{"id":60309,"date":"2019-07-30T12:37:56","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T09:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=60309"},"modified":"2023-02-21T15:04:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T13:04:28","slug":"davids-messengers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/davids-messengers\/","title":{"rendered":"David\u2019s Messengers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[834,400,721],"acf":{"old_id":"60309","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34245,"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"With so many layers of mediation between his desires and their execution, David\u2019s sins can\u2019t be mitigated as an impulse of the moment","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">King David started the chain of events that led to his sin with the verb \u201c<em>vayishlach<\/em>\u201d \u2013 \u2018he sent\u2019: \u201cDavid sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him\u201d (11:1). He ended it with another \u201c<em>vayishlach<\/em>\u201d, when sent and brought Batsheba into his palace after her husband\u2019s death. The Hebrew root <em>sh.l.ch<\/em> \u2013 to send \u2013 appears nine additional times between the \u201c<em>vayishlach\u2019s<\/em>\u201d that bookend the chapter. Five of them describe David himself, whose actions are repeatedly carried out by other people. He first inquiries about Batsheba, and then summons her, through messengers. He summons Uriah, and then delivers Uriah\u2019s death sentence, through messengers, including \u2013 horrifyingly enough \u2013 Uriah himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By using the root <em>sh.l.ch<\/em> as a leitmotif, the narrative establishes an atmosphere of delays and indirectness. Every action is drawn-out, slowly making its way from subject to messenger to object, and from plan to implementation. It gives us time to watch in horror as David\u2019s nebulous desires and concerns evolve first into sin, and ultimately into murder. It allows us to hope that he will change his mind and recall his messengers, only to be disappointed time and time again. And it forces us to acknowledge that David\u2019s sins can\u2019t be mitigated as an impulse of the moment: with so many layers of mediation between David\u2019s desires and their execution, how can we pretend he didn\u2019t have the time to think his actions through?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The repetitions of the root <em>sh.l.ch<\/em> also offers us a framework for understanding David\u2019s transformation. David\u2019s fall starts with his first \u201c<em>Vayishlach<\/em>,\u201d when he sends Joab and \u201call of Israel\u201d to war while he remains \u201csitting in Jerusalem.\u201d(2 Samuel 11:1) Everything that follows is colored by this disparity between David and his people. By sending others to do his work for him, David separated himself from his people\u2019s pursuits and experiences. He lost sight of the Deuteronomistic warning that a king mustn\u2019t allow his heart to \u201crise above his brethren.\u201d (Deuteronomy 17:20) And it was this separation between the sender and the sent that enabled him to stroll the roofs and pursue his own illicit indulgences while his people and the Ark, as Uriah pointedly told him, were \u201csitting in huts.\u201d (2 Samuel 11:11)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uriah\u2019s mention of the Ark reminds us that David once displayed a similar sensitivity, saying \u201cHere I am sitting in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the LORD sits in a tent!\u201d (2 Samuel 7:2) By disconnecting himself from his people\u2019s experiences, David lost this sensitivity, and so much more besides.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, (1591 &#8211; 1666), King David Sending A Message \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60310,"id":60310,"title":"2sam11-david and 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