Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Tsav / Psalm 109 - Blind Hatred


2. For the mouth of a wicked man and the mouth of a deceitful man have opened upon me; they spoke with me with a lying tongue.
ב. כִּי פִי רָשָׁע וּפִי מִרְמָה עָלַי פָּתָחוּ דִּבְּרוּ אִתִּי לְשׁוֹן שָׁקֶר:

3. And with words of hatred they have surrounded me, and they have fought with me without cause.
ג. וְדִבְרֵי שִׂנְאָה סְבָבוּנִי וַיִּלָּחֲמוּנִי חִנָּם:

4. Instead of my love, they persecute me, and I am prayer.
ד. תַּחַת אַהֲבָתִי יִשְֹטְנוּנִי וַאֲנִי תְפִלָּה:

5. They have imposed upon me evil instead of good and hatred instead of my love.
ה. וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלַי רָעָה תַּחַת טוֹבָה וְשִׂנְאָה תַּחַת אַהֲבָתִי:

It is brought in a number of books that it is appropriate to say Psalm 109 on Shabbos Zachor as a preparation for Purim. The original source for this practice, though, remains elusive. The psalm contains a lengthy litany of curses. The text is ambiguous with many saying that these are the words of the enemies of King David. Others say it is King David cursing his enemies. Explanations of this are given with parallels in the book of Psalms as well as throughout the Tanakh. However, because the words are so penetrating many take the position that to curse anybody like that is not in the spirit of religion.

The religious literature views the emotion of hatred extremely negatively with the Talmud (Succa 52a) calling it one of the names of the evil inclination. Psalm 109 captures the emotion of hatred and it is a mitzvah to hate Amalek. It is possible to understand it as how Amalek feels about the nation of Israel as well as how the nation of Israel should feel about Amalek. To the extent that a person has hatred in their character, Psalm 109 focuses it and purifies it.

The Meiri opens his discussion by bringing the opinion that this psalm was written when David was fleeing and hiding from Saul. During that time he was in the company of unprincipled men that brought evil gossip about him to Saul. This raises the questions as to why did they behave in such a way and what does this have to do with Amalek. The answers seem to lay in two thoughts in the psalm. The first is, “they made war on me for nothing”, and the second is, “I am prayer”.

This parallels the unprovoked attack by Amalek on Israel after they received the Ten Commandments direct from Hashem. It is also like the incident when the people of Israel request Shmuel to appoint a king to judge over them like all of the other nations. The request upsets Shmuel, who has served them as the judge capably and with devotion. Hashem then tells Shmuel, “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from reigning over them. Even with all of the deeds that I have done, from when I brought them up from Egypt until today. They have forsaken me and served other gods; so too, are they doing to you,” (Samuel 1 8:7-8).

It is necessary to focus on what prayer is. It is first and foremost man attaching himself and speaking to the Holy One blessed be He. By and large it is a request for something, praise of G-d, and self-evaluation according to the standards in the Torah. These are the attributes of King David and the inherent attributes of the nation of Israel.

The dichotomy between Israel and Amalek can be seen in the commentary of the Yalkut Shimoni. He explains that Israel has no praise except for HaKadosh Baruch Hu and HaKadosh Baruch Hu has no praise except for Israel. What this means is that the only praise that comes to Israel is due to their attachment to religion and that the job of Israel is to sing the praises of G-d. To describe the point of view of the enemies of Israel the Yalkut Shimoni comments on the verse, “the mouth of the rasha and the mouth of deceit on me have opened, the tongue of lies”. He explains, “How do they open their mouths? They come into the holy of holies and say where is their G-d, let him be with them as it says, ‘where is their G-d . . . let Him arise and help them’”.

This allows us to see that the essence of Amalek is, “better to rule in hell then serve in heaven”. Absolute vanity for them is everything. Peace, prosperity, wisdom, health mean nothing if it is a blessing from above. What they want is total denial. Any Jew, wise or foolish, righteous or evil, young or old, is a reminder for them that there is a G-d in heaven. As a result it makes no difference if he is kind or harmless, he must be destroyed. It is this blind hatred that a Jew must be sensitive to and to hate.

  

לע"נ ה אמה מלכה בת חיים ז"ל נלב"ע טז בנוסן תשנ"ח
העלון ניתן לקבל בדואר אלקטרוני  וגם באתר  http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
  




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