EXOD265 We also learn that a Rav should honor his disciples from the verse," Choose for us men… " [this verse]. Here Moshe Rabbeinu charged Yehoshua to choose suitable men for Moshe, yet used the expression of "us" to include also Yehoshua his pupil.

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EXOD267 The second category [of flatterer is one] who praises an evildoer in front of others, whether or not he is present, not by justifying the sinner's larceny or denying his accountability, but by saying [merely] that he is a good person. Concerning this the pasuk says (Mishlei 28:4), "Those who forsake the Torah praise the wicked"--for had he not forsaken the Torah he would not have praised one who violates its words and abrogates its mitzvos. Even if he only praises the evildoer for the good that he does possess [i.e., he does not say that the evildoer is a good person, but traces his good qualities alone (Zeh Hasha'ar)], speaking well of him to others regarding his upright qualities [Iyov 33:23], this too is a sickly evil [Koheles 5:15]. By mentioning the good without mentioning the bad, and by concealing all of his iniquities, those who hear him will regard the evildoer as righteous and accord him honor, and he will raise his hand and prevail [this verse, i.e. over those who are truly righteous (Sha'arei Teshuvah Hamevo'ar). ... It is not right to mention the righteousness [of the wicked] without mentioning their wickedness and folly, as the pasuk says (Mishlei 10:7), "The name of the wicked will rot" [i.e., whenever mentioning the wicked, one must mention them in a derogatory light].

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EXOD268 Had Moses no pillow to sit upon? He said: "If my fellow Jews are being afflicted, I shall share the affliction with them"-- whence it is derived that even one who is perfectly righteous must share in the lot of the many (Ta'anith 11a)

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EXOD269 … the Torah is acquired by forty-eight things … [37] [by being one who] bears the yoke with his fellow. Pirkei Avot, Perek VI, mishnah 6. The authentic Torah scholar cannot be a "loner." If colleagues in his community are involved in the chores of Jewish life – – regulating kashruth, finding support for a home for the aged, building a new mikvah, helping the local day-school – – he cannot, in good faith, remain apart. At this vital "dance of life" he cannot say, "I will sit this one out." Whatever the demands on his time, to attend meetings, go to banquets, make visits, the scholar of Torah must be ready to "bear the yoke with his fellow." It is a striking image that our text uses. If you see someone in trouble or pain, you may feel a pang of pity and realize you ought to help him. Then you feel sympathy; but you still stand outside the situation and regard the other objectively. When you "bear a yoke with your fellow," you see and feel everything he does; you share his burden, sense his pain and suffering, because you have made his plight your own. So you must help him. This is the profound human kinship that grows in the world of Torah. It is one of the basic reasons why the world of Torah has endured since its beginnings. Our Sages taught (says the Talmud): At a time when the people Israel are immersed in suffering, if one of them separates himself, the two ministering angels who accompany a person come and place their hands on his head, and they say, "Let this one who drew away from the community not ever see the solace of the community." And again it was taught: At the time when the people Israel are immersed in suffering, let a man not say, "I will go home and eat and drink, and my soul will be at peace."… Rather let a person suffer with the community, for so do we find that Moses did… For it is stated, "Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands." Now, did Moses not have one pillow or cushion to sit on? It was only because he said, "Since the Israelites are immersed in suffering, let me suffer with them" [this verse, T.B. Ta'anith 11a].

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EXOD270 The order to eradicate the ancient nation of Amalek [this verse] was a unique and exceptional measure which did not establish a precedent. Its severity is justified in the Bible by an historical encounter in which the Amalekites were guilty of an unprovoked attack on the Hebrews, with the intent of committing genocide. There is no other explanation for the attack. Surely they were not motivated by considerations of self-defense or even by a desire to rob a neighboring nation of its land. There was to be no compassion for a people possessed of such irrational and pathological hatred. Amalek was the ancient prototype of the modern Nazis, killers without any redeeming features. The ancient law of the eradication of the entire nation would surely be unacceptable under modern progressive standards. Yet the biblical admonition against mercy for Amalek is surely binding with regard to Nazis whose guilt has been proven. A rising demand for leniency toward criminals and forgiveness of their crimes does an injustice to the future of mankind. In a statement of profound insight, the rabbis alleged [based on author's preceding discussion, reference may be to Makkot 7a-b--AJL] that a person who is moved to express pity for cruel people will in the end adopt some of their cruel traits. (Continued at [[NUM408]] Numbers 35:19 death BLOCH 65-6).

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EXOD271 … the Torah is acquired by forty-eight things … [2] by attentive listening. Pirkei Avot, Perek VI, mishnah 6. The presence of a teacher is not enough; his thoughts will not reach your mind by osmosis. Nor should you go to a study group to break in pell-mell at every turn, to give your voice and thoughts the benefit of an airing. Your ear, as the Hebrew literally indicates, must listen and hear. And, as the Hebrew verb also connotes, you must heed and understand. It is not enough to merely hear words; you must grasp their meaning. And you must listen with your heart too, for the shades and nuances that lie in words of Torah, though they are not explicitly expressed. As others can "read between the lines," learn to "hear between the lines." Again, words mean different things, however they are interpreted. If you would understand any written passage correctly, you would know the general intention of the writer and the spirit which moves him. For this reason, as long as it could, Judaism relied on an oral tradition whose masters lived in its spirit; our way of faith did not trust in a written text alone. To defeat hostile Edom, King David sent his able general Joab, and by six months every male. in Edom was slain. Says the Talmud: when Joab returned to his sovereign, David demanded why he had spared the womenfolk [they posed a great potential danger to Israel]. Replied he, "It is written in the Torah, you shall blot out zachar, the males of Amalek" [and if no more was demanded there, surely this was enough in Edom]. Said David, "But we read zecher: you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek!" (Deuteronomy 25:19. T.B. Baba Bathra 21a-b (See II Samuel 8:14, I Kings 11:16). Because Joab's childhood teacher was careless or slipshod, the fate of a people could be placed in jeopardy. Perhaps in His infinite foresight the Almighty already intimated the need to guard against such error when, after Amalek's very first attack on the Hebrews, He bade Moses, "Write this for a memorial in the Book and put it in the ears of Joshua, that I will blot out zecher, the remembrance of Amalek…" [this verse]. If you only write something down for others to read, you may still be misunderstood. Tell, explain, teach the one who will take your place in the next generation. So must a pupil go to a teacher to study, and he must listen with open ears and open heart, if he is to be a link in our unbroken historic chain of responsible Torah scholars.

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EXOD272 Biblical treatment of the local inhabitants is mixed. Israel is instructed to love the stranger "as yourself." This is a general principle whose specific application in certain instances is instructive. Concerning the Seven Nations, there are the admonitions: "You must doom them to destruction… give them no quarter"(Deut. 7:2), "You shall destroy all the Peoples that the Lord your God delivers to you, showing them no pity" (Deut 7:16). Concerning a conquered city: "You shall put all its males to the sword. You may, however, take as your booty the women, children, the livestock… and enjoy the use of the spoil" (Deut 20:13,14), "The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages" (this verse). It is not my intention to suggest even remotely that contemporary official Judaism or Israel is guided by these principles. The intent is to demonstrate how in this context, as in so many others, recourse to biblical authority, unmediated and uncontrolled by rabbinic transmutation, can result in dangerous moral consequences. It is enough to cite one "authority" who invoked Deuteronomy 7:16, "You shall show them no pity," or others who have raised the intriguing possibility that the Arabs of the West Bank might be Amalekites. Jews cannot succumb to biblical fundamentalism which could subvert millennia of rabbinic moral metamorphosis, any more than we can succumb to the biblical territorialism by which a zealous chaplain in the IDF overwrote Beirut on a map as Israel's ancient B'erot. Concerning the stranger living in the midst of Israel, Maimonides says that the resident stranger is to be treated as a Jew is to be treated. This includes even idolaters: "We should treat resident aliens with the consideration and kindness due to a Jew, for we are bidden to sustain them… Even with respect to heathens, the Rabbis bid us to visit their sick, bury their dead along with the dead of Israel, and maintain their poor with the poor of Israel, for the sake of peace" (Hilkhot Melakhim 10:12). Referring to Deut 23:16ff, the rules are applied as follows: If even a slave is to be given sanctuary and equal treatment and is not to be extradited when he finds shelter in Israel, how much more does this apply to any Gentile who wishes to reside in the land of Israel with the understanding that he will accept the laws of Noah? However, this does not apply ever since the Jubilee ceased in Israel (Erakhin 29a). Nevertheless, in the context of our concerns, the principle is of paramount importance. In addition, we are admonished that even when the Jubilee is not in effect, Jews must, nevertheless, deal kindly with the ger toshav at all times. This is reaffirmed in Sotah 37, which states that even members of the biblical Seven Nations who accept the laws of Noah to be treated kindly ("If they repent, they are to be welcome"). Concerning Amalek, whom some extremists contemporaneously identify with Arabs on the West Bank, we know the rabbinic dictum that "Sennacherib mixed up the entire world" and, therefore, Amalek really does not exist. In a remarkable interpretation, Naftali Zvi Judah Berlin comments that Exodus 17:16, declaring that God wages a war against Amalek, refers to everything for which it stood--war, immorality, idolatry. Thus, God is not continuing a violent conflict with Amalek, since it does not exist, but, although it has perished, its evil ideology persists and it is against this that God carries on His conflict. There is, of course, the passage in Sefer Hamitzvot of Maimonides in which he makes the startling statement that there are still Amalekites in the world and that they must be destroyed. This, how are, it is not reaffirmed in his later writings. As for those who want to make a case of this today, Aaron's Soloveitchik says, "Any other opinion is grounded in ignorance." Obviously, there are also rigorous positions, such as Rashi's comments on Deut. 21:11 -- "They shall be a tribute to you." On one hand, according to the Sifrei, even members of the seven nations may be kept alive if they surrender, but, on the other hand, their surrender may not be accepted unless they submit to taxation and servitude. Yet it is the task of religious Judaism to offset such positions with more compassionate but, for many, no less authentic stands by the same tradition.

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EXOD273 Judaism's imperative of individual culpability adds an important ethical dimension to its criminal laws. Especially in times when groups, domestic or foreign, are perceived as threatening a community's safety, there is a natural inclination to judge a person on the basis of his ethnicity or affiliations, and there are times when the Torah condemns entire nations. [For example, entire nations were at times condemned in the Bible. These include Amalek (this verse, Deut 25:17-19) and the seven Canaanite nations (Num 33:50-56; Deut 7:1-6; 12:29-13:1; 20:10-18), and Midian (Num 31)]. Yet, Judaism's focus on individual culpability tempers this natural inclination to blame someone on the basis of who they are rather than what they did. Moreover, Judaism places high value on an individual's intent in deciding whether that person is criminally culpable. Generally, bad thoughts alone are insufficient for criminal culpability. As the Talmud emphasizes, no person is criminally responsible for any act unless he did that act willfully. B. Avodah Zarah 54a; B. Bava Kamma 28b; M.T. Laws of the Fundamental Principles of the Torah 5:4; Laws of Courts 20:2. (By Laurie L. Levenson, "Judaism and CriminalJustice"

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EXOD274 It was taught: R. Eliezer says: The Holy One Blessed be He has sworn by His throne of glory that if one from among all the nations comes to convert, he is to be accepted; but if he is of Amalek and his progeny he is not to be accepted, as it is written: "From generation to generation" (Mechilta).

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EXOD275 "Remember....Do not forget!" (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) The rabbinic tradition understands this literally and, one must say, enthusiastically: “’Remember’ means by word, ‘Do not forget’ means in the heart, for it is forbidden to forget to despise and hate him.” B. Megillah 18a and Sifrei Devarim, “Ki Teze,” par. 296; compare M.T. Law of Kings 5:5. In the account of this in the Book of Exodus, it is not only Israel who is not supposed to forget: God Himself "will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages." (Exodus 17:16). In rabbinic and medieval literature, Amalek became the symbol of all oppressors of Israel, and that might account for the particular vilification of Amalek in the Jewish tradition. It is not only Amalek, however, for whom God rules out repentance and reconciliation. Already in God’s promises to Abram, Egypt is to be punished, and the sins of Canaan are to be driven out of their homeland for their sins. “You must doom them to destruction,” the Israelites are later told; “Grant them no terms and give them no quarter.” Genesis 15:13-21 and Deuteronomy 7:1-11. Destroying Amalek and the seven Canaanite nations becomes, in fact, a clearly commanded war, one that, in later Jewish law, requires no consultation of the urim ve’tumim (the High Priest’s oracular breastplate) and no confirmation by the Sanhedrin. M. Sotah 8:7 (44b) and M.T. Law of Kings 5:1-5. The tradition is so determined to avenge these wrongs, that, particularly in the stories of Midian and Amalek, it raises difficult moral questions in regarding the difference between soldiers and civilians. Numbers 31 and 1 Samuel 15.

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