B'shalach

There's a fascinating Midrash in אסתר רבה פרשה ז that addresses a famous posuk in our parsha which states ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל Amalek came & battled Israel. Asks the Midrash, where did Amalek come from? אמר רבי כרוספדאי בשם רבי יוחנן , that they came from taking council from בלעם הרשע asking him if they should go attack the Jewish people. They said to him, look what these people did to Mitzrayim, a country that hosted them & fed them. Look what they did to it; now it’s in shambles. A country that never did any good to them surely will be decimated by them!

To which Billam replied, “don't worry about that. The whole strength of the Jewish people relies on the merit of אברהם their forefather. You, too, Amalek, descend from אברהם so grab onto his merit.” Immediately, Amalek went to battle the Jewish people.

The gemara in Sanhedren tells us the lineage of Amalek: his mother, Timna, was the daughter of a king who wanted to convert. She came to Avraham to convert her but he turned her away. Then she went to Yitzchok who also turned her away. So she went to Yaakov. When he also turned her away, she went & became a concubine to Alifaze, the son of Eisav , as a last resort, saying it’s better to be a slave to this nation by being a concubine to the children of the Avos than a queen to another nation. This was how great her desire was to be attached to the Jewish people.


The gemara continues, she then gave birth to Amalek who is the nemesis of the Jewish people. Because the Avos never should have pushed her away & should have accepted her into the fold, they were punished that the nemesis of their children came from them. 


It’s interesting to note says ר' לייב חסמן זצ"ל that the whole desire of the Avos was to bring people into the fold, to make converts so if they pushed her away they surely had good reason. Yet, they were still held accountable & punished since, if they felt she wasn't good enough, through their positive influence they could have turned her to good.


We see from here how one could be held accountable for not bringing someone close. We see how one person that was shunned could mother the nemesis of כלל ישראל for generations. How careful we have to be with those with whom we come in contact, and attempt to draw them close thereby possibly averting calamity.


In a similar vein, a story I heard this week from Rav Moishe Tuvia Lieff addresses this topic. There was a menahel who came into the חפץ חיים . When he walked into the room, the חפץ חיים took one look at him & said, please leave the room I don't want to have anything to do with you , you have caused untold suffering & death  to countless Jews.


The man, who was supposedly a respected rabbi, head of the school, was astounded.  What did he do? The חפץ חיים must be mixing him up with someone else!

The חפץ חיים asked him, do you remember Leiba Davidovich, a poor boy who was in your school whose mother couldn't afford the tuition. For the first year she paid anyway but for the second year she just had no means & you threw the boy out? Yes, the man answered but what does that have to do with anything?

Well that boy, Leiba , after he was rejected by you, went to Russian public school  where he was known as Lev Bronshtein. He later became one of the founders of the communist, Marxist party. Because of you, continued the חפץ חיים, this boy’s ideology caused countless Jews to leave the path of their fathers & countless others suffered tremendously under communist rule. Do you understand now what your actions caused? Do you know what that boy is known as now?  

This boy is now known as Leon Trotsky.