The Daat Zekeinim has an interesting answer as to why Yehoshua did not decimate Amalek completely, he only weakened them -- "va'yachalosh Yehoshua es Amalek (17:13) -- when he battled them (see also Ibn Ezra on the word vayachalosh!)
לכך כתיב ויחלש ולא כתב ויכה לפי שעמלק חוזה בכוכבים היה ובחר לו אנשים שאינן עתידין למות באותה מלחמה. וכן יהושע עשה כן דכתיב בחר לנו אנשים דמשמע קיימים ובריאים לכך לא היה יהושע יכול להרגם אלא חתך ידיהם ורגליהם וזהו ויחלש
Amalek had stargazers who knew the future and they sent into battle people who were not fated to die. Yehoshua countered by choosing for his own army people who were also not fated to die. So they fought to a standoff and Amalek was weakened in battle, but not wiped out.
Does this idea make sense? Let's say, for example, that a soldier had his fortune told and it was revealed that he would not die in an upcoming battle. If that solider chose to run directly into the enemy lines, right into their gunfire, fearing nothing, would the bullets just bounce off him? Would he really remain unharmed?
Is this the same as Aristotle's "tomorrow's sea battle" problem? If the statement "tomorrow there will be no sea battle" is true, then no matter what I do, there will be no battle. So forget diplomacy, forget the need to stand down the navy -- just sit back and watch, because the outcome is already determined. What then of free choice?
Raavad in Hil Teshuvah 5:5 is not bothered by the contradiction. His response to the Rambam's question of how Divine foreknowledge still allows for free will is that Divine knowledge is אבל היא כידיעת האצטגנינים שיודעים מכח אחר מה יהיו דרכיו של זה. Just because the star gazer knows what you will eat for breakfast tomorrow morning does not mean that when you look in the cabinet tomorrow at the different boxes there you are not freely choosing the one you would like to have that day.
Again, does it makes sense? If the star gazer said today that you would eat Cheerios tomorrow, are you really free to choose whatever cereal you like?
These topics are good for when you have a lot of free time on your hands.
"Yehoshua countered..."
ReplyDeletehow could he stoop so low?
because Israel wasn't lifted above the mazalot until har Sinai, just around the corner*. so Moshe raised his hands during the battle with Amalek in a tiring effort to lift the Mazal Tov Brigade above the constellations prematurely**
*hinted at by G-d in 17:14 -- inscribe in a book (Torah shebichtav) and tell to Yehoshua (Torah she'baal peh), the obliteration of Amalek's mazal, the erasure of his very memory >mi'tachas ha'shamayim<. Amalek's own star(s), his own guardian angel, will in the end no longer recognize him. his energy will die, and his tight grip slip from the Throne into the limp abyss...
**when Moshe's hands were high, hands and feet were mauled; otherwise Amalek went unscathed
-- "are you really free to choose whatever cereal you like?"
the back-up question the nachash never asked, who spotted Fruity "Cheerios" hanging in the gan...
Rav Saadya Gaon says that even if someone is an absolute Tzadik born with the Mazal of Arichus Yomim and he told all safety precautions, a Rosha still has the bechira to kill him.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of Amalek however I don't see it as being a difficulty. In most battles there are people who don't get killed and there is a winning and losing side. If you only send people who have the mazal not to die into battle then their collective mazal causes battle itself to be heavily stacked in your favor. If both sides do so then the battle will end up in a standoff with neither side winning a clear victory