Erev Rav - 007 Amalek as the Rooster

Amalek Is Called The “Rooster”

There is an ongoing war between the nation of Amalek and the nation of Yisroel in Creation.

Amalek exists to fight against the Jewish people – it fights our very essence. The Gemara says that the Jewish people are called “adam”/man, while the nations of the world are not called adam/man. Amalek is called raishis goyim, first of the nations; their role is to fight Yisrael, who are called adam by trying to take away our holy status.

Since Amalek is on one side and Yisrael is on the other side, and every two sides contains a middle point that serves as a bridge between them. Amalek finds a middle point between itself and Yisrael which it can use to draw its strength from and thereby be able to fight Yisrael. What is that middle point? There is a certain animal which is very much connected with people. Amalek uses the powers of this animal in order to connect with Yisrael and harm their holiness. That animal is the tarnigol, the rooster.

A rooster is called “sechvi”, as we say in the morning blessings, that the rooster is a sechvi which can differentiate between day and night. It is also called “gever”.

[The concept of the tarnigol/rooster is used for evil by Amalek; we will see here how there are many evil aspects of the rooster which Amalek uses. Since every concept that exists in evil, can also be found in holiness, we will later explain how the concept of tarnigol is used for holiness by the Jewish people].

The word “sechvi” is equal in gematria to the word “Purim”, because there is a relationship between sechvi/tarnigol to Purim, in which Amalek tried to destroy us. Amalek fights Yisrael through connecting itself to the concept of the tarnigol, which is called gever, and that is how it fights the “adam” aspect of Yisrael: it wants to bring down Yisrael from the level of “adam” to the lower level, which is called gever.

So Amalek fights Yisrael through the force that is called “tarnigol”.

Amalek Is Called The “Dog”

In many places, the Sages compare Amalek also to the dog. That is another way how it fights – it uses the nature of a dog, which is azus, brazenness. Amalek becomes [very powerful] in particular in the end of days, and this is in correlation to another statement of Chazal, that “the face of the generation before Moshiach will be like “the face of a dog”. In other words, Yisrael also has the trait of brazenness. [The brazenness that Yisrael possesses can be used for either good or evil – Yisrael possesses a holy kind of brazenness]. Amalek possesses an equally powerful kind of brazenness, in the side of evil, and that is how it comes to fight Yisrael.

A dog is “kelev” in Hebrew, which contains the words “kol beis”, which means “two voices.” Yisrael is called “the brazen one of the nations”, and the dog is called the most brazen of all the animals. Amalek, who is like a dog, is therefore the evil kind of “dog” that fights the holy brazenness of the Jewish people.

The Gemara states that dogs, roosters, and harlots all hate each other. What all of these have in common is that they all acts brazen. We see a connection here between roosters and dogs; the connection is that they represent the brazenness of Amalek.

Amalek Wants Disparity, Via The Means of Fostering Negative Connection

Kelev is “kol beis”. The letter beis is “two”, which implies connection between two people; it implies a negative kind of connection to others.

Man has two connections – with his child, and with his spouse. Amalek is compared to one who places his child on his shoulders and throws him to the dogs, and the child yells, “Where is my father?” This is one manifestation of kol beis: between father and son. Normally, there is a healthy connection between father and son, but there can be an evil kind of connection between father and son, and this is a force of Amalek.

Another connection man has with another is with his wife. This is supposed to be a holy connection, but there are ways for how the connection between husband and wife can become evil. We see that the Sages did not want a Torah scholar to always be intimate with his wife, so that a Torah scholar should not act like a tarnigol/rooster, who is always intimate with its mate at any given moment. Therefore, the Sages [Ezra the Scribe] enacted that a Torah scholar should immerse in the mikveh following marital relations, so that he will lessen his amount of marital relations.

Thus, the “dog” aspect in Amalek resembles the evil side to the connection between father and son, and the “rooster” aspect in Amalek represents the evil side to the connection between man and his wife.

So Amalek uses the nature of a tarnigol to fight the holy status of the Jewish people, with regards to the relationship between man and his wife.

Bilaam and Amalek

Chazal[1] explained that Bilaam was able to curse Yisrael, because he knew the exact moment when Hashem is angry which is when the rooster is about to makes its sound. The time it lasts is for the amount of the words “balah am”, which hints to “Bilaam”; and since Bilaam and the rooster are both involved with this, it shows that there is a connection between Bilaam and Amalek.

The one moment when the rooster is getting ready is when Hashem is angry at Yisrael. The deeper meaning of this is that during that moment, the status of mankind drops to the level of tarnigol (the rooster, which is called gever, not adam]. Normally, Yisrael is always called “adam”, even when we fall from our spiritual level. By contrast, the two root nations of the world, Yishmael and Esav, are not called “adam”. Yishmael is called “pereh adam”, (a “wild” man) – he is not “adam”. Esav is called Edom, and “edom” is also not adam. The time in which a person falls from his level of “adam” is called “tarnigol”.

Amalek/The Rooster – Excessive Marital Relations

The Gemara[2] says that a baal keri (one who has an accidental emission of semen, or who one has had marital relations the previous night) must immerse in a mikveh, because the Sages didn’t want a Torah scholar to constantly have marital relations with his wife, like how a rooster is always with its mate.

Concerning Amalek, it is written “Asher korcha b’derech”, (“They came upon you along the way”), and “korcha” is from the word “mikreh”, which is from the word “keri”.

In other words, Amalek, which is korcha/mikreh/keri – who comes when there is a laxity of Torah learning – turns a Torah scholar from being immersed in Torah to become weak in his Torah learning and to instead become immersed in desiring marital relations with his wife, like a rooster.

The Sages state that Ezra the Scribe could have given the Torah, but Moshe preceded him, therefore it was Moshe who gave the Torah. But Ezra was so righteous that he also could have given the Torah. Ezra brought up the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael and to the second Beis HaMikdash, so this was a kind of giving of the Torah; it was like a new acceptance of the Torah, just as we accepted the Torah again in the times of Achashveirosh. Ezra was the one who enacted immersion for a baal keri, to counter the “korcha” aspect of Amalek, which wants Torah scholars to be around their wives like roosters so that they can become lax in their Torah learning and be brought further down from their holiness.

When a Torah scholar is around his wife like a rooster [with regards to excessive marital relations], although this appears to be like a constant connection, this is actually a kind of disparity between them. Man and woman were originally created as one piece; according to an opinion in the Sages, Adam and Chavah were created dav partzufin, back to back, and then they were split down the middle and separated. Husband and wife are really one partzuf, one form. After the split they are separated into two forms, but in their essence, they are really one piece. Amalek comes to cause disparity between the unified partzuf of the husband and wife.

This is how Amalek fights us through its aspect of “tarnigol”: it wants there be excessive connection between man and wife, so that they will grow further apart from each other.

Chazal say that when Shlomo built the Beis HaMikdash, he used the shamir, a creature which could cut through stones. He sent a tarnigol to bring him the shamir. We see from this that a tarnigol is involved with cutting the stones of the Beis HaMikdash. However, this Beis HaMikdash was destroyed; it could not last, because the tarnigol was ultimately involved with enabling its stones to be cut. It is because tarnigol represents Amalek.

Just as the tarnigol is involved with cutting stones, so can Amalek cut the stones of the Beis HaMikdash, in the sense that Haman (who came from Amalek) prevented the building of the Beis HaMikdash. This is a way of cutting the stones of the Beis HaMikdash. And it was the evil kind of “cutting stones”. The shamir, by contrast, was the holy power of “cutting stones”, while Haman/Amalek/tarnigol is the evil use of this power.

So Amalek/tarnigol is the evil agenda of Amalek to connect man and woman for evil purposes, just as a tarnigol has excessive marital relations, which the Sages did not want a Torah scholar to resemble.

Yisrael Possesses The Holy Aspects of The Rooster

For every power in evil that we find, though, we also find a holy way to use the power. The holy use of “tarnigol” is when marital relations are done properly. If one follows the words of the Sages on how to have proper marital relations, the union will result in holy children. The Gemara says that one who sees a tarnigol in a dream will merit good children. This alludes to the holy way to use the concept of the tarnigol.

But the evil kind of tarnigol, which is the power of Amalek, is when connection causes disparity. It makes man fall from his status of adam to the lower title of man, which is gever.

On Erev Yom Kippur we take Kapparos, which is done through a tarnigol/rooster. “Purim is like Yom Kippur”, therefore, it follows that Purim also has a power of tarnigol. This is the holy way to use the power of tarnigol, which we can use to counter the evil tarnigol aspect of Amalek.

Yisrael Begins With The Night, Amalek Begins At Day

Amalek is seen in connection with the rooster. The rooster’s call in the morning called is called kerias hagever, the call of rooster. From this we see that Amalek dominates at the beginning of the day. Amalek begins its power from the day.

Yisrael, in contrast, begins with the night. The halachah is that “the day follows the status of the night”; the following night is the beginning of the next day. Yisrael begins with night, whereas the nations of the world begin with day. Amalek in particular begins with the day, for the rooster, which represents Amalek, begins its call at the very beginning of the day.

On Purim, we read Megillah by night and then we repeat it by day. The main obligation is at night, and by daytime we also repeat it, but it mainly begins at night. Kerias Megillah, which we read at night, comes to counter the kerias hagever of Amalek, which begins the next morning. Thus, on Purim, through Kerias Megillah, we counter Amalek.

In the gentile world, day comes before night; Amalek begins their day with kerias hagever.  Yisrael, though, has the power to connect the night with the day, therefore, Yisrael begins with the night before the day, not the beginning of the day. Before kerias hagever is the night time, which is a time of nothingness, heder. This is really a deep, holy power of the Jewish people: the heder, the nothingness, the darkness, which precedes the day; the point before the beginning.[3]

The Gemara[4] says that before dawn is the time when woman converses with man (in marital relations). This represents how Yisrael begins before the morning starts; the marital relations of Yisrael come before the tarnigol begins its day, which shows us that the martial relations of Yisrael are above the “tarnigol”, and that we possess a power to defeat the “tarnigol” that is Amalek. The Gemara says that the possuk “You shall be holy” implies that it is the way of Torah scholars not to have marital relations during the day, and that is why they are called holy.  The tarnigol, by contrast, has marital relations during the day.

The rooster/sechvi differentiates between night and day, and this alludes to the holy kind of tarnigol, which Yisrael has. Thus, we recite Megillah at night first, and then we review it by day. We do the opposite of Amalek, which begins by day.

On Purim, things are turned around. One of the ways how we “turn around” on Purim is that it is revealed how Yisrael begins at night, not by day. This is the depth of why we recite Megillah by night and repeat it by day; to show that our day begins with the night, unlike the nations of the world who begin their day with the day.

“Binah Yesirah” in Yisrael vs. “Binah” of The Rooster/Amalek

When Hashem made woman, He took a rib from Adam, and Adam was put asleep. Amalek came when we were tired, which hints to how Adam was asleep when Chavah was created. Women are given “binah yesairah”, an extra amount of binah. Amalek fights through tarnigol, which has binah, for it can differentiate between night and day. But women have binah yesairah, which is stronger than the binah of the tarnigol. A tarnigol only knows how to begin from day, but the binah yesairah given to the woman is the power to begin with night that precedes day.

When Amalek fought with Yisrael, they threw the Bris Milah upwards. The reason why we remove the orlah by Bris Milah is because the presence of orlah increases taavah, as the Rambam writes in Moreh Nevuchim. When Amalek threw the Bris Milah upwards, it wanted to return taavah and bring down the Jewish people. It fights the Bris Kodesh of Yisrael by seeking to increase taavah.

Bilaam knew the time when Hashem is angry; Bilaam is the words “balah am” (the one who wants “to swallow the nation”), from the word beliah, swallowing; this hints to its connection to Amalek/tarnigol, for the tarnigol swallows food in an unusual manner. Bilaam knew that Hashem hates elicit relationships more than anything, which is represented by tarnigol, who has improper marital relations. This was really what Bilaam wanted to do to bring us down by advising Moav to send their women to entice the Jewish people with immoral desires.

Since Bilaam is connected with Amalek, and Amalek fights us during the final days, it shows us that in the final days we will be tested with the temptation towards immoral desires.

Amalek Fights The Holiness of Marital Relations

Amalek fights Torah of the Jewish people, and because they are the “first” nation, they fight the first mitzvah of the Torah, which is pru u’rvu (the mitzvah to procreate). The word pru in pru u’rvu is from the word pur. Haman cast a pur (lot) on Purim, because he wanted to attack our aspect of pur/pru.

The Holiness of Marital Relations: To Appease Beforehand

The holy kind of tarnigol, which Yisrael possesses, is reflected in the following. The Gemara says that we learn derech eretz in marital relations from a tarnigol, who appeases its mate before relations. From here we learn about the holiness in marital relations.

In Conclusion

Thus, Purim is a time in which the holy and evil forces of tarnigol are warring with each other.

The Jewish people possess the holy kind of tarnigol [reflected in the halachah that one must appease his wife before engaging in marital relations], and this counters the evil concept of tarnigol which Amalek uses. It is the holy kind of sechvi/rooster, which is equal in numerical value to “Purim”, represented by the fact that the Jewish people act holy with marital relations; the fact that a husband must appease his wife before marital relations, which the nations of the world do not do. This holy kind of “tarnigol” that we have can counter the evil kind of sechi/tarnigol that is Amalek. Purim is also compared to Yom Kippur, which contains kaparrah (atonement).

This is the depth of how Yisrael can defeat Amalek; it is also the depth behind Kerias Megillah of Purim, which comes to counter the kerias hagever of Amalek the morning after we lein Megillah – when we precede the day with the night, through first reading the Megillah at night.