[Avodah] Amalek (was rules)

[Joseph C. Kaplan]

"Amalek.  It's an interesting question.  Is the mitzvah of eradicating 
Amalek a mitzvah on each Jew, or on all Jews as a nation?  And is the 
mitzvah to kill any individual Amalekite or only to wipe them out en masse?"

RYBS discusses that in the last footnote (#25) in Kol Dodi Dofek.  He writes, in the name of his father, that there are 2 halachot regarding Amalek.  The first is based on Dvarim, and is a commandment on each individual Jew to wipe out individual Amalekites.  The second mitzvah is found in Shemot, and is a commandment to the People of Israel to wage war against the  community of Amalek.  The first mitzvah applies only, the Rav emphasizes, to genealogical descendants of Amalek who, since Sancheriv mixed up the nations, are unknown.  The second mitzvah applies to any nation that seeks to destroy the Jewish People.

Joseph Kaplan

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20111011/be647886/attachment.htm>