Shabbat Zachor and Hamas—In memory of my
father, Rabbi Dr. Willaim Weinberg, z”l.
Link to video
https://youtu.be/rMRWp15fqgo?si=3xE9cuJlAEDWFcVV
Who is Amalek?
“There are 3 kinds of lies: lies,
damned lies, and statistics.”, that’s what is
attributed to Mark Twain. Apparently, he was not a good numbers cruncher- but I
now see that besides Marcelo [PhD in mathematics] and Geoff [ math teacher],
nobody else is.
Here’s my example. In the current War against
Hamas, there is an understandable outcry against the wholesale destruction of
all of Gaza. That’s what it sounds like.
So, as we should do our fact checking, I searched on Google to ask how much of
Gaza has been blown up.
I see this statistic:
Wow- 70 % of the housing, 50% of all the
buildings: Well, Al Jazeera is the Cheering Squad for Hamas, but the Wall
Street Journal reports the same, so it must be right.
Except:
So, this is about the same
time period: 50% to 61%. BBC- it must be right!
Except:
Reuters is a reliable agency-only 18%, not 50%,
not 75%, in the time period!
By February, we would have assumed that nothing
is left standing BUT, according to the UN:
Satellite
images show 30% of Gaza destroyed, UN centre ...
https://www.reuters.com ›
world › middle-east › satellit...
Feb 2, 2024 — Satellite imagery analysed by the
United Nations Satellite
Centre shows that 30% of Gaza Strip's buildings have been destroyed or damaged in ...
Satellite
Images Show 30% of Gaza Destroyed, UN Centre ...
https://www.usnews.com ›
News › World News
Feb 2, 2024 — GENEVA (Reuters) - Satellite imagery analysed by the
United Nations Satellite
Centre shows that 30% of Gaza Strip's buildings have been ...
At
least 30% of Gaza is destroyed, UN Satellite Centre says
Global
News https://globalnews.ca ›
gaza-israel-destruction-photos
Feb 2, 2024 — Satellite imagery analyzed by the
United Nations Satellite
Centre shows that 30 per cent of Gaza Strip's buildings have been destroyed or ...
Not 70%, not
50%, but as low as 18% and as high as 30%-- a month or more after the reports
of 70%!
Now, since this
can be tracked by simple satellite imagery, available to all news agencies, how
can we get to the number of actual casualties on the Gazan side:
If 70% of the
buildings were destroyed, and let’s say, half the people were killed in indiscriminate
bombing, then , my numbers crunchers, one half of 70% is 35%, 35% of 2 million
is 700,000. Now, the accusation is that Israel has killed 30,000, not 700,000.
If that were an
attempt at genocide, then the Israelis are enormously incompetent. Afterall,
the German Einsatzgruppen wiped out 1.5 million Jews in the space of a few
months with simple machine guns, and much less destruction. In Rwanda, 20 to 30
times as many people were brutally slaughtered in less time.
Or is it that
when blacks are killed in Africa, no one did anything, just as the world turned
a blind eye to what was happening to us Jews until it was too late?
I raise this to
show how our perceptions are distorted.
In this current conflict, many Israeli leaders
have used the Biblical account of Amalek as a call to take out Hamas. If
course, this reference to Amalek has been used as an excuse to denounce
Israel’s actions, as if it were a call to genocide of the Palestinians.
Is that really the analogy?
Who is Amalek?
This is our reading for this Shabbat, a
reference to the first battle of survival by the children of Israel as they
left Egypt :
Remember
what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt—
how,
undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were
famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
Therefore,
when your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land
that your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the
memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! ( Deut 25:17ff)
We then
have the event, centuries later, as Saul is called upon to finish the job:
I
Samuel 15.
“Thus
said the LORD of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to
Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road, on their way up from
Egypt.
Now go,
attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill
alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses!”
Certainly
sounds like genocide, but we know, in fact, that the genocide was botched, and
the Amalekites continued attacking Israel for years later.
So, how
is it resolved? That answer is hinted at in the Story of Esther, which we must
read as a highly stylized rendition of an ancient war.
“Mordecai, son of Jair son of Shimei
son of Kish, a Benjaminite.” Esther 2:5. Kish of Benjamin is the father of King
Saul!
Against whom?
Haman
son of Hammedatha the Agagite- Agagi- a descendent of Agag, the king who was
spared by Saul, and we see here-unfinished business.
But who
here is plotting the genocide? NOT the Jews, but by Haman, who convinces the
Persian Shah to eliminate an enemy in their midst:
“Accordingly, written instructions
were dispatched by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, massacre,
and exterminate all the Jews, young and old, children and women, on a single
day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—that is, the month of Adar—and
to plunder their possessions.”3:13
We know
that Mordecai and the Jews take up self-defense, as the King is unable to withdraw
his call for genocide but:
Here is
the King’s decree for the right of self-defense:
“The king has permitted the Jews of
every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province
attacks them, they may destroy, massacre, and exterminate its armed force
together with women and children, and plunder their possessions.”8:11.
A quid pro quo.
Do the
Jews carry it out?
NO!
“ So the Jews struck at their enemies
with the sword, slaying and destroying; they wreaked their will upon their
enemies. In the fortress Shushan the Jews killed a total of five hundred men.
9:5
And the ten sons of Haman son of
Hammedatha, the foe of the Jews. But they did not lay hands on the spoil.9:10
Not
much of a massacre, not much of a genocide.
And
again, the next day , in Shushan, 9:15
“and the Jews in Shushan mustered
again on the fourteenth day of Adar and slew three hundred men in Shushan. But
they did not lay hands on the spoil.
Finally,
across the entire Persian empire,
9:16
The rest of the Jews of the kingdom gathered together, stood
up for their lives ,and found respite from their enemies and killed their
haters-75,000, But they did not lay hands on the spoil
Considering
the size and range the Empire- from India to Ethiopia, not much of a
massacre--- note- it is in self
defense, and they did not attack the women and children which had
been devised by Haman and authorized by the King against them!
But,
once again—numbers can be twisted: So this week, in LA Times, an op-ed by Jane Eisner,
a former editor of Forward, a leading Jewish media piece, and someone who should know better, writes:
March
21, 2024:
She should know
better!
It evokes Shylock, demanding our pound of flesh, and
she, like Portia, evoking , The quality of mercy”. It is much more a channeling
of classic anti-Judaic stances by Christian preachers, such as Martin Luther,
who wanted to eject the Book of Esther from the Bible.
However, any simple reading of the text would show
that it tells just the opposite. When push comes to shove, the Jews do no exact
their” poind of flesh.”!
The text
states very much the opposite of her point. There is no word of revenge here,
rather, as a straight translation of a very clear Hebrew shows: “stood up for
their lives”,” found respite from their enemies” repeated emphatically, “ did not
lay hands on the spoil.”
What about
“women and children”. Although that was the enemies plan, and although the king
authorized it, the text specifically OMITS it!.
Haman is Hamas, killing women and children wantonly
and taking the spoils, and the Jews are like the Israelis today—defending for
their lives, not intentionally killing women and children, and taking no spoils
of war!
Why
this repeated emphasis? To show the spirit of this new generation of Jews-
although, under Saul, the people took spoils of war, and although the King
authorized it, this new generation did not make war for plunder and gain!
Ms
Eisner has intentionally read into the text what is not there and has thereby
committed a crime of false accusation against her fellow Jews!
There
is an unusual discussion in Midrashic lore, surrounding the account of King
Saul and the Amalekites, reflecting the moral quandry about the extent of bloodshed.
( for a
full analysis, go to my published research paper on Saul in the Midrash https://www.academia.edu/23395001/KING_SAULS_FORTUNE_AT_THE_HAND_OF_THE_HOM_ILISTS )
Based on a
discussion in Talmud Yoma 22b and other sources:
“
Rav Shimon ben Lakish said, “Whoever is
merciful instead of cruel will in the end be cruel when it is time to be
merciful” as he reflected on Saul’s sparing the King of the Amalekites and
in the end, as he degenerates morally,
exterminates the men, women , and children of the priestly town of Nob.
In other words,
there is a point in which innocent people do die for the sins of others,
whether we like it or not, as in Dresden ( 25,000 killed) or Tokyo ( 100,000).
The alternative
to that ugly fact would have been the final killing of every last Jew in
Europe, or the continued mass killing of other Asians ( in the millions!).
The alternate in
war is worse.
Finally,
though, for those who claim the reference to Amalek is a call to genocide, I
post this picture:
This is
the rededication of the synagogue in Salzburg, Austria—the Salzburg of Mozart
and beautiful music—now, a center of DP camps.
Standing
at the Bimah is my father, Rabbi Dr Wilhelm/ William Weinberg, then head of
adult education and jobs training for the survivors under the Joint.
This
week is his yahrzeit ( Shushan Purim), so it is an appropriate reminder.
The
slogan on the wall is our Torah reading: Zachor et Asher Asah Lecha Amalek:
Remember
what Amalek did to you!
Followed
by the German paraphrase:
Jude vergiss nicht das Ka Zet!
Jew, Do
Not Forget the Concentration Camps!
There
is no call for revenge upon the German people, no call for genocide, though the
sentiment might have been there. My father
shortly after wards, decided he had enough of bloody Germany and bloody
Europe and left.
I leave
this land with bitterness, but one may never slam closed the shutters upon any
people. The future is with God and not with humans. But may it not be long,
that Jews in German become once again the bearers of a world civilization and
with the German language of a Lessing, Kant and Goethe.”
The call against Amalek is not against innocent women and children. It is a warning for all humanity, that the ability to unleash hatred upon any group of people is a sin against God.
That is what has
happened against us in our day and time again.
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