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Amalek and the Stunning Power of Spiritual Genetics

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Amalek and the Stunning Power of Spiritual Genetics Amalek and the Stunning Power of Spiritual Genetics he mitzvah to destroy Amalek is one that may leave an inquisitive mind with more Rabbi Donny Besser Tquestions than answers. This article Faculty and Mashgiach Ruchani, will not focus on the broader issues Maayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, NJ raised by a seeming obligation to wipe out an entire nation, but rather on one, narrow aspect that seems to of David that grants him eligibility for conflict with an established Torah the position. Does G-d work on the principle. In Parashat Ki Teitzei we are same legacy system people disdain in taught: elite universities? stakes are highest, it is by no means לֹא יּומְתּו אָבֹותעַל בָ נִים ּובָ נִים לֹא יּומְתּו עַ ל the only instance in the Torah that Perhaps a key to understanding this אָבֹות אִ יׁש בְחֶטְאֹו יּומָ תּו. seems to penalize children for their issue is the following distinction: A person dies for his/her own sins, not parents’ misdeeds. A mamzer’s status Children are not punished for their for the sins of his/her parents or children. is the direct result of a parent’s (or parents’ actions. This is both intuitively Devarim 24:16 ancestor’s) forbidden relationship unfair, and refuted by the verse cited above. No one disputes, however, This is both intuitive and just; why (Devarim 23:3). K’na’an’s children that the actions of parents can affect should my children be punished for seem to have been condemned to the circumstances into which their my misdeeds? Yet just a few verses eternal slavery for his and his father’s children are born, and in which they later we learn of the obligation to sin (Bereishit 9:25). We are all still grow up. As an extreme example, a destroy Amalek. The reason given is: accountable for significant historical sins like the sale of Yosef or the sin of woman who smokes crack cocaine throughout her pregnancy will harm אשר קרך בדרך ויזנב בך כל הנחשלים אחריך the Golden Calf; even for the sin of ואתה עיף ויגע ולא ירא אלקים. eating from the Tree of Knowledge. her innocent child. The same with That they [Amalek nation] happened Descendants of Amon and Moav still parents who choose to waste all their upon you on the way [out of Mitzrayim] pay the price for the lack of hospitality money on lottery tickets rather than and attacked the exhausted stragglers in exhibited many generations ago properly feed their children. Actions the rear, and he [Amalek nation] did not (Devarim 23:4). While it does not have consequences that extend beyond fear G-d. offend our sensibilities as much, the the actors themselves to the people Devarim 25:18 same question exists in the other around them. This does not make these All Jews are then obligated to continue direction. The concept ofzechut avot consequences “fair,” but it at least puts this reprisal for all generations in means that each Jewish person still them into a framework that is easier to response to a sin committed by the benefits from the righteousness of our recognize. Amalekite’s ancestors in previous forefathers and foremothers. Kohanim Perhaps what seems normal to us in generations. This example of vicarious and Leviim did not earn their exalted, the physical, natural world may also liability seems to fly in the face of inherited status, and while Mashiach be true in the spiritual, supernatural the rule of individual accountability will certainly need to have his own realm as well. We are used to the articulated in the previous chapter.1 resume, it will be his membership in realization that our world is bound by While Amalek is the case where the the Tribe of Yehuda and the Kingdom science; that our lives are governed 10 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Purim 5778 by the rules of physics, chemistry decisions made by their ancestors, due to Avraham’s impulses, but for his and biology. The Torah teaches that the same way that our status as Jews choices. This has implications that are in addition to these, there is another, is based on our parents’ response of comforting and terrifying, raising the religious dimension, invisible even na’aseh v’nishmah, or Avraham finding stakes of our own religious choices. under a microscope, but no less real. Hashem. A person’s circumstance No longer are the consequences of These rules govern the world of purity won’t determine whether or not he our actions limited to ourselves, but and impurity or ritual sanctity of the gets to the World to Come — it will with every choice we make we leave a Beit Hamikdash and its offerings. just determine the challenges he will deep, lasting impact on our children, The Ramban writes repeatedly about have to face to get there. grandchildren and all of our future generations. On Purim we celebrate the fundamental principle of “ma’aseh We are, of course, still far from fully the defeat of Amalek and the ability to avot siman labanim” — the actions of grasping the mitzva to annihilate conquer the Amalek within ourselves, the father are a sign for the children. Amalek. The nexus between crime and set into motion a positive ripple He views this as going far beyond a and punishment seems harsh, and effect into eternity with this victory. simple mandate for us to learn the our reward for the good acts of our lessons of history. He quotes the ancestors, generous. Still, it is valuable midrash that kol mah she’ira la’avot to recognize that the same way that the Endnotes siman labanim — anything that natural world has consequences that 1 See http://alhatorah.org/Are_Children_ happened to the Avot was a sign to extend outside of the actors themselves, Punished_for_Parents%27_Sins/5 for the children as a cosmic historical the metaphysical world is no less real dozens of sources on this subject. See also, determinant. When the forefathers and has its own systematic rules in Rabbi Hayyim Angel at https://library. performed an action — good or bad which actions lead to results that strike yctorah.org/files/2016/09/The-Person-Who- — it infused a power or deficiency us as less than fair to the victims. Sins-He-Shall-Die.pdf for a comprehensive survey of different approaches to the problem, into their descendants that would This seems to point to a difference including other seemingly conflicting surface repeatedly throughout history.2 between the mechanics of physical indications from elsewhere in the Torah, as The choices made by Avraham, well as the books of Yirmiyau and Yechezkel. genetics as opposed to spiritual Yitzchak and Yaakov deeply affected Many of the commentaries he cites interpret genetics. Since Darwin, scientists have the religious DNA they passed on to the former verse as unrelated to vicarious assumed that our biological genetics liability, but instead follow a strand in Chazal the Jewish nation. We are chosen not are determined at conception. that teaches that a family member may not, because of any inclination embedded Nothing we do can alter the genetic and is thus shielded from having to, testify into Avraham’s genetic code, but against his relative. legacy we pass on to our children.3 because of the concrete actions he Even a mother, who during pregnancy 2 Ramban’s Commentary on the Torah, took and the decisions he made. can still influence the health of her Bereishit 12:6, 12:10, 14:1, 16:6, 26:20 and Presumably, this is not a miraculous 29:2. See a helpful analysis from Rabbi Alex child, is unable to affect the “nature” Israel at http://www.alexisrael.org/lech-lecha- aberration of nature but the way the part of her maternal contribution after world works. Our ancestors chose to --maaseh-avot and http://www.alexisrael.org/ birth. The Torah seems to be teaching vayishlach-history-repeats-itself. say na’aseh v’nishmah, we will do and us that spiritual genes work differently. (then) we will listen, and we retain the 3 Listen to http://www.radiolab.org/ The message of all of these examples story/251876-inheritance/ for the fascinating benefits of that choice far beyond the backstory of the ugly history and surprising transaction of kabalat Hatorah. While is that unlike biology, the religious resurrection of epigenetics as a serious field subsequent actions are more limited genetic legacy that we each leave our of scientific study, including experiments in their scope, as Yaakov was our last children is in constant flux, changing involving loving mother rats who lick their shared forefather, the heroic behavior based on our every deed. Amalek is children and those involving starving pre- not our enemy because they were adolescent Swedes. See also, the controversial of Yehuda and Aharon also impacted work of Dr. Rachel Yehuda and her research their spiritual genetic legacy to create inclined to attack us, but because arguing that the trauma suffered by Holocaust the malchut and kehunah respectively. they acted on that inclination — a victims made their children more susceptible decision in their adult lives that had genetically to PTSD. Amalek’s children are condemned a profound impact on their offspring. through no fault of their own, but that So too, we are a chosen nation not is an inherited status based on the 11 Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • The Benjamin and Rose Berger CJF Torah To-Go Series • Purim 5778.
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