Erased the memory of Amalek?

When was the first genocide and by whom was it committed? You won't believe it, but our ancestors blessed this birthright by sealing the memory of Amalek. It is true that the story of the exodus from Egypt is taken from the finger, but there was a deliberate intention on the part of its inventors and the shapers of its narrative, to unfold the story of the wanderings in the desert

Dr. Yehiam Sorek

In the run-up to Holocaust Day in particular, various reflections float and arise, straight from the stomach chambers, some of them want to appropriate the phenomenon of genocide - the extermination of a people - to the events of the Holocaust only and some of them want, and not without courage, to examine the phenomenon of genocide throughout history, tirelessly and in vain, and face Even with really poignant questions.

As we know, in 1915 a kind of Armenian genocide was committed by the Turks, and with terrible cruelty. Over a million Armenians were murdered in strange deaths and the blame for this is placed heavily on the shoulders of Turkey. The State of Israel for generations refused and still refuses to recognize the guilt of the Turks on the one hand and on the other hand to associate the hallmark of the genocide with that dramatic event, as a kind of diasporic fear that this kind of recognition could erode the intensity of the drama of the Holocaust, and worse - the desire not to get involved and have a diplomatic conflict with the Turkish government. This move, by the way, indicates genocide denial.

Genocide was not invented by the Nazis, nor did it end in the mid-160s - a century during which approximately XNUMX million people were murdered worldwide as a result of acts of genocide.

When was the first genocide and by whom was it committed? You won't believe it, but our ancestors were blessed with this birthright. It is true that the story of the exodus from Egypt comes from the finger, but the inventors and shapers of its narrative had the intention of telling the story of the wanderings in the desert, and out of this emerges, amazingly, the first genocide in the written history known to us and that is the story of Amalek. This is a desert tribe that faced the Israelites in a place called Raphidim. The victory of the Israelites was achieved, as is known in the extreme myth of Moses standing at the top of a hill with both hands raised to heaven, and when his hands were lifted up, Moses was supported by Hur and Aaron, and thus the Amalekites were defeated. At the end of the story of the battle, it is stated in the Bible that "And Jehovah said to Moses: Write this as a memorial in a book and put it in Joshua's ears, for I will blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called his name Jehovah Nesi. And he said that there is a hand on the throne. Jehovah's war against Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 14:16-30). No matter how we turn these verses around and try to please you, a clear picture emerges from them of a perpetual war of destruction in Amalek, and that the people will not rest nor be quiet until all the Amalekites are wiped out from the face of the earth. Do you know us from somewhere? (Search in Central Europe of the XNUMXs).
Who is that Amalek? Well, in the book of Genesis, the first of the Amalekites is mentioned as the son of Eliphaz and his concubine Timna. And who is Eliphaz? Esau's son. Behold, the cocoon is undone: Esau, Jacob's half-brother, the antithesis of the one who is considered the father of the nation, the one who is decorated with the initial title of Israel ("For you shall reign with people and God and you will be able") and his sworn enemy, the devil, the most terrible, he-he is the father- The ancestors of impurity, and asher-therefore, the people with full legitimacy are invited to harm him and root out his infrastructure, just like the mitzvah of murder towards Cain. In no ancient people, in any society and civilization, you will not find the internalization of burning hatred towards one or another ethnos, to the point of releasing his blood. Before us is therefore racism for its own sake which developed in ancient Israeli society: it started with the demonization of Esau and continued in the war of destruction in Amalek, and if this is not the beginning of the Holocaust, I don't know what a Holocaust is?
The next mention of Amalek appears in the story of the spies Moses sent to scout the land. In the book of the desert (29:XNUMX), the pair of spies tell, after the enhancement of the goodness of the land ("and it is a sleet of milk and honey, and it is fruitful") comes the section of intimidation about the strength of the peoples who dwell in the wilderness and the strength of their fortifications, as well as about the giants of the place while giving a geographical report: "Amalek dwells in the land of the Negev And the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite dwell in the mountain and the Canaanite dwells by the sea and by the Jordan."
The continuation of the destructive mission is not long in coming and the Amalekites and Canaanites will be beaten "until the Hormah", that is, until the last of them. Why did the Israelites attack them? The reason is probably not mentioned, but the people are warned not to attack the "enemies" only after God gives his approval, and he did. what-is-nathan Baba Natan
Our next encounter with the Amalekites occurs in Balaam's prophecy. In chapter 20, verse XNUMX, Balaam prophesies as follows: "And he spoke his word and said: First the nations of Amalek and after him Adi Obed." Lo and behold, a statement is formulated in the Bible, supposedly in the name of a prophecy, which will repeatedly condemn Amalek to destruction. Why? So!

And again for emphasis: there is almost no doubt that the story of the exodus from Egypt comes from the finger, and is nothing more than the history of the feverish minds of several families in Judah who built a cover-up story that seeks to justify their very settlement in Canaan - the "promised land", and within this mythological narrative the entire Amalek case is integrated, which is Legitimate infrastructure to declare a war of extermination and displacement against all the "enemies" of Israel, such as the seven nations of Canaan. The total, annihilating war, in Amalek, is the beginning of the genocide, and it is certainly intensifying in light of the "divine order" - extermination! Destroy! Destroy! The full price was paid by the Parisians, the Greeks, the Yebos and actually who didn't?!

The next stop is the book of Deuteronomy, which is known to have been composed not before the eighth century BC, that is, about one thousand and two hundred years after the dating of the events that appear in the Deuteronomic biblical literature. At the end of this chapter, which discusses legal and personal matters, appears from a passage, as a racist mantra, out of the blue, with no connection to the topic of the bee, in this way: "Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, who called on the way and all the backward ones will tail you after you and you Weary and weary and did not fear God (that is, as a kind of "justified" heavenly punishment). And when Yahweh your God has set you free from all your enemies around the land, which Yahweh your God is giving you an inheritance to inherit, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, and you shall not forget it."
No matter how we turn the condemned source, it will be a metaphor for a divine demand for the extermination of a people, for genocide, for the Holocaust! Let's start from a hypothetical, narrative-imaginary point of view, that the people did indeed encounter enemies of one kind or another in their "desert journey", some of them simply because the Israelites wanted to cross their territorial domain. But the curse of extinction against the Amalekites and the obligation of the historical pursuit of them, considering a divine order, should leave us even today, with historical hindsight, with very open mouths.
Moreover, it is not for nothing that the destruction of the Amalekites is mentioned in connection with the inheritance of the land and the settlement in it. The Amalekites did prevent the Israelites from inheriting Judah, and because of the strange and wicked reason, they stayed put and refused to evacuate. Really cheeky!
Moreover, the book of Deuteronomy was written, it seems, during the time of the Jewish king Josiah, who wanted to unite the kingdom of Judah with the remnants of the kingdom of Israel/Samaria, and therefore the book is saturated with mythological demands, supposedly ancient, to inherit the land and settle in it. This is a distorted legitimacy based on demonization towards other peoples.
We find the remnants of the Amalekites grouped together with the Midianites and the ancients against whom Gideon the judge fought.
Saul also struck the Amalekites. Why? They agreed and listened. In the beginning of chapter XNUMX of the book of XNUMX Samuel, Samuel instructs Saul on the very eve of his anointing as the king of Israel to believe in Jehovah and to hear his words (by the way, we are already witnessing the involvement of religion in politics) and then he found him: "Thus said Jehovah of armies: I visited what Amalek did to Israel, which he put on his way from Egypt. Now go and class Amalek and confiscate all that belongs to him and do not spare him, and there will be death from man to woman from male to male, from ox to male, from camel to donkey."
Do you understand, dear friends? Total extermination of the Amalekites, including their cattle and sheep, as well as their property. Shaul does not ask, is not interested in knowing, does not hesitate, does not raise his shoulders and does not lower his eyebrows. Gornish. Nada The kingdom will be dear to him and for her sake he will also destroy the Eskimo population only if ordered by the messengers of Jehovah of armies. horrible!
And Saul fulfills, small as well as great, the sacred task assigned to him. Big - maybe, but not small. In his stupidity and folly, because Shaul and the people with him overcame the sheep and cattle of the Amalekites. And this became known to Shmuel, and he cried out, and his friends were pricked, so much so that he considered whether or not to remove Saul from the seat of his throne, because he had dishonored the command of the Lord of hosts.
Shmuel repeats the commandment of Yahweh, the good and benevolent: "If you are small in your eyes, you are the head of the tribes of Israel, and Yahweh will choose you to be king over Israel." And Yahweh sent you on the way and said: Go and confiscate the sins - Amalek and fight him until they are consumed." And what happened to Agag, the Amalekite king, whom Saul spared? Shmuel grabbed and snapped his neck - "before Jehovah in Gilgal" - the bloodthirsty god.
The story of the terrible blunder of Shaul, who showed little mercy towards the Amalekite king, was the reason for the hard quarrel, the "angry", between Shmuel and him, and it comes to light again in the dramatic-grave meeting between Shaul and Shmuel's spirit at Baalah Haob, on the eve of the battle against the Philistines in Gilboa. Shmuel, who has a phenomenal memory, repeatedly reminds the horrified Saul why he is angry with him and why Jehovah has removed Saul's support. Why really? And this is how Shmuel expresses himself in his anger because Rab: "When you did not listen to the voice of the Lord and did not make his nose hard against Amalek. That's why Jehovah did this thing for you this day."
We have every justification to assume that the chances of the occurrence of the event, as it is dramatically narrated in the Bible, are slim and even ridiculous. It is important, however, to emphasize that this very wording in the biblical writings gives the annihilating pursuit of the Amalekites great empowerment, almost religious-ritual, and the believer in such an examination is holy and holy. Before us, therefore, as well as in the previous verses, is an orderly, proto-racist Mishnah, which tells us how a certain people should be persecuted and uprooted.
David also fought against the Amalekites, and apparently in his days the war of extermination against the Amalekites ended and they were uprooted from all their colonies, and as one thing the scriptures say: "And they smote the remnant of the exile to Amalek (with a force of five hundred men) and they dwelt there to this day" (43 Chronicles XNUMX:XNUMX). (And it is interesting, by the way, that the concept of "the remnant of the exodus" was associated during the Holocaust with survivors of the inferno). That is, in terms of murder-and-inheritance. The Amalekites are not mentioned in the history of the kings who succeeded David, except for a very vague reference in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah.
The guys stood, therefore, with "bravery", "courage" and "holy devotion" in the task of extermination, and by the way, the same fate was the lot of all those seven peoples who lived in the land of the great Canaan such as the Hibbusei, the Gargshi, the Hivi, the Parizi and more. They too, similarly, were destroyed by the sword.
It should be noted that the Amalekites became in the Israeli tradition the image of every enemy and hostile to the goals and tasks of the nation. The de-legitimization and demonization of "Umalik" elements has not ended even in our days, in terms of legitimizing our "forces" to strike and destroy, displace and lose. Indeed with virtue at its best.
And it will happen that your son will ask you on that day: Where did the acts of extinction and destruction in the world begin? You will know how to direct your gaze at him and tell him the truth.

Editor's note: Even if our holocaust was not unique, nor the only one in the 20th century, this does not diminish its severity and I say this as the son of a holocaust survivor. And besides, even without connection to the holocaust, we have to deal with this puzzling affair of the living of an entire people by religious imperative (Avi Blizovsky).

Murder, extermination, massacre, Amalek: kosher in the name of God (freedom website)