Li-zchus yedid nafshi R' Yosef Ezra ben Esther livracha vi-hatzlacha bichol maase yadav. [Spellcheck really clobbered me on this sentence but I don't care:-). I want to give my brachos and add zchuyos to R' Yosef Ezra].
There are two types of evil in the world. One is when people deny Hashem. If there is no Hashem [ח"ו] then I can do WHATEVER I FEEL LIKE!
There is another type of evil which may be more insidious - when one attributes his evil actions to Hashem [that gives the person the force of Divine command to perpetrate his evil]. The oceans of blood that have been spilled by Christians and Muslims over the generations have been in the name of G-d [or better "god" because the god they believe in is a figment of their imaginations and but a projections of themselves].
That explains a puzzling enigma: When Hashem punished the Egyptians there was no tefillah involved. On the contrary the Jews were told NOT to daven [ה' ילחם לכם ואתם תחרישון]. But when the Jews fought Amalek [end of Beshalach], the victory was propelled by their tefillos [it says about Moshe ויהי ידיו אמונה which is rendered by the Targum as spreading his hands in tefilla]. Why the difference?
Egypt denied Hashem [מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו]. They had to be shown that Hashem is in control so it wasn't necessary and even superfluous to daven. They had to be shown that הכל בידי שמים.
Amalek is Esav's grandson. Esav is called a ישראל מומר - an apostate Jew [Kiddushin 18]. He BELIEVES in G-d, but just believes that G-d wants him to kill Jews.... For such a war, the remedy is to take initiative, daven to Hashem and show that הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים - to restore faith in HUMANITY.
WOW!!
Look at the words of the Ishbitzer:
