Haftorah Parashat Zachor
Shmuel I 15;2-34
Warring Against Amalek
Since this is the week ancient tradition (at least as early as Mishnah Megillah 3;4) chose for us to publicly remind ourselves of our obligation to maintain our commitment to destroying Amalek (please note the locution, since many of us fail to realize what Zachor is supposed to tell us—it needs to strengthen our emotions towards Amalek such that we would feel comfortable fulfilling the mitzvah of destroying them if the opportunity arose), the haftarah addresses that issue as well.
The command to destroy Amalek is often seen as morally problematic, a topic for another time, but the command to Shaul leaves little room for worrying about that, since it comes directly from God and is notably explicit, requiring him to kill all of them, old to young, man to woman, animals, and so on. Perhaps God spoke so explicitly to forestall Shaul’s messing up\; if so, it did not work.
That Shaul was punished for altering a Divine command should not give the impression that humans can never have input into the way the world runs. Moshe Rabbenu, in particular, sometimes acted differently than God said, and had those differences later ratified by God. Where the letter of the law is not explicit, there is room to follow the spirit in ways that had not been laid out by God. Shaul was not given that option, so his failure to obey had the disastrous consequences (for him and his family) that we see this week.
Substituting Your Own Morality for God’s
Yoma 22b stresses that Shaul’s error lay in his assuming that he had a better grasp of the morality of killing Amalek than did God, that he was more compassionate than God, by connecting his actions to the verse “al tehi tsadik harbeh, do not be excessively righteous.” The gemara then notes that Shaul ends up also becoming the embodiment of the continuation of the verse, “al tirsha harbeh, do not be excessively evil” when he commands the slaughter of the city of Nov for (in his view) having abetted David’s escape. What we think of as compassion, when it flies in the face of God’s Torah, is often more about our own emotions than the reality of the situation.
Human beings certainly bear an obligation to apply their moral sense to decisions, especially when the only other input is from other humans—there is no excuse, according to the Torah, for claiming “I was just following orders.” Shaul failed to realize how much God’s entering the picture alters the situation. What would be indefensibly cruel when initiated by a human being becomes perhaps puzzling but still obligatory when commanded by the Divine.
Not the Right Mistake to Make
Shaul wages the war effectively, winning a resounding victory, but fails to completely destroy Amalek, allowing the people to bring home the best of their sheep and cattle, and also taking captive their king, Agag. In reaction, God tells Shmuel that Shaul’s failure has demonstrated his lack of fitness to rule, using the verb “nihamti, I have regretted it” to describe the Divine “feelings” about Shaul. In Yoma 22b, R. Huna contrasts David to Shaul, noting that David sinned several times without bearing the consequences just one sin earned Shaul.
The verb God uses to describe His reaction, “nihamti,” points the way towards an answer to R. Huna’s implicit question. Since God does not experience the emotion of regret or need comfort (the two main meanings of “nehamah” in human contexts), the word is better translated as implying a rethinking of an earlier decision. This seems an acceptable translation since regret and comfort also both involve reorienting one’s world to accord with a new set of circumstances.
When human beings’ misuse of their freewill “forces” God to rework His plan, the process involves a parallel enough re-orienting to justify that metaphor. Human freewill (and God’s “preference” for it) implies the power to instigate events that are not ideal, producing a world that diverges from the way God “wanted” it to work out.
If so, R. Huna might have just noticed that Shaul’s one sin was more significant to God’s plan for the world than David’s several ones. All sin is problematic, but personal sin, with little effect on human history, elicits a different Divine response than ones that alter that history as a whole.
Shaul’s Error, Amalek’s Error
Shaul’s failure thus taps into the issues that are central to the mitzvah of wiping out Amalek in general. Instead of striking a decisive blow for God’s way of running the world, Shaul’s actions offered one more example of people neglecting/refusing to follow the Divine Wisdom when it contradicted their own.
Amalek took Shaul’s error further, since they acted at a time when the civilized world had just been rocked by the Exodus, where God removed a people from slavery to the most powerful nation on earth despite that nation’s vigorous resistance. Amalek’s attack implicitly argued for the qualitative equality of the Jewish victory over Egypt when compared to other wars. By winning a skirmish, Amalek showed (wrongly) that war with the Jews was similar to war with other nations, win some, lose some.
That view of Amalek explains Rambam’s interesting claim that we could spare Amalekites who agree to accept positions of servitude to the Jews (Rabad disagrees, but only to the extent of requiring full conversion). It is not Amalek as a race we seek to eradicate, but as a competitor to our worldview. We say that God runs the world, does what He wants, and selected the Jews as having a particular role in world history. Amalek and his intellectual heirs argue otherwise; those who give up that worldview and accede to our special status are welcome to be part of our world.
Haman, too, was offended by Jewish exceptionalism; Purim was thus another time where we proved not only that we are different, but that the God we serve is the only One whose decisions about the world are always accurate. Shaul, maliciously or not, failed to understand this. His story, Amalek’s, and the Purim story, remind us to rejuvenate our commitment to subordinating our own ideas to those stated in unambiguous fashion as the Will of the Creator. Shabbat Shalom.
1Sam.15
[1] Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
[2] Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
[3] Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
[4] And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
[5] And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
[6] And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
[7] And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
[8] And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
[9] But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
[10] Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
[11] It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
[12] And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
[13] And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
[14] And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
[15] And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
[16] Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
[17] And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
[18] And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
[19] Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
[20] And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
[21] But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
[22] And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
[23] For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
[24] And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
[25] Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
[26] And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
[27] And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
[28] And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
[29] And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
[30] Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
[31] So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
[32] Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
[33] And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
[34] Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.