A Religious Response to Terror

When trying to figure out what to say about the past week’s events, I was
hesitant to address such a topic from an exclusively religious standpoint.
While religion is the prism through which we view the world, and affects our
response to any situation, to define a response so narrowly struck me, at
first, as insincere. There have been, of course, many irreligious responses to
terror. After 9/11, George Bush told Americans that to deny the terrorists a
victory, they should, “go shopping;” continue their lives as if nothing had
happened. Yesterday, the mayor of Jerusalem echoed that sentiment, telling
Jerusalemites that life, and the marathon, will go on, as if yesterday never
happened. But yesterday did happen! Terrorists did strike, and the idea that
we should just ignore it felt problematic. At the other extreme, I know people
whose families called from outside of Israel, and their first words were “I
want you home.” Are these our only two options: to either tuck and run
whenever something bad happens, or ignore it?

What then, in the vast sea of Jewish text and tradition, can point to how we,
as both people and religious people can relate to terror?

My wife, Lani, directed me to where I found my answer: the story of the first
“terrorist attack” against the Jews as a nation:
‫ )יח( אשר קרך בדרך‬:‫)יז( זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים‬
‫ )יט( והיה בהניח יקוק‬:‫ויזנב בך כל הנחשלים אחריך ואתה עיף ויגע ולא ירא אלהים‬
‫אלהיך לך מכל איביך מסביב בארץ אשר יקוק אלהיך נתן לך נחלה לרשתה תמחה‬
(‫ )דברים פרק כה‬:‫את זכר עמלק מתחת השמים לא תשכח‬
In ‫ספר דברים‬, Moshe recalls how ‫ עמלק‬attacked the newly-formed Jewish
nation, while we were on our way, targeting the tired and trailing, those who
were the weakest amongst us. In his analysis of this section, ‫ר' אלחנן סמט‬
posits that this attack earned ‫ עמלק‬the eternal antipathy of God, not only
due to its cowardice, but due even more so to its purpose. By stressing that
we were attacked "‫"בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים‬, on our way out of Egypt, as we
headed towards ‫ מתן תורה‬and ‫ארץ ישראל‬, we see that ‫ עמלק‬wasn’t just trying
us to kill us. The purpose of the attack was to “throw us off our way,” that is,
to stop us from fulfilling the religious and national destiny God had set for us
with ‫יציאת מצרים‬. The mechanism ‫ עמלק‬used was to attack the weak, thereby
terrorizing the psyche of the new Jewish nation.

I believe that by understanding how the Jewish people reacted to this attack,
as portrayed in ‫ספר שמות‬, and how Moshe instructed us to relate to this
attack in the future, as relayed in ‫ספר דברים‬, we can gain at least one idea of
what a religious response to terror could be.

In ‫שמות‬, the description of ‫‘עמלק‬s attack is significant both in how the Jews
responded, as well as how we dealt with its aftermath. When ‫ עמלק‬attacked,
Moshe and Yehoshua rallied together a national army and responded; we
picked up sword and arrow, and went out to fight. This communal response
to an attacking force radically differs from our response to the previous
attack: when the Egyptians chased down the Jews at the Red Sea. There,
unable to defend ourselves, we cried out to God and were miraculously
saved. Now, when ‫ עמלק‬attacks, we don’t just send Moshe up a mountain to
pray and wait for a miracle; we send Moshe up a mountain while
simultaneously marching ourselves to the battlefield. This was our
immediate, physical response to ‫עמלק‬, and represents a huge turning point
in our national sense of self.

As momentous as this was, I believe even more significant is our response to

the attack after the battle.

The attack of ‫ עמלק‬is preceded in ‫ שמות‬by the story of ‫מי מריבה‬, in which the
Jews complained to Moshe so ferociously he feared for his life. On the heels
of the exodus, with all its open miracles, right after the ‫ מן‬literally fell from
the sky, the Jews again showed their lack of trust in their leader, and lack of
faith in God. This was such a low point in our spiritual development that
some later commentaries even view Moshe’s statement in ‫ "ולא‬:‫ספר דברים‬
‫ "ירא אלהים‬as referring to the Jews, not ‫עמלק‬. The Jews’ bitter complaining
and lack of trust in God is the historical context of ‫’עמלק‬s attack, which
makes our subsequent uniting together, as well as our understanding that
we need both a human and divine response, all the more meaningful. After
this immediate response, what follows ‫’עמלק‬s attack? The Jews don’t just
rally together an army; they make huge strides politically, civically and
religiously. The attack by ‫ עמלק‬is the springboard from which we go from the
depths of ‫ מעשה מריבה‬to heights of the story of Yitro, the establishment of a
judiciary system and ‫!מתן תורה‬

What was so bad about what ‫ עמלק‬did? At a time when we stumbled on our
path, ‫ עמלק‬was there to terrorize us into falling off completely. And what was
our response? We took their attempt to push us astray, and in the ultimate
act of ‫ונהפך הוא‬, we used it to return straightened and strengthened to our
path.
When retelling the story in ‫דברים‬, Moshe doesn’t focus on the battle; God
doesn’t command us to run after and kill all the ‫עמלקים‬. Rather, “‫תמחה את זכר‬
‫”עמלק‬, we are commanded to eradicate their memory. The memory of a
person has nothing to do with his/her physical self, his/her memory is what
he/she stood for. As such, our imperative regarding ‫ עמלק‬is to exterminate
what they tried to do—their overall ideology. How do we accomplish this? “‫לא‬
‫—”תשכח‬do not forget how we responded. We came together as individuals in
partnership with one another, and as a people in partnership with God. We
took tragedy and trauma and used it as a time of national introspection and
improvement. When necessary, we fought; when necessary, we will fight
again. However, as the Rav explains, eradicating ‫ עמלק‬is not killing the
inheritors of their genes, but fighting against the inheritors of their
ideologies. When learning how to deal with the ‫ עמלק‬of the future, we focus
on our battle against and triumph over the goals of ‫עמלק‬.

We do not ignore tragedy and continue as if nothing happened. So too, we

do not use it as an excuse to cry ‫ מלחמת מצווה‬against everyone who is in any
way related to those who harmed us. To be sure, we vigorously defend
ourselves when attacked; but as religious people and as a religious people,
we take these horrible events and utilize them. We stop, gain some
perspective, and think about the path we’re on now, as individuals and a
community. If we find, as the Jews leaving ‫ מעשה מריבה‬did, that we’re lacking
—be it religiously, socially, individually or communally—we start trying to fix
those problems. Doing this would be the ultimate act of denying a victory to
terror: they try to destabilize our society, we come together and grow as a
society.

I believe the religious response, indeed the human response, to recent

events is to take what the terrorists try to accomplish and reverse it. Do not
let them terrorize us into abandoning our path, but take this as an
opportunity to strengthen our resolve and continue upon the path which was
set before us at ‫יציאת מצרים‬.