Rabbi Roodyn

At the end of the sedra we are introduced to an episode that impacts all of world history. The Bnei Yisrael have just experienced a direct revelation of the Almighty, they see His providential Hand reversing the laws of nature at the Red Sea. They become phenomenally wealthy, in addition to the wealth that they took with them from Egypt, they are enriched by the bizas hayam, the spoils at the sea. But then they hit the first logistical issue of their flight into the desert. If there is no water, their new found riches are totally worthless.

There is an old Jewish custom of complaining when things aren’t to our liking and so here they take it out on Moshe. ‘Why have you brought us up from Egypt to kill me and my children and my livestock through thirst’. Moshe fears for his life, crying out to Hashem, ‘What should I do for this people? Any more and they will stone me!’

This time, Moshe is told to hit the rock, he does so and it gives forth drinking water in the sight of the elders and calls the place Masa U Meriva, because of their complaints and their testing Hashem, saying hayesh Hashem berkirbenu in ayin, is Hashem among us or not? Immediately following this, they face their next challenge, a marauding band of Amalekites who attack them from the rear, preying on the stragglers, the weak and vulnerable who can’t keep up. The resulting war is highly unconventional, with Moshe remaining on the mountain, hands raised, guiding the hearts and minds of the nation as they do battle down below.

What’s going on? Why are they now suddenly vulnerable to attack? Hayesh Hashem bekirbenu im ayin?  How could they have had a crisis of faith when they had just seen open miracles? When they had exclaimed for the first time, zeh keili, this is my G-d.

This is a major question, but let’s pay closer attention to the text. Hayesh Hashem bekirbenu im ayin, Is Hashem amongst us or not, is He within us or not. They are not asking hayesh Hashem, they are not doubting the existence of G-d. They are doubting their own relationship with Him. In other words, their crisis of faith, their safek, is not whether they believe in G-d, but rather whether G-d believes in them! Immediately, vayavo Amalek, Amalek whose gematriya is 240, safek, attacks. Amalek is, if you like an incarnation of their doubts.

Rav Tzadok Hakohen of  Lublin (d.1900), once said, ‘more than we need to believe in G-d. we need to believe that G-d believes in us.’ Or as we sing every week in Anim Zemiros, yispaer bi ki chafetz bi, He shall take glory in me, because He desires me!

Amalek’s raison d’etre is to drive a wedge between the Jewish People and our Father in Heaven. Amalek comes to sow the seeds of doubt at critical junctures of Jewish history and in this case it seems like they are trying to stop the Torah from being given, both in a physical sense but also in a spiritual sense.

Amalek is the incarnation of the pasuk of hayesh Hashem bekirbenu im ayin, is Hashem really with us, does He care about us? Do we really matter?

Imagine you went to Ikea to buy a bunk bed and you put it all together, it takes a while, but you get there eventually (remember what we said about men and instructions!) After a few hours of hard graft, all you want to do is put the kettle on and have a well-deserved cup of tea. But then you notice a big screw underneath the instructions. No-one thinks, ‘oh how kind of Ikea to give me a spare screw, you never know when it will come in handy!’ Rather there, goes that cup of tea and you are back to square one trying to figure out where that screw needs to go, because until you do, no-one’s sleeping on that top bunk!

If there are no spare parts in a flat pack Ikea bed, there are certainly no spare parts in Hashems world. To doubt our own value, is to doubt the Almighty Himself.

That is the essence of Amalek, the one who represents doubt in the world.  When we don’t feel that our actions are significant, we don’t treat ourselves with respect we can’t connect to Hashem properly either.