{"id":59961,"date":"2019-07-23T11:18:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T08:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=59961"},"modified":"2023-02-15T07:31:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T05:31:10","slug":"the-opposition-partys-hopeless-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-opposition-partys-hopeless-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opposition Party\u2019s Hopeless Protest"},"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":[834,539,894,423],"acf":{"old_id":"59961","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":52019,"related_cahpter":"269","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Michal\u2019s contempt echoes through the halls of the Knesset","content":"

Michal, daughter of the late King Saul and wife of the incumbent King David, cannot help but contrast the two men. Peering from her window, she sees David \u201cleaping and whirling\u201d in celebration of the Ark\u2019s return to Jerusalem, feeling contempt for her husband\u2019s lowly behavior and longing for the dignity of her father. Michal is the<\/span> Sally Yates<\/span><\/a> of David\u2019s palace, the holdover from a previous administration whose opinion on matters of state are entitled to negative weight, and David lets her know this in no uncertain terms: \u201cIt was before God who chose me instead of your father and <\/span>all his family <\/span><\/i>[read: that includes you]\u2026I will dance before God and dishonor myself even more.\u201d II Samuel 6:22-23.<\/span><\/p>\n

Michal\u2019s words were heard again in Jerusalem on May 9, 1990, on the floor of the Knesset. The topic of the day was the<\/span> government-sponsored settling<\/span><\/a> of Israeli Jews in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Yossi Sarid of the left-wing Ratz Party (a predecessor to today\u2019s Meretz) decried the government\u2019s involvement in the project and alleged that the sellers of the property never received the full purchase price. He remarked that \u201cpatriotism is sometimes the first refuge of the swindler.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarid then made things personal. Turning to Speaker of the Knesset Dov Shilansky, a supporter of the purchase, Sarid quoted II Samuel 6: \u201cWe saw you leaping and whirling at the Tomb of Joseph, and we peered through the window, and we saw you, and we had contempt for you in our hearts.\u201d Sarid was referring to another controversial event in May 1990, in which Shilansky and other government officials participated in a <\/span>hakhnasat Sefer Torah<\/span><\/i> in a new yeshiva established alongside the Tomb of Joseph in Shekhem. Residents of the city were placed under military lockdown, and members of the Knesset were photographed dancing with the Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n

The import of Sarid\u2019s reference was not lost on Member (now President) Reuven Rivlin, who addressed the Knesset floor next, remarking, \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to follow after <\/span>Michal <\/span><\/i>Sarid.\u201d Rivlin understood that the story of II Samuel 6 celebrates David and condemns Michal. Sarid, who once said he studied Tanakh daily, must have understood this as well. Why would he place himself in the shoes of Michal and his political adversaries in those of the ascendant David?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the resonance of a Biblical story depends on perspective. In this chapter, Michal is the quintessential opposition party figure, peering out from a spectator\u2019s distance at the ruling party\u2019s celebration of its ideology and feeling mournful contempt. Despite her lack of power, though, Michal confronts the King and has her hopeless protest recorded for posterity in the pages of Tanakh. Yossi Sarid, the fiery opposition figure in 1990, could relate to that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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