When you should go to war against your enemies, and the Lord, your G-d, delivers them in your hand, and you capture prisoners from them; Prior to diving into the main topic of our shiur, I’d like to quickly focus on the opening words of our Parsha. The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh and Kli Yakar, amongst others, ask why we open in the singular – כי־תצא – then switch to plural – אֹיְבֶיך – before reverting to singular – וּנְתָנוֹ. The conventional answer given is the battle in question is not against any enemy nation but rather our individual battles with the Yetzer Hara – the evil inclination. I would like to share an approach from the Chida (Pnei David), based on a Gemara (Chagigah 15a) which cites the story of Elisha ben Avuya – Acher – who violated Shabbat and then rejected all calls to perform Teshuva. The excuse he provided to Rabbi Meir was that he heard a Bat Kol declare: “חוּץ מֵאַחֵר ,שׁוּבוּ בָּנִים שׁוֹבָבִים – Return, rebellious children, apart from Acḥer.” He made a grievous error, however. He heard the voice and concluded that he stood no chance of returning through Teshuva, but the Chida says, Elisha ben Avuya could have made the requisite effort and been successful. While the Bat Kol was not inviting or encouraging him to engage, he was free to do so on his own volition. Our Parsha’s opening words hint at this idea. Even if you reach a low point where Hakadosh Baruch Hu is no longer calling you, nonetheless, go out on your own and engage in this war. Even such a person will have their enemies delivered in their hand.
There are 74 mitzvot in our Parsha, the most of any in the Torah. This number is represented by the letters ע'ד, which are the two letters appearing enlarged in the Pasuk and Tefillah of: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ ה’ אֶחָד. The Chida explains, in the ongoing battle between Yaakov and Eisav, each have an instance of the letter ע which represents their essence. The ayin in Shema is that of Yaakov Avinu, while the ayin of Eisav hangs in the Pasuk יְכַרְסְמֶנָּה חֲזִיר מִיַּעַר וְזִיז שָׂדַי יִרְעֶנָּה – The swine out of the wood ravages it, and the wild beast of the field devours it. Eisav’s ayin is an ayin ra – an evil eye, whereas Yaakov’s is a tov ayin – an eye of goodness (see Rav Rosenblum English Shiur – Shoftim 5783). With this foundation, I would like to focus on the four final Mitzvot of the Parsha – the ד' of ע'ד, three which pertain to the war against Amalek:
Remember what Amalek perpetrated against you on the way when you were going out of Egypt. When they chanced upon you en route struck down all the feeble ones behind you, and you were exhausted and wearied, and they had no fear of G-d. When Hashem, your G-d, has given you repose from all your enemies around, in the land that Hashem, your G-d, is giving you as territory to inherit, you shall obliterate the memory of Amalek from beneath the sky; do not forget.
The three Mitzvot we are given with regards to Amalek are to remember what Amalek did to us after we left Egypt, to obliterate the memory of Amalek, and not to forget what Amalek did to us. Chazal ask what the difference is between the first and last – remembering and not forgetting, and the Sifrei answers (Devarim 296): זָכוֹר בַּפֶּה לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח בַּלֵּב – remember through your words, and do not forget in your heart.
The Mitzvah appearing just prior to these Amalekian commands is to possess only accurate weights and measures for use in commerce:
You are not to have for yourself in your pouch varying weight-stones, large and small. You shall not have in your house varying measures, large and small. A fully accurate, just weight, you shall have, you are to have whole and honest measures; in order that you live long on the land that your Hashem, your G-d, is giving you. Because Hashem, your G-d’s abomination, are all who do these; all who do falsehood.
Rashi and others question why this seemingly unrelated command juxtaposes those related to Amalek, and answers that Amalek specifically arrives when we cheat with our weights – i.e., we do not deal honestly with one another in business. HaEmek Davar pokes at this commentary, wondering what its true meaning is, given we’re never told the punishment for stealing is an attack by our enemies, and Amalek is not mentioned within the commandment not to steal. The Netziv expands his question and asks why the Gemara (Bava Batra 88b) says the punishment for using false measures is more severe than that for conducting illicit relations. Why is this act so extreme and reproachful?
To pursue these answers, we’ll now travel back to the story of Amalek and see what took place as Bnei Yisrael left Egypt. After being attacked by Amalek, Moshe instructed Yehoshua to select men strong in the middot of fearing Heaven and fearing sin (יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם and יִרְאַת חֵטְא) to battle back. Those attributes were of importance because Amalek had no such fear of Heaven and is referred to as אֵל אַחֵר as a result. A very strange battle then took place. Moshe Rabbeinu climbed to the mountain top and held up his arms – with the support of Aharon and Chur due to their heaviness – and Bnei Yisrael were victorious as long as his hands remained stretched high. Never before or after did battle plans feature this maneuver of holding up the leader’s hands. Moshe did not raise his hands high during the wars with Sichon or Og, and it did not seem to impact the outcome. What was special about this battle with Amalek that required hands to be held high? Two more Pesukim, detailing what took place after the battle, will help us understand this subject:
Hashem said to Moshe, “Write this as a remembrance in the Book, and repeat it in Yehoshua’s ears, for I will totally obliterate the memory of Amalek from under the heavens... He [Moshe] said, “The hand is on G-d’s throne, Hashem will be at war with Amalek for all generations.”
In just over two weeks’ time, we will have arrived at Rosh Hashanah – Yom HaDin. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 29a), amid dealing with numerous matters related to blowing the Shofar, brings forth a seemingly disjointed Mishna:
Did the hands of Moshe make war when he raised them or break war when he lowered them? Rather, the verse comes to tell you that as long as the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed, but if not, they fell.
The connection between this Mishna and the sugya within which it is inserted is bizarre, and its placement leads us to conclude that the battle of Amalek is directly tied to Rosh Hashanah. The essence of this connection is what we’ll now explore in depth. Furthermore, from the final Pasuk of the story, we learn neither the name nor kiseh (chair) of Hakadosh Baruch Hu is complete as long as Amalek is present. It is for this reason the final Pasuk contains כֵּס – kiseh without its alef; and הּ -יָ – the name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu missing its vav and heh. When Melech HaMashiach comes, His name and kiseh will return to their full form: לְמוֹשָׁב לוֹ אִוָּהּ וֹן בְּצִי כִּי־בָחַר ה' – the three missing letters, או'ה, will return to their rightful place.
Why am I bringing this up here? Because we’ll soon reach the pinnacle moment of proclaiming וֹשֵׁב עַל כִּסֵּא רָם וְנִשָּׂא יְהַמֶּלֶך – The King Who sits on a throne exalted and uplifted. This display is apparently only achievable with the eradication of Amalek, and therefore there must also be a connection between our Avodah leading up to Rosh Hashanah and the desired state of the King sitting exalted on His throne.
There are several pieces to now learn together, following which a clear picture will be painted, and answers to the above questions will reveal themselves in a wonderful manner.
The Fly and the Dalet: The Power of a Letter
The Ba’al HaTurim comments on the instruction given to Moshe after defeating Amalek. The first letter in the words זִ' כָּרוֹן בַּ' סֵּפֶר וְ' שִׂים בְּ' אׇזְנֵי form the word זְבוּב (fly). Amalek pounced on the wounds of Bnei Yisrael like a fly targets a fresh gash. Generally, when comparing Amalek to an animal, Chazal opt for the dog, but here, the Ba’al HaTurim chooses the fly as his parallel. There is large significance to this small fly, and we’ll uncover it through a Gemara (Sotah 20a) which recounts the sayings of Rabbi Meir, a sofer stam (scribe):
When I was studying Torah before Rabbi Akiva, I used to put iron sulfate into the ink with which I wrote Torah scrolls, and he did not protest. When I then came before Rabbi Yishmael, he said: My son, what is your vocation? I said: I am a scribe. He said: My son, be careful, as your work is the work of Heaven, lest you omit a single letter or add a single letter, and you are thus found to be destroying the entire world.
Rabbi Meir added a substance to his ink so it would dry faster, preventing the wet ink from being smudged or unintentionally altered. Rashi provides examples of how worlds can be destroyed with either the removal or addition of a single letter. The first one he brings is לֹהִים אֱמֶת-ה' אֱ – where removing the א in אמת yields an unspeakable phrase representing the end of G-d; Secondly, לֹהִים-בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱ – where adding the letter ו to בָּרָא produces בָּרְאוּ – a plural form of involvement in Creation.
The discussion continues in the Gemara, and Rabbi Meir responded that while well-versed in not removing or adding a letter, his concern was a fly causing similar damage by landing on a newly inked letter that was still wet and then moving around on the parchment, shifting the ink in the process. Rashi explains, his concern was with regards to the dalet rabbati – the enlarged dalet in the word דאֶחָ, which has more ink and thus takes longer to dry than other letters. If a fly were to land on the [top-right] tip of the dalet it would absorb ink, and when it then flies off, it could transform the dalet into a reish, changing אֶחָד (Echad) into אַחֵר (Acher). So, Rabbi Meir added a substance to his ink so that his letters firmed up quicker and he avoided that transformation.
There are other instances where a tiny ink shift within a letter can change the meaning of a word and pasuk drastically, and which would also lead to the destruction of the world. The Midrash (Tanchuma) brings two such examples where a ה becomes a ח, or vice versa, in the verses הּ-לֵּל יָהַ כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּ, and שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי לְּלוּ אֶתחַ וְלֹא תְ. Why does Rabbi Meir specifically bring the case of the dalet in Echad as the impetus to modifying his ink like no sofer had done before? This is a question asked by the Ateret Yeshua, who says, the Gemara in Chagigah speaks of Rabbi Meir’s rebbe – none other than Elisha ben Avuya, who was one of four people who entered Pardes. There, he saw the angel מטטרו'ן writing down the merits of Bnei Yisrael, leading him to exclaim, “How can it be that someone other than Hakadosh Baruch Hu sits in Heaven?” It is said of him: קִצֵץ בִּנְטִיעוֹת – literally translated as the thinning of seedlings but figuratively meaning to deny the oneness of G-d and embrace polytheism. He changed his reading of the pasuk Hashem Echad to hashem acher – another god in Heaven. It was then that the Bat Kol proclaimed חוּץ מֵאַחֵר שׁוּבוּ בָּנִים שׁוֹבָבִים, and Elisha ben Avuya decided he was now free to go off the derech entirely, and he proceeded to commit egregious sins, after which he was known as a ‘different man’ – Acher.
Ateret Yeshua says, the numerical value of Amalek is 240, the same as אֵל אַחֵר. Amalek is the power behind the drive for one to move from ל אֶחָד-אֵ to אֵל אַחֵר. Amalek is the fly who steps in our fresh ink and transforms Echad into acher. This is why the Ba’al HaTurim refers to Amalek as a zevuv. Chazal say this is meaning behind בַּעֲמָלֵק מִלְחָמָה לַה'. It is an ongoing battle with Amalek, who continuously pushes us to turn Echad into acher and abandon our belief and faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. With that, we can now move onto the next stage.
The Dalet, Doubt, and the Gates of Teshuva
I will try to explain the next chapter as best I can, as it is sourced in Kabbalah and difficult in nature to grasp. Sefer Zera Bareich (Bereshit) says, when Adam HaRishon ate from the Eitz HaDa’at, two instances of the letter ד in the names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu were damaged. The two names containing a dalet are די-ש and דני-א, and when Adam ate from the tree’s fruit, these two letters dropped from their respective names. The significance of this transformation is based on the role of the letter ד, as explained in Sefer Yetzira. The letter dalet serves as a door or gate; and everything in the universe has a gate. As we see in the Tefillah of רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים recited or sung by many during their Melaveh Malka each Motzei Shabbat, there is an alphabetically arranged list of asks we have for the coming week, each prefaced with the word שַׁעֲרֵי – the gates of. Examples include: שַׁעֲרֵי יְשׁוּעָה, שַׁעֲרֵי פַרְנָסָה טוֹבָה, and שַׁעֲרֵי רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה. Even our Teshuva has a designated gate: הַפּוֹתֵחַ שַׁעַר לְדוֹפְקֵי בִתְשׁוּבָה. In the two names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu mentioned above, there are also gates, and the powers or influences of the name channel themselves through their dalet. When the act of eating from the Eitz HaDa’at took place – at the 10th hour on Rosh Hashanah – these names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu were damaged, and the result was the introduction of doubt in G-d. Doubt is the simultaneous combination of יֵשׁ and אֵין (there is and there is not) and it can be found in Chava’s excuse of וָאֹכֵל הִשִּׁיאַנִי הַנָּחָשׁ – The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Removing the letter dalet from the names are די-ש and דני-א results in the words יֵשׁ and אֵין. It was this same doubt that crept up once again and led to Amalek attacking Bnei Yisrael, as seen in the pasuk that immediately precedes the attack:
He [Moshe] named the place Massah and Merivah because Bnei Yisrael had quarreled and because they had tested Hashem, saying, “Is Hashem among us or not?”
If you have a solid grasp on די-ש and דני-א, you have no doubt in Hakadosh Baruch Hu and no lack of faith. However, with the dalets removed, doubt enters the equation, creating ideal conditions for Amalek to jump in and steal the spotlight. Amalek and סָפֵק both equal 240, and that is Amalek’s job – to insert doubt into our heads. Haman fits into this story as well.
The Gemara says (Chulin 139b), Haman, from the offspring of Amalek, is found in the Torah within this same story of the sin in Gan Eden – הָעֵץ הֲמִן. He, too, reared his ugly head from that tree – i.e., at a time of doubt and lack of faith.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Adam, because he listened to his wife, who listened to the snake, the earth would be cursed: וְקוֹץ וְדַרְדַּר תַּצְמִיחַ לָך – It [the earth] will grow thorns and thistles for you. Their whole lives they will need to deal with the קוֹץ – the thorn of doubt between the dalet and reish. What is that קוֹץ? It is the top-right tip of the letter ד – the same tip Rabbi Meir feared would be stomped on and distorted by the fly, rendering Echad into Acher. The Bnei Yissaschar says, the numerical difference between the letters reish (200) and dalet (4) is 196 – the same value as the word קוֹץ. From the moment Adam sinned, doubt entered our world. הֲיֵשׁ ה’ בְּקִרְבֵּנוּ אִם־אָיִן is not merely a historical question Bnei Yisrael asked in the desert, but one we are challenged with every day as the Yetzer Hara pulls incessantly at our faith and seeks to chip away at our Echad until it becomes Acher.
How is this fixed? How did Bnei Yisrael overcome the loss of the two dalets and the introduction of doubt, which in turn triggered Amalek’s attack? They looked upwards to Heaven. The Gemara asks (Rosh Hashanah 29a):
Did the hands of Moshe make war when he raised them or break war when he lowered them? Rather, the verse comes to tell you that as long as the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed, but if not, they fell.
Had Bnei Yisrael not begun to doubt, there would have been no episode with Amalek to contend with! Eliminating the doubt injected by Amalek is performed by removing the question of הֲיֵשׁ ה’ בְּקִרְבֵּנוּ, which in turn restores the names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu to their proper form. This was, and still is, the key to victory. This is also why we do not find the act of Moshe Rabbeinu raising his arms in any subsequent war. Those wars were not caused by doubt and a lack of faith. Only the battle with the זְבוּב, the fly, involved such dynamics.
The Ra'avad adds, since the dalets of the two names of Hakadosh Baruch Hu were damaged, Chazal instituted that we recite Shema twice daily. In the pasuk of Shema, the dalet is Rabbati – enlarged, and one must emphasize that final letter as part of accepting Ol Malchut Shamayim and removing all doubt (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, 61:2). A second dalet is then recited at the end of בָּרוּך שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד, corresponding to the second dalet being repaired. The Ra’avad then quotes the following pasuk from Mishlei (8:34):
אַשְׁרֵי אָדָם שֹׁמֵעַ לִי לִשְׁקֹד עַל־דַּלְתֹתַי יוֹם יוֹם לִשְׁמֹר מְזוּזֹת פְּתָחָי׃
Happy is the man who listens to me, coming early to my gates each day, waiting outside my doors.
We typically find the term הָאִישׁ אֲשְׁרֵי used, so why this time do we find אַשְׁרֵי אָדָם? The Ra’avad doesn’t state this, but I believe it may be due to the origins of such doubt – namely, the sin of Adam HaRishon and the ensuing punishment of וְקוֹץ וְדַרְדַּר. The tikkun for that sin is שֹׁמֵעַ לִי – recitation of Shema Yisrael, where דַּלְתֹתַי, two gates, are corrected through our returning of the two dalets to their rightful positions twice each day.
The Ben Ish Chai asks (Ha’azinu), what does בָּדָד mean in the pasuk בָּדָד יַנְחֶנּוּ וְאֵין עִמּוֹ אֵל נֵכָר ה' – Hashem conducted them alone, without [opposition by] alien gods. At first, he says it refers to the eight classifications of Oral Law: kasher and pasul; tamei and tahor; chayav and zakai, and asur and mutar. He then adds another explanation, related to our track of learning. It refers to the two dalets damaged during the sin of Gan Eden, after the snake set into motion thoughts of doubt in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. In the future, these two letters will be permanently corrected, and we will be in a time of בָּדָד יַנְחֶנּוּ ה' – which will also result in a state of וְאֵין עִמּוֹ אֵל נֵכָר, a time where there will be no more flies and no more transformation of Echad to Acher.
We can now progress one more step, after which we’ll be ready to begin the shiur. Yaacov Avinu was the one who established Shema Yisrael, when he wished to reveal the redemption schedule to his sons but had his Ruach Hakodesh temporarily halted. Suspecting one of his children may be unfit – as was the case with Avraham Avinu and Yitzchak Avinu – they reassured him by proclaiming in unison: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, to which Yaacov Avinu replied: בָּרוּך שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.
The Gemara (Bava Batra 58a) discusses the dimensions and layout of Ma’arat HaMachpela, including where each of our Patriarchs are buried within. The first one buried, on the perimeter of the structure, is Yaacov Avinu, who is referred to as דְיוֹקְנִי – the first person, because his beauty was equal to that of Adam HaRishon. The Zohar says, Adam’s sin in Gan Eden involved aspects of all three cardinal sins. Avraham corrected the aspect of Avodah Zara, Yitzchak Avinu corrected the aspect of Shfichut Damim, and Yaacov Avinu corrected the aspect of Gilui Arayot. Yaacov’s final step restored the beauty present with Adam HaRishon before his sin. Yaacov was thus the one to introduce Shema Yisrael, and the act of removing all doubt and returning Shem Hashem to Its previous glory.
A brilliant addition to this idea is brought by Shvilei Pinchas...
