Raymond Ibrahim is a member of MESH.

However, I believe he may be somewhat misguided in characterizing the references as a cause for concern and apparently equivalent to the directives given in the Quran for Muslims to kill Jews. As a graduate of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, one of the foremost institutions of right-wing Orthodox Judaism in the United States, I have done much research and study on the topic of Amalek. Frequently it was intoned in lectures that various enemies of the Jewish people constitute Amalek. This is also reflected in numerous Jewish rituals and observances, as well. During the Passover Seder, we say that “in each generation one rises up against us to destroy us,” as a reference to the prototypical Jewish enemy, Amalek.

The topic, though, is far more complex than a simplistic demonization of our enemies as a justification for Jewish action against them. Orthodox Judaism speaks about Amalek in much more symbolic terms, using the hashkafik, or philosophical approach to Amalek to delineate the essential battle between the forces of good and evil, a battle which is almost completely waged in the spiritual, as opposed to the physical realm. For example, the spiritual essence of Amalek is already found to exist, according to some prominent works, in the guise of the Snake in the Garden of Eden. This ties the destruction of Amalek to the much broader theme of Tikun Olam, ‘Repair of the World’ that is essentially the goal of Judaism in its entirety—to bring the world through observance of God’s commandments and loving-kindness to the state of being before the Fall of Man. The Zohar and Medrash state that God’s throne cannot be ‘complete’ until Amalek’s influence is eradicated.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that the battle with Amalek is figurative. The literal Biblical statement is that “Amalek chilled you.” This “chilling” is overwhelmingly interpreted as a spiritual tainting of the Jewish nation that needs to be repaired completely. Even the Biblical narrative of Saul’s war with Amalek and the destruction of the entire Amalekite nation (save for Agag, the king, who was let to live long enough to impregnate a woman who would eventually bear the grandfather of Haman, the antagonist of the Jewish story of Purim, which takes place this month, in Adar), is quite clear that it is far more than a physical battle, as it involved only choice fighters, not the whole nation; required the destruction of all of the possessions of the Amalekites (which is only found in Jewish Law regarding the physical possessions of an irreversibly idolatrous city); and seemed to depend on Moses’ lifting his hands heavenward, unique in all the battles recounted in the Bible.

In modern Jewish legal discussion, one is not allowed to ‘kill an Amalekite’, for this reason, and also because we simply do not know who for certain is one, and murder that is based on ambiguity is vehemently opposed by all Torah sources. I will conclude, therefore, that it is not possible to interpret the eulogies as having a practical effect for policy purposes on Israeli society. The Palestinians represent Amalek only in that they deliberately targeted the spiritual essence of the Jewish people by killing rabbinic scholars, students of the Torah. It is not a call to physical arms, but to spiritual redress—as the essence of the eulogy was about doing teshuva (repentance) and becoming better Jews on the spiritual plane. The comparison with the Quran’s directive to kill Jews, an unambiguous text that is currently being used to justify murder, is absurd in this light. Muslims have not been injured based on the idea of Amalek. To imply so does a great disservice and only gives fuel to those who seek to legitimize the murder of Jews based on demonizing Jewish belief so that they become the enemy of Muslims.

Joshua Jacobs studies law at New York University School of Law.

Adam Garfinkle is a member of MESH.