{"id":81727,"date":"2020-10-19T11:29:47","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T08:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81727"},"modified":"2020-10-19T14:54:45","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T11:54:45","slug":"leonard-cohen-and-king-davids-downfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/leonard-cohen-and-king-davids-downfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Cohen And King David\u2019s Downfall"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"81727","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":81725,"related_cahpter":"593","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Your faith was strong but you needed proof \/ You saw her bathing on the roof\r\n","content":"

The Talmud tells of King David: \u201cRav Yehuda says that Rav says: A person should never bring himself to undergo an ordeal, as David, king of Israel, brought himself to undergo an ordeal and failed\u201d (Sanhedrin, 107a). This is of course referring to the saga of David and Bathsheba, that resulted in the murder of Uriah the Hittite.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the sages attempt to understand how David could have sunk so low, they connect David\u2019s sin to the opening verses in Ps. 26: \u201cDavid said before God: \u2018Master of the Universe, for what reason does one say in prayer: God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, and one does not say: God of David?\u2019 God said to David: \u2018They have undergone ordeals before Me, and you have not undergone an ordeal before Me.\u2019 David said before Him: \u2018Examine me and subject me to an ordeal, as it is stated: \u201cExamine me, Lord, and subject me to an ordeal; try my kidneys and my heart\u201d (Psalms 26:2).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

David wonders why he is not worthy to be included with the patriarchs in the liturgy. God answers that he has not been tested as they have. So David requests a trial, to be included in that pantheon.<\/span><\/p>\n

God agrees, and decides to put him to the test in the area of forbidden relations, a particular weakness of the brilliant warrior-poet. \u201cImmediately, it is written: \u2018And it came to pass one evening that David rose from his bed\u2019 (II Samuel 11:2)…\u2019And he walked upon the roof of the king\u2019s house; from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very fair to look upon\u2019 (ibid.).\u201d David failed the test, and the rest is history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leonard Cohen, too, in his song \u201cHallelujah\u201d hints at David\u2019s request from Ps. 26, and the connection that Rav Yehudah makes. Cohen, after all, had a Jewish education. The lyrics go like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

Your faith was strong but you needed proof,<\/span>
\n<\/span>You saw her bathing on the roof,<\/span>
\n<\/span>Her beauty in the moonlight over-threw you.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In Cohen\u2019s version, David didn\u2019t stand a chance with Bathsheba\u2019s overwhelming beauty. But Cohen hints at something more: not only did David not withstand the test, he was \u201cover-thrown\u201d – from his throne\u2026 Bathsheba\u2019s beauty caused a coup. Brilliant poet as he is, too, Cohen uses a political term to indicate the internal upheaval in David\u2019s soul, since according to the midrash in the Talmud, he was overly-sure of his own moral fiber, and was too quick to put himself to the test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This entire line of development of the Biblical story rests on the midrashic reading (of the Talmudic sages, and later by Cohen, whether he knew the gemara or not) of this verse in Ps. 26:\u00a0 \u201c\u2018Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked without blame\u2019; I have trusted in the LORD; I have not faltered,\u201d he begins. Then he invites the trial: \u201c\u2018Probe me, O LORD, and try me, test my heart and mind.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q&feature=youtu.be","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Leonard Cohen And King David\u2019s Downfall","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Your faith was strong but you needed proof \/ You saw her bathing on the roof","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q&feature=youtu.be","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81747,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81727\/revisions\/81747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}