Battle with Amalek: Killing is only part of the story

The battle is waged against Amalek, and as it finishes, we are told (as it is most often translated) that “Yehoshua weakened Amalek and his people with the sword” (Shmot 17:13). The Torah’s word for weakened is vayachalosh, but its translation is not so clear.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch takes the “weakening” as a reminder that the defeat of Amalek will only come at the end of days. He argues that Israel, as a people, is not yet mature, and it is Amalek’s existence as an adversary and a contrast that is necessary for Israel’s development.

The Mechilta records three opinions as what happened to Amalek on this battlefield: they were judged with mercy, they lost based on a divine word, they fell by the sword.

The Pesikta similarly has a few suggestions: they plowed through Amalek (based on the “L” of VaychaLosh being interchangeable with an “R” – “Vayachrosh”), he struck them as how one destroys mice through squashing them, or Yehoshua had the Amalekites decapitated.

The Midrash Sechel Tov elaborates on this last suggestion, saying Yehoshua did not mutilate their bodies, but judged them to receive an honorable death — quick and instant death through decapitation.

How could such a judgment be considered a weakening? The Targum Yonatan says the punishment was on a limited scale — only the greatest of their warriors met their ends this way (see Rashi too). This explains how they were weakened — their best soldiers perished, but not the regular rank-n-filers (Ta”z).

There is another line of thinking recorded by a number of commentaries, based in the Midrash. The Amalekites were able, through necromancy, to see which of their soldiers were not destined to die at the sword during the coming year. These men were placed as the front-line soldiers, almost as an invincible army. Nonetheless, Yehoshua’s army weakened them with the sword through injuries, even though they could not kill them (Chizkuni, Daat Zekenim, R Chaim Paltiel, etc).

Chizkuni (and R Chaim Paltiel) records a different opinion, based on similar word in Iyov 14:10, that Vayachalosh means many Amalekites did in fact die in battle.