Chazal (Berachos 33b) tell us הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים that all matters of life are in the hands of Hashem and his discretion, preplanned and managed, except for only one thing, the fearing of Hashem. Free moral choices, Bechira, is the gift that Hashem gave exclusively to Man alone which separates him from everything else in the universe. All the laws of nature function by Hashem's constant intervention and even if there are any changes from the norm, it is because Hashem willed it so. The anomaly to this is the bechira of Man in the arena of moral choices, where Hashem allowed him the option to either align his life with His wishes or to go against them.
The word חוץ, except, is what sets man apart from nature in that he has volition to bring about good or evil. The reason why Man alone has the ability of free will is because of his exalted uniqueness of being created with a neshama and Tzelem Elokim. This is hinted in the passuk ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים That Hashem blew into Man a neshama. The gematriah of ויפח is identical to חוץ. The innovative manner of Hashem's creation of Man gave him the gift of Bechirah.
The fact that free will exists in creation is truly a supernatural feat for even the spiritual levels of the angels are programmed with their inability to change or do otherwise from what they are commanded. Yet Man through his actions and thoughts, support the revelation of worshipping Hashem in this world or defying Him. It is humanly unfathomable how Hashem who is so omnipotent and omniscient beyond one's deepest comprehension, can be so humble to allow this open rebellion against Him to happen. That is why the ultimate praise belongs exclusively to Hashem השיר והשבח לחי העולמים. This concept is alluded to in the word השבח which is the acronym הכל בידי שמים חוץ that Hashem controls everything and nevertheless He leaves open a small window for man to partner with Him and to be a creator as well חוץ מיראת שמים.
Amalek denies the existence of free will. Hashem's control over the fate of everything in this world is all inclusive even Man There is no reward or punishment for one's actions good or bad. One is not responsible for his conduct or behavior. This idea is also hinted in the passuk אשר קרך בדרך. The word בדרך gematria 226 is equal to the word בחירה (with the kolel). Amalek attacked Yisrael against their דרך and life perspective that Man alone was created for bechirah and that there is reward and punishment. This would be proven at the Matan Torah revelation. Amalek did everything possible to stop this earth shattering Matan Torah movement which proves by giving of the Torah that Hashem does not control the moral choices of Man. By ridding the world from Yisrael there will be no recipient to receive the Torah to live their lives with this opposing philosophy of Amalek's.
In Pachad Yitzchak Purim Rav Hutner ztl also supports this view that Amalek opposed belief in Free Will. The passuk says that when Shmuel took out Agag the King of Amalek to kill him, Agag appeared in מעדנות which expresses two interpretations by the meforshim (1) chains (2) delight. Rav Hutner explains that both translations form the fundamentals of Amalek's perverted life outlook. Being chained symbolizes the lack of free will. Believing in such a model of life brings great delight to its followers for it frees one from all responsibility relating to one's actions, his depraved indulgences and uncontrolled decadence. Killing Agag in this fashion was not merely the death of a king but a deliberate proclamation to the world that such a reality would dwarf the stature of the human into a rare animal with two feet.
This is one aspect why Aisav is compared to the חזיר pig who when lying on his stomach stretches out his split hooves in the front in order to demonstrate publicly that it is kosher and even surpasses the righteousness of Am Yisrael. The reason is because Am Yisrael's faith limits Hashem by proclaiming there is a חוץ that Hashem doesn't control which is yiras shamayim. Aisav is greater because he gives even that power to Hashem and removes the חוץ.
Shmuel is described killing Agag (Shmuel 15,33) in the fashion of וישסף . Rashi says he split Agag into quarters. The Likutei Maharan 30 explains that this procedure was to demonstrate that Amalek was the head of the Four Galuyos. He continues (likewise the Ben Ish Chai) that the letters שסף are the acronym of the Three Yomim Tovim שבועות סוכות פסח. To understand this remez we must first see the Beis Hamikdash in the light of its name בית הבחירה. On the surface it means the house that Hashem chose to reside His Shechinah in. However on a deeper level it means the house where one can retrieve his bechirah back after he lost it. Rav Hunah says עבר ושנה בה נעשה לו כהיתר if a person sins with the same aveirah twice, in his heart it has already become permissible (Kiddushin 20). Once it became permitted to him he has lost his bechirah in this issue. However, if he goes to the Beis Hamikdash and experiences the holy atmosphere, brings a korban for an atonement and goes through the teshuvah process, his bechirah returned to its former self. This is the reason why the Beis Hamikdash is called the Beis Habechirah.
Amalek because of his crusade in the world to eradicate the faith in bechira is also extremely anti the Beis Hamikdash which restores bechirah to those who lost it. Therefore we find that there are three mitzvos that Yisrael must do when they enter Eretz Yisrael: appoint a king, destroy Amalek and build the Beis Hamikdash and specifically in this order (Sanhedrin 20b). The meforshim explain that the eradication of Amalek precedes the construction of the Mikdash because Amalek opposes its existence. According to this mamar its opposition to the Mikdash is because it symbolizes the purpose of mankind which is to choose to fulfill the mitzvos of Hashem.
Now we can return and understand the depth of why King Agag was killed in the procedure of וישסף which symbolizes the three Yomim Tovim. It is because these three Yomim Tovim require one to ascend to the Beis Hamikdash and enter its walls encountering the presence of the Shechina. It is then that the segulah of the Beis Hamikdash would inspire one to do teshuvah and polish up his reality that the mission in life is to choose Hashem and the fulfillment of His Torah, the exact opposite of Amalek's New World Order (chaos).
As we mentioned at the beginning that the one exception which is called חוץ, not to be coerced and directed by Hashem's wishes is יראת שמים free moral choice. We became Hashem's chosen nation because Avraham chose Hashem. As Chazal say that Avraham saw a בירה דולקת a burning castle and he inquired can this castle be without an owner? It was then that Hashem appeared to him and answered I am the owner and then gave Avraham his first command לך לך מארצך. This initial encounter between Hashem and Avraham can be explained as follows. Avraham viewed the world as a castle, a perfect world astronomically intricate complex systems, details and symmetry that must have had an unfathomable designer. With all this unified perfection He created Man and entitled him with a deliberate purpose and mission to preserve its quality and elevate it.
However Avraham witnessed that the castle was on fire. It was being destroyed by those who inhabit it with their immoral lifestyles, greed, lust, jealousy, corruptness, murder etc. With astonishment Avraham asked himself that it cannot be that its creator just left the world to be on its own without a reckoning and judgement for the inhabitant's irresponsibility as if they were living with a belief that free will does not exist. This בירה seemed to have been perfectly designed and therefore the creator expects that humans must also strive to design their lives to be in sync with the wishes of the Perfect Designer of the universe.
What the inhabitants were lacking was the insertion of the letter ח in the בירה. The letter חת means יראת שמים as we find in the word חתת (Bereishis 35,5). The letter חית also symbolizes חיים חיות. It is יראת שמים that brings חיים life as Shlomo Hamelech says (Mishlei 14,27) יראת ה' מקור חיים . In order that Hashem's world בירה should not be on fire and destroyed, Man must insert his חת his yiras shamayim, his bechira into the בירה so that it becomes בחירה. Only then will the castle have continued existence and flourish.
Hashem's treaty with Avraham was that ויוצא אותו החוצה (Bereishis 15,5) Hashem took Avraham outside ויאמר הבט השמימה וספר הכוכבים and said to him look heavenwards and count the stars. Rashi comments
ולפי מדרשו אמר לו צא מאצטגנינות שלך שראית במזלות שאינך עתיד להעמיד בן אברם אין לו בן אבל אברהם יש לו בן וכן שרי לא תלד אבל שרה תלד אני קורא לכם שם אחר וישתנה המזל ד"א הוציאו מחללו של עולם והגביהו למעלה מן הכוכבים וזהו לשון הבטה מלמעלה למטה:
Hashem tells Avraham that he will change his mazal that conveyed that he is incapable to father a child from Sarah, and will alter that fate by changing their names. Secondly, Hashem raised Avraham above the stars and said look down at the stars. This act of Hashem infused Avraham and his descendants with an inner core that connected them to the supernatural and the heavens.
Why did Avraham merit to this miraculous gift? The answer is found in the beginning of the passuk ויוצא אותו החוצה. Avraham during his lifetime fulfilled the מיראת שמים חוץ the belief in Hashem that he is involved with giving direction and life to every existence except when is comes to moral choices of which man must take full accountability. While mankind was occupied in selfish hedonism, Avraham was preaching to the world to place the חית in the בירה and to serve Hashem responsibly as He expects from us. Because Avraham was a Chutzanik with Yiras shamayim he was connected to the מקור החיים who is Hashem Yisbarach and the supernatural.
When Amalek fights with Yisrael after they left Mitzrayim we find that the passuk says ויזנב בך הנחשלים and Rashi comments that the Amaleikim cut off Yisrael foreskins and threw them towards the heaven. We suggest that this act of blasphemy was to prove to the world the correctness of that their perverted belief that man's bechira does not cause or bring about good or bad on behalf of the person. Their actions with the foreskins sent their message "look at the covenant between Hashem and Yisrael called Bris Milah. This mutilation of the body is performed on a newborn baby eight days old without his bechirah or permission. This shows that in the bigger picture that their relationship with Hashem has nothing to do at all with their bechira in committing to a personal avoda of overcoming moral challenges in serving Hashem.
However, they were not privy to the understanding that the physical circumcision of the foreskin is for the purpose to make Man aware and motivated to remove the foreskin that covers his heart which includes perfecting his middos and is a never ending avoda until his demise. By actualizing the Milah of the heart he reveals retroactively his happy consent to the physical Milah that he received when he was born.
Moshe commands Yehoshuah צא והלחם בעמלק go out and fight with Amalek. Why was there a necessity to say צא go out? It correlates to the same צא that Hashem told to Avraham צא מאיצטגנות leave your mazal. The Chazal relate that Amalek decided to attack Yisrael specifically when their mazal was at its zenith of power. Moshe was telling Yehoshua that he must "go out" to become a Chutzanik and connect in a very deep way to יראת שמים which "went out" from the rest of all the laws of nature which are included in הכל בידי שמים.
When Yosef was seduced continuously for 365 days to sleep with the wife of Potiphar and he refused he was tested again in his last ordeal where he nearly succumbed. After his resistance day after day and his resolve of refusal was weakened more and more, by the end he could have rationalized and said to himself I have no remaining strength to ward off her seductions any more. By now נעשה לו כהיתר. Yet he mustered up a supernatural strength of יראת שמים as the passuk says in perek לט four times ויצא החוצה. The reason why Yosef was able to draw on above natural power was because he constantly fortified his יראת שמים. He was a Chutzanik by choice.
In the story of Purim the location of the חצר yard played a pivotal point of interest. Achashveirosh king of Persia threw a 180 day party in his palace to all the officials of his 127 province worldwide empire. This was followed by a seven day party which was specifically for the populace of Shushan including the Yidden which took place in the חצר outside of the palace. It was during this party that Achashveirosh requested Vashti to come naked to his party to which she refused, and later she was killed which followed that Esther became his new queen. Why was this party for he Yidden changed to the חצר outside? It was a little strange and insulting that the people of Shushan were not invited to party inside the royal palace draped with wealth and richness, something that they would never be able to see otherwise.
When Esther risks her life to come to the king without being summoned, the passuk says ותעמד אסתר בחצר בית המלך הפנימית she stood in the חצר and the king saw her and she found favor in his eyes (Esther 5,1,2).The following passuk says כראות המלך את אסתר עומדת בחצר. Why did the passuk repeat again that she was standing in the חצר?
The Chazal say (Yuma 72b) that if one is learning Torah but lacks yiras shamayim it is like he built a gate for a חצר that doesn't exist. Likewise in Shabbos 31 if someone possesses Torah but lacks Yiras Shamayim it is likened to one who has keys to enter the inner chamber but not the keys for the outer one (Rashi: to get into the חצר). We see that yiras Hashem is compared to a חצר. The intention of the second party was to get the Yidden drunk thereby losing their power of bechirah and fall prey to licentiousness and lewdness that would take place under such conditions. It was for this reason that Hashem wanted Achashveirosh to make this party in the חוצה outside of the palace which was an environment that would send at least a subliminal message that the Yidden should remember not to lose their yiras shamayim and bechira at this party. Clothes are put on the outside of the body in order to cover nakedness. This that Achashveirosh and Haman wanted Vashti to come naked before the assemblage had a deeper evil intention. By removing the חוץ the clothing, Yidden would lose their חוץ מיראת שמים and bechira to fight off the evil inclination.
We can now understand the repeat in the pessukim that Esther was standing in the Chatzeir. When Esther came before the King which refers also to before Hashem as Chazal tell us, she reached the level of חוץ – חצר yiras shamayim. ותלבש אסתר מלכות referring to the מלכות of Hashem. It was because of her yiras shamayim that she found חן in the eyes of Hashem and Achashveirosh and he stretched out to her his golden scepter.
חכמות בחוץ תרונה (Mishlei 1,20). According to this mamar we can explain Shlomo Hamelech's words to mean that the wisdom of Torah if it is coupled together בחוץ with יראת שמים, then it should be publicized. As the passuk says .ראשית חכמה יראת ה' However if the Talmid Chacham lacks the Yiras Shamayim then his Torah is also lacking and should not be publicized.