We thought you might appreciate this dvar Torah that Meir presented in our synagogue in Efrat this past Shabbat. If you would like to see it in Hebrew, please let us know.
בס”ד
Parashat Beshalach 5784
Our parashah this week deals with warfare, but presents two approaches to warfare that seem to be in opposition. At the Splitting of the Sea, as the Egyptian army is bearing down on Bnei Yisrael, Moshe assures them:
שמות פרק יד פסוק יד
יְקֹוָ֖ק יִלָּחֵ֣ם לָכֶ֑ם וְאַתֶּ֖ם תַּחֲרִשֽׁוּן:
Ex. 14:14: HaShem will fight for you, and you – be silent.
But at the very end of the portion, after we are attacked by the cruel and vicious Amalek, Moshe says to Yehoshua:
שמות פרק יז פסוק ט
בְּחַר־לָ֣נוּ אֲנָשִׁ֔ים וְצֵ֖א הִלָּחֵ֣ם בַּעֲמָלֵ֑ק
Ex. 17:9
Choose men for us and go out and fight against Amalek.
Why, at Yam Suf, are we commanded to remain passive and let HaShem fight for us, while against Amalek, Yehoshua is commanded to take action and do the fighting ourselves?
To put this into a broader perspective, throughout the Redemption from Egypt, HaShem does all the fighting for us – from the ten plagues to the splitting of the sea. And even after we emerge from Yam Suf into the wilderness, HaShem continues to care for us in revealed ways. The three “good gifts,” as they are called by Rabbi Yosi bar Yehudah in the Gemara Ta’anit (9a), the gifts that accompanied Am Yisrael throughout their wandering in the wilderness – the daily portions of Manna, bread from Heaven, and the Well of Water that traveled with them, and the Clouds of Glory that protected Israel from dangerous predators and enemies, three gifts given by HaShem in the merit of Moshe, Miriam and Aharon respectively – all this is to show how close HaShem is to us, how aware He is of our needs, how completely He cares for us. The fact that we were commanded to stand silently at the Splitting of the Sea and let HaShem fight our fight was part of this pattern and this lesson.
But at the end of the parashah Bnei Yisrael are commanded to stand up and fight the fight against Amalek themselves. And it is not just that we have to take action ourselves. In the Midrash Mekhilta, Rabbi Yehoshua pays careful attention to the wording of the command Moshe gives Yehoshua: “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek”
בְּחַר־לָ֣נוּ אֲנָשִׁ֔ים וְצֵ֖א הִלָּחֵ֣ם בַּעֲמָלֵ֑ק
מכילתא דרבי שמעון בר יוחאי פרק יז פסוק ט
ר’ יהושע אומר אמר לו משה ליהושע צא מתחת כנפי הענן והלחם בעמלק.
Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, 17:9
Rabbi Yehoshua says: Moshe said to Yehoshua: Go out from under the wings of the Cloud of Glory and fight against Amalek
When Israel fights this fight, we needed to leave the heavenly protection of the Clouds of Glory, to be exposed and vulnerable to all the dangers of a dangerous world and a cruel enemy.
Yehoshua’s army does get help – from Am Yisrael: from Moshe Rabbenu who holds up his hands with the staff to inspire the soldiers to direct their hearts to HaShem, and Aharon and Hur who help support him, and the rest of Israel – the army gets support and inspiration from the Home Front. But why, in the fight against Amalek, is it necessary for Bnei Yisrael to do the fighting themselves, whereas by the Egyptians, HaShem waged war and Bnei Yisrael were passive?
Rebbe Yaakov Leiner in his sefer Beit Yaakov (Beshallah 115, 120) addresses this question, and answers that the Egyptians claimed to be masters, enslaving us by divine right – so HaShem had to show them, and us, Who is really the Boss. It was Heaven’s fight. But the evil of Amalek is in their middot, their whole way of life that is focused on all forms of violence – on murder, sexual assault and falsehood. This is also an accurate description of the enemy we are fighting right now. This is a fight against the perversion of humanity – and this is a fight that Bnei Yisrael in their time, and we in our time, have to stand up and fight directly, on behalf of all humanity, for HaShem’s vision for humanity. And we fight this fight, according to the Beit Yaakov, not only with weapons of war, but by our way of life, with love, and justice and compassion, the way of Torah, modeling the middot of Torah for all of humanity as a “light of the nations.”
But is it the case that Israel is left to fight this fight by themselves, without help from Heaven?
When Bar Kokhva went to fight against the Romans, in the Gemara Yerushalmi Ta’anit (4:5) it says that he announced to HaShem:
תלמוד ירושלמי (וילנא) מסכת תענית פרק ד
וכד דהוה נפק לקרבא הוה אמר ריבוניה דעלמא לא תסעוד ולא תכסוף [תהילים ס יב] הלא אתה אלהים זנחתנו ולא תצא בצבאותינו
Talmud Yerushalmi Ta’anit 4:5
“When Bar Kokhba would go forth to battle he would say “Master of the world, don’t help us and don’t put us to shame, as it says in Tehillim “have You, God, not abandoned us, that You do not go forth with our army?”
The verse from Tehillim is actually a question and a plea to God to help us, but Bar Kokhba twisted it into a statement of fact and an order to God to stay out of the fight – not to help us and not to hinder us. The Rabbis imply that this chutzpah led to his downfall and the tragic failure of the revolt.
So is it that Am Yisrael is being left to go out and fight Amalek by themselves, without heavenly help? At the very end of the parashah, after Yehoshua succeeds in weakening, though not yet defeating, Amalek, Moshe declares:
שמות פרק יז פסוק טז
וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כִּֽי־יָד֙ עַל־כֵּ֣ס יָ֔-הּ מִלְחָמָ֥ה לַיקֹוָ֖ק בַּֽעֲמָלֵ֑ק מִדֹּ֖ר דֹּֽר:
Ex. 17:16
And he said: For His Hand is on the Throne of Y-ah: HaShem wages war against Amalek from generation to generation.
HaShem swears, as it were, with His hand on His Throne, that HaShem Himself will wage war against Amalek in every generation. So which is it? It is HaShem’s fight or our fight? The clue is in the symbolic act of the divine oath – God’s Hand is on His Throne. Most commentators explain this as part of the ritual of taking an oath – by taking an object in hand. But here it is not just a ritual, it’s a meaningful symbol.
Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin, in Nefesh haHayyim (1:5), explains, with reference to the vision of God’s Throne in the opening chapter of Ezekiel:
ונשמת החיים של הכסא, הוא סוד שרש העליון של כללות נשמות ישראל יחד שהוא יותר גבוה ומאד נעלה גם מהכסא. שהוא האדם שעל הכסא כמ”ש שם “ועל דמות הכסא דמות כמראה אדם עליו מלמעלה.”
Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin, Nefesh haHayyim 1:5
The soul of life of the Throne is the mystery of the supernal root of the totality of the souls of Israel as one, which is much higher and much more exalted than the Throne, for it is the Man that is upon the Throne, as is written “And on the likeness of the Throne is the likeness of the appearance of a Man upon it from above (Ez. 1:26).”
This interpretation, based on the Zohar, that the Man on the Throne is not an anthropomorphic symbol of God, but rather the
סוד שרש העליון של כללות נשמות ישראל יחד
“the mystery of the supernal root of the totality of the souls of Israel as one” is profound. Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin goes on to explain that it is HaShem Himself Who empowers the collective soul of Israel. So God’s Hand upon His Throne, the oath that concludes this week’s parashah, means the Hand of God empowers the Man, the collective soul of Israel, upon God’s Throne – in the long war again the evil of Amalek.
The incident of Amalek occurred immediately after Bnei Yisrael, and Masa u-Merivah, asked “Is HaShem in our midst or not?” In the battle against Amalek the answer came to them, and to us: HaShem is in your midst for real! HaShem is empowering us from within. At the Splitting of the Sea we needed to learn that HaShem is fighting FOR us, and we saw the Great Hand of HaShem. But by the end of the parashah, in the War against Amalek, Bnei Yisrael, and we their descendents, learn an even deeper lesson: that HaShem is working THROUGH us, the Hand of HaShem is fighting throug our hands, for real. David HaMelekh sings in 2 Samuel 22:35 and in Tehillim 18:35:
שמואל ב פרק כב פסוק לה
מְלַמֵּ֥ד יָדַ֖י לַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה וְנִחַ֥ת קֶֽשֶׁת־נְחוּשָׁ֖ה זְרֹעֹתָֽי:
2 Samuel 22:35
He trains my hands for war, and penetrates my arms to bend a brass bow.
And this becomes a model for all mitzvot, all Avodat HaShem. Because the truth is that we are all empowered by HaShem at all times – as Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Iszbicz explains (Parashat Behar 15). Each of us is a gift of God through and through – created and sustained by HaShem at every moment, from moment to moment. And when we attune ourselves to HaShem’s Will through learning Torah and fulfilling mitzvot, we become agents of HaShem, almost angels of HaShem. But especially our young men and woman of Tzaha”l who give their souls and lives to fight this Mitzvah War – every single one is an angel of HaShem, fighting the evil of Amalek in God’s world. May HaShem continue to protect them and guide them and empower them to complete victory, and bring us all to the time envisioned by Yeshayahu:
ישעיהו פרק ב
(ד) וְשָׁפַט֙ בֵּ֣ין הַגּוֹיִ֔ם וְהוֹכִ֖יחַ לְעַמִּ֣ים רַבִּ֑ים וְכִתְּת֨וּ חַרְבוֹתָ֜ם לְאִתִּ֗ים וַחֲנִיתֽוֹתֵיהֶם֙ לְמַזְמֵר֔וֹת לֹא־ יִשָּׂ֨א ג֤וֹי אֶל־גּוֹי֙ חֶ֔רֶב וְלֹא־יִלְמְד֥וּ ע֖וֹד מִלְחָמָֽה: פ
Isaiah 2:4
He shall judge between peoples and chastise many nations, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more.
שנשמע בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות
May we hear news of goodness, salvation, and comfort.
