Class Excerpt: Learning to Hate Amalek
In the latter part of the 5767 (2007), HaRav Ginsburgh introduced a model of 4 types of role models every person needs: a rebbe, a mashpia, a tzaddik, and a hero. This became a central teaching in his corpus of Torah innovations and he has revisited a number of times since.
In a class given to the students of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshivah, HaRav Ginsburgh discussed stories from the life of Reb Hillel of Paritch, perhaps the greatest mashpia or inspirational influencer in the history of Chabad and how they relate to his role. One of these stories relates how seeing the hatred that one great Chabad chasid had for Amalek changed Reb Hillel’s life.
Excerpted from a class from the 9th of Elul, 5767 in Yitzhar. The ideas on doubt appearing in this excerpt were later developed and published in HaRav Ginsburgh’s Hebrew volume, Purim Lanu.
Amalek, Circumcision, and a Mohel for My Ego
Last time I was here, we spoke about how every individual must have a rebbe, a mashpia, a tzaddik, and a hero.
These four figures in our lives correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah, from above to below. What this means is that having a tzaddik and a hero represents the “revealed things, that belong to us and our children,” meaning these were always known. The unique innovation of the Torah’s inner dimension, of Chasidut is to add a rebbe and a mashpia.
In the history of Chabad-Lubavitch the exemplary mashpia is Reb Hillel of Paritch. The role of a true mashpia is to break the ego (the yeshut) of a chasid through kindness. The one who does this for me is known in Chabad as my mohel (circumciser). Everyone needs a mohel to cut and tear away the foreskin that covers their heart—this foreskin is the kelipah, the husk that is the ego. This is also connected to the commandment to obliterate Amalek.
Amalek is described in parashat Ki Teitztei as “he who chanced upon you, when you were tired and fatigued,” which also means “he who cooled you,” when you were burning with yearning for God. Amalek is the antithetical force to a Brit Milah, a circumcision. He cools one down and injects ego, pride, and anger—for as explained in Chasidut, anger (סַעַכּ) is the result of pride (הָוֲאַּג)—the value of anger is 10 times the value of pride. To counter this, everyone needs a mohel—someone who grabs him, lays him down, and cuts away that foreskin. It should not be very surprising that this spiritual circumcision is connected with Purim and especially to Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat that precedes Purim, when we remember the commandment to obliterate Amalek.
Rebbe Hillel’s Mohel
Once, Reb Hillel of Paritch remarked, “I did not merit that the Rebbe should be my Mohel.” Even though he did not explicitly mention to which rebbe he was referring—it could have been the Alter Rebbe or the Mitteler Rebbe—he was referring to the Alter Rebbe who he never even merited to see with his physical eyes. Rebbe Hillel came to Chabad from a different background. He had a very great Tzaddik, Rebbe Mordechai of Chernobyl, who was very upset with him for leaving. Through Divine Providence the Rebbe was not to be my Mohel. Who, then, was the Mohel? Reb Zalman Zezmer.
The story goes like this, said Reb Hillel: “When I had not yet fully committed to Chabad but was on the way, I happened to be in a synagogue on Shabbat Zachor where Reb Zalman Zezmer was present. After the reading of Zachor (the portion in the Torah that described what Amalek did and how we must erase his memory), Ikh hob gezen, az der Yid hot faynt Amalek mer vi ale. [I saw that this Jew hates Amalek more than anyone else].”
Reb Hillel had arrived prepared for the reading of Zachor, so when he saw how this Jew hated Amalek, it circumcised him. Let us also say LeChaim on that—so that we too should merit the “Great Circumcision.”
In truth, Amalek resides within my heart, and to uproot and remove him, one must hate him properly. Like Reb Zalman Zezmer, the true mashpia is one who can illustrate for you what the hatred of Amalek and the blotting out of Amalek truly mean—and consequently, what it means to not forget God for even a single moment.
Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz used to say that Amalek is pride. Regarding pride, it is written: “Your heart will become prideful and you will forget Havayah your God.” The word for prideful (םָר) has the same numerical value as Amalek (קֵלָמֲע). Thus, Rebbe Pinchas interpreted the end of Parashat Zachor: “You shall erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens”—and by doing this—“you shall not forget.” If one merits—and only when one merits—to blot out the memory of Amalek from “under the heavens,” where the heavens represent the head and the intellectual faculties. Amalek stands “under the heavens,” between the head and the heart where it "severs" (molek) the Jew from the nape of the neck so that the intellect does not influence the heart. One must seize him there and blot him out—then “you shall not forget,” you will not come to forget God. Otherwise, “your heart will become prideful and you will forget.”
In the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov, there is a very important statement that just as Amalek is pride, he is also anger, the primary expression of pride. When people do not respect me as much as I think I deserve to be, according to my pride, I get angry. Where is it hinted that Amalek is anger? The Ba’al Shem Tov popularized the gematria that Amalek (קֵלָמֲע) is the numerical equivalent of “doubt” or “uncertainty” (קֵפָס) and heresy. As we said before, he cooled the boiling vat of water, symbolizing the passion the Israelites had for God when they came out of Egypt, by jumping into it with his own brand of unholy self-sacrifice, which is his chutzpah (insolence); the sages describe his leadership as a kingdom without a crown. He seizes leadership through his gall even though he is not worthy of it at all. He has no crown, representing God’s consent.
In all, Amalek consists of four traits or qualities: heresy/doubt, insolence, pride, and anger. These are not external to us. They attack us from the inside. Heresy, insolence, pride, and anger are the character traits associated with an ego that has run amok. To hate Amalek is to hate these traits. However, we are not always aware that we harbor these traits. Because of that we tend to think of Amalek, i.e., these traits as accidental to our nature. In effect, these traits are part of what Chasidut calls “the hidden evil” (םָלֱעֶּנַע הַר). Our responsibility is to fight against the revealed evil in ourselves, the meaning of the verse, “You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (תַלְרׇת עֵם אֶּתְלַמּו םֶכְבַבְל)—referring to the evil that a person can circumcise himself. But Amalek is the concealed evil, which an individual cannot reach on his own. If he thinks he can, he is only deceiving himself and self-deception is itself Amalek. About the concealed evil, the Torah says, “And Havayah your G-d will circumcise your heart.” What can we do about the concealed evil then? We can only hate it. If a person hates the hidden evil within him—the source of heretical thoughts, insolence, pride, and anger (all of which ultimately stem from pride, the ego’s essence)—then God will circumcise his heart and remove the concealed evil.
When God circumcises the heart, removing the concealed evil, He is acting from above to below and therefore this is known as the “Great Circumcision,” whereas when we circumcise our heart to remove the revealed evil that we are aware of in ourselves, that is circumcision from below. Another way to say this is that the concealed evil is in our subconscious—only God can circumcise that.
At any rate, we opened with the hint from the Ba’al Shem Tov that Amalek is anger. One of the most well known verses in the Tanach regarding anger is, “For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime.” The Ba’al Shem Tov revealed that this verse contains an allusion to Amalek because the word for “a moment” (עַגֶר) is an acronym for “Amalek is the inception of all nations” (קֵלָמֲע םִיֹוּג יתִׁאשֵר).
It is written in the Tanya that one must hate evil. This is especially true of a “perfect tzaddik” (רּמוָּיק גִּדַצ). The commandment to hate and to obliterate even the memory of Amalek is the mitzvah to which a perfect tzaddik senses true and deep affinity. The beinoni (i.e., the intermediate, the individual who feels torn between his good and bad inclinations, his Divine and animal souls) does not specifically hate evil; it is even written that an imperfect Tzaddik—he is already in the state of a Tzaddik (because he is no longer torn between the good and the bad) but not complete (because he has not fully nullified his animal soul)—also does not hate evil absolutely. Specifically, it is the complete Tzaddik—who is usually a unique individual in each generation—is recognizable by his absolute hatred for Amalek. In the Tanya, two terms are used: to hate and to loathe. He hates and loathes Amalek.
Another point, as long as we are at it, from the Ba’al Shem Tov is that pride is the most severely dangerous thing in a person’s character. He demonstrates his statement with three arguments. The first is that it is written, “He [God] dwells with them in the midst of their impurity.” God dwells with us even when we are impure. Yet regarding someone who has self-pride, “I [God] and he cannot dwell together.” Despite it being a great principle of Torah that God dwells with us regardless of our state, if we feel or demonstrate pride in our individual self (excluding national pride), then that rule is broken. As much as God loves us and dwells with us in every possible situation, pride pushes the Divine Presence away.
The Ba’al Shem Tov’s second proof is that most people who went mad or lost their mind, did so because of their pride. It is written that when Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz heard this in the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov, he felt great satisfaction. What does it mean that they went mad from pride? The Ba’al Shem Tov explained that when a person is proud and thinks he is extraordinary and that he deserves all that he has, he starts asking himself, what could possibly be fitting for me. He initiates all sorts of projects based on his imagined greatness and what he thinks he deserves and should be able to succeed at. But then, when things do not go his way and his ideas go bust, if he has enough pride, his mind will simply snap; he will go mad because things are not going as he wants according to his self-imagined greatness.
These are fundamental matters in Chasidic thought. Every person listening here is destined, God willing, to be a mashpia, a spiritual supporter or influencer for many others (whether it be strangers or family members). Therefore, it is essential that they learn about the damage self-pride can do. We have written about this most fundamental point in an article called “A Lesson in Divine Service” (ת ה'ַדֹבוֲעַּק בֶרֶּפ). The general rule is that every psychological problem involves pride to some extent. Many times, self-pride is the root cause for everything that happened afterwards. Whatever their current state, every person can be helped by talking with a capable mashpia who knows how to properly address self-pride. If this mashpia knows how to “circumcise” self-pride, he could bring about healing too.
The Ba’al Shem Tov’s third proof is that every transgression in the Torah requires some physical object (cheftza) to commit. For example, to murder you need someone to murder, for forbidden relations you need someone, for Shabbat you need an object, even for idolatry. The only transgression that requires no object to perform is pride. The Torah warns us, “do not follow your heart,” this refers to heresy, which is pride. One can lie on a bed, without anything to do, without any object near or far, and be steeped in self-pride.
Returning to our hatred of Amalek. We said that in the Tanya it is written that one should hate and loathe Amalek. If Amalek is both our pride and our anger, which one should we loathe and which one should we hate? We hate the anger and loathe the pride. Pride has a terrible smell. It stinks, which is why we loathe it. It is told in Tanna Debei Eliyahu that Elijah the Prophet was walking with a sage. A proud man passed them, and Elijah put his hand over his nose, even though there was no physical smell. Later, they passed someone physically smelly; the sage covered his nose, but Elijah did not. Pride is the smelliest thing, and thus the most loathsome. A perfect tzaddik is tested by how much he truly loathes evil—by how much he feels that pride stinks to him, causing him to loathe it.
Anger is different from loathing because it is common for people to act out their anger by for instance striking someone. If we are angry at Amalek, we might be inclined to strike it. Hatred leads to action. If something is loathsome, I leave, I distance myself from a bad smell. But if I hate something because of the harm it inflicts—because it damages others—then I must make sure that it cannot continue to do so.
Returning to the story Reb Hillel related on how he saw Reb Zalman Zezmer hate Amalek more than anyone else. All that we have discussed was just to say that when one hates, they must be prepared to fight and even destroy all phenomena associated with the object of their hatred. If Amalek were just pride, we would only loathe it. But because Amalek is also anger—“a moment in His anger,” as we saw above—then one needs to learn how to react with holy anger at Amalek. There is an explanation in Chasidut that to rectify the World of Action, one needs anger—i.e., one needs to hate Amalek. It is impossible to rectify reality without hating Amalek. That Jew who illustrates this for me—not just that I see it in him, but that he implants it in my heart—he is my mohel.
Reb Hillel said that he did not merit that the Rebbe, i.e., the Alter Rebbe, would be his mohel. For this he needed to find a mashpia, in this case Reb Zalman Zezmer. It is possible that on the Rebbe, one does not overtly see the hatred of Amalek like one did on Reb Zalman Zezmer. Since Reb Hillel said he saw that he hates Amalek more than anyone—apparently, he saw something in him that he did not see even in the Rebbe himself. Not that the Rebbe does not hate Amalek—on the contrary, that is what designates him as a true Rebbe, that he hates and loathes evil absolutely, but many things are hidden—yet with Reb Zalman Zezmer, it was tangible, at least for Reb Hillel.
