At the end of the Torah portion of “Beshalach,” “Amalek then came and fought with Yisrael at Refidim.”(Shemot 17:8)
Rashi explains that right before Amalek came to fight the Jewish people they had been complaining and fighting with Moses because they were thirsty and were upset he had brought them out of Egypt. This war happened because they were questioning if G-d’s presence was amongst them or not? Then Rashi continues to explain with an analogy of a man that puts his son on his shoulders and sets on a journey. The son saw an object on the way and said: “father pick up this object and give it to me,” so he picked it up and gave it to him, so the second time and so a third time. Then they met a man and the son asked him: “have you seen my father?” His father then said to him: “don’t you know where I am?” So he threw him off his shoulders and a dog came and bit him.
The father is G-d, the child is us, the dog is Amalek. H”S is always there for us, He feeds, clothes and carries us through life. Sometimes we question ourselves where is G-d? This doubt is Amalek.
The Jewish people had just experienced miracle after miracle, they lacked nothing, but still they had doubt. Such is the nature of doubt. Physically, Amalek are the descendants of Eisav who have been persecuting Jews throughout history. The gematria (numerical value) of Amalek is 240 , similarly the word Safek (doubt) also has a gematria of 240. Within us we all have doubts and uncertainties, it can be in our Emunah (faith) or our Bitachon (trust in H”S). This Amalek inside of us is our Yetzer Hara (Evil Inclination), placing doubts inside of us not allowing us to reach our potential and creating self insecurities which develop into bad character traits. So we are commanded to every day remember what Amalek did to us at Refidim on our way to receive the Torah.
Think about how many times you are on your way of achieving something new in your life, it can be a relationship, a business, a career, etc… and this little voice of doubt starts creeping inside of you.
Say “Hope for the Lord, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope for the Lord…”(Tehillim 27:14)
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