Parshas amaleik | Imamother

shoshanim999

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 8:36 pm

I realize the Torah says that we must remember amaleik and what they did to us. It is a mitzvah dioraisa. Why does "remember amaleik" mean going to shul and listening to a baal Koreh read it out of the torah? Why can't I remember amaleik by thinking about it at home or reading about it from a chumash? Would I be fulfilling the mitzvah dioraisa if I thought about how terrible amaleik is from home all day? Why not?

Merrymom

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 9:27 pm

I think it emphasizes how important it is. Even the kids have to go along usually. I agree with the feeling though, I did not want to go to shul early, I wanted to sit at home and enjoy my coffee.

tigerwife

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:37 pm

You could be remembering it every day as well, when you read the shesh zechiros after shacharis (takes around two minutes). It's right after aleinu, before 13 ikrei emunah in most siddurim I've used.

ETA I realized today that a lot of people never learned about it, as it came up in a very similar conversation and a few people didn't know what I was talking about.

PinkFridge

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:43 pm

Last week Shira Smiles had a great shiur on the Shabbos before Purim, and how maximizing the opportunity of a Shabbos of reflection will help us maximize our Purim. I think it's called Recognition, Respect and Repentance and should be available on naaleh.com already.

tigerwife

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:47 pm

amother wrote:

It doesn't sit well with me that the one message that was deemed so important that everyone, men women and children, must go hear is a message of murder and eradication of a race.

Or rather, that this race was more than willing to eradicate us?

amother

Linen

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:49 pm

tigerwife wrote:

Or rather, that this race was more than willing to eradicate us?

But this race doesn't exist anymore. And what about not killing the kids for the sins of the fathers? And if we have this in the Torah, how can we be upset at the Muslims who claim to have the same thing in the Koran?

I don't need answers. It just bothers me.

MadameX

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:52 pm

shoshanim999 wrote:

Ask your Rav, but I was told there is no chiyuv at all to hear it specifically in shul. DH read it for me at home.

amother

Ginger

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:57 pm

amother wrote:

It doesn't sit well with me that the one message that was deemed so important that everyone, men women and children, must go hear is a message of murder and eradication of a race.

It goes to teach you that you don't have to understand everything that you do as a believing Jew, and that if Hashem and the Torah expressly instruct us to do this then it IS a mitzvah, and an absolutely correct and just way of thinking. There is no room for liberal and 21st century ways of thinking here, and it is never correct to be questioning Hashem's instructions cause it doesn't sit right with you. Doesn't feel nice to send the mother bird away, either, but I believe that shiluach hakan is the right thing to do, too, on a level that I do not understand.

amother

Linen

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 10:58 pm

amother wrote:

Thank you for the lecture.

marina

Sat, Mar 19 2016, 11:44 pm

amother wrote:

Again, this approach is philosophically not very different than radical Islam, whose followers also think that jihad is a mitzvah and that there is no room for liberal and 21st century ways of thinking and it is never correct to be questioning Allah's instructions cause it doesn't sit right with you.

The difference between us is we don't know who our Amaleik is anymore, fortunately, but the radical Muslims do know who their Amaleik is.

As for shiluach hakan, there is a machlokes and many hold that the mitzvah is to send away the mother bird, only if you need the eggs. Not just to send it away stam.

ora_43

Sun, Mar 20 2016, 6:22 am

amother wrote:

It doesn't sit well with me that the one message that was deemed so important that everyone, men women and children, must go hear is a message of murder and eradication of a race.

The mitzvah isn't to eradicate everyone in Amalek, only those who refuse to accept the mitzvot bnei Noach and live in peace with Israel. (Basically, acceptance of mitzvot = conversion out of Amalek).

People never believe me when I say this, but I have looked into it, really. Note that it says in the Gemara (the one on Purim, I think) that Haman's grandsons learned Torah in Bnei Brak, and it's known that Haman was considered Amalek - if all zera Amalek had to be killed regardless of belief, I think a school of Torah in Bnei Brak wouldn't be taking them as students.

ora_43

Sun, Mar 20 2016, 7:07 am

Found something from Chabad.org backing me up on the possibility of conversion out of Amalek (plus Caanani tribes). http://www.chabad.org/library/......htm/

Not that that makes the mitzvah a pleasant, easy to understand one. But I think it's an important clarification, regardless.

For those saying it doesn't apply today because we have no idea who Amalek is - that depends who you ask. Some rabbis say (IIRC based on Rambam) that anyone who wants to destroy the Jewish people is considered Amalek.

PinkFridge

Sun, Mar 20 2016, 8:38 am

ora_43 wrote:

It's true that Amalekim converted and b"H they found their way home. But read yesterday's haftorah. There was no wiggle room.

ora_43

Sun, Mar 20 2016, 9:51 am

PinkFridge wrote:

It's true that Amalekim converted and b"H they found their way home. But read yesterday's haftorah. There was no wiggle room.

I don't understand what you mean by wiggle room.

shoshanim999

Sun, Mar 20 2016, 9:53 am

So I'm happy to hear that bzman hazeh we can fulfill the dioraisa by by remembering amaleik at home. I'm trying to understand how the whole inyan of everyone hearing the kriyah in shul ever got started. It's seems like a tremendous leap to go from remembering amaleik to you can only remember amaleik in shul. Sounds like a mishigas, a wild chumrah.