Parashas Zachor: Amalek’s War on Emunah—Leitzanus, Gaavah, and the Power of Achdus

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. As the Yontif of Purim comes upon us, it's important to understand the yesoidus of the Yontif in the context of Mechiyas Amalek. Haman was an Amaleki, and the inyan of Amalek coming to kill Klal Yisrael and Klal Yisrael fighting back. That's why we read Parshas Zachor before we read the Megillah, to be makdim the zechirah to the asiyah. The asiyah, the reading of the Megillah and the keeping of the Yontif of Purim and the halachos of the Yontif, that is Mechiyas Amalek. So Zachor, which we soon will see is it or not connected to the mitzvah of Timche, it's a machlokes rishonim. So therefore, we read the Zachor before the Yontif of Purim. So the Shabbos before we read Parshas Zachor. Zachor is to remember, and Timche is to be mekayem the mechiyah. And the Gemara seems to say there's an asiyah of Mechiyas Amalek. There's a doing. There's an act of Mechiyas Amalek on Purim, the Megillah, when we read about the downfall of Haman. So the Zachor becomes the hakdamah, the introduction to the Yontif, that the Shabbos before we read Parshas Zachor. Is the mitzvah actually connected? Is zachor connected to timcheh? Which the question would be, if a person can't do timcheh, to destroy, to annihilate, timcheh zecher Amalek, is there still a mitzvah of zachor? Is zachor and timcheh, a zecher Amalek, connected? The Rambam in Sefer HaMitzvos clearly connects the two and says that the idea of zachor is an introduction to help bring out the timcheh, le'oir al levavoi, to be me'oir the people hatred in order they can go out and kill Jewish people. Difficult for them to kill. For a Yid to go and annihilate a whole nation with children, it's difficult. So it needs a zachor. It needs a rally talk. It needs a rally cry to bring out the hatred in order they should be able to go do the mitzvah. The Rambam says that's pshat in Shmuel, that right before he kills Agag, he's me'oir, he brings up hatred, he brings up evil of Agag, ka'asher shiklah mimcha nashim, charebcha kein tishakel minashim imecha, that just like your mother—just like, excuse me—just like many mothers have lost their children because of you, your mother should lose her child. Says the Rambam this was the point of saying this was to be me'oir. It was to arouse hatred against Agag in order he could go and continue and kill him. It's interesting, l'choira, it's not what the Torah says, zachor. Zachor normally means to remember what Amalek did on the way, asher karcha baderech b'tzeischem. From the Rambam, l'choira it's mashma that any evil of Amalek is supposed to be brought up. Amalek doesn't have to only bring up timcha zachor to remember its evil of when we left Mitzrayim. But you see here again that the Rambam, in the times of Shmuel, Shmuel also was me'orer the hatred, but with something that had nothing to do with when we left Mitzrayim. It was a personal hatred against Agag, and l'choira, l'choira it's mashma from the Rambam that that's also nichlal, included in Parshas Zachor. I mean, that's not what it says in the Torah, Zachor. What are we supposed to remember? The Torah says what happened when we left Mitzrayim. And if the Rambam is pointing out that this is what Shmuel was doing by saying, Kasher shikla minashim imecha, kein teshakel minashim charbecha, right? Kasher shikla minashim charbecha, kein teshakel minashim imecha. That's what he was doing. So you see that any evil that—

That you bring out any reason for hatred that you arise, and mima'oir is already a nichlal in the parshas Zachor. Al kol panim, the Rambam clearly connects it. Other Rishonim, Chinuch and others discuss, maybe it's not necessarily connected. The nafkamina would be, for example, women. Women who don't go to war, so maybe they're not mechuyiv to have Parshas Zachor, which is a she'eilah in the poskim. Women, they are mechuyiv in Zachor; they're not mechuyiv in Zachor. It's not a mitzvah aseh shehazman grama, l'choira, but still they don't go to war. And since they don't go to war, so therefore it's not possible to be mechayev them in Zachor if Zachor is connected. But if Zachor is not connected, if Zachor is not connected, then women could be chayav. This is a big discussion in halacha. Once they get to the hashkafah, we have to ask two questions. Question number one: if it's not connected, then what's its point? What is the point of Zachor, to remember the hatred? Remember, it's evil. What's the point of that? If it's not in order to bring us to fight and to be me'oirer us to stand up and wage war against them, then what is the point? Second question: and if it is the point of Zachor, to connect it to Timcheh, to arouse us to war, how about today that we don't go to war against Amalek? Does it still apply the mitzvah Zachor, and why? Nobody today takes on a gun, takes out a gun and ammunition, and fights Amalekim. Anybody go fighting Amalek today? So what would be the point of Zachar if Zachar is to arouse, to a rally cry to the war, and the war we don't do? So why do we have Zachar in today's time? So before we answer this question, we have to make sure the assumption is right, that we don't go to war against Amalek today. Who said? Maybe, yeah, maybe we should go to war against Amalek. So there's an interesting Hagoyes Mayim, quoting a Smag, that the Smag says that the mitzvah of mechiyas Amalek doesn't apply in our times. When Mashiach will come, that's when it will re-establish the mitzvah of mechiyas Amalek, when Mashiach comes. The question is why? Why is it not nogea b'zman hazeh, according to the Smag, only when Mashiach comes? So there's a pshat from Reb Berel Soloveitchik, the grandson of the Brisker Rav—actually the son of the Brisker Rav, forgive me, Reb Berel, the son of the Brisker Rav had a pshat, and he said as follows. He explained, the pasuk says, V'haya ka'asher yaniach Hashem Elokecha mikol oyvecha misaviv, that when the Eibishter will give you peace, that you will have kibush, conquer Eretz Yisrael, that's when you'll have the mitzvah of Timche es zecher Amalek. Says Reb Berel, it's not only that when we got to Eretz Yisrael and we conquered, you need it to be in the present state of kibush. We have to be in a situation—not that there was once kibush, that we conquered and we came to Eretz Yisrael and from then on there's a mitzvah of timche. V'haya ka'asher yaniach isn't a condition of the time in history, but it has to be a condition met presently. V'haya ka'asher yaniach. That we have to be kavush in Eretz Yisroel, we have to have conquered the territories and live in peace in our homeland with security. We don't have that. And since we don't have that, we have to wait for Mashiach. Of course we don't have that. Just because the Tanya, who says that you can live on Rechov Dinzigov, doesn't mean we have kibush Eretz Yisroel today. We're still far from the situation that we were kayim kibush. We came back, maybe. Possible we came back to Eretz Yisroel, we have the old kibush. The kibush before remains today. But v'hoyah ka'asher yaniach Hashem, the peace and the tranquility that is needed as a condition isn't a present-day condition, and therefore mechiyas Amalek isn't a mitzvah bizman hazeh till Mashiach comes, when we'll actually have ka'asher yaniach Hashem Elokecha mikol oyvecha misaviv. My great-grandfather, zecher tzaddik livrachah, the Beis Aharon, in his peirush Avodah Lire'im, his sefer on the Yere'im, he explains that maybe the reason for this.

This smag is actually nothing to do with Klal Yisrael's state in Eretz Yisrael, but rather has to do with melech. In order to go to war against Amalek, it's a din in the melech. The Rambam discusses in halacha, Hilchos Melachim, that it is incumbent on a king—those are one of the things that are incumbent on a king—to go fight Amalek. So, kubei, it's a din in melech. We don't have a melech bizman hazeh, so we have to wait till melech HaMashiach. When Mashiach comes, we'll have a melech. As we will learn later on, to fight Amalek is not an individual responsibility, maybe. From the Rambam, it seems to be mashma that it is a milchemes mitzvah, a milchemes tzibur, that the tzibur has to go fight it, and therefore it needs a melech. And if it needs a melech, we don't have one today, so we have to wait for Mashiach to come, melech. This seems to be uprooting the mitzvah bizman hazeh, that there's actually no timcheh bizman hazeh, which leads us to the question that we asked: if there's no mitzvah timcheh, and zachor is connected to the timcheh, so why is there a mitzvah of zachor? If zachor is in order to bring out timcheh zecher Amalek, and on timcheh zecher Amalek it's clearly not applicable today, it's not a chiyuv bizman hazeh, so why is it that there's a mitzvah zachor? Unless we could say, meheri yibaneh haMikdash, meheri yavo Mashiach, we believe any moment Mashiach will come. So it could be we say zachor in order to be pairus for the moment when Mashiach comes, and we'll go fight Amalek. Maybe, possible. That loy d'smag. That the mitzvah is when Moshiach comes. And according to the Rambam that connects the mitzvah of zachor to the mitzvah of Timche, we maybe have to say that the mitzvah of zachor bizman hazeh is because meheira yibaneh, meheira yavo Moshiach. And so the mitzvah of Timche will be niskayem momentarily, maybe. And in preparation to that, we do zachor every year, maybe. Now maybe we could just do zachor the moment Moshiach comes. I could just do zachor then, bimei kayem the mitzvah of zachor. The minute Moshiach comes, take out a Sefer Torah and bimei kayem the mitzvah of zachor. There's another school of thought, so to speak. Another mahalach. Rav Chaim Brisker explains that it's a technical problem that we don't do mechiyas Amalek today. It's not so much an uprooting of the mitzvah. The mitzvah would apply, but we just can't do the mitzvah bizman hazeh. Why not? The Gemara tells us Sancheiriv came and messed up the world, bilbel. He mixed up the whole world. He took this nation and put them here and that nation. We don't know who anyone is anymore. The identity of nations is not clear anymore. Says Rav Chaim, the Rambam actually paskens this. By the mitzvah of annihilating and killing shivah amim, one of anyone from the seven nations, the Rambam ends by saying, ukvar avad zikhram. Their memory is lost. There is no way of knowing who the seven nations are. The Maggid Mishneh, the mechronim on the side, say, why? Because ba Sancheiriv ubilbel es kol ha'olam. So we don't know who the seven nations are. The question Reb Chaim and others ask is, why would the Rambam not say this by Amalek, which is the next halacha? The next halacha, the Rambam discusses Amalek. There he didn't say, Kvar avad zichram. If it's a technical thing that we can't kill Amalek because we don't know who they are, because everybody's mixed up and the whole world is, you know, Chinese are actually Japanese and Japanese are actually, yeah, they're actually Americans. Who knows, right? The whole world is all mixed up, right? So we don't know who Amalekim are. Yes, why would the Rambam not write this? Why would the Rambam write this only by a killing of the seven nations, we don't know who they are, Kvar avad zichram? So many interpret the Rambam that it's actually supposed to be read together. Once he said, Kvar avad zichram, and you read the next halacha, and also you should kill Amalek, you understand that it's the same concept, Kvar avad zichram. The Rambam is a continuation from the previous halacha of killing the seven nations. That's actually the diyuk of the lashon. V'chein, I think he used the word v'chein also. You have to kill Amalekim. So when you read, you understand that Kvar avad zichram. Others say that it's not true. It's not Kvar avad zichram, but actually we could identify Amalekim. They bring from the Gaon that the Gaon gave over to Reb Chaim Volozhiner simanim, facial...

Signs of how to identify an Amaleki. You look at his face, he has a certain look, probably a very mean look, and that look, he's an Amaleki. Story is told, it's brought in the Sifri Agra and the Briskers in the Chumash shiurim in Parshas Zachor, indoctrinate every Talmud to know this story, so to speak, that Reb Chaim Ozer was walking in the street, and a kid threw a rock at him. In Russia, threw a rock at him. Reb Chaim Ozer said, Run after the kid. Who is he? They ran, they found that he was the grandson of Czar Nicholas. So they asked Reb Chaim, Why did he care so much? I mean, it's a common occurrence for little kids to throw rocks at Jewish people and tzaddikim in the street. It's not a big deal. Why'd you get so, Oh, let's go catch him and find out who he is? He ran away. Finish, let him go. Says Reb Chaim, Because I got a mesorah from the goyim: facial expressions and facial features and simanim what an Amaleki looks like, and this kid had it. And Reb Chaim says, You see? He was a grandson of Czar Nicholas, an Amaleki. He was an Amaleki. Okay? So we could identify. Maybe that's why the Rambam doesn't say kvar ovad zichram, because there is a way to identify. Later on we're going to learn that maybe, maybe, maybe Amalekim doesn't have to be the nation of Amalek. Amalekim could be others that follow in the shita of Amalek. Maybe. We're going to learn this a little bit later, and that's why maybe the Rambam doesn't say that there's no mechiyas Amalek, because kvar ovad zichram, they are not here anymore. We're going to get to that a little bit later, but as of now, pashut, the simanim were given to Reb Chaim. Identify who and what an Amaleki is, and maybe because of this, we can't say that there's no mitzvah mechiyas Amalek, technically, because there is a mitzvah mechiyas Amalek. It might be difficult. Maybe not everybody knows how to identify them, but they're identifiable. There's discussion in the modern-day Acharonim if the Chasam Sofer actually did or didn't. It's a question, historic event, did it or didn't happen? Did Chasam Sofer kill an Amalek? Discussion. Some say כן, some say it's not, it's not true, it never happened. Point being, maybe we do have mechiyas Amalek bizman hazeh, and so Zachar would apply then. Our question seems to be answered. Our question was, if Zachar, according to the Rambam, is just to bring to Timcheh, to annihilate, so what about today that we don't do Timcheh? Maybe we should not be mechuyav in Zachar. But the way we're explaining from the Rambam, the Rambam never said kvar avad zichram, that you maybe possibly could do Timcheh bizman hazeh, as long as you get the simanim from the Briskers, who get it from Rav Chaim Volozhiner, who gets it from the Gaon, maybe you could identify. Or like we're soon going to learn, there are others who fall under the category of Amalek, and so Zachar does apply. So we have two mahalchim. Either Zachar is not connected to Timcheh, and then the question is, so what's the point of Zachar? I mean, what's the point of remembering the bad of Amalek? Who needs to remember bad? The opposite, shield yourself, cover your ears. What do you need to hear bad for? Why remember it? Why does it have to be a whole story? And if Zachar is connected to Timcheh, because Zachar is to bring out hatred that you should be able to annihilate, but we don't do Timcheh today, or do we? So either we have to say, like we said before, that even if it's for the time Mashiach, the mitzvah Timcheh, maybe Zachor is to prepare ourselves. Any moment Mashiach might come. Or maybe, like we're explaining now, that the Timcheh does apply today, and this that we don't do it is only a technical reason that we just don't know who they are. אי למעשה, if they don't know who they are, we don't do it? No. If you would know, and those few who do know the simanim are capable of doing it, and therefore the mitzvah Zachor does technically apply, actually apply b'zman hazeh. This is, so to speak, in halachah. There's a whole mahalach in machshavah that the mitzvah of Zachor and the mitzvah of Timcheh doesn't mean physically, that you have to physically kill the Amaleki, but you also have to annihilate the shittah and the tumah and the evil of what Amalek stands for. This, Reb Elchanan Wasserman in Kovetz Maamarim, perek zayin, brings b'shem the Gaon. It's not clearly there, but it's famous that that's really a Gaon, that the Gaon learns that the milchamah against Amalek is actually a spiritual milchamah as well as a physical milchamah, that you have to fight Amalek.

The spiritual evil of Amalek, and it's a spiritual milchama against Amalek. If you look at the Sfas Emes, year Taf-Reish Mem-Zayin, he clearly states, Milchemes Amalek is possible b'yameinu. Why? Because Milchemes Amalek is tumas Amalek asher b'kirbeinu, which is actually within us, which is one step further, that we're not only looking for tumas Amalek from the out, tumas Amalek in others, tumas Amalek in other peoples and nations that have tumas Amalek. And I'll tell you a little secret, that Reb Elchanan in Kovetz Maamarim actually says Amalek could be Jewish people as well. Reb Elchanan goes through a whole mahalach with the goyim, that Amalek has to do with baalei machlokes, it has to do with lashon hara. You look at Reb Elchanan and says, and we have to annihilate those Amalekim as well, like an Erev Rav. Baalei machlokes is the Amalek. So we have a chiddush that it's not only goyim from other nations, but it could be within our borders, so to speak, also. And the Sfas Emes is going one step further, that it could even be within us. Each one of us within us has this little piece of Amalek. And therefore the mitzvah of Zachor and Timche is extremely, extremely relevant b'zman hazeh. So again, till here we were discussing halachically, if there is a mitzvah mechiyas Amalek b'zman hazeh, yes, no, pro and con, and therefore is Zachor or not Zachor applicable today. Now we're saying, even if we're going to come and say that there is no actual physical mitzvah of Timcha, but the Timcha, the war against Amalek, takes on a whole new face, takes on a whole new idea, and that is a spiritual war against Amalek, against the shita and the tumah of what Amalek stands for. And this milchama, and this enemy, doesn't have to be another nation, a goy. It could actually be a Jew, like Reb Elchanan in Kovetz Maamarim says, or one step further, like the Sfas Emes says, each one of us from within has a little piece of Amalek seeped into our shoresh of kedushah, of our neshama, and that we have to uproot, annihilate, and destroy. If so, it becomes incumbent upon us to understand what is that piece of Amalek that's within us. What is Amalek? You know, we understand the Amaleki that comes from the nation of Amalek. That's pretty easy to understand, and we know they're evil, so they're evil. But now we're discussing tumas Amalek. Now we're discussing the spiritual evil of Amalek that's seeped even within the neshama of every—within ourselves. So what is it? So I think we have to identify Amalek. What is Amalek's weakness and rishus, and its tumah? What is it? So I begin with the, so to speak, the most famous pshatim and mehalchim, and as we continue, we'll go to the different sefarim that explain different points of what the tumah of Amalek is. From the most famous, the most classic, the most accepted pshatim, kfirah. Amalek is about heresy against the Ribono Shel Olam. Which part of emunah? Hashgacha pratis. Asher korcha. Korcha is mikreh. Mikreh means happening, that they believe everything is happens, mikreh. It happens, no hashgacha pratis. This is brought in many sefarim. Classically, in beautiful language, it's brought in the Netziv. I think it's perek yud-zayin, pasuk zayin. I don't have it in front of me, but I think that's where it is, or perek yud-daled, pasuk zayin. I think it's perek yud-daled, pasuk zayin. Te'udas Amalek, says the Netziv, the te'udah, the constitution. What is Amalek's constitution? America has a constitution: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and of course they don't write, but, and money. What is Amalek? Amalek's te'udah is sheson'im es hahashgacha b'tachlis hasinah. They hate hashgacha pratis. You hear? Oh, now we've identified, we've given a face to the tumah of Amalek. So now we have to ask ourselves, did it seep into us? Yes, most definitely. We rebel and fight within.

Within ourselves, every day within ourselves, yeh emunah, bitachon. Do we believe fully in hashgacha pratis? We say we believe in hashgacha pratis. Outwardly, we declare emunah and bitachon, but within, birkirbeinu, as the Sfas Emes says, do we really have true emunah in hashgacha pratis? We fight with this. We have, in English we say, we wrangle with this every day. This is one of the difficulties. We fight internally, hashgacha pratis. So this is the Amalek and his poison and his bad influence that seeped into within us, within Klal Yisrael. So Zachor is to remember Amalek's hatred to hashgacha pratis, milchamah laShem. They're fighting against Hashem, against emunah in Hashem. And so, zachor remembers, so we should be timcheh zecher Amalek, that we have to annihilate, and we have to uproot this kefirah in hashgacha pratis. That's pshat number one, that the mefarshim talk about tumas Amalek. What is Amalek? What does Amalek stand for? What is the evil of Amalek? Pshat number two is found in the Alshich Shemini. Alshich Shemini discusses that Amalek stands for leitzanus. Leitzanus. Mockery, jokes. Leitzanus is doicheh me'atei chachamim, an erliche, honest Yid. Right? Jokes. The idea is that when somebody takes life serious, he takes the Eibishter serious. To make light of it is litzanus. Litzanus, he makes it all a joke, you hear? This is one of the tumas that is attached to Amalek. Now, of course, we all suffer from this as well. We make light of things that we shouldn't make light of. We don't respect and have reverence to things that we should have reverence to. And this becomes zachor and timcheh, to remember Amalek's evil and timcheh, to uproot it. A third pshat, it's brought in the Kadmonim, Rav Chanoch Henoch, ... zechut tzaddik livrachah, in his kuntres on Purim, quotes Kadmonim that say Amalek is gaivah. Gaivah. Amalek is gematria Rom, forty. Take the German. The German, who we will soon learn later on in the shiur, is the quintessential Amalek. It was a lot about gaivah, the goose step. It was the pride, gaivah. The gaivah is what Amalek stands for. Brazenness. That's hambatzerei tachas. They weren't afraid. Everybody was afraid. They're not afraid. They stand strong, and they'll stand up against everybody. They'll fight. This is gaivah. And of course, we have to be meicheh this. This is one of the things. So this is the third thing that is found in the Kadmonim. See, the Sefarim speak a lot about this, Zera Kodesh, the inyan of Amalek and gaivah. There's a fourth mahalach, a pshat, that is found in the mefarshim, discussion about Amalek, and that is hatred to kedusha. Bizui, bizui dvarim kedoshim, hatred and embarrassment to things which have to do with kedusha. We find that they took the milah and threw it up to the shamayim, and they said, Leik, yilkach, lebacharta, this is what you chose, you chose the milah. So on one hand that's a litzanus; on the other hand it's also bizui lidvarim kedoshim. It's a bizui for things which is holy. We know that the word asher karcha also has a meaning in the mefarshim: keri, tumah. Kedusha is the opposite of tumah; tumah is the opposite of kedusha. They like tumah, they hate kedusha. They like to undermine kedusha. Amalek is bizui dvarim shebikedusha. In Sifsei Chaim, Rav Chaim Friedlander gives this mahalach, that Amalek is about bizui dvarim.

Chaim Friedlander, zichrono livracha, was the Ponevezher mashgiach. He wrote classic sefarim on hashkafah and drush that are very much accepted in the olam haTorah. Every yeshiva guy learns Sifsei Chaim before you come to Yom Tov. So there he discusses this topic: bizui devarim shebikedushah is Amalek, like they threw up the milah, embarrassing kedushah. And I'm adding, of course, we know that's what it means, asher karcha, lashon keri, tumah; tumah is the opposite of kedushah. So we have four pshatim. So again, either it's about the kefirah in hashgachah pratis, letzanus, gaavah, and bizui devarim shebikedushah. Bizui devarim shebikedushah, letzanus, hashgachah pratis, that they're kofer in hashgachah pratis, gaavah, letzanus, and bizui devarim shebikedushah. Reb Aharon, rosh yeshiva from Lakewood, zichrono livracha, in the sefer Mishnas Reb Aharon, broadens the idea of Amalek, that it's much broader than just this particular or that particular, but rather Amalek stands for all evil. And it's interesting, he makes that the milchamah against Amalek is good against evil in the world. Klal Yisrael is good, Amalek is evil, and that's pshat, rafu yedeihem min haTorah, Amalek comes. Why does Amalek come? Because when you're rafu yedeihem min haTorah, you give koach, strength, to evil. The balance—it's a tug of war between good and evil. So the minute Klal Yisrael doesn't do what it has to do, evil gets stronger. And the milchamah laHashem is to fight. It's good versus evil. Reb Nosson zecher tzaddik livrachah, in his reshimos of the Shmuzin on Purim, he discusses how Amalek stands for every evil thing. Amalek is a general thing about evil. Every bad trait is an Amalek. And if you look at the Chiddushei Sefarim, Or Yisrael, the Apter, the Toldos Yaakov Yosef, they bring a Zohar about this, that the Zohar says that Amalek is the Samach Mem, the sitra acher. Amalek is Yitzra bisha; he's the yetzer hara in the Zohar. We put together Amalek and yetzer hara, Amalek and Satan. And the pshat is, the way we're explaining, that it's not only a particular evil, but actually it's a broad, a broad spectrum of everything bad Amalek stands for, because Amalek is yetzer hara. So we begun with pratim, and as the ma'amarim, so to speak, progress, we see that it seems to be broader. Like Reb Aharon says, it's about good versus all evil. In the world there's good and the world there's evil. Amalek represents evil. Like Reb Nosson and other sefarim discuss, because Amalek is yetzer hara. Chazal call him kelev. Chazal say, what happened? We said, Hayesh Hashem b'kirbeinu? I'm going to sic on them the kelev. Kelev obviously represents that it's not just one bad trait, but obviously kelev means bad, evil. Okay. You look at the Chassidic sefarim, they discuss the idea of Amalek as a klipa. Klipa is a, I guess, a mythology, a word of something that hinders avodas Hashem. In avodas Hashem, there are things that are blockages. I would call them, when a person has blood clots in his heart, in his spiritual heart there's blood clots, and those are called klipos, like cholesterols. Okay, klipa, it goes around the heart, cholesterol, and it blood clots the spiritual flow of blood to the heart. And the sefarim identify klipas Amalek four or five things. One of them, if you look at the sefarim, they bring down, it's about kerirus. Asher korcha is kerirus, cold. When a Yid davens and learns, he's supposed to learn with fire, hislahavus, warmth and feeling and zeal. When a person learns and he's calm, this is called asher korcha, cold. Kerirus in avodas Yisroel, seif avodas...

Yisroel discusses, and that's probably in the mekoros for where all the Chassidus sheTorah comes from, asher karcha. The klipah of Amalek is kerirus. Yeah, okay, yeah, no problem. All right, I'll daven, I'll learn, but you're not into it, heart and soul. Another pshat that's brought, like I told you from the Zera Kodesh, the klipah is gaivah. Gaivah interferes tremendously in avodas Hashem. It becomes a klipah. Another pshat, which is brought in the Sefarim HaKedoshim, that the klipah of Amalek is anavah yeseirah, the opposite of gaivah. Too humble, not courage, no self-esteem in avodas Hashem. That a person doesn't feel proud; he feels inadequate. He doesn't feel comfortable to do the avodas Hashem. For example, if you look, Shaul didn't kill out Agag; he left him alive. Shmuel gives him mussar: Im katan atah b'einecha, rosh she alfei Yisrael atah. If you are humble, too humble, you can't do it either. There's a certain gaivah in the kedushah. There's a certain, when a person is secure and he's proud and he has self-esteem, that he's a Yid, Amalek undermines that. The bizui comes to undermine that the Jew should feel inadequate. What's the right word in English? Huh? Inadequate. That's the word I'm looking for. Inadequate. He feels inadequate, you know. And because of that, he doesn't show, he doesn't want his payos, his this. He tries to cover it up. That's called anavah, anavah yeseirah, lacking gaivah d'kedushah. So some learn it's gaivah, and some learn the opposite, that they take away the courage and the pride. I once told you a nice story with the Satmar Rebbe, zecher tzaddik livrachah. Satmar Rebbe was very strong in his convictions, and he was proud. And when they came to America, it wasn't easy to be a Chassidish Jew. People in the street, they didn't know what it looked like. It looked weird, you know, look at the way the guy dresses. Strange, alien. So they told the Rebbe that they don't want to wear the shtreimel in the street. They're willing to wear it in the shul, but not in the street, because mitlakhet, they're going to laugh. They're going to say, Hey, look, this guy has a fox on his head. What's he walking around like that for? Satmar Rebbe said, No, not true. Be proud, you're a Yid. They're not going to laugh. Okay, they're walking in the street, and right away people start to laugh at them. Look, the shvartzes were standing there laughing at them. So the Ashkenazi tells the Rebbe, See, Rebbe? They're laughing. So the Rebbe said, How do you know they're laughing at me, that I'm wearing my shtreimel? Maybe they're laughing at you, a Chassidish Yid without a shtreimel. How do you know that they're laughing at me? That's called gaiva d'kedusha, proud, secure. When a person is insecure, he gets scared. He becomes inadequate to respond properly and to do what he has to do. That's what Shmuel was telling Shaul, Katan ata b'einecha. What are you doing? You're supposed to lead. You're not supposed to be humble that you feel scared to listen to people. What are you doing? If you look at the Bnei Yissaschar, on the topic of Amalek, Chodesh Adar, he talks about the klipah of emunah. Emunah itself, it's called emunah al yedei chakirah. It's a klipah, which means that a person cannot believe in Hashem unless he understands. It has to come through his philosophy and his havanah, otherwise he's not mekabel. He said that's Amalek. Amalek infused in Klal Yisrael that they don't have the emunah peshutah. So it's a little different. The Netziv learns that the kefirah in emunah was about hashgachah pratis, and the Bnei Yissaschar is learning that the kefirah in emunah is about emunah peshutah, to take away the emunah peshutah, that they should have emunah only al yedei mechkar, only through the philosophical...

If you look at the Tferes Shlomo, he talks about the klipah of Amalek. The klipah of Amalek is taiva. The klipah of Amalek is taiva, and I want you to know it's a mefurashe goyen. The Goyen in the Arvei Yohel, Parshas Naso, says that Klal Yisroel is lev. Heart. What is the part of the body which is always at war, so to speak, says the Goyen, with the heart? The liver. And he explains why. The liver is the taiva. That's where taiva comes from. Taiva is make a person eat. Eat is bad for the heart. Best thing, you go to a doctor, you know what he tells you? Stop eating. They themselves don't stop eating, the doctors. I once went to a doctor, he tells me, Stop eating. I look at him, but you don't stop eating. Look what you look like. He said, That doesn't mean I listen to what I say. I should listen to what I talk. He preaches but doesn't practice. He says, That's no problem. To him, he had no problem with that. He gets paid to give good advice, he tells me. So I told him, You know what? I'll give you the advice. Maybe you pay me. He didn't like it very much. But the point is, eat and heart don't go together, okay? Says the Goyen, Klal Yisroel is lev. Eisav is kavei taiva. And he says this dates back all the way to Eisav, where he says, Haliteini na min ha'adom ha'adom hazeh. Eisav is a fresser. Don't stop eating, Eisav. This is the koach of taiva that Amalek and Eisav stand for. Notice, rabosai, in the Megillah, what was the story with Haman? It was all about the mishteh in the beginning, with mishteh, with mishteh. He comes to the melech, more mishteh, and that's how he gets Klal Yisrael, and then the mishteh of Esther, eating and more eating and more eating. Okay. Tami, Chanukah, we saw any story about Yevanim eating? Was there any big— no, there was no story about eating in the Amalek, because about good food: Burger King and McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, right, you name it. Eating and more eating and more eating. Al keini nam an adam, adam azeh. Says the Gaon, that's pshat, milchamah laShem ba'Amalek. Lamed laShem, ba'Amalek. Take the lamed and the beis. And that's the milchamah. The milchamah is against the lamed, the taivus, against the Yidden who's porush min hataivah. And what becomes the anecdote, says the Gaon? Tefillin. Ki yad al kes Kah. You wear the tefillin keneged the lamed. Kes Kah, yad. The tefillin shel yad is covered, and that's milchamah laShem ba'Amalek. That protects the tefillin against Amalek. With this, I would like to explain why in the Megillah we find, LaYehudim haysa orah v'simchah v'sasson vyakar. So what is sasson? Sasson is milah. What is orah? It's Torah. So I know, I understand Torah. Torah is because King Masha kiblu kvar. I understand sasson, milah, because Amalek with the milah could be, right? They were throwing the milos. But where's the yakar tefillin? Where did tefillin come in? Gemara says vikar means tefillin, and the answer is like the goyin gevaldik, because vikar is the tefillin which fights. And soon we're going to learn how it fights. Soon we're going to learn how it fights against, because the goyin says, V'ra'u kol amei ha'aretz ki shem Hashem nikra lecha veyar'u mimecha. We're going to get to that part of the goyin a little bit later. But like this, I understand in the Megillah, the story, the storyline of the Megillah, the eating and Haman and the anti-Haman, Yakar, the fact that the tefillin was, at the end of the story of the Megillah, a part of the Megillah. Okay. You know, rabosai, till here I've given you a lot of food for thought, what we have to work on: gaiven, taiven, anavin, and letzanus, and emunah and bitachon, so much. How about for us simple people? What's l'maaseh? How could we be mekayem Parshas Timcheh, zecher Amalek, simply today, tomorrow, and the next few days? True, we have to work on everything, but something which is more v'nizak, simple and to the point. You know what I'm thinking? I thought about it for quite a while. Amalek also...

Answers sinas Yisroel. Hatred. Esav sonei l'Yaakov. If you look, it says in the Megillah that they killed from Shushan and Shushan, a lot of killing in Shushan, right? At the end of the Megillah, Klal Yisroel stood up and made a massacre in Shushan. The Targum, every time it says the word Shushan, says, mid'beis Amalek. Targum, every time it says that Klal Yisroel killed so-and-so in Shushan and they did so-and-so, mid'beis Amalek. Meforshim ask, what, Shushan was beis Amalek? How did Shushan become beis Amalek? So some want to say maybe it's Haman's family and Shushan was full of Haman. Haman spread all over Shushan; it was his place. His children and his grandchildren, his cousins and his uncles, and so on, it's all mid'beis Amalek. They say בשם Reb Chaim a different pshat, that any nation, it doesn't have to be an Amaleki, any goy, any gentile, who goes with the shita of Amalek to hate and to kill Klal Yisroel becomes an Amaleki. An Amaleki doesn't have to be necessarily mizera Amalek. Amalek is the shita of hating and killing, sonei Yehudim. As a matter of fact, there's an interesting Gemara. The Gemara tells us in Megillah, the Gemara says that al tafik zmamoi. We asked the Eibishter, don't take off the mouth cover of Esav. Who is the mouth cover of Esav? What is that? What's it referring to? Says the Gemara, zu Germamya shel Edom. Germamia was a country of Edom. It comes from the Edom family, that if HaKadosh Baruch Hu would take off its mouth, its resen, it would swallow and want to destroy the whole world. So we ask the Eibishter, al tafek zmamoi, don't take off its mouth cover. Keep him locked under key, so to speak. Otherwise he'll conquer the world. The mefarshim say Germamia means Germany. This is a remez that Germany wanted to conquer the world, and we ask the Eibishter, stop him, because if the Eibishter didn't stop him, he would have conquered the whole world. And what do we see? Germamia shel Edom, that it comes from Amalek. So some want to say that they actually do come from Amalek, but you don't know. And the answer is, any nation that goes with the shita of Haman to kill and to destroy Klal Yisrael is Amalek. If you look at the sefer Ish HaLachima, Rav Chaim Zonnenfeld clearly stated in Eretz Yisrael, Germany is Amalek. The German nation is Amalek for this reason. Amalek is people who go with the shita of annihilation of Jewish people. And so, what is the timche? How do I be moiche that? How do I fight that? What's the milchamah? I believe ahavas Yisrael, that if you come with ahavas Yisrael, you could come and uproot the sin of the goyim. A gesture of ahavas Yisrael is the anti-Amalek of sinas Yisrael. We find this in the Megillah. The Megillah says, Leich knos es kol haYehudim asher b'Shushan. Come together. Put everybody in tzumu alai, and I was thinking a meirdike pshat. What's pshat, b'tzumu alai? Fast for me. It's called taanis Esther. It's not called taanis of Klal Yisrael. Esther wanted that the entire Klal Yisrael should join together to help Esther. That was the achdus that was needed, that was required, in order to bring out the yeshuah against Haman. That Klal Yisrael had to unite for the cause of one, and thereby bringing out the cause of yeshuah to all. B'tzumu alai. When Klal Yisrael laid knesses, kol haYehudim, they didn't come and fast for themselves. They fasted for Esther, for one. And I'll tell you, rabosai, what I'm referring to. You know, recently my rebbe, Reb Delsky, was not well. I tried to visit. When I came to the hospital, they asked that nobody should visit, so I went to visit somebody else. I found another Jew who needed visitation. He needed someone to talk to him. I saw he was looking, dying for a little attention, so I sat with him, and he kept me a little bit. You know, he was telling about his family and his problem, and then he asked me to get him ice, and then to get him a nurse.

To get him a chleisah, a few other things. I was... A guy comes over to me and he says to me, How's your pop? He's in the room next door, and he was there with his father. His father was also a choleh. So I said, My pop? First, I don't always talk about pop. I didn't understand what he meant. Pop? I go, By what? I thought maybe ice pop, or I faced the ice. I didn't know what he was referring to. So he goes, How's your father, your dad? I said, My dad's not my father. What are you talking about? It's not your father? I said, No. He says, I saw you taking care of him, and you were helping him with the blanket. It was weird to him. Like, I must be his father. Why would I help with his blanket, help him get up from a little bit his back, and get him ice and run? I didn't. So he tells me, So he's your uncle? I said, No. He says, I'll tell you the truth, I don't even know his name. I don't know who it is. He couldn't get over it. He was bewildered by it. Okay. Came back the next week to visit this guy again, because I told him, I promised him I'd come back. The guy wasn't there anymore. I guess he's better or something. But this guy, the German guy, Baruch Hashem was there with—I'm sorry, I told you he's a German guy. This guy, Baruch Hashem, was there with his father. He was still there, Baruch Hashem. So he comes over to me and he says, I want you to know something. I saw the way you were treating this guy. You don't even know him. Then I started to look around, and I see the way the Jewish people, they're so involved with helping all the sick people here in the hospital. They bring food, and I mean, the unbelievable bikur cholim that goes on. It's amazing. It's amazing what goes on in the hospital by Jewish people. It's amazing. It's something. The goyim also have chesed, not this. This is—it's around the clock, people coming and the food and what do you need. It's unbelievable. So he tells me he's a German, and in his home they have about, like, comp. He has that stuff at home. He says, when I started to see what the Jewish people, how they love each other, I said, it's all a bunch of—I can't repeat it by a shiur, the words he used. It's a bunch of... and I realized that it's all. So I told him, so what'd you do? He says, I ripped up his—he says he ripped up the magazine that he had about Hitler. He ripped his papers, his place, whatever he told me. So I said, could you do me a favor? Could you bring me a piece of it? Like this I could show the olam I was mekayem timche es Zecher Amalek. How was I moicheh the Zecher Amalek? By acting kind. That's why Purim we have matanos l'evyonim, mishloach manos ish l'reeihu. That's how you fight Haman. That's how you fight Amalek. You fight Amalek, ahavas Yisroel, because he's sinas Yisroel. Do you know what Amalek tried to do? Tried to embarrass the Jew. Vayivez b'einav lishloach yad b'Mordechai. A Jew is a disgusting thing to him. Germany began its campaign against the Jews to try to show they're subhuman, they're ugly, the noses, the this, the facial. That's why we say they don't understand the beauty of Klal Yisroel. Sheishanas Yaakov. Why do we talk about Sheishanas Yaakov? The beauty of Klal Yisrael. The goyim try to make us less, so we show, look at the beauty of Klal Yisrael. The Klal Yisrael came together, leknois kol haYehudim. That's pshat, Mordechai yatza milifnei hamelech bilvush malchus, techeles, chur, v'argaman. Who cares? And the answer is to elevate the beauty of the Yid, because Haman was to undermine. And this is a big mussar, rabosai. The olam should know this. Purim is not a time to embarrass one another. Purim is not a time, in Yiddish, to make cheap or zilzul, litzanus about other people. It's the opposite. It's a time of achdus. It's a time of coming together, a time of ahavah. That's mechiyas Amalek. If not, you're doing what Amalek wanted: to sit there and make choizek of rabbeim and friends, and that's exactly what Amalek did. You're doing what Amalek wanted you to do. You're not being mocheh Amalek, hakeret. You're being mekayem, timcheh es zecher Amalek. That's exactly what you're doing. That's exactly what you're doing. The idea is to be mechabed, to come together b'achdus. And I think with this we could go and—

I'll explain something very interesting about Parshas Zachor. You know, the halacha is that Zachor has to be read from a Sefer Torah with a minyan. There's a big question: why does it have to be read from a Sefer Torah, and why with a minyan? So the Rishonim discuss maybe it's rooted in the fact that it says, K'sov zos zikaron basefer. Sefer means a Sefer Torah. So why a minyan? Just take out a Sefer Torah and we'll have a reading. Take out a Sefer Torah. So some want to say you can't take out a Sefer Torah without a minyan, and therefore Chachamu kaveya it with a Sefer Torah with a minyan. That's the whole shaila by women: they want to hear Zachor, there's no minyan. Could you take out a Sefer Torah? Women don't make a minyan. The Keren Orah in Yud-Beis in Brachos says the reason why we do it from a Sefer Torah with a minyan, because it's a milchemes tzibur. Like I told you before, it's not a milchama of the yachid, the individual to go and fight Amalek. It's a milchemes tzibur, and therefore they were mesaken Zachor l'orer the tzibur to milchama. That's why we need a minyan. So I was thinking that's halachically so, and maybe also in hashkafah and in mussar there's a reason, there's a significance to the idea of tzibur and minyan. And that is, like we've explained before, that the milchama against Amalek is the achdus of Klal Yisrael. So therefore we do it b'tzibur. Zachor es asher asah lecha Amalek, we mekayem it b'tzibur, because the idea of Zachor is to join as a tzibur together to fight Amalek. Leich knos es kol haYehudim. As yechidim, we won't be able to win the war. But as rabim, Klal Yisroel, we could. And I think, because that really goes to the shoresh of what Amalek stands for, and I'll explain to you what I mean. You notice the pasuk says, Zachor eis asher asah lecha Amalek. Zachor is a lashon yachid, asher asah lecha Amalek is a lashon yachid, asher karcha baderech, vayezanev becha, ve'ata—it's all lashon yachid. Why lashon yachid? It should say, zichru, or vakarchachem. It's, I mean—so you're going to say, maybe because it's a nation. The idea was they did it to Klal Yisroel. So why does it say b'tzeischem Mitzrayim? It should have said b'tzeischa. Zachor eis asher asah lecha Amalek, it should have said b'tzeischem Mitzrayim. B'tzeischem, you left, you were a group of people. They came to destroy the lecha. They came to destroy the achdus of Klal Yisroel. Zachor eis asher asah lecha Amalek, asher karcha baderech, vayezanev becha, ve'ata—Klal Yisroel as a group, because they destroy and attack the achdus of Klal Yisroel. And where do we see this? There's an interesting Baal Shem that says, notice who they went after. Kol hanechshalim acharecha. Says Rashi that the anan was polet them. Who are these nechshalim, these weak that were left behind? The anan spit them out because they were baalei chet, says the Baal Shem. So you see they weren't connected to the tzibur. Oh, when you have Jews who are not connected, Amalek catches. They weren't connected. They were separate from the tzibur. I would like to say a pshat, an add, and give a little bit of a different, same understanding but from a different angle. You know what a nechshalim are? The weaker ones. Why was it that there was such a thing that the elite went and the nechshalim were left behind? That's what Klal Yisroel stands for? That the strong ones go ahead and the weak ones are left to be fall behind? That means that's not Klal Yisroel. Klal Yisroel is ki ish echad b'lev echad. The weak ones should be picked up by the strong ones and be carried, be taken, be mechazek, to fix them, to help them. When you start separating, I'm the elite and these guys are the weaker ones, this becomes, rabosai, a pirud, and that's where Amalek comes. Amalek comes in such a, such a, such a situation. And I think that's the pshat, zachor es asher asah lecha Amalek, and therefore it's done b'tzibur. I saw there's an interesting Chasam Sofer. The Chasam Sofer explains that the Mishkan—you wanted Mishkan, here you got Mishkan—that the Mishkan is kerashim. How were the kerashim held together? Within there was a briach hatichon, like straight through every middle, they were held together. Then there was two, one on top and one on the bottom on the outside.

So the Chasam Sofer goes through a whole cheshbon. That's good for each wall, that the walls stay together. But how about the four walls? How did they stay together? Wait, then how are they mechubar? They were inside the... I'm talking about the four walls, this wall and this wall here, this wall with this wall. How did it stay together? The corners, how did it stay together? So the Chasam Sofer says that's the nes. And, hachanami, when Moshe put up the Mishkan, it couldn't stand. It needed a nes. It says clearly, Moshe kept on putting up the Mishkan. This is why he says, Chasam Sofer, that's why he kept on falling, because you need to connect the four walls. You can't have four walls. He says each wall, I understand, is connected, but what about the four walls? Says the Chasam Sofer, it was a nes. Why did we do this nes? Why was it necessary? Just make it that it should be all four walls attached like a house. To teach us, says the Chasam Sofer, that when the kerashim are together one into one, which is Klal Yisrael is mechubar one to one, the house doesn't collapse. Emunah will never leave Klal Yisrael. They'll never disintegrate into different parts of belief in Hashem. You notice all other religions, they have the Shiite and the Sunni. They kill each other. The Christians, they have the Mormons and the Protestants, and they kill each other. By Klal Yisrael, there's different types, but all the same emunah. You went and killed Reform people? Yeah. I'm very sorry to tell you, no Reform Jew picked up a gun and shot me. Sorry to tell you, never happened. Now Reform Jew have a shabbi. Jewish people, they have liberal this and that, but they believe in the Eibishter. They believe that we all believe in the same Hashem, and we're all one nation. He says, What's the problem? That we're not attached. The problem is that we're not mechubar. Kol zman, says the Chasam Sofer, the Klal Yisroel is attached, emunah stays intact. That's the lesson of the Mishkan. I think with this, we can understand how Amalek is kefirah against emunah. They attack. When do they attack? By two things: rafyei yadayim min haTorah and lack of achdus. Both things cause a lack of emunah in HaKadosh Baruch Hu. When a person begins to sway from Torah, he doesn't have what keeps him strong in emunah. When a person sways from achdus, he doesn't have what keeps him strong in emunah. And the reason for this is, if you look at the sefarim of Rabbi Yerucham, I think we could work with the mahalach that he has: Kudsha Brich Hu, v'Oraisa, v'Yisrael chad hu. So if you connect the three, you have all three. If Klal Yisroel is connected, if they're connected to the Torah, then there's HaKadosh Baruch Hu's third connection. The way it sticks together is this formula: Kudsha Brich Hu, Yisroel, all of Yisroel, Oraisa, strong learning, and mimeila emunah. So Amalek attacks rafyei yadayim min haTorah, I believe, pshat. It attacks when there's no achdus. And what's the result? There's no Hashem. There's no emunah. The third part of the shlosha shutfin, so to speak, also falls away. This is milchama laHashem baAmalek, dor dor. Let us be zocheh. Mekayem the mitzvah of zachor. Remember what we have to do in order to mekayem the mitzvah of timcheh, what we must fix and correct to uproot the Esav and the Amalek within us and the Amalek that's... You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.