Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Amalek
עמלק
Amalek
The kelipah of brazen haughtiness, “first of the nations” and root of the evil traits, that knows its Master yet rebels, cutting mind off from heart; G‑d’s war with it goes on in every generation.
Where it’s explained
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶5Amalek, head of the seven nations, is the main screen and partition that separates. “Havayah’s war with Amalek from generation to generation” holds even now, when a physical war with Amalek does not apply: in the soul Amalek is haughtiness with brazenness and pride, from which evil traits come, within the soul and outside it.
מ״מ ברוחניות הנפש יש בחי׳ עמלק והיינו בחי׳ גסות הרוח בחוצפה וגבהות
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4, ¶3Amalek is the iron partition that cuts off the heart’s desire, so that stirrings of teshuvah only glimpse through now and then. It knows its Master and means to rebel against Him; it is the kelipah opposite Daas, keeping Daas from spreading into the middos by brazenness without reason. What nullifies it is Moshe, bittul, and the Torah learned with bittul.
כי עמלק הוא יודע רבונו ומכוון למרוד בו שהוא הקליפה שכנגד הדעת
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶34Brazenness without reason or daas, doing the opposite of what one knows: the name reads am malak, a nipping and cutting at the nape of holiness, which severs the bond between the head and its mind and their spreading into the heart.
וזהו לשון עמלק ע״ם מל״ק שהוא בחי׳ מליקה וכריתה ממול העורף דקדושה
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 8, ¶1As holiness has “first” (sovev) and “last” (memalei), so in kelipah Amalek has a first and a last. The seven nations are the seven evil traits, and Amalek is their beginning; Amalek’s “end” is the end of the levels of kelipah and its essence, the evil in each trait at full strength.
שיש בבחי׳ עמלק בחי׳ ראשית ובחינת אחרית
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2, ¶1The war with Amalek is fought in a person’s soul in every generation and every day, between the holy soul and the animal soul, and its time is prayer. The serpent of the Zohar is Amalek. One side of the war the G‑dly soul can win by its own strength; what it cannot win by itself is given from above, and that is “Havayah’s war with Amalek” (Ki Teitzei 2:2).
שבכל דור ודור ובכל יום ויום צריך להיות מלחמה זו בנפש האדם
Stated differently
How high Amalek stands among the kelipos: above the tree of knowledge as its makif, or at the lower Daas, beneath Pharaoh
שכל העכו״ם הן מבחי׳ עה״ד טו״ר ועמלק הוא למעלה מהןAll the idolatrous nations are from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and Amalek is above them; Haman (“Is it from the tree?”) is a makif to the tree, touching and not touching, which is brazenness and haughtiness.
אך פרעה היה מדעת העליון והוא היה בדעת התחתוןAll the idolatrous nations are from the seven days of building, and Amalek is in the Daas “behind the shoulders”; Pharaoh was from the upper Daas and Amalek from the lower. Pharaoh said “I do not know” and yielded to the wonders; Amalek knew all the miracles and is the hardness that knows its Master.
וזהו המבטל לבחי׳ עמלק שהוא רק כנגד דעת תחתוןMoshe, rooted in the upper Daas that shines in the forehead of Arich Anpin, nullifies Amalek, which stands only opposite the lower Daas, where it hides and covers.
Main sources
Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶34Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1, ¶35Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 2, ¶10Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3, ¶5Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4, ¶3Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 8, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2, ¶1Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2, ¶2
Where it appears
In 66 paragraphs of 36 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 2 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 3 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 4 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 8 ¶1 ¶2 ¶3 ¶18 ¶20 ¶21 ¶27 ¶28
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 12 ¶14 ¶19
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 3 ¶5 ¶6 ¶7 ¶8 ¶12 ¶13 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 4 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Korach 1 ¶32
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 3 ¶16 ¶26
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 1 ¶35
- Torah Ohr, Vayishlach 6 ¶1 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 6 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Haazinu 3 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 3 ¶20 ¶37 ¶38
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 21 ¶23
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Savo 2 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Re’eh 1 ¶4
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 18 ¶11
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 2 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Tetzaveh 4 ¶3 ¶4 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 5 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Matos 3 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 3 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1 ¶1 ¶2 ¶32 ¶33 ¶34 ¶35 ¶36
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 7 ¶1
- Likkutei Torah, Vayikra 5 ¶46 ¶49
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 7 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 22 ¶9
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 8 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 10 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 7 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Pekudei 1 ¶29
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 1 ¶1
Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.