Facing Amalek
JVL Introduction
An insightful essay by Maya Rosen on how biblical scholars and rabbis have dealt with what are, on the surface, genocidal commands in the Bible.
The literalism of Netanyahu, quoting Deuteronomy’s “Remember what Amalek did to you” as a justification of and incitement to mass murder in Gaza is at odds with the rabbinic tradition’s reckoning with biblical text as Rosen explains.
This rich tradition offers many interpretations and reworkings, discussed by Rosen below. One suggests that the sin of Amalek, requiring punishment, was the use of force against those with less power. What resonance today!
RK
This article was originally published by Jewish Currents News Bulletin on Fri 22 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Facing Amalek: Reading the biblical injunction to genocide amid a genocide
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A very profound explanation and on can not disagree with the sentiment or thought expressed here. I am glad I read this essay
On the matter of “sola scriptura – the Chrisian idea that the Bible alone has sole authority)”, my own view is that God gave us each a brain to enable us to decide what is right and what is wrong.
“Love God, love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”, we have been taught. I do realise I may have a simplistic view of it all, but the world needs a lot more compassion than it’s getting at the moment..
For this reason, I consider all the Amalek stuff to be rubbish and I treat the Old Testament with a huge amount of caution. I am sad that so many so-called “Christians” have a different view.
Brilliant that JVL has republished this exciting exploration, this “inventive reading”. I love the argument that “interpretation is .. a project of world-building—of letting texts be changed by the world and the world by texts”.
Like the writer (if I understand her) I question how far reinterpretation of the Amalek passage is able to make headway at this particular time. To give another example:
TS Eliot’s claim in Four Quartets for the poet to “purify the language of the tribe” should be more chilling than his earlier post-WWl comparison of Jews with rats and evil landlords. This is because Four Quartets was actually written AFTER WW2 and the revelations of Belsen had shown where purifying could lead. And also because we’ve become more sensitive to the use of purity to keep down women for millennia.
Similarly, it will be a long time, if ever, that a White actor can play Othello again.
So, how far can reinterpretation of Amalek make headway at THIS time? We have to see. In recent years we have seen leaving the EU move from being a leftwing to a (far) right position. And we’ve seen how accurate facts and statistics about immigration have been a bit powerless where there is an orchestrated group feeling that migrants are an existential threat.
But Maya Rosen’s creative interpretation and wide reading give us a link to other arenas we might use. Like this JVL site, or maybe the people’s assemblies and unofficial hustings and neighbourhood forums that are springing up now. It’s good that the theologians and faith leaders (including most belatedly Anglican bishops) are on the move too.