Before the battle against Amalek, Moses made a declaration: "Tomorrow I shall stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand" (Exodus 17:9). But what did he mean by "tomorrow"? And what did standing on the hill accomplish? Two sages offer very different explanations.
Rabbi Yehoshua reads the statement straightforwardly. Moses was making a military promise to Joshua, who would lead the troops: "Tomorrow we will be with you, standing on top of the hill." Moses would take up a visible position on the heights where the army could see him, staff raised, rallying the soldiers by his presence. It was a commander's pledge to his general — I will be there, watching over the battle.
Rabbi Eliezer Hamodai hears something entirely different. "Tomorrow" did not refer to the battle at all. It meant: "Tomorrow we will decree a fast." Moses was announcing a day of repentance, not a day of fighting. And "standing on the hill" meant: "We will put our trust in the deeds of the fathers."
On this reading, the real battle happened not on the field but in prayer. The weapon was not Joshua's sword but the accumulated merit of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses was not positioning himself for a tactical advantage — he was invoking ancestral righteousness. Two interpretations, two models of warfare: one relies on visible leadership, the other on invisible faith.