Yesterday we read parsha Zachor and the Haftora of Samuel chapter 15.The haftorah is actually more revealing. Hashem tell Samuel to tell King Saul to kill all of Amalek. Kill them all, including children. Saul does not kill the king or the animals. Gd is angy In pasuk 10-11 of chapter 15, Gd uses the word “nechamtie” for regret. ” I regret that I put you as king.”   Why the word “nechamtie” which usually refers to nechama- or comfort.  How is this the translation of “regret.”

Rabbi Besser pointed out that the word necham or comfort is also used as a regret in another key place. Gd said all the way back in Genesis, that I regret the creation of man. He says this just before the flood. Gd uses the same word.

Is regret and comfort or console somehow connected.  Does Gd really “regret” doing things like creating man or appointing Saul?  Does Gd make mistakes. No. Gd does not make mistakes.

The SD would like to suggest the word “nechama” is used when Gd  recognizes that things are not perfect, but they must proceed anyway.  Had Saul killed the king, there would be no purim story. Maybe more importantly, there would be no template of evil to continue to exist in the world. Maybe we need to have evil to juxtapose what is good. We need to constantly fight evil to recognize good.   The consolation or comfort is that the world is made up of imperfection and the regret is that it needs to exist.  The same way Saul needed to be king to bring around King David and the same way evil needed to exist to display or strive for good.