Amalek’s Last Stand Part 1

 

This week's Torah class: Moshiach, Mussar, and Much More.

March of 2020 was a time of innocence.  I still believed wearing a mask in public was a good idea, though any idiot understood it wasn't healthy to wear them.  

I still believed the media was a worthwhile source of information most of the time; they could never get away with purposely lying all the time, right? 

I still believed the people in positions of power, self-centered and corrupt as they clearly were, still had a spark of humanity.  I didn't entertain the idea that they were colluding with the greatest forces of evil to degrade, enslave, and slaughter their own populations.

I still believed many rabbis in positions of power were cowards, corrupt, and/or schmucks, but I didn't believe they were Erev Rav working hand in hand with Amalek to destroy the Jewish people.

I still had no opinion about vaccines and no interest in them.  I was certainly leery about taking a shot of that exciting new thing the trusted media was starting to tell us about, but I was guardedly hopeful that it would protect people and benefit society.  After all, that was what everyone wanted, right?

I'd never heard of myocarditis, or the World Economic Forum, and so many related things, and chances are neither did you.  

Like I said, it was an innocent time.  

Despite all the above, it was crystal clear to me that the rapidly accelerating moral decline of the Western World -- which was never a holy place to begin with -- was being spearheaded by Amalek.  Their fingerprints were all over it.  

That's why on March 4, 2020 I published an article called Amalek's Last Stand.  The same day I started writing about the redemption process that I sensed was starting to unfold amidst this plague, whatever it really was.  Nearly three years and 243 articles later, the realization that we really are facing Amalek is becoming mainstream.

When I started the section on my website called The Redemption Process, I had no idea that this article about Amalek belonged there, which is why I inserted it at the beginning of the section as number zero many months later.  

Chances are you weren't on my email list back then, so I am sending out the article again now.  It fits just right at this point in the current series of articles.  I anticipate there will be one or two more.  Hopefully between now and then Amalek will be utterly destroyed in the most spectacular way, every last vestige of them.

https://chananyaweissman.com/article.php?id=150

Amalek's Last Stand

Biblical Hebrew is known as lashon hakodesh, the holy language, because the very words and letters contain deep insights. Those who master lashon hakodesh will learn a great deal about the nature of the world that G–D created even before they study the actual Torah!

There are numerous Hebrew words that refer to intelligence, but all of them have different nuances, and they are not interchangeable as with other languages. There are also many Hebrew words to describe a fool. Whereas one person can have multiple intellectual attributes (knowledge, ability to distinguish between similar ideas, ability to derive new information from his knowledge, etc.) each fool is distinct in his manner of foolishness.

Two of the many words that refer to fools are כסיל (k'sil) and אויל (eh'vil). These words are used numerous times throughout Mishlei, a book of proverbs by the wisest of all men that consistently promotes Torah wisdom and denigrates fools. It is critical to recognize the nuances between these types of fools to understand King Shlomo's lessons and relate to these respective individuals properly.

Chapter 26 contains many verses about the כסיל and the אויל. Malbim explains that the כסיל is someone who goes against the ways of wisdom to satisfy his desires. Deep down he knows that G–D is real and the Torah is true, but he casts doubt on the truth to justify his boundless pursuit of worldly pleasures. He claims that he is following G–D's will even as he behaves contrary to everything in the Torah, inventing far-fetched arguments and interpretations so he can have his cake and eat it too. The כסיל rebels against the Torah while proclaiming that “his way” is just as legitimate as any other, and no one can prove him wrong. According to the כסיל, everything is just an interpretation, but his underlying motivation is to justify his behavior.

The אויל resembles the כסיל in his behavior, but the ideology behind it is very different. This type of fool refuses to acknowledge that truth even exists. He casts doubt on everything as a matter of principle, not as an excuse to justify his behavior. He believes skepticism is the highest form of enlightenment, and that there are only questions, never answers. Any behavior can be justified to the אויל, for nothing can ever be objectively true. The only people who must be fought are those who believe in G–D and, by extension, objective truth.

Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg in his commentary to Bereishis (19:24) writes that the word אויל has the same letters as the word אולי, which means maybe, because the אויל always says maybe this is true, or maybe that is true. Nothing is ever objectively true; he is always playing Devil's advocate.

According to lashon hakodesh, such a person is by definition the worst sort of fool. Other fools have hope, but the dogmatic skepticism of the אויל masquerading as enlightenment makes it impossible for him to acquire wisdom or repent his evil ways. Mishlei provides instructions for how to respond to different kinds of fools, and incorporating these lessons will save wise people much grief and wasted time. A כסיל can be educated, but an אויל can only be punished to straighten out his ways.

What does all this have to do with Amalek?