Mental Health in the Parsha is dedicated l’ilui nishmat Zev (Will) Shakin, z”l, who lived with a deep love of Israel and the belief that we must love our brother as ourselves, v’ahavta l’reacha kamocha. May his memory be a blessing, and may his light keep reaching the people who need it.

Here’s something I’ve noticed, and perhaps you have too. Our worst thoughts don’t show up when we’re doing well. They wait.

They wait until we’re tired. Until we’ve had a hard week, slept badly, and we’re dragging along at the back of our own lives. That’s when they hit. Not when we’re strong and rested. When we’re already worn out.

The end of this week’s parsha figured that out about us a very long time ago, and put it into one line I can’t read the same way anymore.

The parsha ends with a single word. “Zachor”. זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק. Remember what Amalek did to us on our way out of Mitzrayim.

And it tells us exactly what he did. He didn’t fight our soldiers face to face. He came at us on the road, ויזנב בך כל הנחשלים אחריך, and he cut down the ones lagging at the back, ואתה עיף ויגע, when we were tired and worn out.

Look at who he picked. Not the strong ones up front. The stragglers. The tired. The weak. The ones who couldn’t keep up. He went for the people at the back that nobody was watching.

That’s not just an old war story. That is exactly how despair works on us.

The enemy that waits for us to be tired

There’s an old story that the real Amalek isn’t only a nation somewhere out there. It’s something inside us too. The word Amalek adds up to the same number as........

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