Faith Under Siege

Clash with Amalek’s Doubt  

“There is no atheist in a foxhole,” Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi often declares with a somber tone. He recounts tales of visiting ailing Jews in the hospital, where he is inevitably swarmed by the entire floor of patients, all desperate for a blessing. 

When you find yourself in a hospital bed, writhing in excruciating pain, uncertain if you will see another day, the illusion of control shatters. In such moments of despair, when your pockets are empty and your next meal is a mystery, an instinctual cry emerges: a plea to Hashem for salvation. To the humbled patient, doubt dissipates, leaving only stark, undeniable truth. 

Conversely, when health and wealth envelop you, a dangerous sense of control takes root. Doubt is often cast on anything that threatens this fragile mastery. 

The arrogant, skilled in the art of casting doubt, embody the spirit of Amalek. The gematria reveals Amalek’s insidious nature, sharing its value with “Safek,” meaning doubt. Amalek doesn’t aim to obliterate your faith but to subtly destabilize it. 

Amalek’s whispers don’t claim Hashem’s absence; they merely “suggest” that He isn’t listening. 

Tools That Unmask the Digital Assault on Faith  

How do you drown out God’s voice? By getting bombarding with countless others!

Social media, the internet, and smartphones create a cacophony that drowns out the Divine. These devices obsess over human control—control of technology, control of trillions of dollars whizzing around the globe at light speed, all crafted and managed by man. They glorify political leaders who appear to wield unprecedented power over their domains. 

Every day, these messages assault you thousands of times. They launch tiny darts of doubt, so by evening, you’re riddled with them. And they never mention God. Their message is insidious: If God isn’t trending, He isn’t relevant. If God doesn’t get “likes” or views, He’s obsolete, ancient, or racist — all code words for “irrelevant”. 

They perpetuate the idea that the ideals they promote are superior. After all, those are the stories being told. You see the numbers yourself: How many people viewed their article, how many thumbs-ups did their video receive?  

And you’re led to believe that this is the reality that matters. 

Ancient Origins, Modern Misuse 

What are computers made of? Plastic. Silicon. Cooper.  

Plastic comes from oil, which was “deposited” in the earth a long time ago. Silicon comes from sand. Cooper comes from rock.  

The computer you are using comes from materials that God “placed in the earth billions of years ago.” The materials fit perfectly with the Amalek narrative that “maybe He exists, but He certainly isn’t watching right now, so we are free to do what we want. We took byproducts that God left behind billions of years ago and made something out of it – so we are relevant, and He isn’t.” 

They never say it explicitly. They simply present the facts, drill it into you countless times per day, and let you come up with “your own conclusions.” 

Under the Roof: The Lies We Tell Ourselves 

The key to defeating them lies in their very name.  

“Gog” has the same letters as “Gag,” which means “roof.” “MaGog” has the same letters as “what comes from the roof.”  

When I am at the computer, I am BIG. The distance from my head to the roof is pretty small. I occupy a lot of space in my home. Inside the home are things “I acquired.” These are things “man has made.”  

It’s very easy to lose yourself in the lie that “I did this.” Because if “I did this,” then I can “change this.” 

That’s more of their poisonous Kool Aid.  The people serving the side of Amalek are trying to destroy us with these arguments. They are using these arguments to cast doubt, and ultimately attempt to destroy everything holy.  

A Spiritual Guide to Overcoming Modern Doubts 

How can you combat the forces of the internet, the media, and the power elite trying to tear us apart? 

It’s simple: Escape to the roof. Step outside and look at the nearest star. That star is over four light years away! The light you see from that star had to travel at the speed of light for 48 months just to reach your eyes. And that’s just a speck of the vast universe that God created. 

Feel your perspective shift. Suddenly, you’re no longer so big. 

When daylight comes, take a look at the sun. It’s the source of all light for the world. It’s also the source of your air. Without sunlight, plants can’t produce oxygen. In mere minutes, every person would be wiped out. No technology can keep a person alive without the sun’s power to energize every plant on Earth. 

Now, take a deep breath. We don’t control how our lungs take in air, convert it to carbon dioxide, and send the oxygen into our blood to maintain our bodies. Without this process, we wouldn’t survive for even five minutes. 

Feel the excitement and awe of being part of such a magnificent creation. Embrace the freedom and the reality beyond the digital noise. 

Blessed are You, God, our God, Sovereign of the universe, Who formed humans with wisdom and created within him many openings and many hollow spaces. It is obvious in the presence of Your glorious throne that if one of them were ruptured, or if one of them were blocked, it would be impossible to exist and stand in Your presence. Blessed are You, Hashem, Who heals all flesh and acts wondrously. 

Small Acts of Faith Can Overcome Subtle Attacks on Belief  

Amalek seeks to erode our faith with small, insidious attacks. Yet, we shall triumph by fortifying our emuna with precise and unwavering counterattacks. All it takes is to cast aside the roof and behold Who is there. 

Why are we commanded to observe Shabbat? To remember that God created the world and everything in it. 

We recite the blessing over bread, which springs from the wheat nourished by the rain that Hashem bestows upon the fields. This transformation occurs through the miraculous process where a single wheat kernel burgeons into a towering stalk bearing 40 kernels in less than six months. 

We consume fruits, including coffee from the pits of coffee berries, chocolate from cocoa beans within the cocoa fruit, and everything that emerges from the tree. 

Our technology may enhance the yields of fruit, but it cannot plant a seed, embed it in the soil, and bring forth a mighty wooden structure that will yield hundreds of pounds of fruit each year. 

Reflecting on the origin of our blessings and the processes that bring them to us dispels all doubt. In one blessing, we can vanquish the forces of Amalek. 

Just as Amalek unleashes thousands of darts of doubt each day, we recite over 100 blessings, and Bezrat Hashem, perform countless mitzvot each day. These blessings and mitzvot restore and expand our armor of faith, affirming that there is nothing in His world but Him. 

We guard our speech because God, who sustains His universe, everything within it, and our very lives, commands us to. 

We pray and give tzedakah because the sight of a bright blue sky, a bush of flowers, or birds flying in perfect harmony remind us daily of His boundless generosity in His beautiful and awe-inspiring world. 

We disregard the signals that urge us to stray because we know that everything Hashem decrees is true, including the Redemption of the Jewish People, the Rebuilding of the Third and Eternal Temple, and the Resurrection of the Dead. 

With every prayer, we proclaim, “Blessed are YOU,” our Father, our King, Who accomplishes all He decrees. 

In doing so, we shatter the roof above us and reveal the Divine Presence in all His glory. 

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.