A Thought On Parshas BeShalach

A Thought On Parshas BeShalach

"...va'yavo Amalek..."
"...and then came Amalek..." (17:8)

The attack by Amalek came suddenly. Our young nation hardly expected
anyone to challenge them, now that they had successfully fled their
oppressive captors after years of bondage, and had been guided and
protected by Divine Presence. Where did Amalek come from? Why the
attack?

Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel takes us through some midrashic thought in
another of his sequences of profound inductive logic.

Our patriarch Yakov Avinu had a brother. Esav had been the nemesis of
Yakov, and had vowed to annihilate him. We are told that when young
Yakov fled to hide out in the home of his mother's family, Esav
dispatched a son, Elipaz, to head him off at the pass and murder him.
It did not happen, however, and Chazal have told us how Elipaz was
content to rob his uncle Yakov as a symbolic fulfillment of "taking his
life." Why did he do that, contrary to the orders of his father?

Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel suggests that it was hardly an act of affection
or mercy for his uncle Yakov. Rather, he induces from sources known to
him that Elipaz sought council with his mother Timna, one of Esav's
wives. She told him not to attempt an assault on Yakov, because he was
known to be a mighty warrior, as evidenced through his encounter with
the malach of Esav.

She told him to bide his time. Her intention was not to spare the life
of Yakov. Her intention was to wait for a more opportune time to attack.

Elipaz had a son. His son was named Amalek. Amalek volunteered, at grandfather
Esav's urging, to go find his great-uncle and finish him off. This would avenge the honor of
his great-grandfather Esav, and would one-up his own father Elipaz who
had not been able to complete his mission, owing to grandmother Timna's
interference.

Timna interferred again. She advised Amalek that the great-grandparent
shared by both Yakov and Esav had been Avraham. Avraham had been
forewarned that his descendants would face centuries of oppression in
Egypt. "If you kill Yakov, ", she advised, "that fate will transfer
over to our family. Through Esav, we will be the only remaining
descendants of Avraham, and our race will be enslaved in Egypt. Better
to spare Yakov and let his descendants suffer. Once their exile is
over, they will be fair game. Then you can attack them."

When the Jewish people marched from the Sea towards the Holy Land, they had paid
their dues of bondage and oppression. While the world trembled at the sight of this
new and courageous young nation, Amalek came forth at the urging of that maternal
tradition. The timing was calculated, and was not coincidental. The vendetta of Amalek which
continues from generation to generation over the centuries is the ancient score which Esav
seeks to settle with Yakov.

Good Shabbos. D Fox