Morality And Mechiyas Amalek

I have recently presented some articles of HaRav Lichtenstein ztz"l and hope to continue to do so.  His articles are so well written, so thought out, so profound, so scholarly, and for me, a pleasure to read, so I want to share the wealth. We live in a extremely superficial world, the "Twitter generation". One line tweets, lots of computer graphics, short sound bytes and slogans, pitching to the lowest common denominator of our animal souls. You read his articles, accessible to all who know English well, and entire vistas of thought are opened up. His halachic articles in English enable even people without a vast talmudic background to enjoy the process of deep analysis and exploration of sources.

However, Caveat Emptor ["buyer beware" in Latin:-)] - I don't agree with everything he said and wrote. NOT because I am on his level - I am forty three levels beneath the ground and he is on the 1000th floor in the sky. No comparsion. [When I was a kid they used to compare my skills to Michael Jordan's - they would watch me play and say "He is no Jordan"]. But I have a different mesorah from my Rabbeim and I follow them in certain areas where there is conflict. We can only use our own brain to decide to choose who our Rabbeim will be. If I am wrong - והוא רחום יכפר עוון.

Maybe I will expand on certain areas of difference in future posts and in the present post I will mention one point.

In the article in the previous post - he spoke of the moral difficulties that inhere in the mitzva of destroying Amalek. His resolution was that we have yiras shomayim which overcomes our natural moral convictions that make us sure that Hashem is justified in his command. In addition, the holy tzadikim like Rav Chaim who took care of foundlings left at his doorstep were faithful in principal to the mitzva of mechiyas Amalek - so we should be.

I humbly offer that, interestingly, we don't find in Chazal, the Rishonim and Acharonim that there is any moral difficulty with this mitzva. I think that the events of 70 years ago make it clear why; if we identify "Amalekism" with "Nazism" then it is clear that there is no act more moral than mechiyas Amalek. Oh that I could turn the clock back and have the opportunity to liquidate some Amakeites... There is no act more merciful to mankind.