Apathy is a big problem our society faces today.
When we hear of a tragedy, we may shed a tear or feel sad, but we also do not FEEL the pain of the others in a deep way. We move on with life and chalk it up to another tragic news.
In Israel, there are so many terror attacks and so many tragic occurences on a fairly constant basis, Hashem yirachem, that we become hardened…. and perhaps it is almost a protective mechanism. We can’t bear hearing more negativity. It is too much. So we become almost apathetic.
But the problem with apathy is that it spills over into many aspects of life and to observance of Torah and mitzvos.
We become a bit apathetic to moral values. Are they really worth fighting over?
WE become apathetic to Judaism: does it really matter if we do the mitzvah? It is enough if we are good people. What does it matter if we really do the commandments or not?
We become apathetic to the negative parts of society. We hear so much garbage all day that we stop caring after a while.
The problem is that if we do not react in the right way to negative occurrences or immorality, our children pick up the same apathy and do not even understand why.
And with time the whole society becomes apathetic.
And from apathy it is a short step away to lack of morality. Suddenly nothing matters. Then we start doubting what we know to be true. We start doubting our own moral values. We start doubting our own Torah values. We start doubting many things. We start thinking maybe there is another opinion. Maybe things don’t matter.
And all of this begins with apathy. We become cold to many aspects of life. It is a kind of lack of sensitivity. And that in itself causes us great pain. We all want to feel sensitive, to feel what is true, to react with the right emotions in life, and to fight for what we believe in. When we start to feel apathetic, insensitive, not caring, we begin to feel frightened. It scares us. This is not who we really are. Where does this come from?
Amalek made us cold to G-dliness. Amalek was the nation that attacked the Jews in the desert. Amalek is, on a spiritual level, that part that makes us cold to holiness and truth. Amalek brings doubt; brings coldness and lack of sensitivity. And it is Amalek that we have to destroy. This is part of bringing Moshiach. Hashem hates Amalek and wants to destroy Amalek. Nothing is complete until Amalek is destroyed. We need to destroy Amalek within ourselves and when Moshiach comes , we will know which nations truly come from Amalek and they will be destroyed as well. But right now lets work on getting rid of Amalek spiritually , and getting rid of apathy.