At the very end of this week’s parsha, we read a set of three verses about a unique enemy of the Jewish people- Amalek. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you left Egypt. How they met you on the way and he cut off your stragglers, all who were enfeebled, in the rear, when you were faint and weary, and he didn’t fear God. Therefore, it shall be, when God gives you rest from all your enemies around you in the land that God is giving you as an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens. You shalt not forget.” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19).
One central question we should ask is: The Jewish people faced quite a few enemies on their journey out of Egypt and to the land of Israel. What made Amalek’s attack so much worse than the others?
One answer we see in the above quoted verses is that Amalek deliberately attacked the weakest members of the camp of Israel. We might understand this method of warfare if the attacking nation itself was weak and had no other way to succeed against the Jews. But we know from the fuller description of this episode, in Parshat Beshalach, that Amalek was a formidable military opponent who presented a serious challenge to the Jewish people and its army.
This attack, then, was a low way to get easy spoils at little cost to themselves. From here (as well as from other descriptions of Amalek), we get the impression that – even according to the rough rules of ancient warfare – Amalek did not hold to any standards of fair play.
Another related answer embedded in the verses is that Amalek “did not fear God.” This may strike us as a strange reason. As very few, if any, nations of that era (other than Israel) were monotheistic. To understand this clause better we should recall Avraham’s conversation with Avimelech, when he explained that he adopted the ruse of saying Sarah was his sister, “Because I thought: Surely there is no fear of God in this place.” (Genesis 20:11). In the instance of Avraham, he is referring to the absence of basic standards of morality; Avraham’s fear was that the land of Avimelech was one where a married woman is snatched without her consent and where the king’s desires know no bounds.
In this week’s parsha, we are reminded of another nation without any basic standards of morality, one which goes even further in its depravity – avoiding a nation’s’ army and attacking its most vulnerable members instead, simply in order to make some quick and easy cash. It is bad enough for an individual to behave this way, but when an entire nation does so, it becomes the exact opposite of what the Jewish people is meant to bring to the world and, hence, become our mortal enemy.
{Edited by Harry Glazer from a longer article, “A Nation of Pirates,” by Rabbi Francis Nataf}