Sunday, July 20, 2008

Chizuk from the Shomrei Emunim

I saw in the Sefer "Shomer Emunim" (hereafter the S"E) this past Shabbos a nice quick vort on Emunah that is relevant to this tekufa. The pasuk on Amalek says that we must remember that the fight against Amalek, and everything he stand for, is in every generation. The lashon is l'dor dor, and the dor is chaser, it is missing a Vov. The S"E says that the gematria of Dor is 2x the Gematria of Emunah. What this teaches us is that Amalek attacks us on two separate levels of Emunah- a simple level and a more sophisticated level. For the person who only has simple Emunah, Emunah Peshuta, Amalek offers Shtussim and simple distractions that try to distract that individual from keeping on the derech yeshara. These vicissitudes do, unfortunately, ensnare some, and are relatively easy to discern. However, the more refined person, with a more thorough developed sense of Emunah, is attacked by Amalek not through simple ta'avos, such as, eat Treif or be mechalel Shabbos, which this kind of individual would not succumb to. For this individual, Amalek manifests his nature of kerirus, or trying to make us become more 'cold', to our mitzvos- not davening with as much kavuna or rushing through that Berocha.

The S"E concludes that it is especially important for Bnei Toira to recognize the influence of Amalek as it appears to them, for the ways are different than they are for hamon am. In the summer months, we must be vigilant to not let our standards fall in what we consider acceptable behavior...

1 comment:

David5Ts said...

For those of us not familiar, can you please provide some background on the Shomer Emunim?