Choosing Nicknames
The Sages, when dilating on the story of Amalek in this week’s sedrah, about how Amalek attacked the Bnei Yisroel on their way out of Mitzrayim, so they give Amalek a title. They call him a leitz – it means a cynic, a scoffer (Shemos Rabbah 27:6).
Now, if we had been chosen to attach a description, a name, to Amalek, we most certainly wouldn’t have chosen ‘leitz’. We have other, worse names, that we would have considered more appropriate for such a wicked nation. But we are not our Sages and they understand better than we do. And they saw something here that deserved the appellation of leitz, a scoffer.
Now that has to be understood. Why should it be so? A nation comes and attacks, what’s the leitzanus? It’s wicked, yes. It’s savagery, yes. But scoffing? A scoffing nation? But that’s the maskanah of our Chachomim: Amalek and scoffer are synonymous.
Imagine you looked in a thesaurus – a thesaurus is a book of English synonyms, an innocent book to help you to find a choice of words. It’s used by everybody who writes; when you want to find a similar word to what you’re thinking, so you look in the thesaurus. And sometimes they’ll have ‘synonyms’ for nations too.
Falsified Entries
I bought a Roget’s Thesaurus about sixty years ago; inside it said like this. Under the entry ‘Jew’ it said like this: deceiver, cheater, rogue, usurer, selfish, avaricious. About six, seven adjectives there to describe the Jewish people. It means if you want some other word for Jew or if you want to say this man's a cheat, don't say ‘he's a cheat’; say ‘he's a Jew’. Don't say ‘he's a rogue’; say ‘he's a Jew’. That's called a synonym. You’re looking for some other word that you can use instead of this word.
And so anybody who looks up the word ‘Jew’ in that thesaurus – the thesaurus has been published in hundreds of thousands of copies – will see these adjectives. Lately, they changed that; just lately. Because after all, it’s too much to say today; today you have to show that you're decent, that you accept everyone. But up until not long ago, that’s how it was printed – in my edition it still says that openly.
Now, if there was a Torah thesaurus so we understand that it would be very different. Because a Torah thesaurus would be accurate and truthful – under the entry ‘Jew’ would be all the true synonyms: rachamanim, baishainim, gomlei chassodim; other words like that.
And what we’re learning now is that if you would find the word ‘Amalek’ in that Torah thesaurus, underneath that entry you’d find the word leitz. Maybe other synonyms too but one of the synonyms on the list would be leitz, scoffer. And that begs an explanation.
Nations in Panic
When we came out of Egypt, all the nations heard and they were afraid (Shemos 15:14). What happened in Egypt cast a fear on all the peoples of the world. Egypt was laid low; it was ruined. It's a remarkable thing. For five hundred years subsequently Egypt was not heard from. It was such a catastrophe that for five hundred years we didn't hear from Egypt.
The whole time that Yehoshua was conquering Eretz Canaan right next door to Egypt, not a word out of Egypt. All the period of the Shoftim, three hundred and sixty nine years of the Judges, the time that the Mishkan was in Shilo, not a peep. Eretz Yisroel was invaded by Edom, by Amon, by Moav, by Aram – we were invaded by various foreign nations – but Egypt was right next door and yet, nothing. The first time Egypt let itself be heard was after Shlomo Hamelech. Shisok Melech Pharaoh, the king Mitzrayim; that’s the first time we hear from Mitzrayim. Such a ruination they had, that for five hundred years they were laid low.
And the world knew about it because people were talking. Those who were traveling on the road talked it over; from caravan to caravan, from tribe to tribe. Everywhere it was the conversation of the day – “You heard what’s taking place in Mitzrayim?! It’s almost unbelievable! The land is being turned upside down! And it’s all because of the G-d of the Bnei Yisroel.”
The people in the land of the Pelishtim were seized by a trembling. Until then Edom wasn’t afraid. But az, at that time they went into a panic. The strong ones of Moav, who weren’t afraid of anyone, were shaking (ibid. 14-15). In Midian too they were quaking in fear. What is the proof that people in Midian heard? Yisro; it says. Yisro was sitting in Midian minding his own business. He wasn’t learning Chumash; he wasn’t saying the Hagaddah shel Pesach. But suddenly a thunderclap was heard throughout the world. The G-d of the Jews is wreaking havoc on Egypt! Yisro came because of that.
The Canaanites Buckle
In Eretz Canaan too; there was a little girl who heard about Yetzias Mitzrayim, and forty years later she became a giyoress because of that. Rachav, in the city of Yericho, was a little girl; and she heard what took place in Mitzrayim and at the Yam Suf. We heard how Hashem dried up the sea before you when you came out of Mitzrayim, we heard and our heart melted away (Yehoshua 2:9-10). She said those words; it was forty years later but she was recalling what happened when they heard about Yetzias Mitzrayim.
And so all over the world, wherever there were people, this was the topic of conversation.
Like the Medrash (Mechilta D’Rabi Yishmael 14:2:2) says that at the time of Kriyas Yam Suf, not only the Yam Suf was split apart, but all the waters in the world split apart. Now when people hear that, it’s a little difficult for them – why should all the waters of the world be split apart? Because we think it was to let the Bnei Yisroel cross; so they crossed. But elsewhere, everywhere in the world, who needs it?
The answer is, there are other reasons for the water to split. Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn’t have to split the waters so that we should be rescued. He could have made Pharaoh’s army all get heavy colds; they would all have to lie down with high fever and finished. He didn’t have to make any spectacular business. The purpose of the Kriyas Yam Suf was one purpose, and that was to teach the world that a nation had been born!
That's the reason why the yam opened up. It wasn’t for the purpose of saving our lives; it was opened up to teach. And so at the same time, the whole world was being taught. That was the purpose. So first of all they heard what took place in Mitzrayim. And secondly, they saw upheavals; water splitting everywhere. And so everybody now kept quiet. They all trembled in fear of the nation of Hashem. Nobody made a move.
The One Chatzuf
Nobody except one upstart, one chatzuf, one bold-faced nation: that was Amalek. Amalek came and they attacked the Am Yisroel (Shemos 17:8). Suddenly one az panim, one bold-faced fellow, stepped forward and he attacked us. A remarkable thing. The whole world was boiling in terror and Amalek came along and cooled them off: “It’s nothing,” he said.
Why wasn't he afraid? Well, he’ll tell you he had his reasons. Amalek is the descendant of Eisav, the older brother of Yaakov, and Amalek was following in the tradition of his family, a tradition that said that Yaakov was no good. The younger brother was a fraud, they said, a trickster who knows how to manipulate things.
And so Amalek said, “I’m not nispael from the stories; from makkos and nissim. Maybe you think that the Bnei Yisroel is important but I go back a long time with them. Don’t be impressed by these people; they’re frummies, that’s all. We know them. My grandfather had business with their ancestor, Yaakov. He was a crook, a ramai. And so, I’m not impressed with what you think is important.”
Oh! You’re not impressed with what’s important? That, our Sages say, is called a leitz.
A leitz?! How is that a leitz? When we think the word leitz so we picture loafers standing on the corner, people who wish to enliven their day with a little fun or with a lot of fun at somebody else's expense. Whether they're drinking bottles out of bags or just leaning against walls and ogling at passersby, they're grinning and looking for opportunities to ridicule. Sometimes even with practical jokes, to stretch out a foot when a passerby comes along or to jostle; sometimes even to throw objects at passersby. We know those leitzim because Jews have encountered these on every corner.
The Common Denominator
That however is only the lowest level, the crassest level. You know, Rabbeinu Yonah in his Shaarei Teshuva when he teaches us about the sin of leitzanus so he mentions various categories of this sin. But when you study all of them you’ll see that there is a common denominator there – it’s a general attitude of belittling things or people, of not taking them with the seriousness they deserve.
That’s the commonality between all the categories of leitzanus. A leitz means somebody who takes something that’s important and makes it unimportant or even just less important; somebody who refuses to be impressed. And because Amalek refused to be impressed with the importance of the Bnei Yisroel they became the epitome of the leitz.
Looking Inwards
Now, when our Sages called Amalek a leitz it wasn’t merely so that we should have another reason to hate Amalek; it was intended also that we should understand what it is that makes someone a leitz. We should know what it is that might make us leitzim, chas v’shalom. After all, we’re the ones who study the words of the Sages – the lessons are intended for us.
And therefore if a Jew doesn’t have a feeling of the greatest respect for the aristocracy of the Jewish people – let’s say he walks in the street, a street full of gentiles, and he doesn’t feel like he is especially chosen by Hashem, then he’s a leitz. He’s belittling what Hashem declares important in this world.
No matter how big their cathedrals are, he knows that they’re only big beis hakiseis. No matter how tall their skyscrapers are, he knows that they’re tall barns of beheimos. No matter what, he walks with the understanding that he is a king among commoners. Of course he shouldn’t show it. You shouldn't make the nations hate you; but if in your mind you weaken in that attitude that Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim to be His chosen ones so you’re also a leitz. After all, we too are included in the nations who trembled. We also have to understand what Hashem was showing.
Orthodox Leitzim
Don’t say we’re all brothers. That’s leitzanus. Yes, we're brothers in the sense we all come from Adam and Chava but that's all. Hashem has said clearly as could be that we are the ones! 'You are the children of Hashem.' Only you. ‘They’re My children,’ Hashem says. ‘My children!’ ‘Children’ is not a word that we take lightly. It’s a very serious word to say.
So along comes a Modern Orthodox rabbi and he says it’s just a ‘form of speech’. That’s an Orthodox leitz! Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells us in the Torah how to regard the Jewish people and this leitz wants to make it into nothing.
And that’s the lesson we learn from Amalek. A person who minimizes any of the values of the Torah, that’s the definition of a leitz.
