Commento su Esodo 17:16

ויאמר AND HE SAID — i. e. Moses said.

FOR THE HAND UPON ‘KEIS Y-AH’ (THE THRONE OF THE ETERNAL). “The hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised to swear by His throne that He will maintain [a state of] war and enmity against Amalek forever. Now what is the significance of the word keis, and why does it not say kisei [as usual]? Furthermore, even the Divine Name is divided into half!⁴⁸²The Tetragrammaton consists of four letters, while here only the first two letters are mentioned. [The answer is that] the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that the throne will not be perfect and the Name will not be full until He will blot out the name of Amalek the son of Esau.⁴⁸³Amalek was a grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:12). And when his name will be blotted out, then will G-d’s Name be full and the throne perfect, as it is said, The foe — they are destroyed; perpetual ruins.⁴⁸⁴Psalms 9:7. [This refers to Esau,⁴⁸⁵In our Rashi: “Amalek.” of whom it is said, And he kept his wrath for ever.]⁴⁸⁶Amos 1:11. Their very memorial is perished.⁴⁸⁴Psalms 9:7. What is written after that? And the Eternal is enthroned for ever.⁴⁸⁷Psalms 9:8. Thus you see [that after Amalek’s memory has perished], G-d’s Name is full. He hath established ‘kis’o’ (His throne) for judgment.⁴⁸⁷Psalms 9:8. Thus you see that the throne will be perfect.” Thus far the language of Rashi, and it is a Midrash of the Sages.⁴⁸⁸Tanchuma, Ki Theitzei 11.
Some scholars⁴⁸⁹Mentioned in Ibn Ezra in the name of Rabbi Yeshuah. explain the verse as meaning that “when there will be a ‘hand,’ [i.e., king, as explained further], upon the throne of the Eternal,⁴⁹⁰The expression found in this verse before us. the Eternal will have war with Amalek, and so shall it be from generation to generation.” The purport of this is that when there will be a king in Israel sitting upon the throne of the Eternal,⁴⁹⁰The expression found in this verse before us. he shall wage war against Amalek, thus alluding to Saul, the first king [of Israel]. And so shall it continue from generation to generation, that every king of Israel shall be duty-bound to fight with them until their name will extinct.
The following is also a Midrash of the Gemara,⁴⁹¹See Seder Bo, Note 204. as found in [Tractate Sanhedrin] in the chapter of the High Priest:⁴⁹²Sanhedrin 20b. See also Maimonides’ “The Commandments,” I, pp. 202-203. “By saying, The hand upon the throne of the Eternal: the Eternal will have war with Amalek from generation to generation, Scripture intimates that the Israelites must first appoint a king over themselves [before they are to annihilate the offspring of Amalek], for the throne of the Eternal refers only to the king, as it is said, Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Eternal.⁴⁹³I Chronicles 29:23. Ramban thus brought proof to the opinion of those scholars mentioned above, who interpret this verse as containing a hint that the reckoning with Amalek is to be deferred until there will be a king in Israel. In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, this is correct.
And by way of the Truth, [that is, the mystic lore of the Cabala, the verse is to be understood as meaning] that the Hand, [i.e., the attribute of justice], which is upon the throne of Y-ah, and which is the war from the Eternal, will continue with Amalek from generation to generation, for the high attribute of justice will pursue his extinction forever from generation to generation. The Midrash of the Sages [mentioned above] concerning “the full Divine Name” and “the perfect throne” allude to this [interpretation by way of the Truth].
Now the reason for the punishment of Amalek, i.e., why punitive measures were meted out to him more than to all other nations, is that when all the nations heard [of G-d’s visitation upon the Egyptians], they trembled. Philistia, Edom, and Moab and the inhabitants of Canaan melted away⁴⁹⁴Above, 15:14-15. from before the terror of the Eternal, and from the Glory of His majesty,⁴⁹⁵Isaiah 2:10. whereas Amalek came from afar as if to make himself master over G-d. It is for this reason that it is said concerning him, and he feared not G-d.⁴⁹⁶Deuteronomy 25:18. Besides, he was a descendant of Esau and related to us,⁴⁹⁷As a relative he was obligated to show kindness towards us. Instead, he behaved very cruelly: he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost, all that were enfeebled in thy rear, when thou was faint and weary (ibid.) a passer-by who meddles with a quarrel not his own.⁴⁹⁸Proverbs, 26:17. Amalek had no reason to fear attacks from Israel, as they were not bent on taking his land. Amalek’s interposition was thus “meddling with a quarrel not his own.”
Yithro

ויאמר כי יד על כס י-ה, Moses explains the reason and purpose of his prayer being the fact that G’d Himself had sworn an oath to remain at war with Amalek from generation to generation. If G’d is at war with that nation, we as G’d’s representative on earth, must certainly also be at war with that nation. It is what our sages referred to when they said that three commandments cannot be fulfilled until the Jewish people are securely settled in the land of Israel, 1) appointment of a king; 2) destroying the last vestiges of Amalek; 3) the building of a permanent Temple. Moses therefore had prayed for the time when these three hallmarks of Jewish history could be attained. (Sanhedrin 20)