Rabbi Mendel Kessin The Hidden Story of Amalek (complete) Adar and Purim

The topic that I want to talk about tonight, I mean it's it's it's very appropriate for outdoor. Can everybody hear me? In many ways, it's a very difficult topic to Seems simple, but it's not. What's topic? I want to talk about the nation called Amalek. Now, we know about Amalek. We know from the Torah that right after the Jews get out of Egypt, they were attacked by Amalek. And Yehoshua went to war with them, and he almost destroyed them, but apparently God said, "Don't destroy them." Whatever. And so, we know about Amalek, and throughout the generations, Amalek We know Haman, who was an Amalekite, right? Uh and he, of course, also tried to destroy the Jewish nation. But what you know what's interesting about that is when you look at the Torah, if not for the fact that the Torah had said that there was a nation called Amalek, and this nation of Amalek went to war with the Jews, I would never believe it. The Torah says it, so I believe it. But I would never believe it. Why? Cuz it's incredible. Let's take a look at why the concept or the fact that Amalek attacked the Jews is so highly improbable as to create an incredible astonishment that it even occurred. Let's take a look. First idea. The Midrash said that Amalek crossed five boundaries to get to the Jewish people. There was no military threat to the Jews. The Jews didn't want to attack Amalek. They had, of course, Amalek had crossed five boundaries, which shows you that they were very, very far away. So, if they're not a military threat, can you tell me why they want to go to war with the Jewish people? Certainly not because they were afraid of being conquered. So, therefore, we see that there's no military threat. So, that lacks a motive. Usually, countries go to war because there's a military threat. They want to be taken over by another country, right? Or they want to be slaughtered, whatever. Why go to war when there's no military threat? Our second of all, not only there was no military threat, there's no religious threat. What's a religious threat? People make a mistake. They think that Amalek were atheists, and they were annoyed at Jews because Jews were believers. So, therefore, you know, they took up the banner of atheism to destroy the Jews. But that's wrong. There means there was no such thing as atheism. No such thing. Atheism, in many ways, is a modern-day invention. It comes as a result of Darwin and so on. But in those days, everybody believed in God. They believed in many gods. It's true. Polytheism. There was no atheist then. I mean, look at Egypt. Egypt had I mean, they had a pantheon of gods. Every nation had gods. You know, by Baalbek, Baal Peor. Everybody worshipped some god and so on. So, what was the problem here? Amalek believes in their gods, whatever that is, and the Jews believe in me. It's God. That's all. So, what Why are you going to war for this? There's no ideological or, really in many ways, a religious threat at all. Second very strange thing. Third strange thing. Do you know what it costs to mount a war? The United States swept from the United States to Afghanistan. Do you know what it cost them? It cost them $1 billion a day to make a war in Afghanistan. Right? It's a fortune. So, therefore, Amalek, you think about that. What are you doing? You know what it cost It cost a fortune to make war against Jews. And not only that, if you really want to think about it, what's even more strange, one of the most difficult parts of an enemy is the what's called the supply line. You got to supply the troops with food and everything like that. You see? So, usually, what it what happens is the enemy, I mean, the the army that does it, if they take over property, you know, farms and all that, and they take all the food from the farmers. But what the problem was is what? It's a wilderness. You know, Midbar Sin, these are wildernesses. There's nowhere to take the food from. Uh therefore, they would have to supply right? The army with enormous amount of food over enormous distance. How could you do that? For what reason? Fourth question. Egypt is the greatest nation on Earth under Ramses. Jews destroyed Egypt, or rather, God did, but the Jews destroyed Egypt. Egypt is the greatest power on Earth. If the Jews destroyed Egypt, it stands to reason that anybody wants to war with the Jews is suicide trip. So, I would think suicide. If they destroyed Egypt, which is the greatest nation on Earth, correct? Then why would anybody start up with Jews? Cuz obviously, you don't start up with these people, you know? They They not They They didn't just fight with Egypt, they demolished it, as we see with the Red Sea. The whole Egyptian army was killed, and they left the Egypt in a economic disaster, you know, after the boils had finished and then the locusts, all that. There was nothing left in Egypt, and all the animals died. There's nothing left. So, if you really think about it, what's going on here? You see? It's a suicide trip. So, why would Amalek wage war with the Jews if they just destroyed Egypt? Not only that, we know that there's 600,000 males over the age of 20. So, if you multiply that by four, which is a family, that's 2.4 million Jews left Egypt. You have any idea how big the army of Amalek has to be to war with that type of population? It's insane. So, when you really to think about it, it makes no sense. It's impossible. Why would any nation go to war, right? If there's no motive. It's a suicide trip. It costs a fortune. That's the question. Therefore, Amalek is not a simple idea. We need to understand what is going on in their minds that they would war with the Jews. You see? And also, one more question. Amalek appears right before Mount Sinai, cuz that's when they fight Yehoshua. Is there any significance in the fact that they appeared before the Jews received the Torah? Is that significant in and of itself? Maybe. We'll see. But in any case, it's very difficult to understand the whole partial of Amalek, because no nation in the world would ever have committed themselves to a war when it cost them a fortune. It's a suicide trip. And there's no reason to do it. There's no military threat. There's no ideological threat. Right? There's no religious threat. So, what what's going on here? That is the question that I'm going to try to answer tonight. Okay? Meanwhile, everybody can sit there and puzzle over it, because it makes no sense. I think I have sufficiently dramatized the improbability of Amalek making war against Jews. But we know what happened. So, what happened? Why? Why? In order to understand why, we need to understand certain concepts of mankind. Man is a very Man means man and woman, mankind, are very interesting creatures, the Soton says. People are always thinking, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, believe it or not, everybody wants Everybody either wants to become God, or he thinks he's God, or he wants to overthrow God. He may not admit it, and that's only because God is so powerful, he can't even begin to entertain such a thought. But the truth is, everybody would love to be God, right? If I took a show of hands, everybody here would love to be God. You don't know how to do it. Okay? So, that you want to know how to become God, that thing will come to the next year. But anyway, but I don't really want to become God. You don't want that. You don't want that headache. All that responsibility. Why don't I be me? What? Try not to be me. Okay. But I don't think so. That's because you're not God. If you were God, you would have no problem being you. That would be a contradiction, because why would you be Anyway, okay? All right. In any case, everybody wants to be God, like I said. Who doesn't want to be omnipotent, all powerful, omniscient, all knowing, omnipresent, all over, right? Everybody wants that. Imagine you never have to worry about bringing home a paycheck. It's incredible. So, either you want to be God, or you want to become God, you want to become God, you think you are God, or you want to overthrow God. Well, it's one or the other. Okay? And the question is, do you hear this? Yes. Let's take Adam and Eve, the first man. Why did Adam eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Why? Well, let's take a look at the argument that the Nachash, the primordial snake, presented to Chava. He goes over to Chava, right, and he says to her different things to eat, to make her about but the real clincher was the what he said to her, right, "You can be like Elohim. You can be God." You see? Why did Nachash use that argument? You want to become You can become God. Because Chava dreams of becoming God. You know, you can't If the Nachash wants to convince Chava, and he she obviously followed the same arguments to Adam, you've got to convince them with an argument that they believe in or they realize, "Hey, it's a good argument." Right? So, he said, "You can become God." What does that mean? What was his argument? He said the following. He said, "You know, you see that tree that God said not to eat? You know why he really You know why he doesn't want to eat from that tree? Because he ate from that tree." Rashi says this. So, Rashi he ate the tree of good knowledge of good and evil, and that's how he became God. They were. You see? Of course, it was a lie. Uh but that's what he said. So, what he was telling them, you know, Chava and then subsequently to Adam, "If you want to become God, just eat from the tree." Why doesn't God want you to eat from the tree? Because God was not does not want any competitors. He doesn't want any rivals. He wants to make God alone. Right? Uh that's why he told you not to eat from the tree. You see? So, what do we see? And Adam, of course, Chava bought the argument. Then she realized that I mean she ate from the tree, she realized Adam was a lie. Whatever. And then she came over to Adam and she said, "By the way," she offered him the same exact argument. Otherwise, why would Adam have really have eaten from it? There's an explicit command by God not to eat from it. So, she clearly offered the same argument, right? But what was the real argument What was the real attraction? Becoming God. But if they even entertained the thought of becoming God, why is that an argument? And the answer is because anybody would love to become God. That's the concept. So, Adam's mission is an incredible proof, really. All right? That the first man already thought about becoming God. He he realized he wasn't God. Why did he realize that? Because he was created on the sixth day of creation, and he also appeared in the whole Garden of Eden. So, he realized he didn't make this. He couldn't fool himself. So, he knew he didn't make this. He knew that God made it. So, when he saw that God is an awesome being, cuz it must be incredible Garden of Eden, you know? So, he couldn't fool himself into thinking that he was God. But he still wanted to become God. And the Nachash realized that, and he used that as an argument, and therefore Adam and Chava, they both fell because of the hidden desire of man to be God. Where else do we see this? Well, take a look. Parshas Noach, the Migdal Bavel. It's a whole society building a tower at war with God, right? It's the same as they want to They want to overthrow God. Right? That's the whole point of the tower. Right? To make war with God. And it's not one guy, so you can say one guy is crazy. It was a whole society of Shinar, which is probably Iraq, ancient Iraq, and so on. The whole Iraq, they want to war with God. Because then they do they build the towers or it was a collective job. So, what do we see? That mankind is busy thinking about either how to become God or how to kill him, how to throw him out, you know, take him over. Historical proof. What about a person thinking he is God? Well, unfortunately, there guys like that walk around. Right? However, powerful was God, the pharaohs thought they were God. You know? Even though clearly they know they're mortal, but the pharaohs thought they're God. And the Roman emperors think they're God. That's why they created so much service and so on. But clearly there are people who are megalomaniacs, you know, they they really think that they are God in whatever capacity and so on. Uh so, what do we see? So, we see therefore that this thought that mankind has of being God, becoming God, overthrowing God, or whatever, is something which is really embedded in us. And we see that historically that this is the case. Question is, why? Why should a person have a desire to think that he is God? He wants to be God, right? He wants to overthrow God. What's the origin of this thought or this delusion, I should say, cuz that's really what it is. It's a delusion. I'll tell you why. Cuz the problem that man has is that when he's born, he's an infant. Intuitively, the infant knows it is helpless. Intuitively. It knows that it screams and there's nobody around. And all of a sudden, it feels this food coming into its mouth. And it begins to realize that it didn't put the food in its mouth. The infant is in tremendous contact with its helplessness. And this continues for years. You see? So, therefore, what an infant begins to develop is the concept of inferiority. It begins to develop an inferiority complex. Who am I? What am I? I'm really nothing. Because I'm completely dependent on other people to survive. This concept of an infant's helplessness goes on for years and for years, and it's never it it never evaporates at all. It's interesting, the unconscious mind doesn't know time. That's why there's so many adults that act like kids, if you have noticed. You know? Why? Because the the ideas that they developed in the mind when they were a child, okay? What happens they repress those ideas cuz they were painful to admit. Who wants to admit that it's helpless? It tries to deny that because it's dangerous to admit that it's helpless because how am I going to survive? So, that thought of inferiority becomes repressed. And once something becomes repressed, it goes into the what's called the unconscious. Okay? So, it's not available to the conscious mind. But that never goes away. And why is that? Because the unconscious doesn't know time. So, even though a child grows up and it's clearly not helpless anymore, right? It's still embedded. That's why there's so many adults that act like kids. Because what they thought as a child is still there. Unless you remediate them with all kinds of therapy or whatever and so on. But every one of us has a child aspect to us we somehow never outgrow. So, many of our childhood notions and so on. Therefore, nobody wants to admit that they're helpless. Nobody wants to admit that we're inferior. Even when we get older, we still feel that we're inferior. How do we see this? What is the greatest psychological drive known to man? The greatest, actually it's the second greatest. This The greatest second greatest drive known to man, okay? is Who am I? What am I? It's the concept of inferiority. And therefore, everybody's trying to prove they're somebody. Ever notice? Whatever you do, you're always trying to prove you're somebody. But it's very subtle. But deep down, everybody's always trying to prove that they're something. They're somebody. There's a sense of self-esteem, self-worth. Self- The pursuit of self-worth really goes on your entire life, you see? Why does a guy donate a million dollars to a building? What does he care? He's got his name on it. Because he wants his name on it. So what? Because he God wants his name on it, what's going to happen? He's dead. And then people will look at the plaque on the building and say, "Wow, you know, Reuben gave a million dollars to the building. Reuben must be important." So, therefore, this person says, "Ah, I want people to think I'm important. And if I'm important, then I am somebody." What do you mean? You're dead. So, you know? So, what can you feel after you're dead? Doesn't make a difference. As long as people think I'm somebody, even after he's dead, right? Kavod. Kashuv. You see? Forget about it in the lifetime, people. We're always trying to prove we're somebody. That's the greatest psychological drive, basically. There is one drive which is more basic, which is self-preservation, the desire to exist and remain existing. But beyond that, everybody's seeking some type of affirmation of self-worth. You see? Uh so, therefore, where do we get this need to feel like somebody? Because we grew up infants, you see? If a person would have grown up not as an infant, but as an adult, okay? Which is interesting. Then maybe he wouldn't have this feeling of inferiority. And therefore, the need to prove that he's somebody. He's He's uh He's important and so on. This concept of a need to feel like somebody is a very important drive in a person. It's responsible for an incredible amount of activity that we do, even though we don't realize that. What it says in the possuk, "Sanei matanos, yichyeh." Right? If you hate gifts, you will live. Then you live. Why? Because if you accept gifts, that proves that you're dependent on somebody else for gifts. But if you're dependent, what happens? All of a sudden, it proves that you are helpless cuz you need somebody else. Shows you that you are dependent. If you're dependent, it's hard to live with that kind of feelings. You see? So therefore, man is always trying to deny his sense of inferiority or his sense of self-worth, the loss of self-worth. This is a very important concept and explains a great deal of behavior. Why everybody wants to be remembered, you know, why people have to assert themselves, whether it be to their spouse or to be their co-workers, because in some fashion they're always getting a feeling of worth. I'm somebody, you see? Why people try to control other people? Because if I control you, I'm somebody. Why does anybody want to collect so much money? Because money gives me the power to do anything. And if I can do anything, I won't feel like nobody. You see, a great deal of things are tied. Why does a guy have to feel he got to have security? A huge bank account. You see? Because I'm a nobody and I'm not going to be able to survive. So if I have a bank account, I'm adequate, I'll be able to survive. You cannot believe the amount of behaviors that we do to compensate or to address the problem of our own inferiority. Anyway, you know, it's it's a it's a lot to talk about. But in any case, this leaves mankind in a terrible dilemma. What is the dilemma? A dilemma is a problem. What's the problem? If you do A, you're doomed. If you do B, you're doomed. Either way, you're doomed. You see, that's a that's a classic dilemma. What does that mean? Boss, if you if you have a boss, right? You hate your boss. You resent him. Now, if he's a good guy, you won't resent him as much. But if he's a bad boss boss, God help him, right? Why do we resent authority figures? Why? Because they tell me what to do. Because if you tell me what to do, you control me. That proves I'm a nobody. So therefore, we resent authority immediately. You see? We resent the boss's authority. Anybody who tries to control us, we resent. Why? Because it rubs against our need to feel like somebody. And when there's a boss over you, obviously, you're nobody. He can tell you what to do and you better do it or else I'll fire you and there's no money. You see? So that reinforces our feeling of inferiority. That's why mankind hates authority. All people hate authority. So if he's a good boss, fine. But deep down, there's always a resentment. That's why everybody's trying to become the boss of everybody else. You see? And anyway, it presents man with a terrible dilemma. What's the dilemma? Here's the dilemma. If you believe in God, well, God is the boss. But wait a minute. I don't want a boss. I want to reject God because I want to deny my own need for somebody else. So in many ways, to believe in God is difficult because in essence, you're believing in an authority figure. But that in many ways, God is a boss. And he's a real boss, you know, and so on. You got to toe the line. But that automatically counters your need not to be bossed around because you want to feel like you're somebody. You see? And not only that, but God not only is controls you, but God controls your behavior. He tells you what to do. Don't tell me what to do, you know? How many times do we stop a guy and we say, "Excuse me, you know, let you the boss." You know what I'm saying? Don't tell me what to do. I'm not going to go with the with who we have the class all the time. But but the essential idea is that we don't want to be told what to do. We want to live our lives according to them. We want to live our lives. Get out of my way. Basically, what we all feel. Okay. This is human nature. So therefore, a religious person, somebody who believes in God, has got a real problem. He's got a real dilemma. Why? Because if he believes in God, right? Then he he's in essence, he resents God because God stops him from enjoying life. You see? So that's one bad thing. On the other side, if you reject God, well, if you believe in God, God's going to come after you because there's a concept of accountability. Is it there? Right? There's accountability, right? God says, "Hey, this is my list of things you need to do. And if you don't do it, you're going to be judged." That's called accountability, right? Uh-oh. So it's a dilemma. What do I do? If I reject God, correct? Then then I got problems because he's going to come after me, right? If I reject him. If I accept him, then I feel like a nobody. You know, I I don't want him to stop me from enjoying life. You see? That's a real dilemma. What do people do? Well, I have to tell you something. Mankind is brilliant. They found a solution. Yes. We find solutions to problems that annoy us or problems that we can't solve. We found a solution. But mankind has found a solution to this dilemma. If you believe in God and you want to enjoy life, how do you have your cake and eat it, too, as they say in English? Can you do both? Can somebody who wants to live his own life accommodate the belief in God at the same time? Or is he not? But the truth is, mankind has solved the problem. What is the solution to this problem? Well, you'll be shocked at what the solution is. The solution to this dilemma is all the religions of the world. Yes, as we see. Each religion really compromises God. And they do an incredible job. And we will go through the religions and I will show you what mankind has done. And then you begin to understand our world and really what Judaism is. We have to look at the religions of the world. How they addressed this dilemma. How you can believe in God, right? And do what you want. Let me show you how. Well, there are different strategies. And each strategy is called a religion. You see? A religion is nothing more than a strategy of how to accommodate God and do what you want. Let's take a look. Okay, what's the first What's the best or the greatest strategy of all? Atheism. Don't believe in God. You don't believe in God, what's the problem? You do whatever I want. Right? So therefore, atheism is a strategy not to allow God to interfere with your life. To really what it is. But what's the problem with atheism? You know, you have to be an idiot to be an atheist. Why? Why is that? Okay? Why why why is that? Because the greatest proof that there must be a supreme being that created everything is the incredible complexity of life. It's impossible. The human mind or the brain has over a hundred billion neurons. It's massive. The body itself, right? Has a hundred trillion cells. Well, a lot of it is really bacteria, but anyway. But it has an enormous amount of cells. Each cell is a factory. There are more chemical reactions going on in a cell or certainly the the human body than all the chemical reactions in the entire world. Who wrote this? You know how complex that is? It's beyond belief. In fact, I will illustrate it. It's a very cute idea, very interesting. Okay? There's a beautiful illustration why you cannot be an atheist. Out west, a hundred years ago, there was a whole bunch of guys playing a poker game. Okay? Now, they have a pot in the middle, right? The money. It was out west. It was cowboys, right? And they're they're playing poker. Okay. All of a sudden, some guy puts down his hand, right? And his hand was a straight flush. Now, I don't play poker, so I I'm not sure what that is, but I think what it is is a it's like four, five, six, seven, eight of one suit, like clubs or hearts, whatever. Maybe there's some of you in the audience here that doesn't know what this is, but anyway. He has a straight flush. Puts it down. And everybody says, "Forget it. I can't beat a straight flush." Now, rare that is, you know? So the guy takes his hand and he's about to pull in the money. And all of a sudden, one of the guys on the side, the cowboy who's playing also, he stops him and says, "Hey, what are you doing?" He says, "What do you mean what I got a straight flush. You know? What is going to beat this?" He says, "Yeah?" And he throws down his hand and it's a royal flush. Now, I think what a royal flush, right? Is um is nine, 10, jack, queen, king, ace Jack, queen, king, ace. 10, jack, king, ace. Okay? All right? So royal flush. That's that's the top of the line. Am I right? Okay. Uh however, so everybody's stunned. A straight flush and a royal flush in the same hand? So the guy with the straight flush stands up and he says, "You no good, dirty cheater." Pulls out his gun and he kills the guy with the royal flush. Now, forget about if the guy with the royal flush deserves death. I'm not going into that. Maybe our world has a different set of rules for what justice is. But the question is what Excuse me, how do you know he cheated? Maybe he really had the royal flush. You had the straight, you had the royal, so you but you lost. How do you know the guy cheated? So they ask this guy, "How do you know he cheated?" Cheating. What? Cheating. No. You know how? Because he said the probability that in one hand that there should be a straight flush and a royal flush is a one followed by 40 zeros. You know what 40 zeros is? It's a number that we don't even imagine. Now, so he turns to the guy and says, "Okay, what do what should I assume? That this was the one time in the 40 zeros that it happened and maybe it happened and happened or that the guy cheated, which is more reasonable?" Of course that the guy cheated. The probability that an insulin molecule should develop by itself is a one followed by 80 zeros. Come on, 80 zeros? Therefore, it's impossible really to be an atheist. It's impossible. In fact, what's interesting, there was a skeptic that guy's name in England. He was a he was a big skeptic and he used to try to teach in Oxford, I think he was. And finally, when he was very old, he said, "I forget, I believe in God." So they were shocked, his students. "You believe in God? You've been preaching there's no God, atheism for all these years, skeptic, skepticism." Uh so they asked him why he said because complexity. It's impossible when you look at the complexity of the world. It is impossible to think that this occurred by chance. It's like what Fred Hoyle, famous cosmologist, once said. He said the probability that this world came about by chance the 100 million or rather the 100 million uh life forms and so on, whatever, chance it it's that it's it's it's more likely that a hurricane went through a junkyard, right? And all of a sudden in the junkyard was sitting a Boeing 747. That's more likely than for this world to have been created by chance or happen by chance. This is a quote Fred Hoyle, you know. In any case, he can't be an atheist. But you know what you can be? You can be an agnostic. Agnostic says, "I don't know, prove it." In other words, maybe there's a God, maybe there isn't. So until you prove it, I'm going to do what I want. You see? That's a strategy, right? If God comes and talks to me, fine, then I'll do it. But if not, then I can do whatever I want. So agnosticism is a strategy, right? To do whatever you want. But can't be an agnostic again cuz of the complexity. So we now have to go to the real concept of religion. So we come to to religion of Aristotle. Aristotle believed there was a God, first cause, and he created the universe. But then God removed himself from the universe, right? He created the world and said, "Okay, you guys, you're on your own." Great. If we're on our own, there's no there's no standard, there's no accountability, do whatever you want. So you can believe in a God, the Aristotelian God, and do what you want. Strategy, you see? So theoretically we begin to enter the concept of religion. So you can accommodate doing what you want with religion by believing that God has nothing to do with the universe. That's number three. Number four. That I don't think that's going to work cuz obviously by the way God counters that belief by saying I am the Lord your God that took you out of the land of Egypt, which means I intervene in the affairs of man. That statement that I took you out of Egypt directly contradicts Aristotle. That God intervenes in the affairs of man and he took the Jews out of Egypt. Very important phrase. Okay. So that's three. Number four, the fourth strategy. What's that? You believe in two Gods. Zoroastrians believe in two Gods, Persia. That's two religions of Persia in the old days certainly. What did they believe? They believed in a God of good and a God of evil. And they're at war with each other. So you know what I do? The guy says, "I'm going to align myself with the God of evil cuz he's evil. I can do whatever I want." You see? I the God of good, yeah, the God of evil will protect me, you see? So by creating two kinds of Gods, good and evil, he's protected and therefore he can do whatever he wants. That's a strategy. You see? That's the fourth strategy. However, is that really a great strategy? No. There's a better strategy, Balaam. When the version with the king of the Balaam when he sent them to when Balak called him to curse the Jewish people. So on the way God with the messages from Balaam or Balak, so God says to Balaam in a dream, "Who are these guys outside?" So Balaam said to himself, "Hmm, that's very interesting. I thought God was omniscient. He knows everything. Clearly God doesn't know everything. If that's the case, wow. So if I try to do whatever I want, God won't know it because he's not omniscient. What a solution." That means I can actually try to do things that he won't know cuz he doesn't know everything. Balaam, that's what Balaam's belief was, you see? So that's our our fourth strategy. Actually it's the fifth. The sixth strategy, and most of the world has adopted this strategy, certainly in ancient times, polytheism. The belief of many Gods. How does that help you? The Greeks believe in a pantheon of Gods. There were over 50 Gods that they believed in. And Rome and these are major powers for thousands of years. They in in at that time the paganism, which is really polytheism. How does that help you? And the answer is because if you believe in many Gods, right? Each God will have a different Shulchan He has his own ideas and values, right? So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the cooler of this Shaman and the cooler of this you know. You see? I'm going to take whatever I want to do, I'll always find a God that will protect it's okay. So therefore by believing in many Gods, right? I can pick and choose which God I want to believe in or worship because between all they're going to allow me to do everything. Right? Brilliant. That's the brilliance of polytheism. I can pick and choose whatever I want. You see? Another strategy. Okay. What happens if you're not polytheistic? So you're going to do another strategy. I'm sure you major religions of the world are really based on this. Another strategy. Well, I want to do what I want. I want to murder. Right? So what am I going to do? So I will believe that my God murders. I'm going to invest in God the exact same vices and bad things that I want to do. I'm going to say that he does it. And that's exactly what the Greeks did. They made their Gods commit vices, murder, jealousy, you name it. You know, if you're familiar with any of the Greek mythology and so on. So therefore, I'd rather there's a mitzvah called "turn off the heat down the stove" to imitate God. That's exactly what they did. I'm putting the brilliant thing is they they had a God actually doing the things that they would love to do. You see? Another strategy. Is where okay, God isn't there, but you know what? The avoid of will be immoral. Vices, immorality, that's the avoid of. You'll find many religions in ancient times that had all kinds of immo- immoral service. Without getting into the gory details and so on. And even Balak which is mentioned they have avoid of if you know what it is. It's the avoid of excretion. They used to excrete like in front of their God. Why would they do that? Are they crazy? Because it was an avoid of such degradation, right? That you can do anything even if it's degrading. You see? If you look at religions, it's incredible man thought of just to get away from believing and having to do what God wants. So what they did is the avoid of. You see? That they had all kinds of the vestal virgins, right? I know today avoid of so they had all kinds of incest. You know, licentiousness going on, immorality in the their temples. Uh why? Because that's the avoid of. So on the contrary, it's mutar, it's a mitzvah, right? Okay. Another strategy. Is where God changes mind. Yeah, Christianity. In the beginning God created the world and he gave the Torah. But he saw the Torah was so difficult, so he changed his mind. He said, "If you believe in my kid that he gave his life in my kid if he gave his life for grace, it's called grace, he gave his life in order he was crucified on the cross in order to redeem mankind, right? That's all you need to do to get rid of mitzvah." What what what does that mean? Uh so God changed his mind. He the the original basis for were Jews and now it's the Christians, right? Not only that he changed the Torah. Originally it was the Torah and now it's the New Testament. You see, all of a sudden you change your mind and you now remove all the the mitzvahs. That's incredible. So, in order to get into the world, all you have to do is believe that this guy came along and sacrificed his life, right? In order to redeem mankind from the original sin of Adam, whatever they say. And so, right? But that's incredible. Can't you see that that is what they believe? And that removes all the mitzvahs. Everything, basically. And then the last one is always very interesting. Right? A guy sins. He's got to be worried. He sins. He needs to come forward. Right? It costs a lot of money to bring to get a to buy an animal for a kapparos. You do an a sin again, a sin again, whatever. Costs a lot of money. You got to bring a kapparos. That's an animal. It costs at least $1,000 to bring that animal, $500. You know? So, you wouldn't sin so often cuz it costs a lot of money, right? But ha, there's a better way. Why is that? What's the problem here? Because the problem is the only one that can forgive you is God. All right? And you want forgiveness from God, you have to do a certain amount of things. Oh. So, Christianity, Roman Catholics came up with an incredible idea. The priest can forgive you in confession. Yeah. Man can forgive man. That's incredible. But of course, when man is going to forgive man, what is he going to do? He's going to ask you for a donation, won't he? And there you are. They used to buy their kapparos. And after a while, they That's called confession, right? You give to the church, whatever, and you get a kapparos. That's what confession is. Because they gave the power of kapparos to man, to the priest. After a while, it got so bad where the priest would say, "Listen, you know, there's a sale on today, right? If you do one sin, it's 100 bucks, right? So, normally you do two sins, 200, but there's a sale for 150 bucks. I will forgive you not only for what you did before, you will do." It's called the mafia. Obviously, that it got out of hand because it was incredible. So, Luther, that's why he rebelled against the Catholic Church, right? That's why he created Protestantism, Luther. He said, "This is ridiculous." Called indulgences. After a while, they would they they were selling the ability to do sins in the future for hard cash. That's why the church was the richest institution in the world in the Middle Ages, you see. Anyway, look at all these incredible strategies. Why are they What do they do? They all allow you to believe in God and do whatever you want. They all mutualized compromised God. That's what it is. So, what happens? Along come the Jews. And they said, "Oh, no." Here's what the Jews did. Here's what the Jews did. One, here's a God. One, there's only one God. Forget about the rest of the crew. You know, there's no porkies in here. There's only one God. Not only that, he is righteous. He's moral. He's ethical, right? He's just. Not like the other guys, right? And not only that, he wants you to be righteous and just and moral and ethical. Uh-oh, there's no exit. Where's the strategy? How do I do what I want to do and believe in God? With Judaism, you can't do that, really. Because if you believe in God in Judaism, in a certain sense, you're stuck. You see? Because you have no strategy where you can compromise God. Very important idea. And now you know a very important concept. Why did Nimrod hate Abraham Avinu? Why? What did Abraham Avinu do? Okay, so he smashed a couple idols, you know? Why did he hate him so much to throw him into the into the furnace and so on? Because what Abraham said was radically different than everybody else. Abraham Avinu said This is what Judaism is. There's only one God. He is righteous. And just. Not like the other gods, said Abraham Avinu, right? And not only that, he said, "Not only is God this way, but all your other gods are wrong." See, everybody else who can follow polytheistic, everybody's right, right? You know, you can worship here, you can worship there. Everybody's right. But Judaism said, "Everybody's wrong except us." You see? Wow. So, therefore, uh so Nimrod said, "Wait Wait a minute. Wait Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If we're we're all wrong and you're right, there's no exit. There's no compromise possible. You're the most dangerous man alive. You need to be put to death. Because your form of belief destroys us. It destroys our ability to do whatever we want and then to feel like a somebody. You see? And that tells you a very important concept. Why is there anti-Semitism? There are many reasons. Jealousy, right? A lot of reasons. But I believe the real reason boils down to one idea. Anti-Semites don't hate Jews. They hate God because of what he did to them. And therefore, they hate us because we are his ambassadors. That's why. They never forgot to forgive the Jew for introducing Jews to Judaism. They never forgave us. In the end, what we did in many ways is we gave them a conscience, you see? We made them into whips. We forced them to serve God. Not that God serves man, but man has to serve God. The origin of anti-Semitism is it goes is the Jew what believes in goes contrary to the thing that a person wants. And that is to be independent, fully self-functioning, and don't tell me what to do. And that's the root of anti-Semitism, you see? And intuitively, everybody knows the concept of the Bible, right? The Torah. The Bible is the greatest book ever published and it's well-known. And when you read the Bible, what's the first thing you begin to see? The righteousness of God. Justice, right? The morality and the ethics. And and and so on, you know? What do you think a guy feels when he's reading that? Part of him is at war with himself. Part of him would like to believe this, but part of him says, "Are you out of your mind? You believe this, you can't do anything. Cuz you got to do exactly what God wants." That's the origin of anti-Semitism in the end. And that's the concept of Abraham Avinu trying to be killed by by uh by Nimrod. It's interesting. You see? One more idea. It says in the Torah that we call the mountain of Torah was made by Hashem, yes? The mountain of Sinai. So, the Chazal says, "Why is it called Sinai? Because it's a mountain of sin'ah." Because mountain Torah at Sinai brought sin'ah to the world, hatred. Hatred? Where did that come from? What I'm saying, because Sinai brought a religion that doesn't allow man to compromise God. And therefore, everybody hates that. And therefore, they hate the Jew because he's the bringer, the messenger of what the person wants. That's the sin'ah. Because other than that, it makes no sense. On the contrary, they're trying to introduce an incredible amount of what? Morality and so on, how society can live with each other. But what the Jew did is far more than that. It brought sin'ah. It does not allow man to do whatever he wants. You cannot compromise God. That's the sin'ah. Therefore, intuitively, you feel difficult to accept the Torah because it goes against the grain of human nature, you see? Now that you understand this, okay? You can now go back to what? To all the questions I asked about Amalek. What was the first question I asked? Okay? First question. Why did they go to war with the Jews? There's no military threat. No. It's true. There's no military threat. But there is an ideological threat. Amalek intuitively realized that what the Jews are about to offer the world is a religion which is empowerable because it doesn't allow us to compromise anything. You know, it it makes us slaves, submit to the person. We cannot allow that. And therefore, they said, which is incredible, "What we must do is we must kill the Jews. We cannot allow a religion that offers no strategy to compromise." You see? So, it was a a religious problem, not a military problem. And they hated the Jews so much because of that, just like Sinai, sin'ah, that they were willing to commit suicide. Mostly nefesh for that. Cuz they knew they would lose. You can't fight a nation that just wiped out Egypt. You can't fight a nation that not only wiped out Egypt, right? 2.4 million people. Right? You can't do that. And not only that, the fortune to spend money on that kind of a a war is a fortune to cross borders. But it's worth it to destroy this nation because they are bringing something empowerable to the world. You see? That answers what Amalek really is. They cannot stand the fact that Judaism does not allow them to do whatever they want. And therefore, they're to be mercy and never fish, even if it means their own death. And you will see in a little while an incredible historical precedent for that. But now you understand something else. What is Now you ask and you will see and understand why they attacked right before Martin Torah was. Because the Torah was about to be given, right? That would have given this religion to the people to to the world. So right before the Torah was given, they had to attack the Jews. Because they knew the Jews were going to go to Sinai because they told that to Pharaoh, "We want to worship our God on that mountain." So they knew that the Jews were going to receive something at Sinai. But where it is, it's going to be Judaism. And Judaism is anathema to human nature. So here's a nation that hated Jews, Sinai, because they were going to do so immediately. You cannot compromise God. And now that answers really the ultimate question. Why does God hate Amalek? You look at the Torah, I say, "Wow, Amalek Pinhas, you didn't kill you didn't kill them. My seat isn't filled, my kiss say Kiseu Adonai Kiseu Kah." Right? The hand of Amalek is against the throne of God. And therefore Amalek Pinhas, you have to wipe out every man, woman, and child. We talk about God's with infinite Amalek. Why? How do we understand this? And the answer is because the most dangerous man in the world or the most dangerous nation is a nation that mocks, not God, but the sovereignty of God. Notice what it says, Kiseu The hand of Amalek is against the throne of God. Don't say that the hand of Amalek is against God. Right? It's just a throne. What is the throne? What does he say? Right? The throne is a symbol of the sovereignty of his ability to rule over you. Surely they believe in God cuz they're polytheists. You know? But what they did is they rebelled against his sovereignty. His ability to command us in an absolute way. That's maduyak in the possuk. That's why. So not only does the possuk say, "That's idolatry. I'd rather have an atheist than an Amaleki." Why? Cuz an atheist eventually will grow wise and will say, "Hey, it's so ridiculous to be an atheist." You know? But if you believe in God and you compromise God, you've mocked his ol malchus shamayim. You've mocked the whole concept of the ol malchus shamayim, which is the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. That's why we say Krias Shema twice a day to be mekabel the ol. You see? It is so important to accept the sovereignty of God that we say twice a day. And that's exactly what they were against, the ol malchus shamayim. You see? That's why God said, "You need to wipe them out. You need to wipe the zecher out." Because God does not want anybody to remember them because to remember them is to repeat their philosophy. And to repeat their philosophy means to make it attractive to people. We need to compromise, you see? So here is the greatest enemy of God is a person that not denies his existence, but who mocks his ability to issue commandments, his sovereignty. In fact, the incredible remez is what? How do you spell Amalek? Ayin, mem, lamed, kuf. Yes? That's the rashei teivos of ol malchus melkidu. The same letters. Ol malchus melkidu. That the kingdom of heaven they don't accept. So it's not that they denied the existence of God because they believed in gods. They denied his ability to be a sovereign. So they created a compromise. But what's even worse is that they were willing to be mercy and never fish. That type of self-sacrifice demands that they be wiped out. You see? And it it answers a fundamental question of why God hates them so much. Now that we understand this, we can understand something about Haman. Right? Haman doesn't make sense. Again, when you look at Haman, what he did is absurd. Let me show you. Okay? Ahasuerus is the greatest emperor of all. Got 127 countries under him. What an empire. Okay? And who's the second in command, the grand vizier? It's Haman. Correct? Haman is the grand vizier. Now, you married Vashti because Mordecai doesn't bow to you. Right? Okay, so kill Mordecai. What do you want to kill all the Jews for? Are you crazy? I mean, you're Haman, you're not stupid. Right? You don't become stupid becoming the grand vizier. You're a bright guy. You see? What are you killing all the Jews for? You don't like Mordecai, kill him. Why are you doing this? What kind of racist is that? Who ever heard of something like that? You see? And not only that, nobody wants to wipe out an entire nation. You need the economy. They economically the Jews are very loyal and so on. So why would he kill everybody? First question. Second question. Okay? He asked one of his guards, "Who's this guy that's not bowing to me?" So the guy said and they told him he's Mordecai. How do you know he's shekel hayehudi, the Jew? Who cares what he is? Kill the guy and finish it. Why the fact that he identifies as a Jew makes such a difference? Third question. Why does the megillah always keep saying Haman ben Hammedatha and so on. Right? What he's always repeating is yichus. You know, you say it once what an old guy is and that's all. Why do we need to constantly remind of his genealogy? And the fourth question is even more bizarre. What was his argument to Ahasuerus to kill them? Cuz he needed Ahasuerus' permission. He goes to Ahasuerus and says, "Listen, yes, um mefurad mefuzar of the nations they ain't just their religion is different. You know, everything about them is different. You know? If you approve, let me kill them all." So obviously Ahasuerus said, "Excuse me, you want to kill the Jews? You know how much tax I lose?" So he said, "Okay, I'll give you 10,000 pounds of silver in order to compensate for the fact that you won't get the the the money from them." How much is 10,000 pounds of silver worth in today's terms? That's the the estimate was 100 million dollars. A lot of money. He's a very wealthy man, Haman. That's what you become when you're the grand vizier. You know? The one who obviously learns from Haman is Hillary Clinton. Anyway. You know, if you're up there, you can you can bribe the anybody, you know, just collect all the bribes. But in any case, but it doesn't make sense. We know that that Ahasuerus ruled over 127 different countries. But wait a minute, each one had their own religion, didn't they? They had their own belief system, their own social values, their own culture, their religion. So how can you say the Jews have a different religion? It doesn't make sense. Everybody has a different religion. So what was the argument that Haman said? Got it? It didn't make too sense. So therefore, this is what happened. Haman saw that Mordecai doesn't bow. And that was bizarre. Why? Because when the grand vizier comes in front of you, you bow. Why? Because it's your benefit that you show him obeisance, as they say. Right? And if you do that, he'll like you and maybe he'll do things for you. Right? Like cut your real estate property tax. Right? And so on, right? That's what a guy does because it benefits him. But he saw Mordecai doesn't want to bow. So he realized Mordecai must believe in a God that doesn't cannot be compromised. You want to bow for your benefit, too bad. Right? No, God says you cannot bow before man. So he realized that. He says, "Wait a minute. This guy's not bowing even though it's beneficial to him because he must have a belief system where his God doesn't allow, right, any compromise, even if you benefit." So he asked his guard, "Who's this guy?" So the guard said, "He's Jew." Aha, so he said, "He's a Jew? Wait a minute. I'm an Amaleki. I have a yichus. My ancestors took on a mission to kill all the Jews precisely because they cannot compromise God. So therefore, I need to take up their slack and finish the job." And therefore, I need to kill Mordecai and all the Jews because I need to do what my ancestors did. I need to take up their cause and do it also. That's what he realized. And that's why the megillah constantly says the yichus. Why? Because he's not doing it because only he hates Jews. He really took up the mission of Amalek, his ancestors. And the mission I want to show you that that's really what he's doing, right? So they keep repeating his yichus all the way up to Agag, which goes back to Amalek. And that's what he told Ahasuerus. He said, "Listen, of course we have 127 different religions. But these guys are not like anybody They're not like anybody else. Everybody else figured out how to compromise God. These guys insist that you can't. They think that every other religion on the world, as I've shown you, right? We have to do away with them. In fact, they're the most dangerous species of all." This is the concept of Haman. When do we see this today? It's incredible we see today. I told you that the real origin of anti-Semitism is they've never forgiven the Jews for what they did to us. Right? Which is what? You made us into winners. You gave us gave us a conscience. We'll never forgive you for that. You see, yeah, of course on one side they say we accept the Bible. Yeah, of course, but deep down there's a tremendous resentment because you've taken away you force it to submit to another authority. Which is anathema to human nature. But what happens now? Right? Who did that? Hitler and his machinery. Do you know why Hitler hated the Jews? He writes that Mein Kampf. He writes that Mein Kampf. The reason why he hated the Jews because the Jews, he says, they have made mankind into wimps. He's given them a conscience with their morality nonsense. That's why he hated the Jews. Who does that sound like to you? Amalek. Jewry is Amalek and Hitler is a Kukulkan Herman Rauschning. How? But he is repeating the exact same argument as Amalek. And he wrote that and that's why he hated the Jews. He writes that. Because you read that you can't compromise God. And if you think about it, what did Hitler believe in? Nietzsche. The superman. Deutschland über alles. That's their anthem. Right? Who ever heard of something like that? Blonde hair, blue eyes, the Aryan race. They're all just megalomaniacs. A megalomaniac should submit to God? Excuse me. The very nature of Germany is to oppose God. You see? And therefore that's what you write. Hitler is a Hitler but he was really an Austrian but Austria is really German and so on. And therefore that's why they wanted to kill the Jews because they believed in the opposite. They believed in the supremacy of man which is Nietzsche's philosophy. So the exact opposite, the most dangerous thing to their philosophy is Judaism. And since the Jews represent Judaism, we need we need to kill them. It's a very important idea. But there's something even more incredible. There's a book called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. He writes an incredible idea or it's a historical fact. He said at the end of the war in 1945, what was happening? Hitler the the the generals came over to Hitler and they said to him, "You know, we're losing the war. It's over. You you're dreaming of a third thousand year third Reich, right?" Third Reich thousand years, forget it. It's not going to last a year. We're losing the war. So Hitler said to them, "Why? What's the problem?" Germans were incredible fighters. I mean, they could have conquered the world. If not for the fact that God stopped them, they would have conquered the world. In any case. So Hitler asked them, "What's the problem?" So he answered the generals answered, "Because instead of using the cars the the the the railroad cars to ship the troops to the front, you're using it to ship the Jews to the concentration camps. We don't have any railroads. And if we have nobody fighting so you need to stop this. Stop obsessing about the destruction of the Jews." You know what Hitler told them? Get lost. When you get lost, you just condemned uh Germany to lose the war. Just astounding. Doesn't that sound like Messiah's message? It's it's Amalek war again. His obsession with killing the Jews because they refused to compromise God is the greatest evil of mankind because they gave mankind a conscience, right? He was so obsessed with killing them which is classic Amalek, right? That he was willing to commit suicide which is what he did. He committed suicide in the end and Germany lost the war. And probably if you think about it Hitler was the greatest traitor of Germany. Because it's madness. No guy would have done that. He said, "Oh, forget about the Jews. You know, I'm dreaming dreaming of a thousand year third Reich." Right? Is he out of his mind? But he's put the destruction of the Jewish people above the victory of Germany. And he was willing to go to the grave because of it. Who does that sound like? Amalek. Exactly what it is. So Amalek never died. It still exists. But most people have the harbor those ideas. But they keep it down. Because they practice their religions that compromise God in many ways. You see? Every once in a while somebody gets up just says openly, "I hate the Jews." But that is the origin of anti-Semitism really. And Hitler was the proof. You see? Once you understand that, you understand some very bizarre ideas and so on. You know? You ever notice why is the Torah always saying, right? Vayas Moshe k'asher k'asher tziva Hashem Moshe. And Moses did exactly as the mouth of God commanded. Why? It says numerous amount of times. And Moshe did what God commanded him. What's that mean? Because he never inserted his own ideas to compromise God. That was the greatest thing. When a Jew does exactly what God wants. K'asher tziva Hashem Moshe. As God has commanded Moshe. That's the greatest shvach, praise, which means that he doesn't insert any of his own ideas any of his own needs, any of the strategies of all religions. He does exactly to the letter of what God wants. And that's why it says that. You see? It's amazing when you think about it. There's an idea which I once wrote from Zalman Auerbach, famous Maggid. You know, it says in the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, you know, when you cut a chet and so on. It says, "I I forgive me once because Moshe ourselves taught that which you forbade, he taught me I permit." And it also says, "U'Moshe it karto but what you forbade, I may forbid." So Rav said, "Wait, I don't understand this. I can understand you need a kaporah because you said it was forbidden and I marked it. So it's a chet. But if you permitted it and I asked it, why is that a chet?" So he said a very important concept. But it's a long time ago. He says it's because the chet here isn't because he did an aveira because he didn't. It's permitted by God. He said, "You want to forbid it, fine. But why did you forbid it? Because there's ego involved. Because you want to prove you're somebody. All right? So therefore I said it was permitted. So who are you to say it's forbidden? Because you're obviously investing self ego in it. Because if I permit it, everybody's going to say, 'Wow, what an incredible talmid chacham, you know, he he asked it.' He was machmir. Don't be machmir. It's mutar. Because you're putting your own ego. You didn't do k'asher tziva Hashem Moshe. You see? And that's the chet. It's interesting. So we understand Look what we understand now. You should know the greatest pitfall in the avodah the greatest is to compromise God. You see? Not to deny God. People don't deny God. We're not idolizing God, right? We're not crazy, right? We're not particularly our God and we don't think we can become God, right? So what do we do? We're always trying to compromise God. It's a real aveira. Now, it's not okay to look for a heter. There's a heter. You see? But mankind is always involved in compromising with Hashem. And you can't do that really. Yeah, you found a Shulchan Aruch. It's mutar it's mutar and it's fine. But you see? But you notice through therefore that mankind is preoccupied always with compromising with Hashem because a person always wants to do what he wants to do. He wants to rebel against authority. That's what he has to do. And this is really in the end what Amalek was. Amalek was a nation that realized that the Jew they were the first true anti-Semite Semite anti-Semites. Egypt was not anti-Semitic. They were just they just wanted slaves. You know? They and therefore they used the they used the Jews. Did they hate the Jews per se? No. If they would have hated the Jews, the Levi Levi never did any avodah. Levi was never subjugated in Egypt. They would have killed Levi too. You see? But they didn't hate them. But they You see you see they weren't truly anti-Semitic anti-Semitic because the Jews what they what they needed in economics. That's why. Same thing with Roman Greece. Roman Greece didn't really hate the Jews. They just stood in their way of power. You know, Greeks they stood in their way to rebel. Don't rebel. We want to control you, right? We want to take your territory. We want to charge you tax and so on. Where did anti-Semitism first originate? Do you know where? Christianity. That's where it begins. Because they we we we killed their God so to speak. That's the real hatred of Jews. That's where it began. You see? Because we don't believe in their guy. Right? We believe in the Torah. But the Torah you cannot compromise. You see? But their guy, right? In the New Testament it says, "I come not to abrogate the the law of Moses." Which is the biggest joke because then he abrogates everything. Abrogates to nullify. Then he nullifies everything. You see? That's what the New Testament does. Just to get rid of the whole all the mitzvahs and so on. So therefore they hate Jews for that. Because their guy himself is Jewish. You see? Which bothers them to this day. Right? And not only that, their religion compromises what Judaism doesn't. This is the concept of Amalek. Amalek isn't something that existed a long time ago. Amalek is a is a here and now phenomenon now. And that's really Germany and all the anti-Semites out there. Why does everybody hate you so much? You know, why does the UN hate the Jews? That means cuz there's a double standard. What's the problem with Christians all the time? And the answer is this is the answer. Cuz pure created sinner sinner. Why? Because we gave them a religion a set of beliefs that does not allow God to be compromised. There's only one God. He is righteous, just in everything, and he is an absolute ruler. He had he he has accountability, and you need to tow the line or else you got problems later on. That's true origin of anti-Semitism. That's Amalek, but Amalek was was a nefesh to do it. Just like Hitler in Nazi Germany. He'd rather die than have the Jews remain. You see? So, this is the keenness of Amalek. And now you know why God hates them. Cuz it's the greatest mockery of all. The mockery where you believe in God, yet you mock his sovereignty. You're not a follower of the old markers. So, what's the whole point? What's the whole point? You do whatever you want to God. The whole thing is a joke. You see? God does not God does not tolerate jokes. Not that kind. He can deal with an atheist. Or he can deal with somebody who's a very good designer. Yeah. But don't believe in me and then pull off a strategy where you do whatever you want. That is completely against how God rules the world in my mind. And that is so important we say Shema twice a day. You see? That's how important that is. You see? In any case, so this is the keenness of Amalek. It's something to remember. And you also understand ideas of Haman. That he all he did was he followed up on the mission of his ancestors. You see? And that's why you said "The Hashemites, what they do is ignore the religion of that. There's no exit. There's no out. You need to kill them all, you know." And thank God protects us from that. You see? But this is the the this is what's called the eternal problem the Jews have. Is that we represent God. We represent his belief system. And and people will always hate us for that. I don't care who they are. But it's it doesn't always have to be that way. A person can submit. You see? Look, Islam hates us also for that reason. Because what they do, they chopped all the missus. That's what they did. And not only that, they can kill everybody because they said their God kills infidel. Wipe out the infidel. That's where ISIS gets all that there. You know? They do exactly one of the strategies. They want to murder, so they just said God God said and they put that in the Quran that God said murder the Jews, you know, whatever behind the tree or whatever they especially and so on. In any case, this is the keenness uh this is the depth of the problem that Judaism has. The problem that the world has with Judaism. And it never disappears. Never. And it'll go on till the end of time. But the devotional finds says "I'm tired of this whole business." And also the devotional will reveal himself. And could you believe the shock when people they realize that the nation that they so despised even though Amasa the the the the stone that the builders despised hoisin wishpina became the cornerstone. That's hope. That's this year. Right? With the entrance of Messiah and and then we should we we redeemed from all these terrible terrible you know events that occur on a daily basis. Thank you. Any questions? Yes. It seems it seems like this concept of Amalek was actually having truth in the in God's desire to tolerate. In other words in a certain sense Yes, it's a cuz really you know what the ultimate conflict of man is? It's the same as Adam and Eve. What was the real conflict of Adam? To eat from the tree or not? No, that's not his conflict. Right? His problem wasn't the diet. His problem is who's the who's the real God? Right? Is God himself subject to another force called the tree? Or can I become God? Man who goes against God. That's that's his conflict. So, by becoming God, what he's really doing is demolishing God and saying that I can become you and therefore, you know, I can equal you. The concept of man is the concept of Adam. Who is the boss ultimately? Anybody else? Yeah. Amalek. Uh Ladies first. Ladies first. You said some uh hatred of Amalek or some hatred of some other people. You're saying that God is not taking not taking the atheists and the Muslims around. I want to say something. Are you asking why we hate them or why God hates them? No, no, no. You said God hates them. Yeah. I didn't understand that. Well, here well well well it says also God hates Esau. God doesn't hate Esau. Here's the difference. A racist is somebody who hates somebody because of who you are. God can hate somebody because of what you do. That's the difference. But it's not Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me just say this. God is not a racist. Remember, racism is I hate you because of who you are. You know? If you're if you're black, I hate blacks. What do you mean? I'm black. What do you want from me? Right? I didn't do anything. No, I hate blacks. Right? That's racism. Because of who you are. But if you're a guy that goes and kills people, I don't hate you because who you are. I hate you because what you do. You're killing everybody. You see? That's the incredible difference. God doesn't hate Amalek because of who they are. It's what they do. That they want to destroy and commit suicide because they want to use they want to overthrow his sovereignty. That's a point. Don't confuse racism with behavior. You see what I'm saying? I'll give you the answer. Does Rabbi Judaism have a different psychological Who? Yes. Cuz I want to say something. Well, that's what Yeah, yeah. Do we also find these things in other religions as well? In Islam? Yeah. About what? That is self-preservation about the process of self-worth. Yeah. We actually find it. Yeah. Excellent. I did. Want to hear? I know. I was going to push you I want to know what the question was. You want to repeat the question? He wants to know I I mentioned some fundamental psychological drives. So, and the the the the the most fundamental in terms of what we do is is the drive to to remove inferiority, self-worth. The drive to achieve self-worth is the fundamental fundamental drive. Below that is self-preservation. But that that that just is animals have that drive, too. But no an animal doesn't have self-worth. An animal is not concerned with its worth. You notice? Tigers don't have problems. That's why tigers never go to a therapist. I've never seen a tiger that was a therapist. You see? Because tigers don't have any problems with self-worth. But you know what they do have problems with? Self-preservation, territorial. That's why if you Muslim are on their territory, they will kill you. Not because they not because they have to prove they're somebody. They are somebody. Right? It's because you're taking away their food. That's the difference between an animal and a man. Only a man has problems with his worth. Animals don't have that problem. I asked the same question. How long is the Rabbi in English life or is the Rabbi even classes on tomorrow? I give a class in my house Monday morning from 10:30 to 12:00 in learning how to significantly improve your ability to learn. So, I'd really like to come. So, come. You're invited. It's an open chair. It's 10:30 in my house from 10:30 to 12:00 Monday morning. Uh I live in Homebush 91. I live in Uh but Anybody else? Yes. Yeah, go ahead. I'm just going to go back to the end you mentioned Islam. Islam, yes. I'm so surprised that you didn't uh mention them in all the different religions. Religions. And I'm also so surprised why you are so intolerant towards them in claiming that their God is the same as our Who said that? Well I hear all the time that Allah is Is God? No. I That's a tremendous mistake people make. You know why? You know Islam history of that is? The Arabs before Muhammad came along, what what religion did the Arabs have? They had polytheism. They believed in many gods. Different spirits and so on. Right? The most powerful of all the little gods was a god called Allah. You know that? But it was part of the pantheon of of the deities that Arabs worshipped. So, along came Muhammad and he said "Wait a minute. You know, forget about everybody else. I'm going to take Allah, who is the most powerful of everybody, you know, and I'm going to elevate him to be the supreme." So, Allah really it's really it's most people are not aware of that. Allah is the supreme being among all the other gods. You see? And that's what he really did. And so on. And then what he obviously what he obviously tried to do is try to legitimize that. So, therefore he he had a servant if I remember correctly had a servant called Ibrahim, Abraham, who taught him Torah in that sense. You know, yes. And that's why he you know, Islam is the opposite of Torah. I mean, look at the five five principles of five tenets of the pillars of Islam. It's all dinim. You know, it's you know, tahara, emunah, al olem regel. You have to go to Mecca once in your life. That's what it is. Why is it considered Why is it considered monotheistic? Why is it not considered that way? Because because in the present day form, they believe in one God. They don't believe in any of the others. What what what happened there is they elevated that one against Islam is monotheistic. That's all it is. Monotheism simply means one God. But that's the Jewish God. I mean, if you look at their God, what kind of God is it? It God that that says you need to kill them. You You know, Judaism doesn't say that. You you want to Judaism doesn't care if you don't believe in God. They don't kill anybody. Do what you want. It's your here. It's your free will. Yeah, if you're going to interfere with my ability, that's different. You see? Amalek wanted to kill the Jews. That's a different story. Are you know what I'm saying? But other than that, hey, you can do whatever you want. It's a free country. Or I should say free will. Islam doesn't allow that. The problem with Islam and that's why there will never be peace. Anybody who thinks there will be peace with Islam is an absolute idiot. Why? Because I I I I can tell you why. Because the problem with Islam is that they are theologically driven. They can't allow peace. The only way we get The only way you can relate to Islam is one of two ways. Either they are under you or they're over you. There is no such thing as equality. You see? And what? Because they are theologically driven. The Quran does not allow them to It allows them for others to exist. But if you do this, you're going to be a demi. A demi means a subservient person. There's no such thing as equality. A Jew, hey, you can be equal to me. You know, just because you don't believe what I believe, you're equal to me in the sense that, you know, I don't issue laws where I suffocate you, you know, to inferiority. Of course not. That's why it it's impossible for Islam to make peace with Israel. It's In fact, Islam can't make peace with anybody. Because their theology denies equality. That's the concept of jihad. Jihad means you need to rule. That's it. You have no other option. What? Are they in the same line as Amalek or not? No. No, not really. It's just a strategy. What they did is they gave over to their God, right? Murderous intentions. That's all. They want to murder, fine. So they they their God says to murder, no problem. The Christians did it also. That's what it says. You know? That's why they murdered so many Jews anyway. Yeah. I have a I have two-sided question. Two-sided? Sounds like a double-edged Sounds like a double-edged double-edged sword. The Midrash says the last thing that Amalek does is make Yeah. Uh there is a Midrash that talks about the idea that they were so so much hate towards Israel when we were coming out of Egypt, coming into the land, that it was like a uh you were like a hot tub and they were cold dropping Yes. They're coming in. That refers to No, that's something else. Let me just finish this off. And not all not all terrorists are Not all Muslims are Not all Muslims are terrorists, but those that are Correct. they are all Muslims. Yes. So the concept of suicide suicide bombers Yes. the concept of the suicide bomber reminds me of this drop of water going into the bathtub two cold sub parts and then dies and die out. Yeah, they'll be burned to death. So do you see some kind of a Oh, yeah. I read that Is it true or is it true that Amalek transmigrated to different Yes. The Zohar says, which is really very interesting, that the Zohar that says that Amalek will ultimately merge with Yishmael. Now, what does Yishmael do? Suicide. Isn't that interesting? So does Amalek. It's the Zohar. Okay. There you go. Right. Great. Yeah, that's How does Judaism means uh the way you explain the person has basic from the self-esteem, how does Judaism of importance psychology of the person You mean what does Judaism do about your need for self-esteem? Is that what you're asking? the antidote Well, what's interesting about Judaism is it's a paradox. The greater bitul hayesh the greater negation of self you have the greater you are, which is interesting. So your self-worth comes from negation of self. What is that called? You know what it's called? What's the greatest of all my greatest of a Jew? And the answer is humility. The oish Moshe or your honestly called Adam she will oretz. Oretz. Incredibly humble. Yet that was his That that's what made him so great. He was the greatest humble man and therefore was the greatest Jew. You see? But that's a paradox. And the answer to that is your self-worth doesn't become doesn't come because you are searching for ways to feel like somebody. The real self-worth comes from the greatest humility and therefore you're worth the most. You get it? It's a paradox. You see? So in a certain sense you know, in a certain sense, you actually by negating not self, you can't negate self, but by negating your importance or self, you actually become the greatest. You know, they tell the story of Rabbi Akiva You know, Rabbi Akiva was a For those who know Rabbi Akiva, one of the incredible Godol. So they said tell me to one somebody said to him, you know, this Rabbi Akiva was a prince on earth, whatever and so on. And he said, you know, by the way, there's an incredible honest that lives in his village, humble person. You know? So they told the story He was He was I got to see this guy. I I got to see what the guy who was incredibly honest. So he went to the village and of course Rabbi Akiva village, you know, they honored him saying, you what would you like, you know? Well, I want to visit this guy. Let's Let's say his name is Reuben, right? I want to visit Reuben, you know? And he of course he goes to Reuben's house and he says, I'd like to stay with you for two weeks. And he stays with him for two weeks, right? And he sees it's true. This Reuben, he's incredible. His humility is awesome. So he He's about to leave there after two weeks and he says to Reuben, he says, you know, uh when I saw Reuben, he was incredible. But I have one problem, one question. It seems to me oish Moshe or your honestly called oretz. The man Moses was the most humble man. And I see that you rival him. So the guy said to him Reuben said to him, you know, I also had that problem. Here's the guy who was You know, it's like the guy, you know, in Europe used to be a wasser schlepper. You know a wasser schlepper? It's the you know, they didn't have water like that today in the same place, you have to go and buy water. The guy used to like a milkman, right? The waterman, right? Uh so a waterman, what kind of job is that? It's a schlepper. It's a you know, it's it's a zero for you, you know? So So a guy once said to him, you know, he's buying some water. The guy says, you know, you must feel like you must feel terrible about yourself cuz I mean, what kind of parnossa, you know, schlepping water and so on, you know? He says, you know what? I got a real problem. Don't want to tell you something. I'm the best water schlepper there is in the city. You can always be a better guy but in some way. I don't care what it is. You know? Because the guy who really is a distortion of self, I I don't get the guy who really is in the abyss. But But in the essence of it is to answer your question Judaism the value that Judaism places on a person, which is real value, okay? Is the greatest honest. It's a paradox. So by being a nobody, so to speak, or recognizing Not that you're a nobody, you're not. You are what whatever God made you. You see? But by recognizing who you are, right? As really insignificant, that itself gives you the greatest value of all. And therefore God will attach himself to you to make us The greater the anivus the greater the tveikus. Okay? I mean, there's a lot more to talk about, but that's basically it. Yes. What was that? It's a comment on the story of Rabbi Eliezer where the strategy that the Rabbanim voted against God, so to speak, on the halachic ruling of the to know Rabbi Eliezer Oh, you mean Bava Metzia? Yeah. Maybe tell the story that there's a cloud and in terms of the strategy because it says that the Rabbanim of of the academy voted against the Yeah. In terms of the strategy which took location of the patient and said Another uh uh These are Tannaim. Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua are Tannaim. There was a dispute about an oven. The Talmud brings it down. There's a dispute about an oven if it's tamei, can it become tamei, whatever, can it become tamei the father, whatever, right? There's a whole dispute between the great Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurkanus. He's a rabbi of Rabbi Akiva. Phenomenal person. And then there's I mean, these are incredible people, right? So they're arguing, right? So each one wanted to prove that they were right, you know? So So Rabbi Eliezer said, if I'm right, let that wall bend. And it bent. I said, that's a miracle. But they were so great that God listened to them. So it bent. So they said to Rabbi Eliezer, I'm sorry, you cannot God cannot give you proof you're right because once the Torah was given, then we're the only ones that can agree what's the right course. God gave it to man's dominion. What halakha they accept? God can no longer say, "I agree with Rabbi Yishmael." And so on. But that's because God gave mission from God gave you authority over the ultimate halakha to the hakhamim. Uh so, it's not because they think they're great. They have the legal right to decide, and God cannot mix in. Why? Because he doesn't want to change. He doesn't want to mix in. You see? He created He gave a din that it's the Sanhedrin or the hakhamim. They decide the laws. I will no longer decide the laws. It was the Torah was given once at Sinai. And after that that's what they mean "Torah lo bashamayim hi." Torah is not in heaven. What that mean? It came from heaven, but once it was given, then God gave the authority transferred the authority who decides what the halakha is is the hakhamim, not me. And they have the right. That's why you have hakhamim. The Gemara is filled with fights, makhlokes, because that's the that's the way Jewish law operates. It is the hakhamim, man, that determines the law. God doesn't determine, but God wants man to use the rules of decision-making that he does. You know, all these all kinds of rules how he decides on, but the decision what the halakha is that. But I don't know what you mean. They would be They They would tell me They would tell me they were They're nobodies. I mean, themselves. They were incredible, but they had incredible anavah, but they knew that they had the authority. So, they can use it. You know? Look, Moshe Rabbeinu with Korach. All right? Korach What he was What did he usurp the authority of Moshe Rabbeinu? So, what did Moshe Rabbeinu say? You know? He said, "Hey, what are you doing? You don't have enough. You know, let's make a test." I told Moshe he was enough. Why did he defy Korach? You see? Korach had nothing to do with anavah. You know? Moshe Rabbeinu knew who he was, but he had to defy Korach because Korach was creating an incredible danger to Klal Yisrael. He was questioning the transmission process that maybe Moshe Rabbeinu issued laws that were his own laws and not from God. You see? You know why the earth swallowed them up? Why the earth What kind of That's a bizarre punishment like Korach. Right? Incredible. And you know, and the earthquake followed him. I mean, it's like you know, I I didn't say small just Oh, guys who study earthquakes would stand in wonder what happened. Right? The earthquake followed Korach and all the other 250 guys that died. And it was an it was an incredible What an earthquake, you know? It was a local earthquake that followed these guys. Why did God kill them that way? For whatever he did to them. Right? And the answer is because if you break the authority of Moshe, then the whole Judaism has doesn't stand on any ground. So, measure for measure, since you are trying to make a crack in the ground of Judaism, the ground will kill you. What? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Well, that's I'm just giving you a Look, you know, and so on. I mean, when they when they had to be men They had to be men. I mean, but they realized who they were. They're nobodies, but they granted the authority to decide the law, and they used it. Even if they felt like nobody, tremendous anavah. What a contradiction. Yes? The question is really Is Is it possible to have a direct experience of what God requires other than going through tradition? I'm not clear what you mean by experience. Well, people learn Torah, so so the Torah is the will of God. But what experience The Torah is a transmission. The Torah is transmitted, but it's a document that we use his law. Why can't anybody have a direct experience of what the divine will is? What the divine will is? Yes, Moshe Rabbeinu. Right? God revealed to him directly. That's called a prophetic experience. A prophet has a direct experience. You see? There There's a whole concept called prophecy. It's a phenomenon. Right? So, the concept of prophecy is to experience God directly. No documents. It's a direct transmission. And there were thousands of prophets in the days of old. Right? Can you? Yes, you can. But I'll tell you something. There are different levels or degrees of prophecy. The original prophecy, I'm not going to go into the differences, you cannot experience for reasons. However, there are lower levels of prophecy. The lowest level is called Ruach Hakodesh. You can divine spirit. There are people who have Ruach Hakodesh, which means that all of a sudden they know. It's not the same as prophecy. It's a difference. But it is to experience the will of God instantly. It arises in your mind, and you all of a sudden you know. That you can experience. But in order to experience that, you need to observe the Torah. Because the mitzvot clear you out, and they raise you in your neshama to have that experience. So, you can do it. If you If you really work at it, you can get Ruach Hakodesh. Yes. It'll take a while. But you can do it. Yeah. That's available to everybody today, Ruach Hakodesh. Okay? Yeah. We also mentioned that this shiur was in commemoration of Moshe Rabbeinu's shiur. So, I just wanted to mention that to the next question. We have a conference convention. Our ship's topic is that all the prophets, whoever came after Moshe, received the ruach as the meaning the inspiration through the emanation of Moshe. Through him? Yeah, okay. Okay, that's the topic. To connect Moshe Rabbeinu's yahrtzeit for today with Av 9, right? And this shiur is the last thing I mentioned. The Torah praises Moshe Rabbeinu, right? "Kasher tzi'vah Hashem et Moshe." As God commanded Moses. That is the exact opposite of what Amalek did. So, there you are. That's the connection. Moshe was the antithesis of Amalek. Whatever he did was an absolute observance of what God wanted. Amalek is the compromise God. So, Moshe Rabbeinu really and Amalek are exactly antithetical. So, that's Is that so? Is that Is that probably the purpose why Hashem has been introduced Amalek? To see the opposite parallel for us to learn that from it? But it seems like Amalek has free will. God didn't force them to do what they did. As Hashem has created the Torah in love, but here he creates this whole system of generations where where we have to suffer. We just have to suffer because it's written. And it's going to happen. No. It's written if you don't observe the commandments, you suffer. But it's not written you have to suffer. It is written that you have You have a job to do. That's true. Ultimately, almost you work. Man is created He's born to work, a mitzvah. He has to There's a job that you have to have effort for that job, but you're not born to suffer. Doesn't say that. No, no. I I I I I I I wasn't It's written in the Torah in that. That's what I mean. But but what How do you explain the command and Korach? I don't know the question. It's just Why is there Amalek in the world? Why are the Israelites going to have to suffer from Amalek in the world? You know, God for whatever reason I'm not That's another shiur, the whole divine plan. But But the the essential idea is simple. I mean, if it's There is a divine plan, and that plan entails or demands free will. Once you have free will, then you can do whatever you want. You could serve God or deny God or whatever you want to do, right? And I'm not going into why there has to be free will and so on, but that's why many people choose choose to do evil. And if they do evil, that's their prerogative to to exercise their free will. You know, you know? That's part God wanted it to be free will. I'm not going into why it's Once you have the concept of free will, you immediately have the concept that you can go two directions. Right? That's That's why. But but but isn't the the reason for the Jewish people is their own lack of unity? That that that that that's why we have bonus? Oh, no, no. It's because the Jews do sins. It's the sins of the Jews that causes everything. Period. If they didn't sin, the Mashiach would have come a long time ago. Yeah. When the Jews came out of somewhere coming out of Egypt, and now the creation of Amalek. What is happening by some sort of process that allowed Amalek to come forth? With the free will, this is my right to do what I did. Well, fundamentally, it is a it is a free will decision. Look, Amalek always had this. It's just that they recognized that the Jewish religion in Egypt was an incredible threat. But they couldn't do it because of that meant going up against Egypt. I mean, Egypt would never allow them to kill the Jews because Egypt needed them for slaves. So they had to wait. Who knows how many years? Tens and tens of years, hundreds of years. Cuz Amalek really is the grandson, if you think about that. He's the grandson of Esau. You know what I'm saying? Who knows how many years they had to wait? Um look, his grandfather was Esau. We know what Esau was. You know? You see, so I mean he's not very far from his zaida, as they say. So they couldn't have backed They couldn't attack the Jews in Egypt. They had to wait. Oh. The opportune time came. The Jews are out of Egypt. Egypt cannot stop them anymore cuz they're destroyed. Now we can kill the Jews. But they've been planning this for years. Well, yeah. So how did Esau come from from Yitzchak and and Rivka? How did he beat his dad's son? How did he what? How is he their son? How is he to save him? How did I mean how did a guy with a father like Yitzchak and a grandfather like Avram, how did a guy turn out like this? Is that what you're asking? His grandfather was like And his grandson is Amalek. His son was Eliphaz. So he's right, you know, Esau had Amalek, right? What a yichus, right? So your question is how in the world did this happen? The answer is the world man says so. I just could tell you one drop of the answer. First of all, the answer at least minimally is that you all have free will. Okay? But the real answer is you have to know who Esau really was. And I'll ask you only one question. And that'll bring up the real idea. It's a long sheer, you know. But who is Esau? Um how many of us are there? Avot are there? Three. How many? Three. How many Imahot are there? Four. Yocheved number one. Why is it that Avram, Yitzchak, and Yakov, right? And on the other side you got Sara, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah. Hey. What happened here? It's something uneven here. And the answer is What's the answer? Because no, well that we know. Wait, because yes, she was supposed to marry him. But but his question is how in the world did Esau turn out? Cuz the answer is there were really four of us. Not three. Avram, Yitzchak, Yakov, and Esau. Esau was an off. You see, the gematria of Esau is twice Yakov with a vav. And they they both had two different jobs. That's why they were twins. Because they both had almost identical jobs. But if Esau was an off, but Esau is a story of an off that failed. Cuz anybody This is their their their sheep out there, and their sons are flying. You know? But the real concept is is that Esau was an off. In fact, had he done his job, there's a the the the Esau would have been twice as great as Yakov Avinu. Had Esau done his job. But Esau had free will, and he failed. At 15 years old he failed. But he had incredible potential. You have no idea. Actually actually give you one idea to show you how great Esau was had he been religious, right? And it's really in line with this year they are going to end with this idea. Okay? Esau was an incredible baal gaiva. But even Esau is out of Torah. And Esau despised the birthright. The birthright. Yes? He despised it. The Torah tells us that kind of business is gaiva. How do you despise a birthright when that's your claim to spirituality? Because the firstborn was a coin in those days. Okay. So even Esau is gaiva. Let me ask something. What is the most For somebody who's arrogant, what is the most difficult thing that he can do? You know what it is? Listen to authority. An arrogant person cannot listen to authority cuz who are you to tell me what to do? Do you know who I am? Right? Got that? Yet he's fine that Esau he went off. But Esau did observe one mitzvah. What was that mitzvah? What is kibbud av v'em? Authority. But the incredible thing is that Omar Rabin Shimon bar Yochai, great man in the Talmud, Rabin Shimon bar Yochai says that he said himself, "I am the greatest man of my generation in honoring my father and mother." I want to tell you, and he I'm I'm it. I did the greatest observance of that mitzvah. Yet and this was said in the Talmud. Yet I find Esau, my uncle Esau, the said the Esau because right Yaldei Esau, was greater than me. In what way? When Esau went in to see Yitzchak, he took off his regular clothing and put on his shabbos clothing to visit his father. Who does that? Today everybody says, "Hey Dad, get up cuz I want to sit down." Right? Yet Esau had such kibbud av v'em that he would change his garments before he'd even go to see his father. His kibbud was awesome. But how can that be? Cuz Esau was an incredible megalomaniac. Yet the mitzvah he observed was what? Was the most difficult for a megalomaniac to observe. So what do we see? That if he wanted to, he could have observed the Torah. Cuz if he did that, I guarantee everything else would have gone downhill. You see? That shows you the power of Esau. But he he had free will. He decided to throw it out. You know, I I obviously have a lot more to say, but spoke more to him than to my father. You know, I mean there's a lot more to say, but I'm just giving you something to go home with. Anything else? Thank you. Okay.