The Prophetic War and Amalek

There are three levels of Amalek listed in Kol Hator by the Vilna Gaon: The Heart, Spiritual, and Physical.

a)Heart = Taiva, Yetzer HaRah
b)Spiritual = Satan, Lamed Lamed,etc.
c)Physical = Esav, Yishmael, and Erev Rav (all the more so Erev Katan - the main adversary at the Golden Calf)

All 3 of the levels are listed as Amalek.

The Erev Katan (corresponding with Mincha Katana, a lesser more dense entity) have been explained by Rabbi Bakst, as illuminated by the Vilna Gaon and based on the Talmud:

[for clarification - Erev Zeir, is Aramaic for Katan, which is Hebrew for Smaller, as opposed to Rav, which is Bigger in Hebrew]

The Talmud (Succah 48b ) records the following tradition:

Once there were two Jewish heretics,[307] one was called Sasson (joy) and the other was called Simcha (happiness). Sasson said to Simcha, "I am better than you, since it is written, 'They will obtain Sasson [first] and [then] Simcha'" (Isaiah 35:10). "I," said Simcha to Sasson, "am better than you, since it is written, 'The Jews had Simcha [first] and [then] Sasson'" (Esther 8:17). "One day," said Sasson to Simcha, "they will take you out [from heaven] and make you a runner, since it is written, 'For with Simcha they will go forth'" (Isaiah 55:12). "One day," said Simcha to Sasson, "they will take you out [from heaven] and use you to draw water, for it is written, 'You will draw water with Sasson from the wellsprings of salvation"' (Isaiah 12:3).

The Jewish heretic whose name was Sasson once said to R. Abbahu, "You are destined to draw water for me in the World to Come, for it is written, 'Therefore with Sasson you will draw water from the wellsprings of salvation.'" "If," R. Abbahu retorted, "it had been written, for Sasson (L'Sasson) it would be as you say, but since it is written with Sasson (B'Sasson), the meaning must be that a water-pouch will be made of your skin, and water will be drawn with it.

It is very clear that Sasson and Simcha are a pair. An obvious symmetry exists between them and one cannot exist without the other. Yet, basing himself on the GRA's sod of "the Torah that has been given over to the external forces," R. Yitzchak Izik speaks only of the collective personality of Sasson. He is strangely silent concerning the nature of Sasson's compatriot Simcha. It may be suggested that since the Talmud only records a secular-religious debate between R. Abbahu and Sasson, and not with Simcha, R. Yitzchak Izik likewise saw fit to concentrate exclusively on the sod of Sasson.

The Erev Rav is also alluded to in the verse, "Woe to us for the day has turned and the shadows of the evening (erev ) have stretched out" (Jeremiah 6:4). The "evening shadows" are the Erev Rav that began constructing the Golden Calf at the 6th hour of the day (high noon), as the Talmud interprets the verse, "The people saw that Moshe was late (bo-shesh ) in coming down the mountain" (Exodus 32:1). The Talmud (Shabbat 89a) explains that the word bo-shesh (literally, "the 6th hour has come") alludes to the fact that the "people," the Erev Rav, gained their power only at the 6th hour. This is the period known as Erev Rav, the Greater Evening.[369]

There is also an Erev Zeir, a Lesser Evening. This is the significance of the term Bein HaArvayim, which means literally, "Between the Evenings," and indicates that there are two evenings, a Greater Evening and a Lesser Evening. Paralleling these, the sages instituted two periods for praying the afternoon Minchah service - Minchah Gedolah (the Greater Minchah) and Minchah Katanah (the Lesser Minchah) - in order to weaken the power of the Klipot of the two Erevs.

The GRA has made it clear that the Erev Zeir is a necessary counterpart to the Erev Rav. He has also explained that the collective soul of the Erev Rav transmigrates in every generation. The next logical step is to conclude that this must also be the case with the Erev Zeir. Our question now is, who are the Erev Rav today and, correspondingly, who are the Erev Zeir? The answer to this question will supply the missing clue to the riddle of Simcha's identity and to the unique form of his disbelief.

It has been pointed out by a number of Torah masters and accepted as religious truth for many decades in certain Orthodox Torah circles that the contemporary manifestation of the Erev Rav is none other than the secular Zionist leadership.[371] According to this school of thought, it is to the phenomenon of secular Zionism that the sages referred when they prophesied, "In the Ikveta D'Meshicha [i.e. prior to Mashiach ben David] Chutzpah-Arrogance will increase" (Sota 9:16). It was the leaders of the "New Erev Rav" who consciously led an entire generation of Jewish youth away from a life of Torah and away from the deeper meaning and purpose of the Jewish People. They rallied around the idolatry of a new Golden Calf - a secular state fueled exclusively from secular aspirations and secular knowledge. They struggled hard to remove and uproot traditional Torah values and, in 1948, when the incarnated Erev Rav gained political control over the Land of Israel they hopefully predicted that Orthodox Judaism would all but disappear within a generation.

Yet it was these very men and women whose blood, sweat and tears powered by a mighty spirit paved the way for a whole generation of Jews to enter into a new era and into a new land - Palestine. With their statesmanship, scholarship, artistic vision, literary talent and technical knowledge they led and continue to lead and influence much of the Jewish world. How do we explain the powerful, almost miraculous phenomenon of secular Zionism?

According to the underlying geometry in this doctrine, the inverse side of the Erev Rav Klipah of secular Zionism is the subtle Erev Zeir Klipah of anti-Zionism. The former proclaims itself as a paradoxical "secular" fulfillment of historical Judaism. [It bases its claim to the Land of Israel on the very Biblical teachings that it scorns.] The latter manifests as an outright rejection of the secular state as a distortion of the Torah's prophetic teachings of redemption, or simply as apathy and non-involvement regarding the role of immigration in the redemption process. R. Hillel is very adamant about this last point. Concerning the refusal of the Torah leaders of his time (end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries) to encourage immigration and to initiate the resettlement of Eretz Yisrael he writes:[374]

What will they say, those with their lame excuses, to the words of the sages, "When Jerusalem will be rebuilt then the Son of David will come"? Likewise, on the verse, "A redeemer will come to Zion" (Isaiah 59:20), the Midrash and Rashi both explain that, "As long as Zion is not built the Redeemer will not come." Rather, they are like the lichen growing out of the walls coming to do battle with the ceders of lebanon. Their excuses are none other than those of the Spies whom Moshe sent to scout the Land of Israel. They spread evil reports that discourage the Jewish People from emigrating to the Land. This is what the sages referred to when they said, "In the Ikveta D'Meshicha truth will become diminished and Chutzpah-Arrogance will increase." This arrogance is an attack against the holy words of our prophets and seers. It is an attack against the past Leaders of Israel and it is an attack against the conviction and holy commandment of the Saint of Israel, our master the GRA. It is our prayer that all of those within whom the spirit of Amalek dwells should quickly return from their evil ways. "[God] is merciful and He forgives iniquity."[375]

It is essential to note in what context R. Hillel is using the well known rabbinic formula "In the Ikveta D'Meshicha truth will become diminished and Chutzpah-Arrogance will increase." This has always been used to refer to modern secularism and atheism as was the case above with the heresy of Sasson. Here, however, it is used to refer to the religious leaders themselves! Thus, we now have another important symmetry in the larger formula. This time it is two modes of Chutzpah - the "Greater Chutzpah" of the Erev Rav and the "Lesser Chutzpah" of the Erev Zeir

From this we can see the prophetic war taking place between Erev Rav and Erev Katan, Simcha and Sasson, preceding the End of Days.

The battle over religious extremism in Israel now has an unexpected public face - that of a blonde, bespectacled eight-year-old girl.

She is Naama Margolese, the daughter of US immigrants who are observant modern Orthodox Jews. A television program at the weekend told the story of how Naama had become terrified of walking to her primary school in Beit Shemesh, a Jewish city between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, after ultra-Orthodox men spat on her, insulted her and called her a prostitute because her modest dress did not adhere exactly to their more rigorous dress code.

The country was outraged. Naama's picture has appeared on the front pages of all major Israeli newspapers. Although the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday that ''Israel is a democratic, Western, liberal state'' and pledged that ''the public sphere in Israel will be open and safe for all'', there have been days of confrontation.

Ultra-Orthodox men and boys from stringent sects have hurled rocks and eggs at the police and journalists, shouting ''Nazis'' at the security forces and assailing women reporters with epithets like ''whore'' and ''shikse'', a derogatory Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman or girl.

For many Israelis, this is not a fight over one girl's walk to school. It is a struggle that could shape the character and soul of the country, against ultra-Orthodox zealots who have been encroaching on the public sphere with their interpretation of modesty rules, enforcing gender segregation and the exclusion of women.

The battle has grown increasingly visible. Orthodox male soldiers walked out of a ceremony where female soldiers were singing, adhering to what they consider to be a religious prohibition against hearing a woman's voice; women have challenged the seating arrangements on kosher buses, serving ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods and some intercity routes where they are expected to sit at the back.

''We are working to save our city and to save our homes,'' Dov Lipman, 40, a local activist, rabbi and modern ultra-Orthodox who moved to Beit Shemesh from the US seven years ago, said. Seizing on the public mood of rejecting ultra-Orthodox bullying, Mr Lipman and supporters have been lobbying parliament, organising protests and working with a media consultant. He said that is how Naama's story came out.

In Ramat Beit Shemesh B, signs on buildings call for modesty, exhorting women and girls to dress in buttoned-up, long-sleeved blouses and long skirts. Outside a synagogue, a sign requested that females cross to the opposite sidewalk and not tarry outside the building.

Naama's school opened in September in an area with a large community of English-speaking observant Jews that borders on the strictest ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods. She soon found she had to run a gantlet to get to school, even dressed in long sleeves and long skirts.

Riots broke out this week when the police accompanied media crews into Hazon Ish Street, where Naama's tormentors are believed to have come from. Hundreds of men and boys poured out of the synagogue and a seminary holding signs calling for the exclusion of women.

Many of the ultra-Orthodox agitators blamed the media for the unrest, saying they had come into ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods to sow hatred and persecute residents for their beliefs.

Meanwhile, some residents insisted that Beit Shemesh was a tolerant city but defended some gender separation and modesty on religious grounds.

''I think women are very poorly treated in Western society,'' said Cindy Feder, 57, from Ramat Beit Shemesh A. She came to Israel from New York in 1970. Ms Feder said the objectification of women on billboards made her sick

To look objectively at both sides of this war, of the Erev Rav and Erev Katan, it is no more than the Torah playing itself out.

I have ridden the Mehadrin Bus Line from Tzfat to Bnei Brak hundreds of times, and have seen this war going on for years, to the point that I have seen and videotaped on a phone, a man spitting in a woman's face for not moving to the back of the bus. I asked people what the precedent was at that time, and the bottom line is, they subsidize the buslines, and they flat out just "don't want to sit next to women." The word is "want" not musn't. It is a pointless war over politics and money and control, that both sides have turned into propaganda about morality (on both sides funny enough) and piety (again on both sides.)

I have seen one woman in 10 years defeat these people: she threatened to flash the men if they would not stop. (she was injured and needed the footroom in the front to stretch, of which they were against.) She told them if you don't stop, I'm flashing. In the end, she didn't flash, as they gave up, and we all got home safe, sound, and at peace. 

If these people want to act like animals, then retaliate with animalism - suddenly, they find ways to behave. This woman was a tad radical, yes, but it worked. Had it not worked, it would have gotten ugly, and/or arrived home 3 hours later than ususal, which is what the threatened penality is if a woman refuses to sit in the back (if spitting doesn't work.)

Thank God, this is a very minute part of Israel, a small problem, that allows us to see a much broader picture, one that the Talmud taught us about years ago, about 2 heretics named Simcha and Sasson. Ironically, the Erev Rav and Katan are the opposite of Simcha and Sasson: Joy and Happiness.

Moshiach 5772. Please.

Posted in: 5772,Geulah,Moshiach,Politics