{"id":56986,"date":"2018-07-09T17:43:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1048\/"},"modified":"2023-01-08T14:22:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-08T12:22:26","slug":"wall-1048","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1048\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20230101-to-20230107"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1048","date_from":"20230101","date_to":"20230107","book":"I Samuel","books_group":"Prophets","hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"posts":[{"order":1,"id":"40402","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"The Book Ends Surprisingly, With Brotherhood ","post_title":"The Book Ends Surprisingly, With Brotherhood","slug":"the-book-ends-surprisingly-with-brotherhood","old_id":"40402","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":39783,"post_title":"David Menachem","slug":"david-menachem","old_id":"39783","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Menachem","description":"Rabbi David Menachem is a musician, author, and paytan (poet in the style of medieval religious poetry called piyutim). He is a graduate of both an Ashkenazi haredi yeshiva and the Zionist Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and is best known as a performer of Sephardi liturgical songs and for his interfaith work with Muslims.","short_description":"Rabbi David Menachem is a musician, author, and paytan (poet in the style of medieval religious poetry called piyutim).","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":1284,"alt":"","title":"\u00a9\u05e6\u05d9\u05dc\u05dd \u05d0\u05d5\u05e4\u05d9\u05e8 \u05d3\u05e8\u05e2\u05d9","caption":"\u00a9\u05e6\u05d9\u05dc\u05dd \u05d0\u05d5\u05e4\u05d9\u05e8 \u05d3\u05e8\u05e2\u05d9","description":"\u00a9\u05e6\u05d9\u05dc\u05dd \u05d0\u05d5\u05e4\u05d9\u05e8 \u05d3\u05e8\u05e2\u05d9","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","width":366,"height":419,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930-262x300.jpg","medium-width":262,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","medium_large-width":366,"medium_large-height":419,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","large-width":366,"large-height":419,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","1536x1536-width":366,"1536x1536-height":419,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","2048x2048-width":366,"2048x2048-height":419,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","post_full_size-width":366,"post_full_size-height":419,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/48-3-e1536738737930.jpg","home_baner-width":366,"home_baner-height":419}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"48","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Why do we bless our sons that they be like Ephraim and Menasheh? Because they were the first brothers that got along\u2026.","post_main_content_content":"

Jacob saves his greatest blessing for his grandchildren Ephraim and Menasheh. In his words, he establishes them as a paradigmatic blessing \u201cBy you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying, God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh.\u201d (Genesis 48:20). It was not for naught that they merited this blessing. They are the first brothers from the beginning of human history that do not hate or envy each other.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Book of Genesis tells of the challenge of establishing the quality of human brotherhood: \u00a0Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers. Joseph took significant steps to repair their brotherhood. With his sons, it worked. \u00a0Here, Jacob repeats the \u201cmistake\u201d with his grandchildren. Again, he prefers the younger brother over the older brother. He puts his right hand on the head of the younger Ephraim and his left hand on the head of the elder Menasheh. In this act, he acts almost like the prophecy that was told to his mother during her pregnancy: \u201cTwo nations are in your womb, two separate peoples shall issue from your body; one people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger\u201d (Genesis 25:23).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joseph attempts to correct his father\u2019s mistake, \u201c\u2018Not so, Father,\u2019 Joseph said to his father, \u2018for the other is the first-born; place your right hand on his head\u2019\u201d (Genesis 48:18). \u00a0Jacob explains his preference \u201cyet the younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations\u201d (Genesis 48:19). Menashe the first-born hears this piercing sentence and nevertheless, there is no trace of hatred in his heart about Ephraim, his younger brother.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":85040,"alt":"","title":"ps69-other brother","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-1024x1024.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-1200x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps69-other-brother-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Book Ends Surprisingly, With Brotherhood","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Why do we bless our sons that they be like Ephraim and Menasheh? 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The idea that the blessings do not determine the future, but merely describe it (developed in yesterday's chapter), is reinforced by Jacob in chapter 49. \"Gather, and I will tell you what will happen to you in the end of days.\" If so, what's the point? His words would seem to have no prescriptive value, both because they speak of the distant future, and because they are, like a good horoscope, so vague that the listener can always retroactively impose the interpretation that best suits them.<\/p>\r\n

There are two explicit prescriptions which Jacob charges to his sons, and they are important enough that they are each repeated twice. At the end of his days, Jacob's great challenge is to leave his sons with two things they must do: gather, and listen.<\/p>\r\n

The fact that Jacob gathers all twelve sons together to bless them, quite in contrast to his own experience, is already a powerful message. Whatever he will say to each son, each one is present, blessed, chosen. This is the moment when Jacob overcomes the zero-sum game of chosenness and rejection that has characterized all of Genesis, and the moment that Bnei Yisrael, the Children of Israel, as an entity can be born.<\/p>\r\n

But gathering (he'asfu<\/em>) alone can't accomplish that. In order to come together (hikavtzu<\/em>), the brothers also need to listen carefully to Jacob, and to hear that each brother has his unique place and role. The only way to overcome the destructive competition to be \"the chosen one\" is to articulate a vision in which there are many ways to be chosen. But even this is not enough, because even diversity can be constructed within easy, comfortable parameters. And so Jacob's vision, first and foremost, finds a place for the most destructive, problematic forces within the big tent of chosenness, rather than taking the easy route of achieving.<\/p>\r\n

This is the profound, and unabashedly pluralistic<\/em>, message of twelve 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https:\/\/youtu.be\/RTKLA8Qma1A<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 Whiteboard Library","tile_main_caption":"Genesis 46-50: The Weekly Video Summary and Overview","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/RTKLA8Qma1A","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":"20180921","wall_id":"2001"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":5,"id":"57027","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"The Dangers Of Trying To Manipulate Holiness ","post_title":"The Dangers Of Trying To Manipulate Holiness","slug":"the-dangers-of-trying-to-manipulate-holiness","old_id":"57027","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34245,"post_title":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger","slug":"rachel-sharansky-danziger","old_id":"34245","first_name":"Rachel Sharansky","last_name":"Danziger","description":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a Jerusalem-born writer and speaker who blogs about Judaism, parenting, and life in Israel. She currently lives in Boston, where she teaches about storytelling in the bible and the subversive depths of Hebrew words.\r\n","short_description":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a Jerusalem-born Boston-based writer and speaker about Judaism, parenting, and life in Israel. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34246,"alt":"","title":"RSDanziger","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","width":1171,"height":1769,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-199x300.jpg","medium-width":199,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-678x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":678,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-678x1024.jpg","large-width":678,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","1536x1536-width":1017,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","2048x2048-width":1171,"2048x2048-height":1769,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-794x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":794,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-278x420.jpg","home_baner-width":278,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"236","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Ark as talisman, and the lesson of little baby Ichabod","post_main_content_content":"

At the end of Samuel 4, baby Ichabod survives his mother\u2019s death. At the beginning of the same chapter, Eli\u2019s sons seem to assume that the power of the Ark of the Covenant can survive the death of the relationship that birthed it, namely, the covenant between God and Israel. The very men who abused their position so cynically in the previous chapters, and violated God\u2019s laws in His own house, carry His Ark to the field of battle, hoping it will bring them victory.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the Ark is not a baby: it is God\u2019s tool. It can\u2019t boast of an immanent source of life or power. It is only as effective as God wills it to be; when Eli\u2019s sons try to use despite their many sins, they learn very quickly just how useless the Ark is without God\u2019s active help.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The narrative emphasizes this point through the story of Ichabod\u2019s birth. At first glance, this story seems unnecessary. What does it contribute to our understanding of the book\u2019s events? But by framing it in eerily familiar terms, the storyteller draws our attention to the paganism that warped the Israelites\u2019 perception of the Ark. For Ichabod\u2019s mother is not the first biblical woman whose attendants say \u201cDo not be afraid, for you have borne a son\u201d (1 Samuel 4:20). Neither is she the first to name her son for a tragedy as she lies dying. The matriarch Rachel preceded her on both counts, and on another: both died because someone moved a significant object from its original place. Having stolen her father\u2019s household idols, Rachel was unintentionally cursed by Jacob, who told Laban \u201canyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive!\u201d(Genesis 31:32) Rachel paid the price on her deathbed, just as Ichabod\u2019s mother pays the price for her family\u2019s decision to take the Ark into battle. These parallels force us to compare God\u2019s Ark to pagan idols, or more accurately \u2013 compare the way the Ark was perceived to the way people viewed idols. By relying on the Ark without obeying the God that gave it power Eli\u2019s sons reduced the Ark to an idolatrous, magical, and ultimately ineffectual, talisman. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

By drawing our attention to this strand of magical thinking, the text is offering a very timely warning. The Israelites will soon request a king. But a king as such won\u2019t be able to protect them: like the Ark, a king will only be as effective as God will choose to make him. Our chapter hints at what Samuel will later say explicitly: follow the covenant, or your king will fail just as the Ark did.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: <\/span>Carrying the Ark of the Covenant: gilded bas-relief at Auch Cathedral \/ 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the external situation finally matches the internal reality","post_main_content_content":"

Our chapter depicts Israel going to war against the Philistines, and enduring national tragedies upon its defeat. Israel lost thirty-four thousand fighting men \u2013 sons, fathers, and brothers, who represented the potential of their generation. Israel lost the heirs to the priesthood, and the High Priest himself, the men who served as ritual intermediaries between God and the people. And Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant, that labor of love from the desert wanderings that signified the covenant between God and Israel, that symbolized God as <\/span>Adonai Tzva\u2019ot<\/span><\/em> \u2013God of Hosts who fights for Israel. That day, our ancestors might easily have concluded that our God was defeated on the field of battle.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And yet, this defeat did not occur in a vacuum. A common trope depicted throughout Judges, Samuel, and Kings suggests that national disaster reflects the disastrous nature of Israel\u2019s moral character. In comment to our story, the Ralbag hints at this moral decline when he comments (1 Sam 4:1) that Israel failed to follow procedure by consulting the Urim and Thumim before marching to war, suggesting that their failure to consult God before war led to God\u2019s withdrawal of favor and subsequent defeat. But we know that this failure was just a symptom of a larger problem.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The first three chapters of 1 Samuel introduce the state of the world in which he serves. As with the Israelite leaders who preceded him, Samuel began his mission during a time of moral decay. Chapter 2 describes Hophni and Phinehas, the High Priest\u2019s sons, as thugs, with Eli their father as little able or willing to curb their extortion and bullying. When access to the Holy One of Blessing is mediated by leaders who abuse their position and enrich themselves, then how much holiness and Divine presence was there in Israel to begin with?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This backdrop of priestly corruption and moral malaise, which reflected upon the deficient moral character of Israel as a whole, finally manifested itself in national tragedy. The external situation finally matched the internal reality.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57050,"alt":"","title":"isam4-inout","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","width":1920,"height":1027,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-300x160.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":160,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-768x411.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":411,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-1024x548.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":548,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":822,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1027,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-1200x642.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":642,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-785x420.jpg","home_baner-width":785,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"National Tragedy and Moral Malaise","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"When the external situation finally matches the internal reality","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57050,"alt":"","title":"isam4-inout","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","width":1920,"height":1027,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-300x160.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":160,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-768x411.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":411,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-1024x548.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":548,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":822,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1027,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-1200x642.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":642,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-inout-785x420.jpg","home_baner-width":785,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"4","chapter_main_number":"236","date":"20260726","wall_id":"236"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"436","name":"Morality","old_id":"836"},{"term_id":"480","name":"Holiness","old_id":"880"},{"term_id":"884","name":"Corruption","old_id":"1284"}]},{"order":7,"id":"57086","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Spielberg\u2019s Muse? ","post_title":"Spielberg\u2019s Muse?","slug":"spielbergs-muse","old_id":"57086","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"237","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Ark wreaked vengeance on ancient raiders as well\u2026","post_main_content_content":"

In one of the final scenes of \u201cRaiders of the Lost Ark,\u201d the Ark unleashes grotesque ghost-like figures that cause death to all about them. Was this just artistic license or could it have a basis in Scripture?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this brief chapter, we learn about the Ark\u2019s impact on the Philistines who kept it after its capture. First, it struck down the statue of Dagon in Ashdod (the same god whose temple in Gaza was brought down by Samson, cf. Judges 16) but the Philistines paid it no mind (3). Then it knocked it down again, this time causing its head and hands to fall off while the general population was smitten with hemorrhoids (3-4). It was then moved to Gat whose population was likewise stricken with hemorrhoids (10), so it was moved to Ekron where yet another outbreak of hemorrhoids occurred (12). The only resolution the Philistines offered was to return the Ark whence it came (11) lest it cause a pandemic. In their own words: \u201cLet it go back to its own place, that it slay us not, and our people\u201d (11).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Two things about the divine manner of the Philistines\u2019 chastisement are noteworthy. First of all, God delivered a warning before actually unleashing the grievous plague. It was the obtuseness of the Philistines, who attributed no significance to the initial fall of the Dagon statue, which necessitated a second round of punishment. Secondly, God struck both Dagon and its worshippers just as He had earlier struck both the gods of Egypt and their worshippers (Exodus 12:12), in order to demonstrate the futility of their idolatry.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Whether Raiders\u201d director Steven Spielberg or its writer Lawrence Kasdan took any note of our chapter cannot be determined, but his insinuation that tampering with the Ark unleashed malign forces is consistent with our reading.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57089,"alt":"","title":"isam5-raiders","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","width":758,"height":426,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","medium_large-width":758,"medium_large-height":426,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","large-width":758,"large-height":426,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","1536x1536-width":758,"1536x1536-height":426,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","2048x2048-width":758,"2048x2048-height":426,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","post_full_size-width":758,"post_full_size-height":426,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Spielberg\u2019s Muse?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The Ark wreaked vengeance on ancient raiders as well\u2026","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57089,"alt":"","title":"isam5-raiders","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","width":758,"height":426,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","medium_large-width":758,"medium_large-height":426,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","large-width":758,"large-height":426,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","1536x1536-width":758,"1536x1536-height":426,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","2048x2048-width":758,"2048x2048-height":426,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders.jpg","post_full_size-width":758,"post_full_size-height":426,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam5-raiders-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"5","chapter_main_number":"237","date":"20260727","wall_id":"237"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"389","name":"Culture","old_id":"789"},{"term_id":"670","name":"Ark","old_id":"1070"}]},{"order":8,"id":"57099","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"The Ark As Booty ","post_title":"The Ark As Booty","slug":"the-ark-as-booty","old_id":"57099","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56490,"post_title":"Gary Rendsburg","slug":"gary-rendsburg","old_id":"56490","first_name":"Gary ","last_name":"Rendsburg ","description":"Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. His teaching and research focus on \u2018all things ancient Israel\u2019 \u2013 primarily language and literature, though also history and archaeology. His secondary interests include post-biblical Judaism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the medieval Hebrew manuscript tradition. Rendsburg\u2019s most recent book is How the Bible Is Written (Hendrickson, 2019), with particular attention to the use of language to create literature.\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Gary Rendsburg serves as the Blanche and Irving Laurie Professor of Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56491,"alt":"","title":"Gary_A_Rendsburg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","width":220,"height":314,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg-210x300.jpg","medium-width":210,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","medium_large-width":220,"medium_large-height":314,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","large-width":220,"large-height":314,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","1536x1536-width":220,"1536x1536-height":314,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","2048x2048-width":220,"2048x2048-height":314,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","post_full_size-width":220,"post_full_size-height":314,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Gary_A_Rendsburg.jpg","home_baner-width":220,"home_baner-height":314}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"237","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Philistines v. Israelites: 1:0; Yahweh v. Dagon: Knockout","post_main_content_content":"

In the previous chapter, 1 Samuel, ch. 4, the Philistines defeated the Israelites in battle and captured the Ark of the Covenant. \u00a0In this chapter, 1 Samuel, ch. 5, the Philistines bring the Ark from Eben-Ezer to Ashdod and position it before the statue of Dagon in the temple to Dagon.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This action is consistent with ancient Near Eastern practice, for the sources reveal that booty and trophies captured during warfare were placed within the temples of the victorious nation. \u00a0For a famous example, note Hammurabi\u2019s Code (now in the Louvre), not an idol or a statue <\/span>per <\/span><\/em>se<\/span><\/i>, but rather a stele on which was inscribed the famous collection of laws. \u00a0It was written by Hammurabi, king of Babylon, c. 1750 B.C.E., but it was discovered by archaeologists in the Elamite city of Susa (modern-day southwestern Iran), as it was carried off to Susa by Shutruk-Nakhunte (1185\u20131155 B.C.E.), the Elamite conqueror of Babylon, along with a statue of Marduk and other items. \u00a0In light of such parallels, it is no surprise that the Philistines placed the captured Ark of the Covenant in the temple of Dagon in the city of Ashdod.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Nowhere does the book of Samuel refer to further Philistine penetration into Israelite territory, but presumably such must have occurred. \u00a0Both Jeremiah 7:12-14 and Psalm 78:60 refer to the destruction of Shiloh in days past, and while neither text provides a date for this event, nor the name of those responsible, scholars assume that the devastation was wrought by the Philistines. \u00a0It would have been quite natural for the Philistines to continue eastward after the battle of Eben-Ezer across the tribal allotment of Ephraim en route to Shiloh. If it did not happen on this occasion, then perhaps such occurred during or after a different conflict between the two neighboring peoples. \u00a0To be sure, the archaeological excavations at Shiloh reveal that the city was abandoned in the 11th century B.C.E., the chronological setting of our story in the book of Samuel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Back to the main story in 1 Samuel, ch. 5: \u00a0the Philistines presumably believed that their defeat of the Israelites and their capture of the Ark implied that their god Dagon (or gods generally) had defeated Yahweh the god of the Israelites. \u00a0The biblical writer will have none of this, though, for as 1 Samuel 5 demonstrates, he believes that the Ark of Yahweh has special qualities which override the powers of the Philistine cultic objects, and hence Yahweh remains supreme over Dagon and any other deities.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: <\/span>Fresco<\/span> of the Philistine captivity of the ark, in the Dura-Europos synagogue \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57100,"alt":"","title":"isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon.jpg","width":1758,"height":1087,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-300x185.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":185,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-768x475.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":475,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-1024x633.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":633,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":950,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon.jpg","2048x2048-width":1758,"2048x2048-height":1087,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-1200x742.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":742,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam4-DuraSyn-Ark_and_Temple_of_Dagon-679x420.jpg","home_baner-width":679,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Ark As Booty","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Philistines v. 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","post_title":"The Political And The Moral: Which The Ends And Which The Means?","slug":"the-political-and-the-moral-which-the-ends-and-which-the-means","old_id":"57151","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56443,"post_title":"Moshe Halbertal","slug":"moshe-halbertal","old_id":"56443","first_name":"Moshe ","last_name":"Halbertal ","description":"Prof. Moshe Halbertal is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor of law at New York University (NYU) and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. His latest book, co-authored with Stephen Holmes, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel was published by Princeton University Press in 2017. Halbertal was the recipient of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award of the Rothschild Foundation and the Goldstein-Goren Book Award for the best book in Jewish thought in the years 1997 to 2000. In 2010, Halbertal was named a member of Israel\u2019s Academy for the Sciences and the Humanities.","short_description":"Prof. Moshe Halbertal is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor of law at New York University (NYU) and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56444,"alt":"","title":"Moshe-Halbertal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","width":500,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","medium_large-width":500,"medium_large-height":500,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","large-width":500,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","1536x1536-width":500,"1536x1536-height":500,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","2048x2048-width":500,"2048x2048-height":500,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","post_full_size-width":500,"post_full_size-height":500,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"238","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"As power becomes an end for a sovereign clinging desperately to it, other intrinsically worthy ends turn into disposable means","post_main_content_content":"

Our author\u2019s initial and arguably most striking revelation concerning power is that the paramount aim of those who successfully attain supreme authority is often reduced to nothing more exalted or idealistic then staying in power. This obsessional fixation on the means and trappings of power, independent of the greater or lesser purposes it can serve, defines not only the psychic life of many of those who exercise great political power, but also the way in which politics is institutionally structured to sustain and secure the ruler\u2019s privileges and capacities. Whenever retaining hold on high office, rather than realizing an ideological vision or implementing a political program, becomes the dominant aim of politics, sovereign power becomes wielded as an end in itself, even while being publicly justified as a means for providing collective security. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Although power is always justified to subjects as a means of repelling foreign conquest and attaining other collective goods, for the one who exercises it, sovereign power may easily turn into something desired for its own sake. This inversion of a means into an end, all too common in modern as well as archaic politics, causes another inversion in turn. As power becomes an end for a sovereign clinging desperately to it, other intrinsically worthy ends turn into disposable means.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rulers who wield their authority in the service of power as an end in itself regularly convert such ends as love, loyalty, the sacred, and moral obligation into mere means for eliminating dangerous rivals and staving off the loss of power, a loss that they morbidly dread.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Instrumentalizing such inherently valuable ends and turning them into mere means has a further fateful consequence for human politics. Since sovereigns are always able, and often tempted, to turn morality into an instrument, their observable actions become chronically ambiguous. Observers of such sovereign actions find themselves in perennial doubt as to their genuineness. Is the moral justification adduced by the wielder of power a mere pretext covering a purely self-serving political motivation, or is the action principles and driven by a moral quest? As our author details with exceptional subtlety, the irresolvable ambiguities of political action and passion are rooted in the deeply enigmatic and hugely consequential relation between public justification and private motivation. Although - and indeed because - the instrumentalization of morality is pervasive in political life, the political and the moral are thoroughly intertwined in ways in which even the sovereign himself cannot always disentangle. The exploration of these interconnected themes - the double reversal of turning means into ends and ends into means that lies at the heart of politics and the resulting ambiguity of political action - runs through much of the Book of Samuel, but it initially comes into focus as our author meticulously examines the corrosive impact of the psychological and political imperative to retain power on the life of Saul, the first king and the first genuine political figure known to the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

E<\/span>xcerpts from The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 1<\/span>7-18<\/span>. Re-printed with permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":56668,"alt":"","title":"halbertal-book 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A native of Melbourne, Australia, she comes to the rabbinate with a PhD from the University of London in 2011. A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, she is the author of Remembering the Holocaust: Generations, Witnessing and Place and co-editor of In the Shadows of Memory: The Holocaust and the Third Generation. \r\n\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr Esther Jilovsky is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":52868,"alt":"","title":"esther jilovsky.jpeg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1.jpg","width":3581,"height":5371,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":1365,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/esther-jilovsky.jpeg-1-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"239","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"They were tempted, just as we are, by shiny new objects","post_main_content_content":"

Entering a department store is an almost universal experience. Whether in London, Melbourne, or New York, and whether planning to buy kitchenware or bedlinen, we find ourselves in a bright, shiny world decorated with objects begging to be caressed and taken home. Before we can even check the store\u2019s directory to discover which floor hosts saucepans or sheets, we find ourselves idly fondling a scarf, handling a new leather wallet, or smelling sweet samples of the latest perfume. While on a rational level we know we don\u2019t need these things, our irrational brain demands that we buy this shiny new accessory. These objects tempt us with their sparkle and potential, but they are often hollow inside, useless as soon as the allure dissipates.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The people of ancient Israel had far fewer shiny things than we do \u2013 and certainly no department stores! But they were also not immune to temptation. In the Ten Commandments, God instructs the Israelites not to worship other Gods and not to make sculptured images, such as idols (Exodus 20:3-4). But this doesn\u2019t stop the Israelites from doing so \u2013 most notably the creation of the golden calf (Exodus 32:2-4). While this episode does not end well, it is not incomprehensible that people wanted to connect to God through idols. It is much easier to see and feel a lump of metal than it is to sense and experience the Eternal One.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ashtoret (pl. Ashtaroth) was an ancient Middle Eastern goddess. She is depicted through figurines shaped like a woman. Just as we today are distracted by the glittery merchandise near the entrance of a department store, ancient people were drawn to Gods that they could see, feel, and touch. For the people of Israel, this was unacceptable, just as it is now. We read that: \u2018<\/span>Samuel said to all the House of Israel, \u201cIf you mean to return to the Eternal with all your heart, you must remove the alien gods and the Ashtaroth from your midst and direct your heart to the Eternal and serve the Eternal alone\u201d (I Samuel 7:3). Ashtaroth may seem more desirable than an invisible God \u2013 shiny, smooth and tangible \u2013 and much more accessible than the Eternal who cannot be seen, felt, or touched.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Worshiping Ashtoret seems a bit like walking through a department store and buying those sparkly new earrings or velvety soft scarf when all you meant to buy was saucepans and some pillowcases. It might seem fitting in the moment, but will you ever actually wear them? Aren\u2019t they just shiny new objects that seem irresistible but will leave you wishing you hadn\u2019t spent that extra $20? It is not always easy or possible to connect with a God who may seem as elusive as the glove you lost last winter. But substituting a cheap and poorly made alternative is rarely satisfying. Finding the time and mustering the effort for a deeper connection is so much harder, but the result is incomparable.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Astarte (Ashtoret), found at Gezer in 1973, dated to the end of the Middle Bronze Age (16<\/span>th<\/span> century BCE). From the collection of George S. Blumenthal<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54993,"alt":"","title":"jud2-blumenthal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","width":503,"height":1875,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-80x300.jpg","medium-width":80,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-275x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":275,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-275x1024.jpg","large-width":275,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","1536x1536-width":412,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","2048x2048-width":503,"2048x2048-height":1875,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-322x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":322,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-113x420.jpg","home_baner-width":113,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"All That Glitters Is Not God","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"They were tempted, just as we are, by shiny new objects","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":54993,"alt":"","title":"jud2-blumenthal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","width":503,"height":1875,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-80x300.jpg","medium-width":80,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-275x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":275,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-275x1024.jpg","large-width":275,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","1536x1536-width":412,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal.jpg","2048x2048-width":503,"2048x2048-height":1875,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-322x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":322,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud2-blumenthal-113x420.jpg","home_baner-width":113,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"7","chapter_main_number":"239","date":"20260729","wall_id":"239"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"384","name":"God","old_id":"784"},{"term_id":"429","name":"Idolatry","old_id":"829"},{"term_id":"555","name":"Archaeology","old_id":"955"}]},{"order":11,"id":"57254","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"The Circuit Riding Judge ","post_title":"The Circuit Riding Judge","slug":"the-circuit-riding-judge","old_id":"57254","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34235,"post_title":"Marc Gitler","slug":"marc-gitler","old_id":"34235","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Gitler","description":"Rabbi Marc Gitler, a recipient of the Wexner Fellowship, was ordained at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and earned an MPA from NYU . The founder of Fast for Feast, he lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Sarah and their four children. He used to work for 929 North America.\r\n","short_description":"Rabbi Marc Gitler, founder of Fast for Feast, lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Sarah and their four children. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34236,"alt":"","title":"Marc Gitler","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","width":407,"height":407,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","medium_large-width":407,"medium_large-height":407,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","large-width":407,"large-height":407,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","1536x1536-width":407,"1536x1536-height":407,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","2048x2048-width":407,"2048x2048-height":407,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","post_full_size-width":407,"post_full_size-height":407,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Gitler.jpg","home_baner-width":407,"home_baner-height":407}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"239","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Samuel inspires and judges, befriends and leads the people","post_main_content_content":"

Samuel learned many lessons from his time in Shiloh, among them may have been the importance of availability.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Verse 16 speaks of Samuel\u2019s yearly circuit: Bethel, Gilgal, Mitzpah, judging Israel at all those places. Unlike Eli and his sons, or even the great judge Deborah who sat under a date palm, the average Israelite didn\u2019t need to load up the wagon and venture through the hill country to seek the advice and wise counsel of the prophet. Perhaps today, or next week, or in six months\u2019 time, Samuel would arrive, and offer words of encouragement, insight, and hope. He would inspire and judge, taking notice of all, irrespective of their position in society.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Maya Angelou said <\/span>\u201cI've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Imagine Abram the poor farmer or goat-herder in Ancient Israel. Uneducated, illiterate, barely able to feed his family, limping through the field due to an injury sustained in war with the Philistines. The hardships of his life are evident everywhere, until Samuel shows up at his farm. Until the greatest person in the country, God\u2019s oracle himself makes time to speak with him and meet his wife and children. Abram is transformed. He is a descendant of patriarchs and matriarchs, of prophets, and friends with Israel\u2019s greatest prophet and citizen Samuel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Samuel inspired the Jews to once again assemble at Mitzpah to fight the Philistines. To win back not just their territory, but their self-worth, and their national pride. After the devastating loss of the Ark the Temple, and thirty thousand men just years earlier, this was not an easy sale. But who could say no to the friend that traveled to their home, broke bread, and shared his life with them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Samuel\u2019s circuit always ended up with him returning home to Ramah. To his brothers and sisters, his father, and most importantly his mother Hannah. He made the average Israelite feel like his friend, because they were. By reputation he was Israel\u2019s leading citizen, respected from Dan to Be\u2019er Sheva, and most significantly God\u2019s messenger, but at his core he was simply the son of Elkanah and Hannah from Ramah.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57255,"alt":"","title":"isam7-judge","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","width":1054,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-247x300.png","medium-width":247,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-768x933.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":933,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-843x1024.png","large-width":843,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","1536x1536-width":1054,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","2048x2048-width":1054,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-988x1200.png","post_full_size-width":988,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-346x420.png","home_baner-width":346,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Circuit Riding Judge","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Samuel inspires and judges, befriends and leads the people","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57255,"alt":"","title":"isam7-judge","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","width":1054,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-247x300.png","medium-width":247,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-768x933.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":933,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-843x1024.png","large-width":843,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","1536x1536-width":1054,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge.png","2048x2048-width":1054,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-988x1200.png","post_full_size-width":988,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam7-judge-346x420.png","home_baner-width":346,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"7","chapter_main_number":"239","date":"20260729","wall_id":"239"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"402","name":"Leadership","old_id":"802"},{"term_id":"837","name":"Judges","old_id":"1237"},{"term_id":"839","name":"Samuel","old_id":"1239"}]},{"order":12,"id":"57290","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"The King And Us: Eternal Ambivalence ","post_title":"The King And Us: Eternal Ambivalence","slug":"the-king-and-us-eternal-ambivalence","old_id":"57290","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36277,"post_title":"Yedidya Sinclair","slug":"yedidya-sinclair","old_id":"36277","first_name":"Yedidya","last_name":"Sinclair","description":"Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair serves as Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon, the leading US Jewish environmental organization. From 2011-16 he was Vice President for Research and Senior Economist at Energiya Global, a Jerusalem-based solar energy company focused on the developing world and he continues to consult on renewable energy and climate change preparedness. In 2014 he published together with Hazon, a translation of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's great work on shmitta, the Sabbatical year, \"Introduction to Shabbat Ha'aretz.\" Yedidya holds a BA from Oxford University, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and lives with his family in Jerusalem.","short_description":"Yedidya Sinclair is a Jerusalem-based rabbi and economist, and is Senior Rabbinic Scholar at Hazon. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36278,"alt":"","title":"yedidya sinclair","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","width":200,"height":200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":200,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":200,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yedidya-sinclair.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":200}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"240","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A fascinating look at the debate down through the ages","post_main_content_content":"

Today\u2019s chapter (I Samuel 8) recounts probably the most fateful episode in all of Jewish political history \u2013 the decision to have a king.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The people, anxious about who or what will follow Samuel\u2019s leadership after he dies come to the aging prophet and demand, \u201cAppoint a king for us to govern us like all the other nations\u201d \u00a0(v. 5). Samuel is displeased by this request and delivers a hair-raising tirade, warning about the rapacious and tyrannical habits of kings, and how they seize your sons and daughters to serve as his soldiers and cooks, farmers and weaponsmiths. The people are unmoved. With God\u2019s assent, Samuel agrees to appoint a king \u2013 and the rest is history. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Samuel\u2019s extreme reluctance was an early moment in Judaism\u2019s eternal ambivalence about monarchy. The argument is crystallized in the Talmudic discussion in Sanhedrin 20a, about whether it is a <\/span>mitzvah<\/span><\/em>, a commandment, to have a king. Rabbi Yossi and Rabbi Yehudah said that it is. They read the verse in Deuteronomy 17:14, \u201cwhen you come to the land\u2026and you say, \u201cI will set a king over me, like all the nations\u201d\u2026then you shall set up a king over yourself,\u201d as a positive commandment.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Conversely, Rabbi Nehorai argued that this is no mitzvah. Rather the verse foresaw the situation in our chapter, where the people would clamor for a king, with the invidious motivation of being like all other nations. Samuel\u2019s urgent, but ineffective efforts to discourage this request strengthen Rabbi Nehorai\u2019s view.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This argument has ramified throughout Jewish history. Maimonides led the medieval supporters of Jewish kingship (Hilchot Melachim, 1:1), who held that monarchy was the most stable and effective form of government and that the kingship of the House of David was part of God\u2019s ultimate, messianic purpose. The most vehement of medieval Jewish opponents of monarchy, Abarbanel, who knew a number of kings personally (including Ferdinand of Spain who expelled the Jews in 1492) argued that kingship was usually tyrannical and that Jewish monarchy was a concession to the people\u2019s weakness. Abarbanel thought that the 15<\/span>th<\/span> century proto-democratic Italian republics where he ended his life embodied a more juster, efficient governmental system.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Where does God line up in this debate? According to today\u2019s chapter, God is not pleased by the demand to have a king, telling Samuel, \u201cit is not you that they have rejected; it is me that they have rejected as their king\u201d (v. 7). Fascinatingly God goes on to cite the request for a monarch as the latest in a long line of the people\u2019s betrayals, \u201cforsaking Me and worshipping other Gods\u201d (v. 8).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Israeli scholar Israel Knohl shows how in biblical times the models of monarchy provided by neighboring nations were indeed idolatrous, with the king claiming divine origins and powers.\u00a0<\/span>God identifies the impulse behind the demand for a king as a wish for a powerful human leader with quasi-divine attributes, and deplores it as the rejection of a direct, close relationship with Him.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57291,"alt":"","title":"isam8-crown","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","width":1280,"height":706,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-300x165.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":165,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-768x424.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":424,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-1024x565.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":565,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":706,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":706,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-1200x662.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":662,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-761x420.png","home_baner-width":761,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The King And Us: Eternal Ambivalence","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A fascinating look at the debate down through the ages","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57291,"alt":"","title":"isam8-crown","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","width":1280,"height":706,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-300x165.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":165,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-768x424.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":424,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-1024x565.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":565,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":706,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":706,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-1200x662.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":662,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-crown-761x420.png","home_baner-width":761,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"8","chapter_main_number":"240","date":"20260730","wall_id":"240"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"366","name":"Commentators","old_id":"766"},{"term_id":"423","name":"Politics","old_id":"823"},{"term_id":"444","name":"History","old_id":"844"},{"term_id":"627","name":"Talmud","old_id":"1027"},{"term_id":"835","name":"King","old_id":"1235"}]},{"order":13,"id":"111064","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"A King, Yes - But Why? ","post_title":"A King, Yes - But Why?","slug":"a-king-yes-but-why","old_id":"111064","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":101758,"post_title":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam","slug":"naomi-bromberg-bar-yam","old_id":"101758","first_name":"Naomi ","last_name":"Bromberg Bar-Yam ","description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. She explores her work and life through Torah drashot, rituals and children\u2019s stories.","short_description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. 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As Chapter 8 opens, we are told that Samuel had trained his two sons to be <\/span>shoftim<\/em> <\/span>\u2013 leaders, judges \u2013 and that they did not follow in their respected and much-loved father\u2019s footsteps. They \u201caccepted bribes and subverted justice.\u201d (8:3) The people did not mince words, \u201cYou are old and your sons have not followed in your ways, therefore appoint a king to govern us <\/span>like all the other nations<\/span><\/em>\u201d (8:5).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It seems that the people, and perhaps also Samuel, had hoped that, like a king, his sons would take over after Samuel. In the balance of power of the Israelites, high priests and kings inherit their roles from their fathers. Judges and prophets do not. They are unique divine appointments. It is important, and challenging, not to conflate the roles and appointments of kings, priests and prophets.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Samuel expresses his displeasure to God, though we are not told explicitly why he does not want a king. God tells Samuel to listen to the people, that they are rejecting God, not Samuel. Samuel tells the people what it will be like to have a king; the king will take your children to service, your crops, your flocks and even yourselves, as slaves (8:10-18). They hear Samuel and they still want a king. This is the fulfillment of Moses\u2019 prediction in Deuteronomy 17:14. \u201cWhen you have entered the land \u2026 and settled it you will say \u2018I will set a king over me, <\/span>as do all the nations about me<\/span><\/em>.\u2019\u201d (Why this is in the singular is a topic for another day.) In both texts, the reason the people want a king is to be like the surrounding nations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The people want a king for the wrong reason. The Israelites are not like the other nations, something that still challenges us today.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Judges, the refrain \u201cthere was no king and each person did what was right in their own eyes\u201d suggests that it is the responsibility of the king to determine for the people what is right. Through the laws and values transmitted in Torah and through the prophets, God has given the people the tools to be their own moral compasses, to know what is right. The kings\u2019 role is leadership and unification of a just people, military defense, building the Temple and infrastructure. This tension of roles and expectations plays out throughout Samuel and Kings. It begins with Saul. Naming his ancestors back six generations (9:1) indicates that Saul comes from a respected family. Saul was \u201ca fine young man, no one in Israel was handsomer than he, he was a head taller than any of the people.\u201d (9:2) A nice, tall, good-looking Israelite boy from a good family - just the person to be a king \u201clike all the other nations\u201d have. But as the story bears out, not the person to be the king of Israel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":111065,"alt":"","title":"-63b3eb3d6f989--63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why question.png","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png.png","width":1920,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-768x768.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-1024x1024.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-1200x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2023\/01\/63b3eb3d6f989-63b3eb3d6f98a1sam8-why-question.png-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"A King, Yes - 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\"And it happened when Samuel grew old that he set his sons up as Judges for Israel\" (8:1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is a signal expression of the ambiguity of Samuel\u2019s role as leader that he oversteps his mandate as judge (<\/span>shofet<\/span><\/em>-<\/span><\/i>both judicial authority and ad hoc political leader) by attempting to inaugurate a kind of dynastic arrangement. The two sons who betray their trust of office are a nice parallel to Eli\u2019s two corrupt sons, who essentially were displaced by Samuel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: Robert Alter, <\/span>The Hebrew Bible<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc.<\/span> By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"From Robert Alter's Bible Translation and Commentary","tile_main_caption":"Samuel Oversteps His Mandate","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The dangers of nepotism","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"8","chapter_main_number":"240","date":"20260730","wall_id":"240"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"366","name":"Commentators","old_id":"766"},{"term_id":"839","name":"Samuel","old_id":"1239"}]}],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"","static_cube_color":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/56986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}