Ten thousand measures of silver is the amount of the bribe that Haman promised to give Achashverosh to the national treasury to ensure that the Jewish people would be slated for extermination. HaKadosh Baruch Hu answered him: Evil one! Their shekels have already preceded yours…Your money is already worthless…
This discourse was written during the difficult war in Ukraine, for the merit of brothers who are suffering there. Our hearts are with you in prayer and with hope that you will merit to come out of the darkness into the light.
More than a million and a half refugees have fled the Ukraine in the past two weeks. Unlike the situation these days when there are people willing to take in the refugees, it is hard for me not to think about what happened in the Holocaust a little over seven decades ago when millions of Jewish refugees around the world fled the horrors of war in need of salvation. They had nowhere to run! It’s distressing to even think about it…
This week’s Torah portion is parshat Vayikra. The “tinokot shel Beit Raban” (young children) begin studying the Torah from parshat Vayikra. “Rav Assi said: Why do the young children start their learning from Torat Kohanim (the book of Leviticus)? Why don’t they start from the beginning with the book of Bereshit?! Regarding this, G-d said: Since the sacrifices are pure and the small children are pure, the pure ones should come and deal with that which is pure.”
This Shabbat we also read parshat Zachor, which is the second of the four parshiot recited before Pesach. They are parshat Shekalim, Zachor, Parah, and Parshat HaChodesh. In parshat Zachor, the war against Amalek is recalled, “Remember what Amalek did to you” (Deuteronomy 25:17). This mitzvah is of course related to Purim, as our Sages told us, and this week our discussion will deal with both the weekly Torah portion and the upcoming holiday of Purim and the annihilation of Amalek.
Who is this nation of Amalek, and why are they of any interest to us? Are they still relevant today? Why should we need to bear in mind something that happened a few thousand years ago? And how does this connect to the fact that the young children begin their studies with Chumash Vayikra?
Amalek is known to be the root of all the evil in the world. Every nation has an evil character trait, but the root of all evil, the “Sitra Achra,” is Amalek, of whom it is said: “Amalek was the first of the nations” (Numbers 24:20).
In reality, this is how it is. The whole world was stunned by the miraculous event. An entire nation came out of Egypt through manifest miracles after having been enslaved. The Egyptians suffered through ten crushing plagues, forcing them to send the Jews out. The climax of the miracles was in the Splitting of the Red Sea, when the Nation of Israel all passed through the sea on dry land while all their Egyptian enemies drowned. Fear and dread fell upon the peoples of all the nations. Who was the only nation which did not recoil and was not overcome with fear, who dared to fight against the Nation of Israel? Amalek!
Amalek knows full well that the whole universe is renewed each day. Every day there is a clarification that needs to be made on that particular day. The story of the Nation of Israel did not end with the Exodus from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea—they know that there will be another day…and Amalek is waiting in anticipation for that “other day.” They constantly look forward to the next opportunity where they will be able to do damage. This is the root of evil: wherever he can do damage, he tries to do it.
The whole world was stunned by the miraculous event, but who was the only nation which did not recoil and was not overcome with fear, who dared to fight against the Nation of Israel? Amalek!
And what is our role? It is to stand against them and not allow it to occur. In the same way that Amalek renews their offensive every day and at every moment, we too need to renew ourselves in our opposition to them. This is the message of parshat Zachor: never to forget the Amalekite impudence, which is the root of all evil, who attacked the stragglers who were lagging behind, those whom the protective cloud had spat out due to their sins. It is precisely those people that Amalek wants to weaken and lay low.
In Likutei Moharan, Rebbe Nachman contrasts: the body, darkness, stupidity, death, forgetfulness, animal-like behavior against the soul, light, wisdom, life, man, memory and more. Our mission is that our memory should overcome our forgetfulness, the light should overcome darkness, the spiritual should overcome the material, etc. (Likutei Moharan I, 37).
Amalek sought to strengthen forgetfulness, the body, and animalistic behavior over being a human being. The Midrash relates that the nation of Amalek used to dress up like animals in times of war in order to deceive their enemies. They sought to intensify the darkness and death. Thus, Haman, who was a descendant of Amalek, sought to destroy, kill, and exterminate all the Jews.
Haman knew very well what he was doing. He fought a well-planned war, and he also knew that the Nation of Israel was experiencing an unprecedented moral low point at that point in time. They had enjoyed themselves at Achashverosh’s feast, eating unclean and forbidden foods, where there had been sexual immorality and rejoicing over the destruction of the Temple (see Megillah 12a), and thus annihilation was decreed on them.
Haman sought to take full advantage of this and gave ten thousand measures of silver for the annihilation of the Nation of Israel on the day which was the most suited to their destruction (see Esther Rabba 7:13). He was a great sorcerer and knew well how to fight a “spiritual war.” He searched for the most sensitive day where there was the highest chance of harming Jews.
But there was a tremendous secret that Haman did not know about.
This was that the deeper the low point, and the more the deterioration, the more holiness will be hidden there, such that if they will only merit to reveal it, then the situation will turn around with tremendous power and an immense revelation. Perhaps this is what Rebbe Nachman was hinting at when he said: “There is always a possibility that everything will change for the best…” (See Alim L’Trufah, letter 187).
When Achashverosh and Haman sat down to drink together, they thought to themselves with much enjoyment that they had found a solution to the Jewish problem and would finally be able to enjoy the pleasures of this world without the influence of Jewish morality. They would be able to enjoy the darkness, the body, and all the worldly pleasures. They would be able to completely detach themselves from G-d, which would actually be the true death.
Haman, the great sorcerer from Persia, did not know the great and vast secret of the people of Israel!
But G-d said to Haman: “Evil one! Their shekels have already preceded yours.” The Creator, in His mercy, acted first, and gave us the merit of the mitzvah of donating our shekels as a contribution for the establishment of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). In the Mishkan, in the Holy of Holies, were the cherubim, which had the faces of small children (midrashim and Zohar). From the Holy of Holies, the breath of the tinokot shel Beit Raban, who had done no sins, would be received. That is why they engage themselves with matters of purity, because the purpose of man is to subdue the animalistic side and illuminate the spiritual form of man, the soul. (Rabbi Natan explains in detail how this clarification is done.)
This is the wonderful secret that Mordecai the Tzaddik and Queen Esther revealed when Esther was taken to the house of Achashverosh. When the holiness itself is taken to Achashverosh, to the place of impurity, is there any hope? Esther herself stated: “And if I perish, I perish…” (Esther 4:16). True, there is almost no chance I will succeed. Even so there is a wonderful advice: “Fast on my behalf…” (Ibid., 4:16) “the matters of the fasts and their crying out” (Ibid, 9:31). Through fasting and giving charity (the mitzvah of the shekels for the Mishkan), the descent into physicality and filth is rectified. This is why Moshe fasted during the war with Amalek, and we fast during Ta’anit Esther (the Fast of Esther). Which is why, the Zohar says that the day of Purim is like Yom Kippur.
When man does not despair of himself, and he still raises his eyes to heaven and prays with all his heart: “G-d, save me! I want holiness! I want to be saved from evil.” As long as he is still shouting out to G-d, he will surely succeed in causing his holiness to overcome his impurity, light over darkness, spirituality over material, soul over body, man over beast, and the Jewish nation over the seed of Amalek.
This is how we will remember and never forget the evil that Amalek wanted to do to us. “You shall surely obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. Never forget” (Deuteronomy 25:19).
My fellow Jews, do not despair! And with G-d’s help, we will merit to: “The Jews had light and joy, and gladness and honor. Thus should it be for us all” (Esther 8:16).
Happy Purim to us all!
(Based on Likutei Halachot, Shechitah 4 and elsewhere)
