Study

Who are the erev rav? This question has several answers that are all related. We will start our answers by examining the Vilna Gaon’s perspective.

All arrogant and wicked Jews in every generation are the transmigrated souls of the erev rav, the sons of Cain.

Another sense of the word Rav is "Leader". This is because the erev rav act as the leaders of the nation while it is in exile. The public at large, who are good, are subjugated under these men... They are the Chametz (leaven) in the bread [i.e. the evil inclination]. The reason that the Torah requires the removal of chametz from the 6th hour after sunrise on the day before Passover is because the erev rav constructed the golden calf exactly at this time. They are considered worse than idolaters, for the people of Israel are fooled by their apparent success. In reality, they are the cause for the length of our exile.^{^[1]}

The Gaon of Vilna in his Kol HaTor writes that at the Keitz HaYamim, (end of days) our worst enemies will be the erev rav.

Kol HaTor 1:9d The purpose of gathering in the exiles is to wage God’s war against Amalek, which was the main mission of Joshua, in line with Mashiach ben Yosef. The war against Amalek includes every aspect, against all the enemies of Israel, including Armilus, the prince of the mixed multitude. It is also intended to remove the spirit of impurity from the Land, and to bring Knesset Israel and Shechina from below, from the earth.

Kol HaTor 6:6. The war against Amalek is from generation to generation. The war against Amalek is against three types of foes:

a). Amalek of the heart, that is, the evil inclination and vices;

b). the spirit of Amalek, the general one, the Satan who destroys, the adversary of Israel. This is Samael and his hosts. His main power is in the gates of Jerusalem, when its lands are desolate;

c). the material Amalek, that comprises Esau and Ismael and the erev rav, the mixed multitude. As explained by the Gaon: we are commanded to inherit it [the land] by force.

End of the Gaon’s perspective

It has been pointed out by a number of Torah masters and accepted as religious truth for many decades in certain Orthodox Torah circles that the contemporary manifestation of the erev rav is none other than the secular Zionist leadership. According to this school of thought, it is to the phenomenon of secular Zionism that the sages referred when they prophesied, "In the Ikveta D'Meshicha (footsteps of Messiah) [i.e. prior to Mashiach ben David] Chutzpah-Arrogance will increase".^{^[2]} It was the leaders of the "New erev rav" who consciously led an entire generation of Jewish youth away from a life of Torah and away from the deeper meaning and purpose of the Jewish People. They rallied around the idolatry of a new Golden Calf, a secular state fueled exclusively from secular aspirations and secular knowledge. They struggled hard to remove and uproot traditional Torah values and, in 1948, when the incarnated erev rav gained political control over the Land of Israel they hopefully predicted that Orthodox Judaism would all but disappear within a generation.

Yet it was these very men and women whose blood, sweat and tears powered by a mighty spirit paved the way for a whole generation of Jews to enter into a new era and into a new land - Palestine. With their statesmanship, scholarship, artistic vision, literary talent and technical knowledge they led and continue to lead and influence much of the Jewish world.

There is an opinion that the erev rav is simply the political counterpart in the Jewish world to the phenomenon of the Jewish scientist in the scientific world.

There is an opinion that the erev rav are among the leaders of Jewish secularism. The Erev Zeir are among the leaders of Jewish orthodoxy.

The Zohar teaches that the erev rav are a combination of Esav and Yishmael just as Yaaqob is a combination of Avraham and Yitzchak.

When Yaaqob, AKA Israel, was born, he was born with a twin brother named Esav.

Bereshit (Genesis) 25:21-24 And Isaac entreated HaShem for his wife, because she was barren; and HaShem let Himself be entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said: 'If it be so, wherefore do I live?' And she went to inquire of HaShem. 23 And HaShem said unto her: Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. 24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

Rashi on Genesis 25:22: And the children struggled within her - Whenever she would pass a house of prayer or house of study, Jacob would struggle to come out ... and when she passed a house of idol-worship, Esau would struggle to come out. Also, they were struggling between themselves, fighting over the inheritance of the two worlds (i.e., the material world, and the "world to come").

Esav^{^[3]} is born hairy, and Yaaqob is born holding Esav’s heel (ekev= heel). Esav develops into a man of the fields who knows hunting (yodeia tsayid; rabbinically, who knows how to entice others to their doom), whereas Yaaqob is a straightforward man who dwells in tents (rabbinically, in houses of study).

The behavior of these two brothers is of critical importance, because they are the progenitors of the two nations that will issue from them. The relations between Yaaqob and Esav are not merely personal; they are maintained on the national level.^{^[4]}

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that the fact that Esau was naturally inclined toward idolatry was not, in and of itself, a negative thing. It meant that his ordained mission in life was the conquest of evil rather than the cultivation of good.

Jacob and Esau are the prototypes for two types of souls, each with a distinct role to play in the fulfillment of the Divine purpose in creation. Maimonides calls these two spiritual types "the perfectly pious" and "the one who conquers his inclinations"; Rabbi Schneur Zalman refers to them as the "Tzaddik" and the "Beinoni." Humanity is divided into these two types, writes Rabbi Schneur Zalman in his Tanya, because "there are two kinds of gratification before G‑d. The first is generated by the good achieved by the perfectly righteous. But G‑d also delights in the conquest of evil which is still at its strongest and most powerful in the heart, through the efforts of the ordinary, unperfected individual."

Thus, Rabbi Schneur Zalman explains the Talmud passage which cites Job as crying out to HaShem: "Master of the Universe! You have created righteous people, and You have created wicked people!" The actual righteousness or wickedness of a person is not predetermined by HaShem, in the words of Maimonides, free choice is "a fundamental principle and a pillar of the Torah and its commandments", without which "What place would the entire Torah have? And by what measure of justice would HaShem punish the wicked and reward the righteous?" Yet Job is right, HaShem does indeed create "righteous people" and "wicked people" in the sense that while certain souls enjoy a life wholly devoted to developing what is good and holy in HaShem's world, other souls must struggle against negative traits and ominous perversions implanted within them in order to elicit that special delight that can come only from the conquest of evil.

Keep these ideas in mind as we explore the depth of the erev rav. See if these traits are the traits that our Sages see in the erev rav.

The Bne Israel were born as a nation, four generations after Yaaqob, when they crossed the Sea of Reeds, being born as a nation, they were also born with a twin nation, the erev rav.^{^[5]}

Shemot (Exodus) 12:37-38 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children. 38 And a mixed multitude (erev rav - עֵרֶב רַב) went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.

Who are these ‘erev rav’? Are they still among us?

The Arizal,^{^[6]} explains that when Paro complains that "The people, the Children of Israel are more numerous and greater than us," he wasn't just talking about Bne Israel; he was also talking about the millions of Egyptians converts that Yosef and Yaaqob converted (remember, Yosef made all the Egyptians circumcise themselves.)^{^[7]}

The erev rav consisted entirely of one people all the members of which spoke one language: namely, all the sorcerers of Egypt and all its magicians, as it is written, “And the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments”;^{^[8]} for they wanted to oppose the wonderful works of the Holy One, blessed be He. When they saw the signs and the wonders which Moshe wrought in Egypt, they came to Moshe to be converted. Said the Holy One to Moshe: “Do not receive them” Moshe, however, replied: “Sovereign of the universe, now that they have seen Your power they desire to accept our Faith, let them see Your power every day and they will learn that there is no God like You.” And Moshe accepted them”.^{^[9]}

According to the Arizal, “All the souls that were rectified completely reincarnated into the Children of Israel and were the generation that went down to Egypt. However, there were souls that were not yet rectified, and they became Egyptians. Yosef had them circumcised, as it says, “Go to Yosef and do whatever he tells you to do” (Bereshit 41:55) . . . Also, Yaaqob, his father, made many converts in Egypt (Bereshit Rabbah 84:4). Those who converted and did Mila (circumcision) lived apart from the rest of Egyptian society, and stood out amongst the rest of the Egyptians. Pharaoh noticed these two levels, and it is with respect to the converts that he said, “The people, the Children of Israel are more numerous and greater than us”; they were the erev rav that left with the Children of Israel, and they were more than double the Jewish people”.^{^[10]}

Those original erev rav souls became intermingled with the authentic Jewish souls. The more traditional approach to the issue of the erev rav, (as embodied by the Vilna Gaon) tells us that these erev rav souls are still with us today, and that they can be born into the best families, have the highest pedigree, and be the most (externally) pious and 'Frum' people you'd ever care to meet.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov has a different approach to resolving the issue of the erev rav, which involves focusing on erev rav character traits, as opposed to talking about erev rav people.

Chazal teach us that every time Israel is referred to as 'HaAm', as opposed to 'Am Israel', it's an illusion to the erev rav. That's why sometimes we find references to 'the people' in the Torah, and other times, references to the 'Children of Israel'.

If the Bnei Yisrael had made the calf themselves, they would have said 'this is our god'. The Torah's language, together with a whole bunch of additional commentaries by our sages, makes it clear that the erev rav were responsible for leading the authentic Bne Israel away from the service of HaShem, with devastating consequences.

In the Tikunei Zohar 97a it says: "All the exile and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, and all the suffering, all of it came through Moshe's acceptance of the erev rav, and the wicked people and evildoers in each generation come from them, meaning from their souls, for they are reincarnations of those who left Egypt and this is what the Gemara refers to when it says:

Beitzah 32b Anyone who does not have mercy on the creations is from the erev rav because (the trait of) Rachamim (mercy) is what HaShem gave to the children of our father Abraham.

"You should know that there are five kinds of `erev rav. The first kind are argumentative and libelous people; the second kind are those who pursue passion and fornication; the third kind are those who are deceitful, who pretend to be righteous but whose hearts are not whole. The fourth kind are those who pursue honor in order to make a name for themselves; the fifth kind are those who pursue money... and the argumentative kind are the equivalent of all of them: they are called `Amalekim, and the son of David will not come until they have passed out of this world, for it is of them that we recite, "You shall erase the memory of Amalek".^{^[11]}

1) Those that create strife and talk lashon hara.

2) Those who pursue their desires, like prostitution, etc.

3) The swindlers who pretend to be tzaddikim, but their hearts are not straight.

4) Those who pursue honor and build great synagogues to make a name for themselves.

5) Those who pursue money and strife.

The Zohar^{^[12]} and the Vilna Gaon^{^[13]} explain that there are five categories of erev rav:

1) The Amalekites - who makes themselves leaders by force, and are scourges to Israel. The Amalekites are those who are left from the time of the Flood, from those of whom it is written, "and he blotted out all living substance"; those who have been left from this class in this fourth exile of Israel make themselves leaders by force, and are scourges to Israel; of them it is written, "for the earth was full of violence because of them". These are the Amalekites.

2) The Nephilim (or 'fallen ones') - who fall into fornication with fair women. Of the Nephilim (lit. fallen ones) it is said: "and the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they were fair" (Ibid.). These form the second category of the Nephilim, already mentioned above, in this way when God thought of making man, He said: "Let us make man in our image, etc." i.e. He intended to make him head over the celestial beings, who were to be his deputies, like Joseph over the governors of Egypt.^{^[14]} The angels thereupon began to malign him and say, "What is man that You should remember him, seeing that he will assuredly sin before You." Said God to them, "If you were on earth like him, you would sin worse." And so it was, for “when the sons of God saw the daughters of man", they fell in love with them, and God cast them down from heaven. These were Uzza and Azael; from them the "mixed multitude" derive their souls, and therefore they also are called Nephilim, because they fall into fornication with fair women. For this, God casts them out from the future world, in which they have no portion, and gives them their reward in this world, as it is written, "He repays his enemies to their faces".^{^[15]}

3) The Gibborim ('mighty ones') - these men build synagogues and yeshivot and place in them Torah Scrolls with rich ornaments, but they do it not for the sake of God, but only to make themselves a name. The Gibborim (mighty ones) are those of whom it is written: “They are the mighty ones…men of name”.^{^[16]} They come from the side of those who said: “Come, let us build a city and make a name for ourselves”.^{^[17]} These men build synagogues and Yeshivot and place in them Torah Scrolls with rich ornaments, but they do it not for the sake of God, but only to make themselves a name, and as a consequence the powers of evil rule over Israel (who must be humble like the dust of the earth), according to the verse “And the waters prevailed greatly upon the earth”.^{^[18]}

4) The Rephaim ('weak ones') - who if they see Israel in trouble, abandon them, even though they are in a position to help them, and they also neglect the Torah and its students in order to ingratiate themselves with non-Jews. The Rephaim (lit. weak ones), the fourth section of the "mixed multitude” are those who if they see Israel in trouble, abandon them even though they are in a position to help them, and they also neglect the Torah and those who study it in order to ingratiate themselves with the non-Jews. Of them it is said, "They are Rephaim (shades), they shall not arise";^{^[19]} When redemption shall come to Israel, "all their memory shall perish".^{^[20]}

5) The Anakim

('giants') - who tend to bring the world back to the state of 'tohu vabohu' and they caused the destruction of the temple. The last section, the Anakim (lit. giants) …of whom it is written, "they shall be as necklaces (anakim) to your neck". Of them it is said, "the Rephaim are likewise counted as Anakim", i.e. they are on a par with one another. All these tend to bring the world back to the state of "tohu vaBohu", and they caused the destruction of the Temple. But as "tohu vaBohu" gave place to light, so when God reveals Himself they will be wiped off the earth. But even so, redemption will not be complete until Amalek will be exterminated, for against Amalek the oath was taken that “The Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation”.^{^[21]}

In his book Even Shleima, the Vilna Gaon writes that the selection and purification of Israel will not be complete until the erev rav separates from Israel completely. The Vilna Gaon (or some say, one of his students) then explain that there are five types of erev rav.^{^[22]}

Key negative character traits associated with the erev rav include:

* Lying (including to themselves).

* Competing with others and comparing themselves with other people.

* Spite and vindictiveness.

* Failing to respect agreements, boundaries, or other people's property and rights.

* ‘Acting’ religious, instead of really ‘being’ religious.

* Judging other Jews harshly, criticizing others, and speaking evilly about other people.

* Failing to acknowledge the truth.

The Tikunei Zohar 119a explains that: "as soon as they [the erev rav] are removed from the world, then people will start calling in the name of HaShem."

Rebbe Nachman teaches us that we’re dealing with eradicating erev rav TRAITS, not erev rav people. That understanding throws a whole new light on the words of the RASHBI, quoted above. Now, we can understand them as saying that as soon as we overcome the erev rav-type character traits that are preventing us from calling out to HaShem - everything’s going to change for the better!

The erev rav are those who joined us in the exodus from Egypt. They are the ones who cause us all our troubles all the time. They are not proper Jews. They are a mixture of Jews and people who pretend to be Jews and, in every generation, they cause us endless troubles and disputes. If you study the matter well, you’ll see that the erev rav who joined the Jews were responsible for all the troubles and the sin of the golden calf. Today too, a sizable part of the Jewish people are erev rav who try every way possible to cause troubles for the Jews and try and create a situation in which the nation will cease to survive.

After the sin, Adam separated from his wife, and 'emitted seed' for 130 years.^{^[23]} The souls from this 'wasted seed' were captured by the dark side, and subsequently needed to go through many reincarnations before they could start to be purified and whitened.

The Arizal explains in Shaar HaKavanot 1b that these souls are the root of both the erev rav and the Bne Israel.

According to the Arizal, the number of people who have erev rav characteristics may be a sizeable majority of today's Jews. That's the high-end opinion.

In the Zohar, Beshalach 45b-46a, it's written: "…And the Children of Israel went up armed (chamushim). This signifies that the erev rav numbered one in every five (chamishah). According to R. Jose, for every five pure Israelites there was one who belonged to the erev rav. R. Judah said one in fifty (chamishim)."

Rabbi Vital also tells us how we can spot Jewish leaders who are the real deal:

"In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) 6:41, Rabbi Meir said: He who studies the Torah for its own sake (without ulterior motives) deserves many things, and not only that, but the whole world is indebted to him. And he is called beloved friend, loved by HaShem and men, he pleases the Creator and humanity. The Torah covers him with modesty and fear, makes him virtuous, merciful, devoted, just and faithful, moves him away from sin, guiding him by the path of virtue, etc.

The secrets of the Torah are revealed to him and he is turned into an endless fountain of wisdom, and he becomes modest, patient, forgiving offenses, etc."

The negative character traits of the erev rav are described by our holy Sages. All of us need to work on acknowledging and uprooting the following erev rav character traits within ourselves:

- Brazenness

- Perfectionism

- Stubbornness

- Bullying, coercion, and intimidation of others

- Pursuit of physical lusts

- Pursuit of honor (‘making a name for themselves’)

- Cowardice

- Betrayal

- Promoting strife and controversy

- Speaking lashon hara

- ‘Acting’ religious

- Deceit

- Obsessed with money

- Untruthful

- Competitiveness and making comparisons

- Spite and vindictiveness

- Disrespecting agreements, boundaries, or other people's property and rights

- Harshly judgmental of others

- Highly critical

- Lack compassion and empathy

- Anger

- Hypocrisy

- Superficiality

- Keeping up appearances

There is an opinion that the erev rav is simply the political counterpart in the Jewish world to the phenomenon of the Jewish scientist in the scientific world.

There is an opinion that the erev rav are among the leaders of Jewish secularism. The Erev Zeir[24] are among the leaders of Jewish orthodoxy.

The Zohar teaches that the erev rav are a combination of Esav and Yishmael just as Yaaqob is a combination of Avraham and Yitzchak.

With all the information presented by our sages, we have established some important traits that could help us to identify the erev rav.

The erev rav are originally Egyptians
The erev rav are illegitimate converts
The erev rav are sorcerers and magicians
The erev rav are the same people that went against Moshe and Aharon
The erev rav were responsible for the golden calf
The erev rav are responsible for much of Israel’s trouble, including the destruction of both temples
The erev rav make themselves leaders by force
The erev rav seek to make names for themselves
The erev rav abandon Israel when she is in trouble
The erev rav neglect Torah and its students to gain favor with goyim
The erev rav were and are men in high positions such as Rabbi’s and religious leaders.
The erev rav create strife and speak lashon HaRa (evil tongue)
The erev rav pursue carnal desires
The erev rav pretend to be tzaddikim (righteous ones), but their hearts are far from HaShem
The erev rav pursue money and materialism
The erev rav robbed from fellow Jews

erev rav according to Ephraim Palvanov

Myth	Reality
erev rav is secular	They present as very religious
erev rav does not know Torah	erev rav knows Torah very well, including all aspects of tumah v'tahara, issur v’heter.
All evil people are erev rav	erev rav is a very specific ideology; most evil people are not erev rav
erev rav is entirely evil	There is a great deal of holiness and goodness within the erev rav “mixture”
Leaders and rabbis who work wonders or have extrasensory knowledge must be holy and wise	The power to work “wonders” or divine information can stem from the impure and unholy Sitra Achra

Mixing

The erev rav is the source of all mixtures. They are compared to chametz, as we stated before; chametz cannot be nullified to any amount of se’ohr, because chametz in a mixture always stays chametz.^{^[25]} So too, when erev rav is part of a mixture, it is not nullified to the mixture, rather, it is always there. That is the depth behind erev rav.

erev rav, which is called “se’ohr v’chametz”, also known as the sorcerers of Egypt, people who got themselves to resemble the actions of the Jewish people, thrive on the fact that they can “mix” with us. They can mix us by trying to copy us, just as they copied Moshe’s miracles.

Moshe represents the power of good in creation, and erev rav is the equally powerful force of evil. Whatever good can do, evil can also do; that is the depth of evil. Evil “copies” good, and that is the depth of evil, which is represented by the force of erev rav in the world. That is how erev rav “mixes” with things. ‘Mixing’^{^[26]} is thus what defines nature of the erev rav.

The depth of their power to “mix” is as follows. There are 70 nations, and the Sages state that erev rav is the head of all of them.^{^[27]} In other words, the erev rav includes all of them together, and in addition, it mixes them all together. erev rav has the power to mix everything; it can mix the 70 nations [and thus unite them all together to fight the Jewish people].

Even more disturbing, though, is that it can mix the Jewish people into the other 70 nations, to lower the holiness of the Jewish people into the lower status of the other nations.

When we reveal the power to ‘separate from mixture’, this is what can take away the entire strength of erev rav, which draws it strength from us being mixed with us. We separate from erev rav not by merely trying to separate from them in the simple sense; rather, when we need to separate from the concept of “mixtures”, which is the source of their power. When we separate from ‘mixtures’, the strength of erev rav is taken away as a direct result; herein will lay the key in ridding ourselves of them.

When Rivka told Yaaqob that he should present himself as Esav in order to receive the coveted blessings from Yitzchak, Yaaqob protested that Esav was hairy, whereas his own skin was smooth and silky. Yaaqob was scared that Yitzchak might feel him and realize that he was not Esav. In this context,^{^[28]} Yaaqob described his skin as chalak (“smooth”). To alleviate his concern, Rivka used furry goat skin to cover Yaaqob’s arms and the smooth part (chelkat) of his neck.^{^[29]}

So, now we have two Hebrew words for “smooth: the classic term chalak, and the more obscure term shiiya. What is the difference between them?

The answer lies in a close analysis of the injunction to not wear Shatnez,^{^[30]} which is clothing made from a mixture of wool and linen. The Mishna^{^[31]} clarifies that the word Shatnez is a contraction of the phrase shua (“smoothed), tavui (“spun”), and nuz (“woven” or “twisted”), and alludes to the fact that this prohibition applies only to fabric made of wool and linen via these three processes.

It seems to me that we can view Yaaqob and Esav from the standpoint of Shatnez, the mixing in one garment with wool and linen. Yaaqob is like the garments of the Kohen Gadol and the Tallit where a mixture of wool and linen are permitted. Esav, on the other hand, is like an ordinary garment. HaShem forbids a mixture of wool and linen in an ordinary garment.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 22:11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together.

Thus, Yaaqob wears a garment in which a mixture of wool and linen is permitted, and Esav wears a garment in which a wool and linen mixture is not permitted.

We see a few instances where we mix items to form the mitzvah. The most common is with the tzitzit. We bind and know Techelet and wool together to form the strings of the tzitzit. These strings remind us of all 613 mitzvoth that we must observe. The idea is to use the binding for the correct purpose- to do a mitzva.

Amalek

The root of erev rav, though, is Amalek. Chazal state that the two sons of Bilaam are the heads of erev rav. The mixture of the erev rav is most apparent in Amalek. Amalek is called Reshit goyim, the “first” nation, meaning, that they were the first of the nations to fight against the Jewish people [after we became a nation].

The wicked Sancheriv, who came and ‘mixed up’ all the nations, was only able to do as a result of the erev rav’s power to “mix”. Amalek is the root of all this mixing that erev rav can cause. Amalek is a nation to itself, but they also serve as the root of erev rav (these are two distinct matters).

In the side of holiness, there were three Avot. Each of our Avot revealed a holy power in the world; Avraham was chessed, Yitzchak was Gevurah.^{^[32]} Yaakov Abinu is the connecting point between Avraham and Yitzchak. From Avraham came one major root of evil, Yishmael, and from Yitzchak came Esav. And Esav and Yishmael are mixed together through Amalek.

Amalek combined Yishmael and Esav. Yishmael and Esav are the two roots of the 70 nations. Amalek connects both Yishmael and Esav to their root. It reveals how they are all one evil, and this one evil comes to counter the Jewish people, who are called “one” nation. When the nations are unified against Klal Yisrael, this is the evil kind of “oneness” that fights the holy “oneness” of the Jewish people.

Where did we see this actually take place?

There were four exiles. Egypt is the root of all exiles, but the four exiles are the Babylonian exile, the Persian exile, the Greek exile, and the exile of Edom (Esav). Within the exile of Edom, though, is the exile of Yishmael. What, indeed, is the connection between Edom/Esav and Yishmael? We can see it clearly. We are in the exile of Edom, but within that, we are surrounded by the Arabs. Anyone who thinks is aware of this and sees it clearly. But what is the connection between Edom and Yishmael? If we are in the exile of Edom, how is it that we also in the exile of Yishmael? The answer is: they are connected together through Amalek. The exile of Yishmael is all due to Amalek.

The roots of Amalek were already present in Egypt [they were the sorcerers]; Egypt is the root of the four exiles; thus, Amalek was already present at the root. Amalek also reappears in our history in the exile of Edom, connecting the nations of Yishmael with Esav together.

Thus, the deeper way to define the current exile is by understanding that we are in the “exile of Amalek”.

Amalek is compared by Chazal as one who jumps into a scalding bath, who burns himself but cools it off for others. After Amalek fought with us, this allowed other nations to fight with us.

So, the connection between Edom and Yishmael, the exile we are in, is all because of Amalek. They are all called “Reshit goyim”, the “first of the nations”, and simply speaking, this was because they were the first nation to fight us, after we left Egypt. But upon a more subtle understanding, they were already in Egypt.

Amalek contains two opposite aspects: they are called both Reshit (the beginning) and Acharit (the end). They are called ‘Reshit’ goyim, the first nation to fight Klal Yisrael, but they also show up again at the Acharit, end of days.

In the end of the exile, Amalek reappears. Soon, when the end of the exile actually occurs – in which Hashem’s Name will once again be one - Amalek will once again reappear right before the end happens, for Amalek exists in order to fight the revelation of oneness of HaShem. The force of evil that is Amalek doesn’t want the oneness of Hashem to be revealed, therefore, it connects all the nations as one in order to fight the oneness of the Jewish people, so that the oneness of HaShem doesn’t become revealed.

That is what lies behind the exile of Amalek.

Amalek will be destroyed on the 14th of Nisan, as stated in the Zohar.

The erev rav is rooted in Amalek, and Amalek is the beginning of creation, so erev rav can only mix things that are within creation. They have no understanding of anything before creation; all of their mixing is done within creation. The Jewish people, who were conceived in HaShem’s thoughts before creation, can mix the creation with the point before creation, by combining the two points together.

When Amalek and the erev rav are exterminated, HaShem will reveal himself and renew the world.

The 974 generations

The Torah was given after just 26 generations, but we know from Psalms that HaShem said He'd only give it after 1000 generations - so what happened to the other 974?

Tehillim (Psalms) 105:8 He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.

The Talmud, Chagigah 13b, explains: "These are the 974 generations that were decreed to be created before the creation of the world, but were not created. The Holy One, Blessed is He, arose and 'hangs' them in each generation, and they are the most brazen of each generation."

The word 'brazen' is a key clue to what's going on here, and we're going to meet it again later on in many holy works.

The entire 974 generations^{^[33]} which are erev rav which are the souls from the world of chaos, God transplants them every generation, and they are the bold-faced of the generation. Our Sages said that in the period of "messiah's footsteps" impudence will become great... and the `erev rav will return to be the shepherds of Israel.^{^[34]}

The Vilna Gaon explains in his book Sifra D'Tzniusa, Chapter 1, that the 974 generations are the erev rav.

The Arizal explains that these souls started to be rectified with the generation of the flood; then reincarnated as the generation of the dispersion; then again, as the generation in Sodom, and finally, in Egypt.

The souls who had been sufficiently rectified and purified reincarnated into Bne Israel, the Children of Israel. The ones who had not been sufficiently rectified became the 'mixed multitude', or millions of Egyptian converts who came out of Egypt with the Bne Israel, despite HaShem advising Moses against accepting them.

The Zohar in Ki Tisa 191A explains that the erev rav were false converts, who wanted to be Jews to be 'on the winning team' and to get all the benefits of being the servants of such a powerful 'God', as opposed to serving HaShem with their hearts and souls.

The Gaon of Vilna’s Perspective

All arrogant and wicked Jews in every generation are the transmigrated souls of the erev rav, the sons of Cain.

Another sense of the word Rav is "Leader." This is because the erev rav act as the leaders of the nation while it is in exile. In the book Divrei Chaim^{^[35]} in the omissions of Parshat Vayakhel it is written: “Before the coming of the Mashiach most of the Rabbanim (Rabbis) will be from the erev rav etc. Because Israel in themselves are holy, but the erev rav work only for their own benefit as we can clearly see that the Rabbanim and the Chassidim and many regular Jews of the generation are, due to our many sins, mostly from the erev rav and want to rule over the public, and all their actions are only for their own sake, to acquire honor and money, and one should therefore only join with those who truly serve, who sacrifice themselves to Hashem not in order to receive any benefit”.

Beitzah 32b R. Nathan b. Abba further said in the name of Rab: The rich men of Babylon will go down to Gehenna; for once Shabthai b. Marinus came to Babylon and entreated them to provide him with facilities for trading and they refused this to him; neither did they give him any food. He said: These are the descendants of the ‘mixed multitude’,^{^[36]} for it is written, And [He will] show thee mercy and have compassion upon thee,^{^[37]} [teaching that] whoever is merciful to his fellow-men is certainly of the children of our father Abraham, and whosoever is not merciful to his fellow-men is certainly not of the children of our father Abraham.^{^[38]}

Midrash Rabbah - Exodus XLII:6 GO, GET THEE DOWN, FOR THY PEOPLE... HATH DEALT CORRUPTLY. It does not say ‘the people’ but THY PEOPLE, whereupon Moses said: ' Lord of the Universe! Whence are they my people? ' God replied: ' They are thy people, for when they were yet still in Egypt, I told thee that I will bring forth My hosts, My people the children of Israel.^{^[39]} Did I not instruct thee not to allow a mixed multitude to be mingled with them; but thou, being meek and righteous, didst answer me, "The penitent must always be accepted." Knowing, however, what they would one day do, I replied: " No," but, nevertheless, I fulfilled thy request,^{^[40]} with the result, that it was just these people who made the Calf, being idolaters from of old, and who caused My people to sin.’ For see, it does not say: ' This is our god,’ but ’This is thy god ‘. Why? Because it was the proselytes who went up with Moses [from Egypt] that made the Calf and that said to Israel: ’This is thy god.’ It is for this reason that God said to Moses: GO, GET THEE DOWN, FOR THY PEOPLE... HATH DEALT CORRUPTLY.

* * *

This study was written by

Rabbi Dr. Hillel ben David (Greg Killian).

Comments may be submitted to:

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[3] Esav’s birth was the source of his name, the root of which is the word 'asah' (ayin-sin-heh), which means 'done.' As for his other name, 'Edom,' that is from the other aspect of his appearance at birth: RED: A sign that he would always be shedding blood. (Rashi)

[4] See: Rav Mordechai Breuer, "Pirke Bereshit," part II, chapter 24 – Yaakov and Esav.

[5] The erev rav are a group of Egyptians who joined the Jews in the exodus from Egypt and acted as a fifth column, seeking to undermine the Jews’ high spiritual goals. The erev rav is said to survive and be active to this day.

[7] Much of this section was written by Rivka Levy.

[11] Adderet Eliyahu, commentary on Deut. 1:1 (325), his words being based on Zohar 1:25, 27; 3:125: and see the Gaon's commentary on Tikunei Zohar 97, pp. 86,91.

[12] In Tikunei HaZohar 41b; Holy Zohar (1, 25-26)

[13] Refer to the translation of the Vilna Gaon’s words about the Erev Rav, adapted from Sefer “Even Shelemah” (11: 6-8) of the Vilna Gaon.

[22] Aderet Eliyahu, commentary on Deut. 1:1 (325)

[24] There is the Erev Rav, and there is also a small group of Egyptian souls that converted, who are called “Erev Zeir” [whom Yosef circumcised].

[25] Unless it is nullified of ownership, or burned; as we know from the laws of getting rid of chametz.

[26] In Hebrew, mixing is called “taaruvos”.

[30] Vayikra (Leviticus) 19:19, Devarim (Deuteronomy) 22:11

[32] However, because each of these traits is an extreme, there were evil sides to each of these traits which came from them. Yaakov Abinu’s avodah was to balance the traits of Avraham and Yitzchak, thus, only good came from him.

[34] Sifra D'Tzniusa, chapter 1, beginning with the words "They were not watching".

[35] By Chaim Halberstam. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz (1793–1876), known as the Divrei Chaim after his sefer (works), was the rabbi of Sanz, a famous Hasidic Rebbe and the founder of the Sanz Hasidic dynasty, and one of the leaders of Eastern European Jewry in his generation.

[38] The verse ends: as He hath sworn unto thy fathers. Now he translates the part quoted thus: and He will give thee (the spirit of) mercy — i.e., to be merciful to others. Hence, of the person who possesses that, it can be said . . . ‘unto thy fathers’, viz., the Patriarchs; but if one lacks it, ‘Unto thy fathers’ cannot be said of him, and so he must be a descendant of the mixed multitude.

[40] The language here is rather difficult. Radal suggests that לך (go) should be read instead of לאו (no): Knowing... do, I told thee, ' Go down as thou desirest.’ Or perhaps, with the present reading: Knowing... do, I replied, ‘That is not so’ (I know that these are not true converts), yet I fulfilled, etc.