What Invoking Amalek Means Today

The name of the biblical tribe of murderers, the arch-rivals of ancient Israel, has been much discussed in the wake of October 7. Is that appropriate?

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him yourself at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

“The word Amalek is now as common as ‘woke’ was yesterday,” a friend in America wrote me a few days ago. This was after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s October 28 speech to the Israeli people in which he said, referring to their soldiers now fighting in Gaza:

They are longing to recompense the murderers for the horrific acts they perpetrated on our children, our women, our parents, and our friends. They are committed to eradicating this evil from the world, for our existence, and I add, for the good of all humanity. The entire people, and the leadership of the people, embrace them and believe in them. “Remember what Amalek did to you.” We remember and we fight.

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Got a question for Philologos? Ask him yourself at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

They are longing to recompense the murderers for the horrific acts they perpetrated on our children, our women, our parents, and our friends. They are committed to eradicating this evil from the world, for our existence, and I add, for the good of all humanity. The entire people, and the leadership of the people, embrace them and believe in them. “Remember what Amalek did to you.” We remember and we fight.

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