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Orchard of Delights Shoftim
Today, given the vicissitudes of history no extant people can be included in this rich blend are laws detailing how non-Jews living in
labeled the descendants of Amalek, but the Rabbis teach that any the Land should be treated.
person or nation who actively seeks to wipe out the Jewish people is The inviolable union of religious and civil law is abundantly
a manifestation of Amalek. Tragically, in the last hundred years we evident in the instruction given to the king:
have seen many different faces of Amalek: Hitler and the Nazi killing
machine, Saddam Hussein, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbbalah, and It shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom,
the recent attempt by Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The latter he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a
all share the same overwhelming desire: to exterminate Jews and book, from before the cohanim, the levi’im. It shall be
eliminate the State of Israel. with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life,

In the passage about Amalek’s attack on the Jewish people, the so that he will learn to fear God, his God, to observe all the
Torah reminds us to “remember what Amalek did to you on the way words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so
when you were leaving Egypt … and he struck those of you who were that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren
hindmost, all the weak who were at the rear when you were faint and it does not turn from the commandment right or left,
and exhausted” (Exodus 25:17). Amalek struck not the vanguard of so that he will prolong years over his kingdom, he and his
the people, but the stragglers, the weary and weak. Approximately sons among Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
250 years ago a slow but steady trickle of Jews began returning to
the Jewish homeland. From the students of the Ba’al Shem Tov and As the verses stress, the king, the ultimate source of power and
the Vilna Gaon in the late 1700s, to the first and second aliyot in the authority in any kingdom, was totally subservient to the Torah,
late 1800s and early 1900s the movement gathered steam. By the which he was committed to upholding. In fact, the Torah was his
time the Second World War arrived, the ingathering of the exiles had sole source of legitimacy. The Torah’s ultimate authority comes from
become a phenomenon of historical proportions. After nearly two God and in this sense Torah law and political theory is qualitatively
thousand years of exile the Jewish people were coming home, leaving different from any man-made system of law and government. Torah
their “Egyptian” exiles behind. It was then that Hitler and the Nazi contains a unique blend of theocracy and democracy, capitalism
regime struck at those straggling in the rear, those who were “faint and socialism, universal rights and specific obligations. Due to the
and exhausted” from the long and bitter exile. Although both Amalek Torah’s holistic nature, it defies any simple categorization in modern
and Hitler exacted a terrible toll, both were ultimately defeated. terms. Despite the divergence between contemporary democracy and
the unique, hybrid model of government expounded by the Torah,
Ki Teitzei ends with the ringing declaration that the Jewish people we can convincingly argue that not only do many of the pillars of
must not forget to completely wipe out the memory of Amalek from democracy find their antecedents in the Torah itself but that many
under the heavens. The sad and bitter reality in this world is that aspects of modern democratic societies owe their existence to the
while there are some enemies the Jewish people can make peace Torah’s influence.
with, there are other enemies who must be decisively defeated, for
they know no compromise in their goal of wiping out the Jewish
people. This lesson speaks to the Jewish people today as clearly as
it did then, and due to the scourge of Islamic terrorism around the
world, it is a lesson the world will unfortunately have to confront
sooner or later as well.

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