Hadar Susskind, President and CEO, Americans for Peace Now; Rabbi Bennett Miller, National Chair, ARZA; Stuart Applebaum, President, Jewish Labor Committee; Meredith Jacobs, CEO, Jewish Women International; Janet Gurvitch, President, Na'amat USA; For their crime of attacking Israel in its flight from Egypt, God declares eternal war on the Amalekites: Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, saying, A hand upon the throne of the Lord! Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. So its anachronistic, but convenient. ", Rabbi Buchman cites the book Why the Jews authored by Prager and Telushkin which has a chapter on "Non-Jewish" Jews, from Marx to Chomsky. 4. Hadar Susskind, President and CEO, Americans for Peace Now; Rabbi Bennett Miller, National Chair, ARZA; Robert Aronson, Chair, HIAS; Stuart Applebaum, President, Jewish Labor Committee; Meredith. These are the traits of Amalek., Trump has done precisely the opposite. In Jewish folklore, the Amalekites are considered to be the symbol of evil. This can be Jews or non-Jews. The RSV in Judges 5:14 wrongly changes the words in Amalek to into the valley, although that v. indicates in a footnote that the Heb. AMALEK m lk, AMALEKITES m l k ts (, ; Gr , ). Many prosperous people will join in for the greatest jealousy is of virtue, and even the rich and famous are infested with it. In Numbers 24:20 Balaam refers to the Amalekites as "first among the nations," but he most likely meant only that the Amalekites were the first ones to attack the Israelites upon their exodus from Egypt or that the Amalekites were "first" in power at that time. They came to stop the Jews from entering Israel. Observing this connection, there is no need, as some have attempted, to emend the text of Judges 1:16 from the people (Heb. At its most transparent level, responding to Amalek is a response to . Therefore, when Hashem your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that Hashem your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. But each person must ask himself if he has the traits of Amalek., Amalek is a symbol, it is a character trait. Zogby's initiatives promoted Jews as privileged 'whites.' These people were trying to hide their identity and they have changed their identity many times.. We are heading into a very dark time if there are Jews who are ready to give up the Torah laws in favor of revenge. [25], According to a midrash, Amalek's mother Timna was a princess who had tried to convert to Judaism but had been rejected by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Corrections? So CAIR, a terrorist-linked group goes from influencing the War College to influencing Congress. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. Nur Masalha, Elliot Horowitz, and Josef Stern suggest that Amalekites have come to represent an "eternally irreconcilable enemy" that wants to murder Jews, that Jews in post-biblical times sometimes associate contemporary enemies with Haman or Amalekites, and that some Jews believe that pre-emptive violence is acceptable against such enemies. Travel restrictions are scheduled for the West Bank. In the annals of Jewish history, "[t]he Amalekites, descendants ofAmalek, were an ancient biblical nation living near the land ofCanaan. Today, 30 years later, one sees the power of this concept: Jews in the United States, like those in Israel, are now viewed by a generation of progressives as 'oppressors.'. According to the midrash (homiletic teachings), after killing Jewish men, Amalek cut off the brit milah (circumcision) of the male Jewish casualties and threw them up at heaven. Later Amalek raided the Negeb and, in Davids absence, completely conquered Ziklag, taking captive the inhabitants including Davids two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail (1 Sam 30:1-6). 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites . Jews are ignoring that liberal - progressive - Leftis/Marxist politics "undermine the manifest self-interest of American Jewry." But each person must ask himself if he has the traits of Amalek.. This means that we cannot point at any one nation and say that they are Amalek. The Amalekites were descendants of Esau's grandson, Amalek. Of course, Israel is perverse and rebellious, just like we are today. Weve seen the redemption of the Moabites through the boundless faith of Ruth, the foreigner who became the great-grandmother of King David. The holiday where Queen Esther saved the Jewish people of Persia from being wiped out by the wicked Haman. Accordingly, a "Catholic teacher is fired for criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement.". Lets watch. The Amalekites are the descendants of Esau, who sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of soup and in doing so forfeited his firstborn birthright (Genesis 25; Hebrews 12:16). The Amalekites had their origin within the Edomites, being descendants of Esau. Instead, this is the part of the story where Israel gets angry with God for taking them out of Egypt, and God declares that nobody who left Egypt will make it to the Promised Land. 8, 9). 1 Amalek grew up in Esau's household, imbibing Esau's pathological hatred of Jacob's descendants along the way. Therefore, it is forbidden to perform the commandment. Amalek, a son of Esau's son Eliphaz, was presumably the eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites. Amalek was the grandson of Esau, Jacobs older brother. Ibn-Arabshh purported that Amalek was a descendant of Ham, son of Noah. Though the Amalekites are not mentioned in the table of nations in Genesis 10, in Numbers 24:20 they are referred to as "first among the nations." Genesis 36 refers to the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau, as Amalekites (verses 12 and 16). The reason for the Lords concern about disobedient Israels encountering Amalek and other enemies without His special power was that the Amalekites who dwelt in both the hill country and in the valleys of S Canaan and the Negeb, were effective fighters in both areas (Num 14:25, 44, 45). Although the son of a concubine, he nonetheless became head of a significant tribe, which in later times distinguished itself as a ruthless enemy of Israel. During the reign of Hezekiah, 500 Simeonites annihilated the remnant of the Amalekites, so God is not still at war with the Amalek. It is also customary to recite Deuteronomy 25:1718 (see below) on the Shabbat before Purim. They seem not to understand that the modern Amalek will attack Jews, attack freedom, and attack America. Gideon is confused, because his understanding of warfare is that having more soldiers is good, and having fewer soldiers is bad. The king attacked and conquered this foe with their city called Amalek (1 Sam 15:4-7) the exact location of which is not known. Can we reconcile with our eternal sworn enemies? God has made His point, so Gideon calls out the Ephraimites to join his pursuit. They need to tempt death to confirm that they are living. If Amalek has always been identified with the enemies of Israel, then perhaps they were never a distinct nation that would leave behind distinctive artifacts. Agag was the king of Amalek (1 Sam. Therefore, Haman and his sons were Amalekites. Amalek's spirit has continued through the millenniaits viciousness culminating in the Shoa. They were completely defeated and chased as far as Hormah (near Arad and Ziklag) (Num 14:39-45; Josh 12:14; 15:30). Moreover, a pogrom recently occurred in Fairfax, Los Angeles as the people proudly held up Black Lives Matter signs. The story we remind ourselves of each year, by reading Parshah Zachor, is that of the attack of the Amalekites, who are the descendants of Eliphaz, son of Esau (the patriarch Jacob's brother and sworn enemy) and his concubine Timna. First and foremost, Amalek is doubt in divine providence. And that is unthinkable. Not just defeat them, but destroy every man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey (1 Samuel 15:13). It was an unprovoked and cowardly attack upon a tired and weary people, just liberated from slavery, on the way to their homeland. Different people can embody that concept. Abraham was given the strength to conquer Amalek through the test of offering up Isaac, by putting aside his emotions to do the will of God. It is not a coincidence that liberals are atheists. They are leading a meaningless existence. Breaking Israel News asked several rabbis their opinion: Rabbi Pinchas Winston, a prolific author and end-of-days expert, has written several books on the subject of Amalek. It seems like angels just appear to everybody in Scripture, but thats because those are the stories worth telling. Therefore, it is forbidden to perform the commandment. For example, Rabbi Hayim Palaggi stated: We can rely on the maxim that in ancient times, Sennacherib confused the lineage of many nations. . 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. The Amalekites, like many other people groups, ceased to exist or completely mingled with other nations sufficiently long ago that they left no distinct records. And just as God raised up Ehud to defeat Eglon with his left-handedness, God raised up Gideon to defeat Midian very nearly by himself. When God in judgment withdrew His hand of blessing and ordered them to go back S into the wilderness (14:1-25), the people again disobeyed God, and with their own feeble effort attacked the Amalekites. also Judg 10:12). Anyone who does the same, who tries to stop the Jews from doing Gods will, from settling Israel, is Amalek. [51], Theologian Charles Ellicott explains that the Amalekites were subject to cherem in the Book of Samuel for the purposes of incapacitation, due to their 'accursed' nature and the threat they posed to the commonwealth of surrounding nations. , a prominent Israeli mystic, gave a sermon that was published on Sunday. they are not philistines or cannanites or Amorites or jebuzites or hittites. The commandment to kill Amalekites is not practised by contemporary Jews, based on the argument that Sennacherib deported and mixed the nations, so it is no longer possible to determine who is an Amalekite. The Left admires the godless quality of communism and yearns for the conquest of America. This means that we cannot point at any one nation and say that they are Amalek. But God does not forget! Agag (/ e /; Hebrew: gg) is a Northwest Semitic name or title applied to a biblical king.It has been suggested that "Agag" was a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, just as Pharaoh was used as a dynastic name for the ancient Egyptians. This is borne out by Judges 12:15 where the area of Ephraim around the town Pirathon (not far from present-day Nablus) is called the hill country of the Amalekites. See 1 Samuel 27:5-7 and 30:1 for the fact that Amalek raided Philistine towns like Ziklag (a few m. N of Beersheba) which Achish, king of Gath, had given to David. Feminists and homosexuals coexist in blissful harmony with Muslims, who are for the oppression of women and the murder of homosexuals. But this one,came forward and started and showed the way to others. Eventually, Mosess brother Aaron and a man named Hur hold Mosess hands up for him, and Israel wins the day. He reminds Israel during Balaams prophecies that were supposed to be curses: Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction. 7 speaks of Amalekites, in southern Palestine, in the time of Abraham. An ancient marauding people in the S of Canaan and the Negeb who were fierce enemies of Israel particularly in the earlier part of her history. Amalek was a nation near the land of Canaan. Joshua and Caleb scout out the promised land and identify its inhabitants, which include Amalek (Numbers 13:29), and God turns them away from that land and into the wilderness (Numbers 14:25). Moses goes on to command that for this wicked treatment of an oppressed people, Israel later, when in the land of Canaan, was to exterminate the Amalekites (Deut 25:19). Now this story is long, but Im telling the whole tale here because its a great story. A tribe dwelling originally in the region south of Judah, the wilderness of et-Tih where the Israelites came into conflict with them. almost everything a Palestinian will say is a lie and a myth. In some rabbinical interpretations, Amalek is etymologised as am lak, 'a people who lick (blood)',[2] but most specialists regard the origin to be unknown.[3]. They separated themselves off from the other Edomites at an early date, and became the predominant tribe in the more northern parts of the Sinaitic peninsula, claiming and exercising a sovereignty over the whole of the desert country between the .