{"id":57506,"date":"2018-07-09T17:43:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-247\/"},"modified":"2023-01-16T15:18:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T13:18:45","slug":"wall-247","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-247\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Prophets-I Samuel-15"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"247","date":"20260810","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"57834","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"I Samuel Chapter 15 - Read by Michael Bernstein ","post_title":"I Samuel Chapter 15 - Read by Michael Bernstein","slug":"i-samuel-chapter-15-read-by-michael-bernstein","old_id":"57834","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","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":"JPS Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"I Samuel 15","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"read by Michael Bernstein","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/929-bible\/JPS_Audio_Bible_I_Samuel_Chapter_15_read_by_Michael_Bernstein","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":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"58012","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- I Samuel 15 ","post_title":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- I Samuel 15","slug":"listening-to-the-prophets-with-rabbi-abby-sosland-i-samuel-15","old_id":"58012","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56624,"post_title":"Abby Sosland","slug":"abby-sosland","old_id":"56624","first_name":"Abby ","last_name":"Sosland","description":"Rabbi Abby Sosland is a spiritual advisor, writer, and educator, based at The Leffell School in Westchester, New York. 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Chapter 15 is full of drama. Samuel tasks Saul with a clear charge: wipe out Amalek- men, women, children, cattle. Samuel invokes God\u2019s longstanding promise from Exodus setting the chapter\u2019s tone. Saul destroys everything and everyone, except King Agag and the choicest cattle.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The next morning Saul runs to Samuel and excitedly proclaims that he upheld God\u2019s word. Saul does not know that Samuel spent the night entreating God to overturn a decree against Saul. Samuel angrily confronts Saul over the sound of bleating animals. Saul earnestly responds that these are sacrifices. STOP! Samuel yells at him like a teacher who has had it with their student\u2019s excuses. Samuel raises the heat: Saul thought he was a simple man, but God made him king. Saul doubles down: \u201cBut I did obey the LORD! I performed the mission on which the LORD sent me\u201d (verse 21).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul just cannot see what he did wrong. Samuel lashes out in a dramatic verse that later prophets will borrow. Does God care about sacrifices? God desires obedience. The verse ends with the first of three turns of phrase in the chapter- \u201cbecause you have rejected God, God has rejected you!\u201d (verse 23).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Imagine how Saul feels here. He was not trying to hide anything. Based on his protestations, he honestly felt that he had done the right thing. He responds that the people wanted to give sacrifices. One could argue that Saul is trying to throw the people under the bus, but that interpretation does not match the text. Saul is being truthful. Saul\u2019s problem from the start was his weakness in the face of the people. Even in the last chapter he went against two oaths because the people pushed to save Jonathan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The drama reaches its zenith. Saul begs Samuel to give him the courtesy of accompanying him back to camp. Samuel angrily turns to storm away and Saul grabs the hem of Samuel\u2019s robe, tearing it. Samuel turns to Saul with a second biting pronouncement: \u201cThe LORD has this day torn the kingship over Israel away from you and has given it to another who is worthier than you\u201d (verse 35).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Samuel finally relents, but not without adding one more bit of drama. He summons Agag, who knows that death is near. He turns to Agag with his final biting turn of phrase: \u201cAs your sword bereaved mothers, so too will your mother be bereaved.\u201d Then Samuel kills Agag. This is the only time Samuel kills anyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The chapter ends with the dramatic statement: \u201cSamuel never saw Saul again to the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, because the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.\u201d (verse 35). This last verse reveals Samuel\u2019s inner turmoil. The stone-faced servant of God depicted in this chapter was crying inside for his prot\u00e9g\u00e9e.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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By collaborating with community centers to exhibit her work, and drawing upon her experience as both an artist and educator, her art acts as a bridge which connects past and present and viewers with one another.\r\nMichal dedicates her work in memory to her father Shamai Zweigreich z\u201dl and her grandfather Yisrael Zweigreich z\u201dl, who loved studying Bible and Talmud.","short_description":"Michal Nachmany is a self-taught artist and educator","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56635,"alt":"","title":"michal nachmany picture","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","width":157,"height":243,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","medium-width":157,"medium-height":243,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","medium_large-width":157,"medium_large-height":243,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","large-width":157,"large-height":243,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","1536x1536-width":157,"1536x1536-height":243,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","2048x2048-width":157,"2048x2048-height":243,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","post_full_size-width":157,"post_full_size-height":243,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/michal-nachmany-picture.jpg","home_baner-width":157,"home_baner-height":243}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Eternal One Of Israel Will Not Lie Not Change His Mind","post_main_content_content":"

Mixed-media work by Michal Nachmany, courtesy of the artist<\/p>\r\n

Michal dedicates her work in memory to her father Shamai Zweigreich z\u201dl \u00a0and her grandfather \u00a0Yisrael Zweigreich z\u201dl, who loved studying Bible and Talmud.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58026,"alt":"","title":"isam15","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","width":763,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-224x300.jpg","medium-width":224,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-763x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":763,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-763x1024.jpg","large-width":763,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","1536x1536-width":763,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","2048x2048-width":763,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","post_full_size-width":763,"post_full_size-height":1024,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-313x420.jpg","home_baner-width":313,"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":"I Sam 15:29","tile_main_caption":"The Eternal One Of Israel Will Not Lie Nor Change His Mind","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58026,"alt":"","title":"isam15","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","width":763,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-224x300.jpg","medium-width":224,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-763x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":763,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-763x1024.jpg","large-width":763,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","1536x1536-width":763,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","2048x2048-width":763,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15.jpg","post_full_size-width":763,"post_full_size-height":1024,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-313x420.jpg","home_baner-width":313,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"369","name":"Visual Arts","old_id":"769"}]},{"order":5,"id":"58009","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Amalekites And Kenites, Cruelty And Compassion ","post_title":"Amalekites And Kenites, Cruelty And Compassion","slug":"amalekites-and-kenites-cruelty-and-compassion","old_id":"58009","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":48376,"post_title":"Tzvi Novick","slug":"tzvi-novick","old_id":"48376","first_name":"Tzvi ","last_name":"Novick ","description":"Tzvi Novick holds the Abrams College Chair of Jewish Thought and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches in the Department of Theology. His research focuses on rabbinic literature and early liturgical poetry.\r\n ","short_description":"Tzvi Novick holds the Abrams College Chair of Jewish Thought and Culture at the University of Notre Dame","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":48377,"alt":"","title":"May 10, 2013; Tzvi Novick..Photo by Matt Cashore\/University of Notre Dame","caption":"May 10, 2013; Tzvi Novick..Photo by Matt Cashore\/University of Notre Dame","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386.jpg","width":1416,"height":1812,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-234x300.jpg","medium-width":234,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-768x983.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":983,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-800x1024.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386.jpg","2048x2048-width":1416,"2048x2048-height":1812,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-938x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":938,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/tzvi-novick-e1548753867386-328x420.jpg","home_baner-width":328,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Amalekites are not emotionally unintelligent. But they are cruel","post_main_content_content":"

God acts in today\u2019s chapter on a promise that he made long before. Upon departing Egypt for the wilderness, Israel was immediately set upon by the Amalekites. (Exodus 17:8-16) With Joshua on the field of battle and Moses above, raising his hands, Israel defeated the Amalekites, and God pledged to make eternal war against them. Now Samuel comes to Saul, recalling the Amalekite attack on Israel \u201cwhen it went up from Egypt\u201d (1 Samuel 15:2), and urges him to seek vengeance. Saul marches on the city of the Amalekites, but before he attacks, he warns off the Kenites, a tribe that evidently lives alongside the Amalekites: \u201cTurn and descend from the midst of the Amalekites, lest I sweep you away with them; yet you did kindness with all the children of Israel when they went up from Egypt\u201d (15:6). The Kenites are descended from Jethro, Moses\u2019 father-in-law, and Saul seems to allude to the story in which Jethro counseled Moses to establish a judicial system rather than serve alone as judge for all Israel (Exodus 18).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This passage, pairing the Amalekites and the family of Jethro as two groups that came to Israel after the exodus from Egypt, the second directly after the first, the one to do evil and the other good, compels us to reflect on the two passages in Exodus 17-18. Two notable points of comparison emerge. First, both the Amalekites and Jethro are attentive to the limitations of physical body. Jethro appreciates that Moses cannot judge the people alone; \u201cyou will wither away, you and all the people with you\u201d (Exodus 18:18). The Amalekites too, take note of others\u2019 fatigue. They recognize that the Israelites, after their hurried departure from Egypt, are \u201ctired and weary\u201d (Deuteronomy 25:18). The Amalekites are not emotionally unintelligent. But they are cruel. Unlike Jethro, they intervene not to prevent debilitating weariness, but to take advantage of it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We also learn something about Moses. In Exodus 18 he is unable to recognize his own limitations: Jethro must teach him that he cannot judge the people alone. Yet in the very preceding narrative, in the war against Amalek, he takes Aaron and Hur with him up the hill, evidently aware that he will need their support to hold up his hands over the course of the entire battle (18:10-12). But there is a certain logic in Moses\u2019 selective blindness, if we attend to the connection between self-perception and self-evaluation. \u00a0Moses conceives of himself, we may suppose, as a teacher, not a warrior. In his own eyes, he is a man who works with his head, not his hands. It is easy for him to see that he cannot fight Israel\u2019s battles by himself, even in the quasi-magical way in which he conducts the war from the hilltop. But it is harder for him to acknowledge the fact that even in the role with which he most identifies, as Israel\u2019s teacher, his capacities are not unlimited. To see this, he needs Jethro\u2019s outsider perspective.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: William Brassey Hole: Battle of Raphidim \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58010,"alt":"","title":"isam15-amalek","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","width":549,"height":442,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek-300x242.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":242,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","medium_large-width":549,"medium_large-height":442,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","large-width":549,"large-height":442,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","1536x1536-width":549,"1536x1536-height":442,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","2048x2048-width":549,"2048x2048-height":442,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek.jpg","post_full_size-width":549,"post_full_size-height":442,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-amalek-522x420.jpg","home_baner-width":522,"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":"Amalekites And Kenites, Cruelty And Compassion","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The Amalekites are not emotionally unintelligent. 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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":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Saul\u2019s monument hovers above the rest of the story, a mocking reminder of Saul\u2019s golden hours, and their end","post_main_content_content":"

Saul started his reign by cutting oxen into pieces and uniting the Israelites under his leadership. By the end of 1 Samuel 15, so much more than a yoke of oxen lies in pieces. Samuel\u2019s robe, his trademark garment since infancy, is torn. Agag, the Amalekite king, is cut down. Two men \u2013 the king and the prophet who anointed him \u2013 are separated for life. The united nation stands intact, for now, but it\u2019s about to crumble. In the very next chapter God will send Samuel to anoint another king, and sow the seeds of violent divisions.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Amidst all these fractures and divisions, one new artefact stands whole: Saul\u2019s monument in Carmel, which he erected to mark his victory over the Amalekites. But just like Saul himself, the monument only appears to be unbroken. Saul continues to reign, but he and we already know that God withdrew his favor, the source of Saul\u2019s power. Without it, Saul\u2019s rule is hollow, a brittle shell indeed. The monument is similar: it continues to celebrate a victory, but Saul and we already know that this victory was hollow too.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul erected his monument in those golden hours when he could still view his victory with pride. In those hours, he thought that he had done God\u2019s will; he didn\u2019t know that God had already rejected him. He thought that he had fulfilled Samuel\u2019s instruction; he didn\u2019t know that Samuel was preparing himself to deliver God\u2019s rejection. He thought that he had achieved a victory that was worthy of commemoration; he had no notion that his monument will commemorate his moment of defeat. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Did Saul ever view his monument again? Did he avoid it, destroy it, or keep it out of mind? The narrative only mentions the monument in passing, and never answers any of these questions. But its very existence hovers above the rest of the story, a mocking reminder of Saul\u2019s golden hours --- and their end. Like the statue of Ozymandias in Percy Shelley\u2019s poem, which lies broken over the inscription \u201cMy name is Ozymandias, king of kings;\/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair,\u201d Saul\u2019s monument reveals a ruler\u2019s self-delusion. Ozymandias, at least, was spared the knowledge of his own presumption; only the benefit of time allows the poem\u2019s traveler to see the ruler\u2019s empty boast for what it was. Saul, tragically, can\u2019t avoid such knowledge. His monument, unlike the statue in the poem, stands intact. But with everything else in pieces all around him, Saul knows that this wholeness tells a lie.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: <\/span>The Ozymandias Colossus, Ramesseum, Luxor \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57987,"alt":"","title":"isam15-ozymandias","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","width":1620,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","2048x2048-width":1620,"2048x2048-height":1080,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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 Hollow Victory","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Saul\u2019s monument hovers above the rest of the story, a mocking reminder of Saul\u2019s golden hours, and their end","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57987,"alt":"","title":"isam15-ozymandias","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","width":1620,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias.jpg","2048x2048-width":1620,"2048x2048-height":1080,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-ozymandias-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"405","name":"Memory","old_id":"805"},{"term_id":"434","name":"War","old_id":"834"},{"term_id":"835","name":"King","old_id":"1235"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":7,"id":"57989","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Hearing The Words ","post_title":"Hearing The Words","slug":"hearing-the-words","old_id":"57989","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":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"When we sit and read the text, we forget its oral-aural qualities","post_main_content_content":"

Join me as we travel back to ancient Israel, where the Bible was read not silently, but rather aloud. \u00a0In fact, such was the case with all of ancient literature, indeed, with medieval literature as well. A single individual held the written text and presented it or performed it before a group of listeners, who processed the text aurally. We have several proofs for this.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

First, as every student of Hebrew 101 learns, the common verb <\/span>qara\u02be <\/span><\/i>means both \u2018read\u2019 and \u2018call aloud\u2019. Its primary meaning is actually the latter, \u2018call aloud\u2019, and only by extension does it mean \u2018read\u2019. \u00a0Which is to say, contrary to popular English usage, the Bible is not Scripture, that is, the written text, but truly <\/span>Miqra\u02be<\/span><\/i>, the Reading (and of course ditto for the Qur\u02bean of Islam). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Secondly, I call your attention to Isaiah 29. In the topsy-turvy world envisioned by the prophet, when all of society would be improved, Lebanon will be arable farmland, the poor and the humble will rejoice, the tyrants and the scoffers shall cease, the blind shall see, and, most importantly, \u201cthe deaf shall hear the words of the book\u201d (v. 18). Which is to say, in our society today, it is the blind who require special assistance in reading, mainly through Braille or nowadays through audio books; whereas in ancient Israel the blind could \u2018read\u2019, simply by listening, while the deaf were excluded from the reading process.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

To enrich the oral-aural reading process described here, the ancient authors introduced alliteration as frequently as possible. We are able to witness this especially when we encounter an unusual lexical or grammatical form in the Bible. Today\u2019s chapter, 1 Samuel 15, provides several excellent examples.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

First, v. 9 includes the words <\/span>way-ya\u1e25mol<\/em> <\/span>\u2018had pity\u2019, <\/span>ha\u1e25arimam<\/em> <\/span>\u2018to proscribe them\u2019, <\/span>he\u1e25erimu<\/em> <\/span>\u2018they proscribed\u2019, and <\/span>karim<\/em> <\/span>\u2018lambs\u2019, treating the listener to an array of like-sounding words. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Second, towards the end of v. 9, the author uses the unusual form <\/span>nemibza<\/span><\/em>, lit. \u2018despised\u2019, though in this case \u2018cheap, worthless\u2019 (as opposed to the standard form <\/span>nibza<\/span><\/em>), so that the word can alliterate with the following word <\/span>namess<\/span><\/em> \u2018cheap, worthless\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Third, in v. 33, we encounter the form <\/span>way-shasseph<\/em> <\/span>\u2018and he butchered\u2019, a <\/span>hapax legomenon<\/em> <\/span>(that is, a unique usage) in the Bible. \u00a0The sounds of this word are rehearsed at the beginning of v. 35, <\/span>we-lo\u02be yasaph shemu\u02beel<\/span><\/em> \u2018<\/em>and Samuel did not again\u2019. \u00a0Note how the three root letters of the verb in v. 33, <\/span>sh-s-p<\/span><\/em>, occur in anagrammatic fashion in the bridge between the two words in v. 35, <\/span>s-p-sh<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In antiquity, people <\/span>listened<\/em> <\/span>to a text, and thus the authors of the ancient texts introduced these auditory attractions to enhance the listening pleasure of their \u2018readers.\u2019<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57990,"alt":"","title":"isam15-sound","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","width":1280,"height":640,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-300x150.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-768x384.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":384,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-1024x512.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":512,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":640,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":640,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-1200x600.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-840x420.png","home_baner-width":840,"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":"Hearing The Words","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"When we sit and read the text, we forget its oral-aural qualities","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57990,"alt":"","title":"isam15-sound","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","width":1280,"height":640,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-300x150.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-768x384.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":384,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-1024x512.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":512,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":640,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":640,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-1200x600.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-sound-840x420.png","home_baner-width":840,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"361","name":"Hebrew language","old_id":"761"},{"term_id":"578","name":"Listening","old_id":"978"},{"term_id":"852","name":"Readers","old_id":"1252"}]},{"order":8,"id":"57995","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"What Does It Take For God To Reconsider His Decisions? ","post_title":"What Does It Take For God To Reconsider His Decisions?","slug":"what-does-it-take-for-god-to-reconsider-his-decisions","old_id":"57995","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46656,"post_title":"Molly Morris","slug":"molly-morris","old_id":"46656","first_name":"Molly ","last_name":"Morris ","description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Her particular area of interest is biblical leadership. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A failure with repercussions throughout the ages","post_main_content_content":"

In chapter 10 when Samuel told Saul to \u201cdo for yourself as best you can\u201d he may have been trying to instill Saul with self-confidence. The events of chapter 15 reveal Saul\u2019s failure to internalize that lesson, and worse than lack of faith in himself, was his failure to have faith in God. When ordered to annihilate the thoroughly evil and morally corrupt Amalekites, from their king Agag right down to their livestock, Saul hesitates. He comes so close to fulfilling the commandment, but, as the saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes. Agag is captured but not immediately killed; likewise with some of the livestock. Ostensibly Saul has every intention of completing the job, but not exactly as ordered. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Instead he decides to wait on Agag until he can make a public display of his execution, and to hold back some animals for a public sacrificial offering to God. That was not what God asked of him. God was not looking for glory, He was looking to expunge evil from the world. By perverting God\u2019s commandment, Saul not only implied a lack of confidence in God\u2019s singular ability to direct the world and betrayed a lack of faith in himself to wholly execute the will of God, he also frustrated a divine plan. Samuel counseled Saul to \u201cdo his best\u201d and this was not it. Something distracted Saul from his mission, and regardless of what that something was, it was enough to make God \u201creconsider having made Saul king\u201d (v11).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Whether Saul\u2019s actions were driven by humility, mercy or self-aggrandizement, his critical mistake resulted in Agag living just long enough to produce progeny and ensure the continuation of Amalek. But it\u2019s far more than the physical persistence of Amalek, or the imminent dethroning of Saul that is the tragedy here. If we understand Amalek\u2019s true purpose - to crush the very soul of the Jewish people - as I wrote about in <\/span>Deuteronomy 25<\/span><\/a>, we can better understand the tragic repercussions of not removing them from this world. If the Jewish people are forever destined to live with a veil of spiritual doubt, wrought by the Amalek of Saul\u2019s generation or any of the future Amaleks who have impacted our history, we can surely then understand the magnitude of the consequence of Saul\u2019s lack of faith in himself and\/or God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: John Singleton Copley, Saul Reproved by Samuel for Not Obeying the Commandments of the Lord<\/em>, 1798 \/ wikiart<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57996,"alt":"","title":"isam15-copley","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","width":1004,"height":786,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-300x235.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":235,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-768x601.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":601,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","large-width":1004,"large-height":786,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","1536x1536-width":1004,"1536x1536-height":786,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","2048x2048-width":1004,"2048x2048-height":786,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","post_full_size-width":1004,"post_full_size-height":786,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-536x420.jpg","home_baner-width":536,"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":"What Does It Take For God To Reconsider His Decisions?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A failure with repercussions throughout the ages","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57996,"alt":"","title":"isam15-copley","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","width":1004,"height":786,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-300x235.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":235,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-768x601.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":601,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","large-width":1004,"large-height":786,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","1536x1536-width":1004,"1536x1536-height":786,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","2048x2048-width":1004,"2048x2048-height":786,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley.jpg","post_full_size-width":1004,"post_full_size-height":786,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-copley-536x420.jpg","home_baner-width":536,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"460","name":"Evil","old_id":"860"},{"term_id":"641","name":"Amalek","old_id":"1041"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":9,"id":"57992","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"The Enigma of Saul\u2019s Reign ","post_title":"The Enigma Of Saul\u2019s Reign","slug":"the-enigma-of-sauls-reign","old_id":"57992","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. He taught at the Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem), The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, Israel. During 1993 he was Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University, and during 1996 he was the Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. During 2005, Bregman served as the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as Forchheimer Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions (Gorgias Press, 2003). In 2006, Bregman was appointed the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where he also headed the program in Jewish Studies, until 2013. Bregman retired from UNCG as of July 31, 2017. He has now returned to Jerusalem where he is continuing his research and teaching activities.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33878,"alt":"Marc Bregman","title":"Marc Bregman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","width":361,"height":488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-222x300.jpg","medium-width":222,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":488,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":488,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":488,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":488,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-311x420.jpg","home_baner-width":311,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"All he was missing was a basket of reptiles...","post_main_content_content":"

Our chapter continues the narrative of the reign of Saul, the first king of Israel. Because he does not carry out the divine command to totally eradicate the Amalekites, Samuel informs him that God has rejected him as king (15:1-23). Saul immediately admits his guilt and attempts to explain his transgression: \u201cThen Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned. I violated the Lord\u2019s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them\u201d (verses 24). Nevertheless, our Chapter ends on a discouraging note:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u2026 And the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel\u201d (verse 35, compare verse 29).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Rabbinic Sages seemed to have found the biblical narrative of Saul\u2019s reign puzzling, which only served to stimulate their interpretive ingenuity. Talmud Bavli Yoma 22b-23a preserves the following surprising discussion: Saul was only one year old when he began to reign (I Samuel 13:1 -- on this problematic verse, see Rashi and other biblical commentators, ancient and modern). Rav Huna\u2019 said that this means Saul was like a one-year old infant who had not yet tasted the taste of sin. Rav Nahman bar Yitzhaq strenuously disagreed, suggesting rather that Saul was like a one-year old infant who dirties himself (physically, and perhaps already also morally). Subsequently, Rav Nahman had a series of nightmares. When he first awoke, he apologized and begged forgiveness from \u201cthe bones of Saul, son of Kish\u201d. Nevertheless, he had a second, similar nightmare. His bad dreams ended only when he added to his plea for pardon, readdressing it to \u201cthe bones of Saul, son of Kish, King of Israel\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This story leads to the question: Why did the kingdom of Saul not endure (only two years, according to I Samuel 13:1)? The answer to this question seems counter-intuitive \u2013 Saul\u2019s reign was so brief because he had no defect (dofi<\/em>) [in his ancestry according to Rashi]. This is explained by a surprising recommendation: One should not appoint a person to be the administrator (parnas) of a community, unless he \u201cbears a basket of reptiles on his back\u201d [i.e. he has some problematic family background according to Rashi and other Talmudic commentators]. So that if he should become arrogant, one could tell him: Turn around [and remember from whom you are descended]!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the continuation of this extended Talmudic discussion, Saul is criticized for not defending his own honor as the newly anointed first king of Israel (see chapter 10). This leads to a controversy about what might be called \u201crabbinic deportment\u201d: One view states that any scholar (talmid hakham<\/em>) who does not seek revenge and does not bear a grudge like a serpent is not a real scholar. An objection to this statement is raised from Scripture: \u201cDo not seek revenge or bear a grudge\u2026\u201d (Leviticus 19:18). This then leads to the conclusion of our Talmudic issue on a positive note: He who overlooks criticism of his character, his transgressions are overlooked.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Reptiles, illustration by Adolphe Millot from Nouveau Larousse Illustr\u00e9 [1897-1904], vol. 7<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57993,"alt":"","title":"isam15-reptiles","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","width":9604,"height":13600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-212x300.jpg","medium-width":212,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-723x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":723,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-723x1024.jpg","large-width":723,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","1536x1536-width":1085,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","2048x2048-width":1446,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-847x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":847,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-297x420.jpg","home_baner-width":297,"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 Enigma Of Saul\u2019s Reign","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"All he was missing was a basket of reptiles...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57993,"alt":"","title":"isam15-reptiles","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","width":9604,"height":13600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-212x300.jpg","medium-width":212,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-723x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":723,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-723x1024.jpg","large-width":723,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","1536x1536-width":1085,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles.jpg","2048x2048-width":1446,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-847x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":847,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-reptiles-297x420.jpg","home_baner-width":297,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"627","name":"Talmud","old_id":"1027"},{"term_id":"771","name":"Honor","old_id":"1171"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":10,"id":"58006","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"You May Look Small In Your Own Eyes ","post_title":"You May Look Small In Your Own Eyes","slug":"you-may-look-small-in-your-own-eyes","old_id":"58006","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":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The psychological root of Saul\u2019s failure: his chronic lack of self-esteem","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cYou may look small in your own eyes, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel\u201d (15:17). With these words the prophet Samuel unsparingly exposes the psychological root of Saul\u2019s failure for which he is now to lose his kingdom. The king is chronically lacking in self-esteem.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul has just admitted that he disobeyed the prophet\u2019s command not to spare the animals of Amalek after defeating Israel\u2019s mortal enemy because his men insisted, and Saul didn\u2019t dare defy them. As he shamefacedly confesses: \u201cI did wrong to transgress the Lord\u2019s command, but I was afraid of the troops and yielded to them\u201d (15: 24). A leader who betrays crucial principles out of fear of his followers is finished. Even if he limps on in office, as did Saul, his authority has been fatally undermined.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The end of the preceding episode foreshadows Saul\u2019s fall and sheds further light on its causes. His son Jonathan led a daring guerrilla attack on the Philistines that sets up victory for the Israelites. Jonathan then helps himself to some honey on the end of his stick, not knowing that his father Saul had placed a curse on any man who eats food before nightfall on the day of the battle. When Jonathan\u2019s trivial transgression comes to light, Saul declares that his son must die. But the troops protest, \u201cShall Jonathan die after bringing this great victory to Israel? Never!\u201d (14:45). Saul backs down in the face of their vehement opposition and spares Jonathan.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul is clumsy and irresolute in his wielding of absolute authority. He makes up a tyrannical rule, tries to enforce it in a cruel and self-sabotaging way and then caves to his followers when they point out the outrageous injustice of it all. One may well imagine that this incident shook Saul\u2019s faith in his own judgment and planted in him the seeds of fear of his people\u2019s opposition.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Did Saul ever have a chance? Was he doomed to fail? After all, his shortage of self-confidence appeared the first time we met him when he protested to Samuel his unworthiness to be king, being \u201conly a Benjaminite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel\u201d (9:21). Wasn\u2019t the flaw that led to his eventual undoing evident from the outset?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There is a big difference, though between the episodes of Jonathan and Amalek, which suggests that Saul\u2019s failure was not inevitable. In chapter 14, Saul gives in to his troops\u2019 objections to his carrying out a command that he himself invented. In today\u2019s chapter he surrenders to their opposition even to carrying out a command that came from God. Its divine origin could have made the difference. \u00a0Lack of self-worth plagues many of us, even a king of Israel. But when we are filled with a divine command and purpose, we can be bigger than our vacillating, selves, overcome the doubting voices within and face down the crowds that would dissuade us.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58007,"alt":"","title":"isam15-small","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","width":300,"height":214,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small-300x214.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":214,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":214,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":214,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":214,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":214,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":214,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":214}},"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":"You May Look Small In Your Own Eyes","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The psychological root of Saul\u2019s failure: his chronic lack of self-esteem","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58007,"alt":"","title":"isam15-small","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","width":300,"height":214,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small-300x214.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":214,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":214,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":214,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":214,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":214,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":214,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-small.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":214}},"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"386","name":"Psychology","old_id":"786"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":11,"id":"57786","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"The Final Fracture ","post_title":"The Final Fracture","slug":"the-final-fracture","old_id":"57786","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. 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","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":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The presence of a challenger, who offered Saul\u2019s followers reasons and incentives to abandon him, pushed Saul over the edge","post_main_content_content":"

Saul\u2019s next cultic failure severed the relationship between Saul and Samuel forever, this time accompanied by God\u2019s explicit repudiation of Israel\u2019s first anointed king. The final fracture occurred after Samuel had commanded Saul, in God\u2019s name, to engage in a holy genocidal war of annihilation against the Amalekites. Although he dutifully killed all the Amalekites, Saul saved from the slaughter the best of the cattle and the king of the Amalekites, an act prohibited in a holy war marked by <\/span>herem<\/span><\/i>, which forbade the use of any spoils of war for human purposes. Upon hearing of Saul\u2019s transgression, Samuel confronted him, declaring again in harsher terms God\u2019s rejection of Saul\u2019s kingship. After recording the stinging reproach, the narrator paints a vivid and painful scene of the parting of the ways between the scornful prophet and the devastated monarch:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And Samuel turned round to go, and Saul grasped the skirt of his cloak, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, \u201cThe LORD has torn away the kingship of Israel from you this day and given it to your fellowman, who is better than you. And, what\u2019s more, Israel\u2019s eternal does not deceive and does not repent, for He is no human to repent\u201d (15:27-29). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The divine rejection of Saul was declared to be eternal, transcending, like God\u2019s own word, all human mutability and change. In the last verse of this drama one cannot avoid sensing the bitter irony implicit in the narrator's report that God now rued the coronation of Saul: \u201cAnd Samuel saw Saul no more till his dying day, for Samuel grieved over Saul, and the LORD had repented making Saul king over Israel\u201d (15:35). God\u2019s everlasting commitment turns out to have been contingent and reversible, but only against Saul, not in his favor.<\/span> Nevertheless, till his last breath Saul will doggedly seek to falsify the prophet\u2019s dark prediction. His remaining life struggle and the utter loneliness of the futile quest to retain his hereditary throne will turn him into one of the Bible\u2019s most tragic figures.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The poisonous seeds of insecurity and expected loss were now planted ineradicably in Saul\u2019s soul. But rather than yielding to the inevitable and relinquishing power after being disowned by God, Saul became completely identified with his royal office. The guileless man who had acceded only reluctantly to the throne now became obsessed with keeping it. The foretelling of his deposition made him cling ever more desperately to power. The maddening cycle of paralyzing self-doubts and frenzied efforts to beat back threats to his power were magnified by Saul\u2019s knowledge that his substitute, \u201cwho is better than you,\u201d had already been chosen and was waiting in the wings. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

His rival, the one who would end Saul\u2019s dynasty even before it passed on to the next generation, was David. And the presence of a challenger, who offered Saul\u2019s followers reasons and incentives to abandon him, pushed Saul over the edge. So thoroughly does hereditary sovereignty captivate the one who wields it that the fearful anticipation of losing it, even for the one who did not originally seek it, suffices to unhinge the mind.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Excerpts 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.27-9. 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","post_title":"Who Tore Whose Cloak?","slug":"who-tore-whose-cloak","old_id":"57998","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. 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Samuel instructed Saul to exact Israel\u2019s vengeance against its arch-foe, Amalek, and to be pitiless in its pursuit. Saul, true to form, disobeyed his instructions, leaving Agag, the Amalekite king alive, and sparing the choicest sheep and cattle (9). When Samuel rebuked him (14 ff.), he replied, characteristically, that he could not withstand the popular demand (24). Samuel then notified him that his monarchy was coming to an end and Saul, desperate to keep up appearances, asked Samuel to accompany him back to face the people (25), but the prophet declined (26).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Then, \u201cSamuel turned to depart, and <\/span>he<\/b> seized the corner of <\/span>his<\/b> cloak and it tore\u201d (27). Hence, the title of our inquiry: Who tore whose cloak? Four logical possibilities can be sustained: Saul tore Samuel\u2019s coat, Samuel tore his own coat, Saul tore his own coat, and Samuel tore Saul\u2019s coat. It is my opinion that Saul tore Samuel\u2019s coat as he was turning to depart because the passive \u201cit tore\u201d (<\/span>vayikara<\/span><\/em>`) implies an accidental tearing and the other three possibilities require deliberate action. While only this explanation, of the four, conveys the accidental value of \u201cit was torn,\u201d the problem is that without the interpolation of a new subject (Saul) into the sentence, the verb \u201che seized\u201d is still governed by Samuel. Our solution: Saul had already taken hold of Samuel\u2019s coat, and is therefore already recognized as the implicit subject of all subsequent actions performed on it. We have two proofs to submit in evidence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

First of all, the verse employs neither the verb <\/span>a-h-z<\/span><\/em> nor <\/span>t-f-s<\/span><\/em>\u2014either of which would simply mean \u201cto take hold, or grasp\u201d (as in 1 Kings 11:30)\u2014rather it uses <\/span>h-z-k<\/span><\/em>, which, strictly speaking, means to strengthen an existing grip. This implies that Saul had already taken hold of Samuel\u2019s coat and, when Samuel was threatening to abandon him, Saul tightened his hold. Hence, the second proof: At the beginning of the encounter, Saul had greeted Samuel with the claim of: \u201cI have upheld the word of God\u201d (13), to which Samuel countered: \u201cWhat is this bleating of sheep in my ears?\u201d (14), which Saul tried to excuse as \u201cintended for sacrifice\u201d (15). Samuel then said to Saul: \u201cLet go of me\u201d (<\/span>heref<\/span><\/em>; or, \u201cstay your hand,\u201d as JPS itself translates <\/span>in<\/span> 2 Samuel 24:16), implying that Saul had previously taken hold of Samuel\u2019s coat.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Saul Tearing Samuel's Cloak; Samuel Killing Agag, unknown, about 1400 \u2013 1410 \/ J. Paul Getty Museum<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":57999,"alt":"","title":"isam15-tear","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","width":238,"height":286,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","medium-width":238,"medium-height":286,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","medium_large-width":238,"medium_large-height":286,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","large-width":238,"large-height":286,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","1536x1536-width":238,"1536x1536-height":286,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","2048x2048-width":238,"2048x2048-height":286,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","post_full_size-width":238,"post_full_size-height":286,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","home_baner-width":238,"home_baner-height":286}},"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":"Who Tore Whose Cloak?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Saul\u2019s desperate attempt to hold on","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":57999,"alt":"","title":"isam15-tear","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","width":238,"height":286,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","medium-width":238,"medium-height":286,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","medium_large-width":238,"medium_large-height":286,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","large-width":238,"large-height":286,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","1536x1536-width":238,"1536x1536-height":286,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","2048x2048-width":238,"2048x2048-height":286,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","post_full_size-width":238,"post_full_size-height":286,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam15-tear.png","home_baner-width":238,"home_baner-height":286}},"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"361","name":"Hebrew language","old_id":"761"},{"term_id":"721","name":"Text","old_id":"1121"},{"term_id":"839","name":"Samuel","old_id":"1239"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":14,"id":"71226","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Saul\u2019s Slight Sins? ","post_title":"Saul\u2019s Slight Sins?","slug":"sauls-slight-sins","old_id":"71226","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":69185,"post_title":"Elliott Rabin","slug":"elliott-rabin","old_id":"69185","first_name":"Elliott ","last_name":"Rabin","description":"Elliott Rabin is Director of Thought Leadership at Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, where he edits Prizmah's magazine HaYidion, writes, produces podcasts and manages research projects. He formerly served as Director of Educational Programs for RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network and Director of Education for the 92nd Street Y\u2019s Makor\/Steinhardt Center. and served as Assistant Editor at Harper\u2019s Magazine. He is the author of two books on Tanakh: The Biblical Hero: Portraits in Nobility and Fallibility (JPS, March 2020), and Understanding the Hebrew Bible: A Reader\u2019s Guide (Ktav). \r\nPhoto by: Adele Rabin","short_description":"Elliott Rabin is Director of Thought Leadership at Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":69187,"alt":"","title":"Elliott Rabin.Photo by Adele Rabin","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin.jpg","width":3293,"height":2957,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-300x269.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":269,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-768x690.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":690,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-1024x920.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":920,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1379,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1839,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-1200x1078.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1078,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Elliott-Rabin.Photo-by-Adele-Rabin-468x420.jpg","home_baner-width":468,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"He sanctioned spoils, and side-stepped smoting. Why was he made to suffer so?\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Samuel conveys God\u2019s decree that Saul exterminate the people of Amalek for attacking Israel when they left Egypt (Exod. 17:8-16): \u201cNow go, attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses!\u201d (15:3). Saul carries out Samuel\u2019s words meticulously, with just a couple of small exceptions: sparing the best of the flock to offer as sacrifices, and leaving the Amalekite king Agag alive. The narrative records God\u2019s immediate disapproval, as relayed by Samuel to Saul. According to Samuel, Saul\u2019s choice to spare Agag constitutes a rejection of God that justifies God\u2019s rejection of him as king. Samuel then summons Agag and slays him personally with his sword.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is among the most troubling and morally challenging stories in the Bible. Has Saul done anything wrong, really, and if he has, is it not on a minuscule scale? Is he not being judged far more harshly than his actions and intentions merit? Is Samuel\u2019s brutality to be rewarded?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The inscrutable nature of Saul\u2019s transgressions that cause his downfall is, in a way, the point. Had Saul clearly deserved his fate, then his punishment would have reflected solely upon himself and nothing larger. Instead, Saul\u2019s rejection and suffering are paradigmatic of the role he has been made to embody. God is pronouncing God\u2019s judgment upon kings, and Saul has the misfortune to be the first one toppled.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Hebrew poet Sha\u2019ul Tchernichowsky (1875-1943) deeply identified with his namesake and wrote several poems about him. In \u201cAt Ein Dor,\u201d Tchernichowsky envisions Saul as challenging Samuel to justify God\u2019s capricious, cruel treatment of him:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Oh man of God! What would God answer me?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>When He departs from me, what should I do? Answer me!<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why, oh why, have you anointed me king?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why me, from behind the flocks, did you bring?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Surely, in comparison to Israel\u2019s most prominent kings to follow, Saul appears considerably more worthy and obedient to God. David will commit adultery and murder; Solomon will marry one thousand wives and adopt their idols. Saul\u2019s transgressions not merely pale; they seem incidental to his zeal to obey God. For example, when Saul\u2019s famished men defeat the Philistines, they slaughter the enemy\u2019s cattle and eat the meat with the blood, which kosher law forbids. Furious, Saul forces his men to slaughter their meat properly at an altar he erects to God (14:31-35). He charges them, \u201cYou must not sin against the Lord and eat with the blood\u201d\u2014hardly the speech of a rebel.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The story of Saul may have been meant to send shivers down the spines of all his monarchical followers. Indeed, David goes on to study Saul and learns his lesson well. David remains ever mindful of God\u2019s dominance and the fragility of the power invested in kings. He is always treading lightly.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Excerpted from <\/span>The Biblical Hero: Portraits in Nobility and Fallibility <\/span><\/em>by Elliott Rabin by permission of the Jewish Publication Society. \u00a92020 by Elliott Rabin.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":69430,"alt":"","title":"BiblicalHero","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","width":3200,"height":2372,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-300x222.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":222,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-768x569.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":569,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1024x759.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1139,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1518,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-1200x890.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":890,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BiblicalHero-567x420.jpg","home_baner-width":567,"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":"Saul\u2019s Slight Sins?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"He sanctioned spoils, and side-stepped smoting. 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Norton & Co., 2019.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":54357,"alt":"","title":"robert alter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","width":184,"height":275,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":275,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":275,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":275,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":275,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":275,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":275}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"247","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Distancing friendly forces before the attack","post_main_content_content":"

And Saul said to the Kenite, \u201cGo, turn away, come down from amidst the Amalekite, lest I sweep you away together with him, for you did kindness to all the Israelites when they came up from Egypt.\u201d And the Kenite turned away from the midst of Amalek. (15:6) <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Commentary: <\/span>Go, turn away, come down from amidst<\/span><\/i><\/p>\r\n

These overlapping imperative verbs are obviously meant to underscore the urgency of the command. The Kenites appear to have been a tribe of migratory metalsmiths (the meaning of their name) somehow allied with Israel (compare Judges 4-5), although the nature of the \u201ckindness\u201d they did for Israel is not known.<\/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. 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":"Kenites, Save Yourselves!","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Distancing friendly forces before the attack","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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":17,"id":"57814","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Sefaria Source Sheets - I Samuel 15 ","post_title":"Sefaria Source Sheets - I Samuel 15","slug":"sefaria-source-sheets-i-samuel-15","old_id":"57814","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":42228,"post_title":"Sefaria","slug":"sefaria","old_id":"42228","first_name":"","last_name":"Sefaria","description":"Sefaria is a non-profit organization dedicated to building the future of Jewish learning in an open and participatory way. 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\u201cAmalek\u201d<\/span><\/a> by Josh Pernick: What does Amalek represent?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Mitzvah to Destroy Amalek: An Ethical Conundrum\u201d<\/span><\/a> by David Polsky: Explore how Jewish thinkers have thought about this over time.<\/span><\/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":"Go deeper into the chapter....","tile_main_caption":"Sefaria Source Sheets - I Samuel 15","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Click to get links to learning resources","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":42232,"alt":"","title":"sefaria-words-sunburst","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","width":608,"height":395,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst-300x195.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":195,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","medium_large-width":608,"medium_large-height":395,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","large-width":608,"large-height":395,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","1536x1536-width":608,"1536x1536-height":395,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","2048x2048-width":608,"2048x2048-height":395,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","post_full_size-width":608,"post_full_size-height":395,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sefaria-words-sunburst.png","home_baner-width":608,"home_baner-height":395}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Sefaria word sunburst visualization","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":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":18,"id":"57789","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- I Samuel 15 ","post_title":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- I Samuel 15","slug":"a-lesson-on-the-daily-chapter-i-samuel-15","old_id":"57789","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40936,"post_title":"David Silber","slug":"david-silber-2","old_id":"40936","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Silber ","description":"Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. 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    \r\n\t
  1. Adjusting expectations<\/span><\/i>. The chapter begins with Samuel defining exactly what the expectations are of Saul as king, and the chain of command: God - prophet (Samuel) - king (Saul): \u201cSamuel said to Saul, \u2018I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over His people Israel. Therefore, listen to the LORD\u2019s command!\u2019\u201d (verse 1). Heeding God\u2019s word - that\u2019s the crux of the matter. To clinch it - the root sh-m-\u2019ayin, \u201chear,\u201d appears 8 times in this chapter, and the word \u201cdavar,\u201d utterance, 9 times. <\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. This quality of mercy was strained<\/span><\/i>. Saul and the people take pity. But not on the weak or the innocent, but on the king, whose \u201csword bereaved women,\u201d and on the choice booty. The \u201cpity\u201d actually looks more like sheer economic interest: after all, why destroy when one can enjoy?<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. Mind the gaps<\/span><\/i>. Note how far apart Saul and Samuel are: Saul erects a monument to his own victory, and Samuel comes to reprove him for his colossal failure.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. NILI<\/span><\/i>. This acronym was chosen as the name of a clandestine Jewish organization in pre-State Palestine. It stands for the phrase Netzach Yisrael Lo Yishaker - \u201cthe Glory of Israel does not deceive\u201d (verse 29). Here it conveys Samuel\u2019s message to Saul that God does not renege or change his mind. That\u2019s probably not how they understood it...<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  5. The man behind the job<\/i>. The emotions of Samuel the man are revealed in verses 11 and 35: distress, pain, grief. But when he is on the job, he is nothing if not professional.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-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":"I Samuel 15","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"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":"15","chapter_main_number":"247","date":"20260810","wall_id":"247"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}],"hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"","static_cube_color":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/57506"}],"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=57506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}