Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness.
We left off in yesterday's class that man has a desire to be in control, which goes back to day one of creation. The sad truth is that he's not in control, God's in control. We ended with a question: Why would God make man with a need that he really can't fulfill? Let’s put that question on hold for the moment. We also said that Amalek is one of the proponents of the belief that man should be in control, and God is not in control, and everything in the world is really just a Mikreh/happenstance. The Midrash tells us another fact about Amalek: Amalek taunted the Brit Milah. He taunted the concept that Jewish people circumcise their children.
There's a hint to this in the Torah. When it says that Amalek attacked, it says, They stung all the Necheshalim/weak people. But if we take the word Necheshalim and re-scramble it, it spells Nachash Milah/the snake attacks the Brit Milah. So, Amalek and the snake share a common theme, that God is not in control and you should be in control.
But where does the Brit Milah issue come in? Why is Amalek so anti circumcision?
It’s interesting that certain countries believe that circumcisions are inhumane, and they make a big deal about that. The Chida explains that there's a fundamental difference between the Jews and the goyim in philosophy, specifically in deciding what's more important, man's deeds or God's deeds.
One of the proofs that God likes man's deeds more than His own deeds, is the concept of Brit Milah. God says, I created the baby, but it's not finished. You have to finish off the process. And this isn’t just about circumcision. It’s symbolic of God wanting us to make ourselves, to finish ourselves off.
The Midrash Raba Vayikra 35,7 says, “Guard my mitzvot and do them.” It says the word them/otam can also be read as Atem, and the Midrash says, If you keep the Torah, I consider it as if you created yourselves. Like you made yourselves. So that means man was put into the world, and yes, he is a creator, but he's not in control of what's outside of himself. He's in control of what's inside of himself. He can perfect himself and his Middot. That's in his control. Hakol B’ydeh Shnayim, Everything is in the hands of God, Chutz M’Yirat Shamayim/ but the fear of God.
So yes, you can be a creator. You will be a creator, you will be in control. But of yourself.
Ezeh Hu Gibor/Who is a strong man? Not the one that's able to control things outside of himself, but rather the one that can control himself within.
The hiddush is that this is Amalek’s psychological one, two punch. He tells you that you have to be in control, and he's right. But he makes a disconnect. He makes a short circuit. He thinks you’re in control of what's going on outside of you and that’s where you should put your focus. If we could answer back, we’d say, I'll fulfill my need to be in control by control by controlling myself. To that, Amalek says, “You're buying into that Brit Milah nonsense, as if you can control yourself and you're going to fix yourself and change yourself? That's not where to put your focus.” In order to avoid us working on the proper area, where we can channel our need for self-control, he short circuits it to the wrong area. He says, control the world around you. But that's futile, because you can't control the world around you. God is in control. What should you control? The message of Brit Milah- control yourself.
B’Ezrat Hashem we will continue on this point, because it’s very important for the human psyche and for mental health and emotional wellness. We want, and need, to be in control of something and sometimes we put our focus in areas that we really can’t control- and that's frustrating. But there's one area that you can control and that is what's going on inside of you.
Have a wonderful day.