Theological Perspectives on Amalek

Over the coming days TraditionOnline will release material slated for publication long before the present moment when we’ve been overtaken by current events. In the meantime, the irony or hashgaha of Operation Lion’s Roar breaking out on Parashat Zakhor, and a war unfolding in the neighborhood of Shushan, about which we will read later this week, should be lost on no one.

That makes it a good time to revisit Rabbi Shalom Carmy’s “The Origin of Nations and the Shadow of Violence: Theological Perspectives on Canaan and Amalek” (TRADITION, Winter 2006). While the Bible prominently features war, Judaism’s overall theological thrust is fundamentally pacific, framing violence as a tragic necessity rather than ideal. Carmy situates the commands to eradicate the Canaanite nations and Amalek within a broader tension between divine judgment and mercy. The Canaanite wars are linked to safeguarding Israel’s spiritual mission in its land and may have been historically limited. Amalek, by contrast, represents archetypal, gratuitous violence and rebellion against God. Attempts to rationalize these commands risk moral distortion; ultimately, their legitimacy rests not on natural ethics but on divine command. Honestly confronting the terror imposed on us from outside deepens, rather than diminishes, religious responsibility and moral self-scrutiny.

Rabbi Shalom Carmy, editor emeritus of TRADITION, teaches Bible and philosophy at Yeshiva University.