{"id":56226,"date":"2019-05-27T00:40:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T21:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56226"},"modified":"2022-12-18T09:23:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T07:23:58","slug":"the-true-source-of-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-true-source-of-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Source Of Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many people have a hard time with the stories of Samson, and there is something beautiful in that. If this were any other book – well, first of all, we wouldn’t spend three years painstakingly reading a chapter a day! – but we would also let the characters simply be, and not get so bothered by the implications of their lifestyle for us. But the Tanach is different. Speaking for myself now, I’m committed to making this book relevant to my life, seeing these words as guides. So what to do with this manic, violent superhero Samson?<\/span><\/p>\n

This chapter consists of two stories. The first is small, three verses, and is funny! We can picture Samson waking at night, leaving the nameless prostitute and carrying the very gates of the city, all the way from Gaza to Hebron.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main story of the chapter bounces off this first short one. This time, the woman has a name, Delilah, and this time, he “loves” her. Her three attempts to trick him set up a strong rhythm that hints at the inevitable end. When he tells her that his strength lies in his Nazirite lifestyle, the game is over. Samson is shaved, overcome, bound, and tortured.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first story on its own suggests a fundamentalist religious maniac, drunk – not with wine, but with his seeming invincibility. There seems to be no responsibility that goes along with keeping his one ‘mitzva’, the laws of the Nazirite. We’ve all met people who treat religion in this way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The twist, where I draw inspiration from, is in his final prayer at the end of the chapter. When Samson opens his heart to God, his strength returns. It turns out that divine strength wasn’t a function of long hair or secret magical practices, but a gift that could be given at any point. There might be an important lesson here about religious life in general. Taken as empty practices for our own self-improvement, to make us strong, the laws of the Torah often turn rotten. But these same laws also have the potential for becoming an important force in the world, when they remain as examples or pathways to a relationship with God, not as an end in themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

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