{"id":58880,"date":"2019-07-07T06:42:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T03:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=58880"},"modified":"2023-01-29T15:48:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T13:48:10","slug":"could-david-not-act-in-self-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/could-david-not-act-in-self-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Could David Not Act In Self Defense?"},"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":[834,436,762],"acf":{"old_id":"58880","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56118,"related_cahpter":"256","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Not if he wanted his ascent to the throne to be pure and unopposed","content":"

Deep in the wilderness of Ein Gedi, given the opportunity to kill King Saul, his pursuer, David instead simply cuts the corner of his nemesis\u2019 cloak. (v. 5) Why does he not act in self-defense? As a way of accounting for his behavior, David\u2019s constant refrain is that Saul is the anointed of God (v. 7). For David, to kill God\u2019s chosen is inconceivable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, morally speaking, this seems odd. Saul was God\u2019s anointed, but he was told that he had forfeited the throne to David. And in any case, if the anointed of God seeks to murder me in cold blood, may I not raise a weapon in self-defense?<\/span><\/p>\n

This leads us to wonder if there might have been an additional, unstated motivation behind David\u2019s seemingly unopportunistic behavior. After all, it wasn\u2019t just that Saul was the anointed one; he and David were also rivals for the same throne. On a political level, if David is seen as Saul\u2019s killer, it could easily motivate Saul\u2019s supporters to oppose David\u2019s rise to power, weakening any future claim David might stake to the throne. Further, on the level of personal morals, David may have recognized that to kill his bitter rival might have ultimately amounted to vengeance rather than mere self-defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Echoing this latter possibility, elsewhere in the Jewish tradition we encounter the concern that we may not act legitimately for fear of being motivated by feelings of hate. As the First Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), put it in regard to the impossibility of Pinhas\u2019 killing of the sinful Zimri as a model for future generations:<\/span><\/p>\n

The act of zealotry regarding \u201cOne who lies with a non-Jewess, zealous ones may assault him,\u201d is a law that is not taught. It cannot be carried out without full intent, which is pure and clean of any personal bias. It must not have mixed in any spark of murder, for it is performed not by a Jewish court that adjudicates capital punishment, lacks witnesses, and may only be performed in the moment, and its entire purpose is to extinguish the evil for the sake of heaven. Only under these conditions can an otherwise prohibited act, which impurifies, become a permissible and holy act. (<\/span>Shemu\u2019ot Ra\u2019aya<\/span><\/em>, Parshat Pinhas)<\/span><\/p>\n

The same may be said of David. Concerned that he might have an admixture of personal vendetta against Saul – or be perceived as acting on that basis – David refuses to become his killer. Instead, he simply cuts the corner of the king\u2019s cloak, suggesting that even as David remains master of his emotions and need not stoop to violence, eventually he \u201cwill become king, and the kingship over Israel will stand in [his] hands\u201d (v. 21).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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