IT ALL COMES down to what you believe, for now. As long as God decides to hide His hand, and we’re not talking about playing cards here, perception is up for grabs.

CONTINUITY IS AN important idea in every society. There will always be people too selfish to care about the generations to follow, but they tend to be in the minority.

THE STORY OF Amalek begins, at least in the Torah, in Parashas Beshallach. That is where he first attacked the Jewish people and went down in history as the antithesis of the Jewish people and nemesis of God.

THE MIDRASH LEARNS that the four terms in the second verse of the Torah, null, void, darkness, and deep, allude to the four exiles the Jewish people were destined to undergo.

The name itself has the same letters that spell “bald,” perhaps given to him at birth as a prophecy of how one day his being shaven bald would lead to his rebellion and demise.