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
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