ממדבר סין למסעיהם, from the desert of Sin on their journeys; the Torah used an abbreviation here. The truth, as described in Numbers 33,12-14, is that the way stations after the desert of Sin were: Dofkah, Alush, and Refidim, at which point they found themselves short of water. The reason why two waystations are omitted here is because of the disgrace of Israel who had wished to return to Egypt by the shortest possible route.

תנו לנו מים, “give us water!” although Aaron had not been mentioned in this paragraph at all, the people used the plural mode when addressing Moses, although there had been no need to mention him at all.

מה תריבון מה תנסון, “Why do you quarrel? Why do you try the Lord?” Both of these words are spelled without the letter ו. [not in our versions of the Torah scrolls or the printed versions. Minchas shay quotes our author as the source of the above, without commenting. Ed.]

וקח אתך מזקני ישראל, “and take with you some of the elders of Israel.” They were to be witnesses to the miracle that was to occur when, in response to Moses hitting the rock, a supply of water would materialise. The presence of these elders would prevent the people from claiming that the location (near Sinai) from which this water originated was one where fountains of water were located. Even though Aaron hit the rock, Moses was credited with supplying the water.

אשר הכית בו את היאור, “with which you had struck the river Nile;” [and turned its water into blood. Ed.] Moses was to demonstrate that his staff was not only an instrument with which to produce harmful effects. Actually, it had not been Moses who had struck the Nile but Aaron. (Exodus 7,19) The fact is that whatever Aaron did in Egypt, he did as the disciple of his master, Moses. This time, instead of denying water through his staff, he produced water by means of it.

בחורב, והכית בצור, although the people were encamped at Refidim, Moses went all the way to Mount Sinai to find the rock that would produce water.

ויבא עמלק, “Amalek came;” where did Amalek come from? Our verse must be understood in terms of what we have been told in Genesis 36,6, where Esau and all his clans are reported as having moved away from the land of Canaan, after the reconciliation which included Esau’s ceding the claim to the land of Canaan to his brother Yaakov’s descendants. At that time Rashi explained that Esau, aware of the promise and curse G-d had made toAvraham at the covenant between the pieces in Genesis chapter 15, the promise of taking over the land of Canaan had been made conditional on Abraham’s descendants having been strangers and part of that time even slaves, for 400 years. Esau decided then to forego the promise in order to escape the curse of the 400 year wait. His descendants, one of whom was his grandson Amalek, realised that the 400 years had elapsed and that by now the only thing that was left was the promise. He therefore decided that as the older son of Yitzock’s descendant, to stake his claim by force. He was also aware that his grandfather had been motivated to leave the land of Canaan as he had looked like a great fool for having sold his birthright, which had given Yaakov, as the firstborn, a claim to the land of Canaan. [He believed the time was ripe then, especially while the Israelites were in no man’s land, land that they had no claim to, would not enjoy preferential treatment by G-d in such an encounter.]

בחר לנו אנשים, “select for us some men!” Moses wanted men who had been born in the second month of Adar, (people born in that month were believed to be free of fear of sorcerers and witches (compare a Midrash quoted on this verse in Torah shleymah by Rabbi M. Kasher, item 58) Such people reputedly were not subject to negative influences of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. [This editor does not understand, how, seeing that the lunar calendar for the Jewish people had only been introduced a few weeks before the events in which the events related in our chapter took place, Joshua could have known who had been born during what would have been the second month of Adar. You may also find the commentary of Rabbeinu Bachya on this verse of special interest. Ed.] The Amalekites were reputed to be great astrologists, and able to foretell future events based on that. Seeing that the second month of Adar is the thirteenth month, and not governed by any constellation, people born in that month did not need to fear predetermined events they might be subject to. The sorcerers would be powerless during that month. Another interpretation of our verse: Moses instructs Joshua to mobilise a number of fighting men that would equal the ones at the disposal of the Amalekites.

אנכי נצב על ראש הגבעה, “I will position myself on the summit of the hill;” Moses wanted to be able to follow the course of the battle while personally watching, and even more, so that the Israelite fighters could see their leader and be encouraged by this visual contact. We find a verse in Joshua 8,26, where the latter, by that time the leader of the Jewish people, emulated Moses’ example by not lowering his spear until victory in battle had been secured. It is a common practice in war that one of the popular heroes positions himself on a hill or tower, holding aloft a flag in order to serve as encouragement to the troops seeing that the flag is a common symbol. As long as the troops can see their flag being held aloft they derive encouragement from this. If for some reason the troops fail to see the flag being held aloft they become demoralised. Moses’ staff in this instance served as a flag for the Israelites fighting Amalek.

ומשה ואהרן וחור, and Moses Aaron and Chur; seeing that the Torah will tell us about what Aaron and Chur did during that time, Chur was introduced to us here. Aaron and Chur would support Moses’ arms while Moses was standing on the summit of the hill.

וידי משה כבדים “and Moses’ hands became heavy;” it was tiresome for Moses to have to stand all day long, as we know from verse 9 where he announced that on the following day he would take up a position on the top of the hill, and it would be difficult for him to keep his hands lifted upwards all day long. Aaron and Chur provided a stone for Moses to sit on; and they supported his arms from either side so that he could keep holding his staff aloft. All of this was necessary in order that the people would not become demoralised. The expression: אמונה, describes anything that does not weaken or decrease in size when remaining in the same position for a long time, such as from morning to evening. An example of the meaning of אמונה what we described are found in Isaiah 22,23: ותקעתיו יתד במקום נאמן, “I will fix him as a peg in a firm place.” There are numerous other examples of this kind. Moses’ doing this enabled Joshua to weaken the Amalekites and their troops. Once the Torah writes of ידו, “his hand”, singular mode, and another time it writes ידיו, “his hands,” plural mode. At the beginning of the battle Moses raised only one of his hands, while lowering his second hand; eventually both of his hands had become too heavy for him to keep aloft without someone supporting them. In the Midrash quoted in Torah shleymah item 94, in the name of several well known commentators, none of whom have revealed the name of that Midrash, we find the following interpretation of the words in this paragraph: the word אמונה, is a reminder of Avraham who had been complimented by G-d on his emunah, “faith,” already in Genesis chapter 15. When Moses’ prayer on behalf of his people embattled against Amalek had not elicited a response from Hashem, he appealed to the forefather Avraham to join his plea. The words: עד בא, are a hint that he similarly turned to the Jewish people’s forefather Yitzchok, of whom we read that he had returned from prayer at the well where Hagar’s prayer had been answered. (Genesis 24,62). The words: עד בוא השמש, are a reminder of our forefather Yaakov who had prematurely spent a night at Luz where he had his first prophetic revelation in the dream with the ladder. (Genesis 28,11 כי בא השמש). Moses called on the combined merits of all three forefathers to reinforce his prayer. Our author quotes from Genesis 49,22 and Samuel I4,15, as well as from Joshua 20,9, that the word אמונה applied here to both of Moses’ hands, is a legitimate mode of the feminine mode corresponding to the masculine plural mode of the word אמונים.

ויחלוש יהושע את עמלק, “Joshua succeeded in weakening the armies of Amalek.” [In order to understand the following it is important to realise that in this battle we do not hear of either side suffering fatalities. The word חרב, for “lethal sword,” does not appear once. Ed. The Amalekites had employed the weapon of sorcery in order to weaken the Jewish people. The swords used had not caused a single death, hence the Torah only speaks of the Amalekites having been “weakened.”Another interpretation of the unusual expression: ויחלוש. This term was used since the Torah had previously written that when Moses’ hands had weakened וגבר עמלק, “Amalek was gaining the upper hand,” it was appropriate to use a word meaning the opposite after the battle ended, i.e. while the Israelites had gotten the upper hand, they had only succeeded in beating off the attack. On the other hand, there is an instance where the expression ויחלוש, is used as describing someone dying, i.e. וגבר ימות ויחלש, (Job 14,9).

כתוב, “record in writing!” but not only orally; if this piece of history would be handed down from father to son only orally, it would be exposed to becoming forgotten in the course of time.[When G-d eventually commanded King Shaul to carry out the commandment to wipe out Amalek, and that nation had not had any contact with the Jewish people for 200 years, none of the Israelites would have understood why they had to commit this kind of genocide. Ed.] The written Torah itself had foretold in Deuteronomy25,19, that this commandment would be carried out only after the Jewish people faced no more enemies all around it.

זאת זכרון בספר, “this atrocity that the Amalektites had committed against the Jewish people, attacking it in the desert, without any provocation whatsoever. Our descendants when the time came must have a written record of this dastardly attack on perfectly harmless people who had never attacked anyone. זכרון בספר, “a written record as a reminder;” the prefix ב with the vowel patach, meant that this book already existed, and was known as 'ספר מלחמות ה, “the book recording wars fought by or on behalf of Hashem;” it is only due to our sins that this book has not been preserved, just as the book known as sefer hayashar is also no longer in our possession. Another book no longer in our possession is the book written by the prophet Iddo, as recorded in Chronicles II 13,22 by its author Ezra. There were also written records known as the history of the kings of Israel (Kings I 14, 1929) as well as the books of Solomon (Kings I 5,12) (Compare Ibn Ezra on this)

ושים באזני יהושע, “and commit it orally to Joshua;” he who had begun to carry out the commandment of wiping out Amalek deserves the credit to see to it that this book is handed down from generation to generation until a king will arise in Israel who will complete the task that Joshua began. G-d warns the people not to be astounded at the absolute harshness of this command Neither are we to assume that there had been military encounters between the Israelites and the Amalekites until some 400 years later years later under King Shaul. There had not been any. The unforgivable sin of the Amalekites was that when after the Israelites had crossed the sea of reeds and the Egyptians drowned in pursuit, when all the surrounding nations had been so impressed and lived in trepidation so that they were ready to accept the universal kingdom of heaven, this nation had appeared to show them that one could stand up against the chosen people and survive such an encounter, i.e. that their G-d was not invincible.

ויבן שם מזבח, “he built an altar there; Moses built the altar at the bottom of Mount Chorev.

ויקרא את שמר: ה' נסי, “he named it: “Hashem is My banner.” According to Rabbi Eliezer hamoda-i, the subject of the words “he named it” was the Lord Himself. Rashi points out that we know of something similar from Genesis 33,20: In that verse we read that Yaakov, after being the first Jew to be able to buy a piece of land in the Holy Land (apart from the tomb of Sarah) built an altar and when the Torah reports that that altar was called: א-ל אלוקי ישראל, that was the name given to this altar by Hashem.

כי יד על כס יה, “for as long Israel will possess the power to appoint to sit on the throne of G-d;” we know of a similar though strangely sounding formulation, from Chronicles I 29,23: וישב שלמה על כסא ה' למלך תחת דוד אביר“Solomon successfully took over the throne of the Lord as king instead of his father David.” The verse describes conditions when it will be possible to wage G-d’s war against Amalek.

יד, the word יד normally translated as “hand,” in this instance refers to power, Royal authority.” We know of a similar example for the meaning of that word from Samuel I 15,12, where the prophet Shmuel was advised of Shaul’s arriving at Mount Carmel, and he prepares for this by erecting a יד, for him, i.e. an altar. The words there are: והנה הוא מציב לו יד. In Samuel II 8,3 we also find the word יד used in this sense when David built an altar. [Not the traditional understanding of the word by most commentators. Ed.] The word כסא usually is used as a symbol of power, Royal Power.[If this is so, the word יד in the same line cannot mean the same, of course. Ed.] A different interpretation: the verse means that as long as nations, or especially Amalek, see in Jerusalem and what its stands for its spiritual nemesis, there will be an ongoing war between G-d and His representative on earth, Israel; מלחמה לה' בעמלק, “a state of war between G-d and Amalek; this phrase is what the liturgist has in mind when he wrote in his poetic prayer recited on the Sabbath preceding the reading of Parshat zachor on the Sabbath preceding Purim.־, commencing with the words: אלוקים אל דמי לך, “do not be silent o G-d”; the author queries G-d’s relative inactivity versus Amalek although He has dealt more harshly with other adversaries throughout history. [There are only few congregations in which this liturgical poem is recited nowadays in the synagogues. It is lengthy and the language requires assistance by commentaries as provided in the prayer book known as otzar hatefillot. Ed.] G-d’s answer is that until Amalek attacks G-d directly, not just His people, it is our task to deal with him, once he does the latter, G-d personally will wipe him out, This is why when Titus destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem G-d dealt with him, whereas at this stage it was our task to fight him. According to Jeremiah 3,17 Jerusalem is called G-d’s throne.