Ask the Rabbi with Rabbi Chaim Mintz
Since everything that happens is from God and the Nazis were merely agents to carry out His Master Plan, why are people always denouncing the Nazis? In addition, if the Holocaust was just the fulfillment of what God foretold would happen if we don’t keep the Torah properly, shouldn’t the focus be on fixing ourselves? In the same vein, I don’t understand the mitzvah of destroying Amalek. Our rabbis tell us that Amalek — as well as Haman, a descendant of Amalek — was given power over the Jews only because they sinned. If so, why is there a mitzvah to destroy them?
Rabbi Chaim Mintz responds:
The Blinding Question
You are certainly right that the focus should be on improving ourselves. If we keep the Torah the way Hashem (God) wants, we will not be subjected to harm from any other nation. But at the same time, anyone who harms us still deserves to be punished.
We find this concept in the Torah itself. Hashem told Avraham ( Abraham) that his descendants were destined to endure suffering in a foreign land, and the nation that persecutes them would subsequently be punished. Here the question is even more glaring: Since this was clearly Hashem’s plan, why should the persecutors deserve a punishment? If anything they should be rewarded for carrying out God’s plan! These questions are discussed by many of the early commentators.
It Didn’t Have to Be You
Ramban explains that the fact that the Jews were supposed to suffer still does not justify the evil done by the other nation. Hashem alone is the One Who can bring suffering, and humans have no place and no reason to get involved. If they do, they deserve to be punished for their evil doing, even if they were the conduit for carrying out God’s plans. This explains why the Egyptians were punished for enslaving the Jews, and the same will hold true for Haman and the Nazis. Ramban adds that the same applies to every murderer. Although the person killed was destined to die, the murderer still deserves to be punished, since he did evil, even if he was the vehicle for executing God’s plan.
Amalek is even more evil than the Egyptians, and that is why we are commanded to destroy them and their philosophy. The Egyptians enslaved the Jews for their own financial benefit, as well as to keep them from taking control of the country. Amalek, however, had nothing to gain, and came to fight with the Jews purely out of hatred for what we stand for.
Why Amalek Must Be Eradicated
We believe in Hashem’s Divine Presence and intimate involvement in our world. Amalek, on the other hand, is diametrically opposed to this worldview and claims that God left the world to run on its own, and everyone can do as they please, without any restrictions. This is why we must destroy Amalek before they destroy us spiritually, by influencing the world with their false philosophy. For this reason, Rambam (Maimonides, a primary codifier of Jewish law) writes, when an Amalekite converts, or even just accepts upon himself to keep the Seven Noahide Laws, we are no longer commanded to kill him. Once he has changed his ways and is not part of their corrupt culture, he is no longer a danger to society.
But the truth of the matter is that we do indeed tend to become sidetracked, and put the blame on the Nazis and not on ourselves. When we learn about the Holocaust being predicted in the Torah, we see that Hashem wants us to focus on ourselves, by taking the message to heart and repenting.
In short: One who does evil deserves to be punished, even if he was carrying out God’s plan.
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