{"id":59967,"date":"2019-07-23T11:24:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T08:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=59967"},"modified":"2023-02-15T07:33:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T05:33:17","slug":"locked-in-a-tower-of-politics-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/locked-in-a-tower-of-politics-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Locked In A Tower Of Politics And History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michal loves David, and this is her undoing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The daughter of Israel\u2019s first king and first wife of its second, Michal is destined to be the greatest queen the Jewish people have ever known. But politics and history have other plans.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In King Saul\u2019s court Michal proves a formidable character, orchestrating David\u2019s escape from her father\u2019s murderous wrath and serving as history\u2019s first example that if you love someone, you must set them free. On the run and separated from Michal during the many years that follow, David accumulates power, wives, and children, while Saul marries Michal off to another man. When King David finally demands Michal be restored to him, his motives are political\u2014having the daughter of the overthrown king by his side will bolster his claim to the throne.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no grand display of affection when the calculating king and his denigrated queen are reunited. Instead, Michal appears only once more in the Tanakh, for her swan song.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2 Samuel 6, David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant\u2014God\u2019s earthly abode\u2014to Jerusalem. <\/span>At this epic moment David leaps, exposed, before the Ark, his manhood on display before all of Israel.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michal is watching from the window.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t the king of Israel do himself honor today\u2014exposing himself today in the sight of the slavegirls of his subjects, as one of the riffraff might expose himself!\u201d Michal chastises the king upon his return. In a rare biblical moment, we know exactly what Michal is thinking. She is royalty; David is rabble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Michal\u2019s rebuke is rife with sexual resentment as well. Even Israel\u2019s slave girls are privy to David\u2019s manhood, but Michal has most likely been denied sexual relations with her husband since her return to him. And David has every reason to refrain. He has nearly obliterated the House of Saul, every member of it a threat to his reign. Were he to father a child with Michal, that child would be as much an heir of Saul as of David.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a girl, Michal loved David enough to set him free, her resourcefulness and altruism enabling a boy to become a king. But Queen Michal is a jilted lover, her reunion with King David a fallacy. Chapter\u00a0 6 closes with the chilling words: \u201cAnd Michal daughter of Saul had no child till her dying day.\u201d She is, in fact, the only one of David\u2019s wives that does not bear him children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Doomed to live out her days as neither beloved wife nor mother, possessed by a king who fears her power, fated to gaze through a window and watch life pass her by, Michal is, perhaps, history\u2019s first princess locked in a tower. <\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":59968,"id":59968,"title":"2sam6-michal-watching-david-from-the-window-by-james-tissot-1898","filename":"2sam6-michal-watching-david-from-the-window-by-james-tissot-1898.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-michal-watching-david-from-the-window-by-james-tissot-1898.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/locked-in-a-tower-of-politics-and-history\/2sam6-michal-watching-david-from-the-window-by-james-tissot-1898\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam6-michal-watching-david-from-the-window-by-james-tissot-1898","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":59967,"date":"2019-07-23 08:23:38","modified":"2021-11-23 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