33- What Is Amalek, Whose Memory We Must Blot Out

“To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth” (Sukkah 52). That is, they are shown that Amalek does not have so much power that he cannot be defeated.

“To the righteous—as a high mountain,” since they are powerful in that they want to be righteous and work in this manner for the sake of the Creator. Hence, they are given more evil each time, in order to overcome it and admit it into Kedusha [holiness]. In other words, each time, they take the aim for themselves, and instead of the aim for themselves, they work for the sake of the Creator.

For example, when they began the work they felt ten grams of pleasure in eating and drinking and so forth, and had the strength to relinquish this. Afterward, they are given fifteen grams of pleasure in corporeal pleasures. Then, a new work begins, and they feel that they have become worse, meaning that they lost their power to overcome because they see that now there is more work to overcome.

At that time, they must say that this is not the truth, but that previously, they felt the taste of ten grams of pleasure, and prevailed, and now they cannot overcome fifteen grams.

Afterward, through work and prayer, they can overcome fifteen grams, and they are given twenty grams of flavor in corporeality, and they see that they cannot overcome. When they look back, they ask themselves, “Why could we overcome sleep and other things before, and we see that now we have become worse than then?”

Also, we should understand that this is not the truth, but that previously, when they felt ten grams, they were able to overcome. But now that they are given twenty grams of pleasure, of course they are as yet unable to overcome, since they never had the work of relinquishing twenty grams of flavor, since even their whole lives were not worth as much as ten grams of pleasure in their eyes, and now they feel that living is worth more than ten grams, so the dedication they had had before is difficult for them.