She's a Bit of Shell off the Old Peanut
Remy (my 9-year-old daughter) was watching a commercial featuring the Planter's character "Mr. Peanut" on TV. She said "I like Mr. Peanut" and then added "say, what if a bunch of people thought he was Jesus Christ, you know - 'eat of my flesh and drink of my blood' - and started to crack into his shell and tried to eat him? He'd be screaming 'No, no you crazy people!! What are you doing?!"
I responded, "Yes, and once he was eaten you could try on his little silk hat, but it would be too small, though. And you'd lose the monocle."
Biblical Guys You Never Hear About Part I
Amalek the Warrior (died circa 1454 BCE)
In the Book of Exodus (starting at Chapter 17:8) a warrior named Amalek and his tribe began nipping at the heels of the Isrealites as they were fleeing Egypt, killing off the weaker stragglers who fell behind (well, actually part of that is taken from Deuteronomy, but I can't find the passage.) Moses finally decides he's had enough, and commands Joshua to engage Amalek and his horde and defeat them once and for all.
This begins, and to insure victory, Moses goes to the top of a hill to hold up his staff to bring the will of G_d down into the Israelite army. As long as Moses is able to keep the staff aloft, the Isrealites make short work of Amalek and his band. But from time to time Moses' arms get tired and drop, and then Amalek begins to win a little. This goes back and forth until Aaron and Hur are able to prop up Moses' staff from each side, and finallly "Joshua discomfited Amalek with the edge of his sword."
Afterwards, Moses commands that he will "utterly put out remebrance of Amalek from under heaven", i.e. declares Amalek a non-person. Moses builds an altar and commands that the written law should reflect that Amalek is not to be remembered. Not only does he do so in the Book of Exodus, but he also reaffirms this commandment later in Deuteronomy during the long opening speech given in Moab "on this side of the River Jordan."
So if Moses was so concerned that that Amalek be erased from the collective memory of Israel, why is he mentioned not once, but twice in the Torah? I don't know, but in this instance it appears as though the framers of the Pentateuch felt that it was more important for the history of the conflict with Amalek to be recorded than it was to obey this particular commandment of Moses. The source in Deuteronomy, as we have it, is older (700s BCE) and more vague than that in Exodus (about 560 BCE). Moses' comments about Amalek in Deuteronomy are almost offhand, whereas in Exodus the story in recounted in a narrative form and is considerably more detailed.
This must have been a fairly controversial battle in Ancient Israel, as this was one rare instance when the Israelites under Moses weren't able to just roll into a settlement, kill everybody and take it over. And it doesn't appear as though G_d was wholly on their side in this particular battle, as even Moses shows signs of weakness. In the case of Amarek he was preying on the Isrealites, and this was definitely not something that they were used to. Perhaps he was just the leader of a nomadic tribe of bandits who had no land to conquer and was only picking on the Isrealites to be the proverbial thorn in their side. Perhaps he was even sent by God to help keep them honest!
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis@hotmail.com