not a good goy or a pious Jew, you’re an abomination!! You should be ashamed of yourself!!!

There is the important topic of why Hashem allowed for Hamas to take hostages. This led me to think of my actions and the actions of other Jews to see if this was a message, from Hashem, about something significant that we need to change.

Now, I should clarify that there is no moral equivalence to Hamas at this time. And certainly, the secular army of Israel or the religious assistants in Israel are not equal to Amalek. It doesn’t take a political scientist to figure that out. The most recent thing, in human history, to Hamas, would be the Dictatorship of Pol Pot which was responsible for mass murders against an uncountable number of innocent people including those on any faith.

But why did Hamas take in hostages? Why did they abduct children? Why were married men and women separated from the person whom they were married to? Maybe there’s a message in that!

I believe that this is a message, from Hashem, warning us not to manipulate the definition of Agunot (עגונות) -“anchored women”; a woman who is married to her husband but can’t access her husband because he is either missing or assumed dead but without the proof of death. The movement of making false עגונות can now be seen for what it is because they now have to deal with the real עגונות.

The current situation is literally one where there are people who, unfortunately, have acquired this status. There are innocent, married people who have been stolen from their soulmates because of the atrocities of עמלק!

Many people have now been forced to experience the emotional pain of having parent or child stolen from them. Parental alienation, which became associated with the movement of false עגונות, is also clear and present. There are innocent children that have been kidnapped by Hamas. Families torn apart. That is a taste of the alienation that we Jews have been imposing on each other for decades!

I thought it was disgusting before the war, but now, all can see what it feels like! Now, we can see if we’re really experiencing justice. Maybe we should be sensitive towards the plight of parents who are alienated by their children. Now, finally, Klal Yisrael has the ability to understand and appreciate those who fight for parental rights even if it means refusing to negotiate a גט due to parental alienation. The threat and theft are clear and present, and Jew will be standing up to it בעזרת השם.

Tel Aviv was terribly damaged by rocket fire during the onset of the war, but what were the non-observant Jews of Tel Aviv doing just weeks prior? Rioting and harming Observant Jewish people on a Jewish holiday. Hashem has punished them for trying to corrupt the nation of Israel. Ha-Sheva punished the sheigetzes of Tel Aviv for shaming Jews when they were praying in public. Public humiliation is worse than murder…

Aḥdut – Unity

Now, despite all of the negativity in the world, especially when it involves the Jews, the collective tribes of the Jewish people are experiencing something different now. There’s a movement of Jews all over the spectrums of Orthodoxy saying Tehilim for the Yehudim in Eretz Yisrael! This includes the Jews of Lakewood and also the Kehilot of Satmar! This is the beginning of Aḥdut (אַחְדוּת) – unity.

The number of charity organizations and individuals, willing to help people, in this current situation, is unimaginable. “Mi K’Amkha Yisrael” (מי כעמך ישראל) – Who is like Your people Israel? Who decides to cook goods, at home, in order to help the soldiers and medics out on the battlefield (here) in the Holy Land? Who decides to kosher a restaurant in order to make it accessible to the troops. Who decides to donate items that the soldiers will need?

Because of the fact that 300,000 Israeli reservists were called into the army, they don’t have enough regular cooked meals to help them. So a small number of righteous Jews from Jerusalem decided to step up the game and help them. But the story gets better, the biggest non-Kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv became kosher just so they could help cook thousands of kosher, cooked goods for the troops. Thousands of Jews on Long Island are donating a plethora of useful objects to help the troops win the war against  עמלק! Much like how the nation of עמלק is united against us, we are united against them! The אַחְדוּת is tremendous! You can feel it in the air! Now, if we were like this all the time, then we’d see the true redemption of the Jewish people.

If anyone knows anything about what’s been happening in the political sphere of Israel knows that there’s been intense division in the political climate of Israeli society. All of that went away last week because of the terrors that have happened.

A Unity Government was formed featuring both Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and self-made rival star Binyamin (Benny) Gantz. Last year, these political forces where as divided as they’ve ever been, and maybe עמלק was able to exploit that division to gain the upper hand. Well now, with a unified nation, we have the upper hand in defeating עמלק who sheds our blood! !השם ינקום את דמם! May Hashem avenge their blood!

Now this upcoming story will shed some tears of joy. One of the victims of the atrocities was a Brazilian-Israeli. The mother of the fallen wanted a minyan (ten Jewish men needed for prayer) to say Qaddish (קדיש) for her deceased daughter. When the funeral started, there was enough to make two hundred minyanim.

Updates from The Second Week of The War and Concluding Notes

Since today is this week is פרשת נח, I wanted to conclude with a relevant thought. If Hashem wants to kill these savages with a flood, then so be it! Hashem can drown them like he did to those wicked people! If he plans to do it with fire and brimstone, then that’s fine too! I believe that Hashem will help us wipe out עמלק from the face of the Earth! May we defeat the עמלק this week, if not then hopefully this month.

This week, פרשת נח, there was an Earthquake in Iran after the Foreign Minister of Iran said that there’ll be an Earthquake if Israel continues to be involved in Gaza. Iran, then got hit by an Earthquake with a magnitude between 5.5 and 6. And in this week, where we read about the Great Flood, the tunnels in Gaza became flooded via great rainfall. This too was orchestrated by Hashem!

I will conclude with a quote from Amos Ha-Navi (Alav Ha-Shalom) – Amos the Prophet (Peace be unto him).

וְשִׁלַּ֥חְתִּי אֵ֖שׁ בְּחוֹמַ֣ת עַזָּ֑ה וְאָֽכְלָ֖ה אַרְמְנֹתֶֽיהָ
“And I will send fire into the wall of Azzah, and it shall consume its palaces” (Amos 1:7).

The prophet foresaw the destruction of Azzah, and it is happening in our lifetime!

May we merit to see more prophecies come true.