Amalekites, Canaanites and Morality

Question

In the tanakh, Hashem commands the Jewish nation to exterminate the Amalekites and brutally attack the caananites. How ought one go around explaining the ethics of this to a non religious person (or a person of another religion like Buddhism or paganism)?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    The original Amalek was the son of Eliphaz and the grandson of Eisav. The progeny of Amalek are the archetypal enemy of the Jewish People and their very existence is diametrically opposed to the Torah.

    However awful such a commandment sounds it can only be understood by studying the words of the Sages who describe the people of Amalek as being the essence of all the evil in the world. The Rambam, discussing the mitzva of exterminating the Seven Nations states that, after the
    dispersion of Sancheriv, we can no longer identify any nation and, therefore, the mitzva can not be fulfilled. The very next sentence states that it is a Biblical commandment to eradicate any trace of the memory of Amalek.

    The Chasam Sofer learns from this that Amalek, unlike the other nations, is not just a people but an ideology. According to this it is possible for a person that has no physical connection to Amalek to be considered a member of the Amalekite People because of his ideology. Once a member that person would be worthy of the death penalty.

    As we learn, Amalek is not a people like the other peoples of the world. Because of their destructive ideology, it is not possible to coexist with them. The Sages teach us that we should not try to be “kinder than God”, the fact that the eradication of Amalek is a Commandment in the Torah is an indication of just how negative their ideology really is.

    King Saul was instructed to destroy any vestige of Amalek and allowed King Agag to remain alive (albeit for only one night), a direct extension of that “merciful act” was that Haman almost destroyed the entire Jewish People.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team