{"id":56141,"date":"2019-05-25T23:25:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T20:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56141"},"modified":"2022-12-16T14:20:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:20:46","slug":"a-flawed-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-flawed-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"A Flawed Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[770,878,388],"acf":{"old_id":"56141","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"226","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Violent, self-centered, a mess of urges and emotions: what can we learn from Samson?","content":"

One of the characteristics of the Hebrew Bible, easy to take for granted to those familiar with its cast of characters, is the presentation of one flawed leader after another. So many of the world\u2019s wisdom traditions present their heroes as perfect, indeed as divine. But the Tanakh goes out of its way to present the shortcomings, errors, deficits, and deficiencies of almost every biblical leader. The Rock from which we come may be perfect, but like all of God\u2019s creations, we humans are not.<\/span><\/p>\n

And in that crew of flawed figures, one leader stands out as particularly deficient: the judge Samson. A brute of a man, he makes his way by raw force, imposed on his friends and loved ones, wreaking great damage to those around him and most intensely on his enemies. Yet, somehow, this flawed figure is the regular recipient of divine bounty and favor. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Chapter 15, that brutish behavior is manifest in his using 300 wild foxes to burn the fields of the Philistines, and at chapter\u2019s end, using the jawbone of an ass to decimate his Philistine attackers. So egotistical is he that his song of thanksgiving afterward takes all the credit for himself and doesn\u2019t even mention God at all: \u201cWith the jaw of an ass, mass upon mass! With the jaw of an ass I have slain a thousand men.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Violent, self-centered, a mess of urges and emotions and yearning. That\u2019s Samson.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet: when a group of men from the tribe of Judah come to tell him that due to his actions they are being terrorized by the ruling Philistines, he goes with them willingly, only asking them to promise that they won\u2019t themselves attack him. Apparently, even this brutish Samson retains loyalty to his own people: he won\u2019t fight his fellow Israelites.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an age of tribal resurgence, of groupthink and nationalist assertions of \u201cmy side right or wrong,\u201d and in an age of smothering internationalism that expects people to erase their particularism in favor of some false universalism, what are we to make of a man who holds on to his love of his own people, yet also asserts his rather startling idiosyncrasies and his need to live his own life as he sees fit?<\/span><\/p>\n

Temples may tumble as a result of his choices, but Samson\u2019s complicated life complicates any simple answers or neat solutions. Life just doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Guido Reni, Sansone Victorious<\/em> (1611-1612), Bologna, National Art Gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":56142,"id":56142,"title":"jud15-the-victorious-samson","filename":"jud15-the-victorious-samson.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud15-the-victorious-samson.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-flawed-leader\/jud15-the-victorious-samson\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud15-the-victorious-samson","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":56141,"date":"2019-05-25 20:24:44","modified":"2019-05-25 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