{"id":58706,"date":"2018-07-09T17:43:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1052\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T09:56:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T07:56:40","slug":"wall-1052","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1052\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20230129-to-20230204"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1052","date_from":"20230129","date_to":"20230204","book":"I Samuel","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"41782","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Redemption - From A Distance ","post_title":"Redemption - From A Distance","slug":"redemption-from-a-distance","old_id":"41782","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":41783,"post_title":"Mimi Feigelson","slug":"mimi-feigelson","old_id":"41783","first_name":"Mimi ","last_name":"Feigelson","description":"Reb Mimi serves as the Mashpiah Ruchanit (spiritual mentor) of the Schecter Rabbinical School, and teaches Talmud and Hassidic Thought. She guides the rabbinical students on their personal-spiritual journeys. She served as the Mashpiah Ruchanit of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles for the last 16 years. Prior to this Reb Mimi was one of the founding administration and faculty members of the \u201cYakar\u201d Beit Midrash and community","short_description":"Reb Mimi serves as the Mashpiah Ruchanit (spiritual mentor) of the Schecter Rabbinical School, and teaches Talmud and Hassidic Thought. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":41784,"alt":"","title":"mimi feigelson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","width":162,"height":184,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","medium-width":162,"medium-height":184,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","medium_large-width":162,"medium_large-height":184,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","large-width":162,"large-height":184,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","1536x1536-width":162,"1536x1536-height":184,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","2048x2048-width":162,"2048x2048-height":184,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","post_full_size-width":162,"post_full_size-height":184,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mimi-feigelson-e1539166582725.jpg","home_baner-width":162,"home_baner-height":184}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"64","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"What would true inclusion mean?","post_main_content_content":"

There are two paradigms of the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. One is the description that the Torah documents. A sea that splits once and everyone walks through. The second, posed by a midrash, is a bit more complex \u2013 a sea that splits twelve times and each tribe leaves individually, albeit with walls of water that enable eye-contact between the tribes.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

My Student, Moshe Binaymin and I had rather different perspectives when challenging the paradigms. At first glance I posed that the midrash was inclusive, promising that everyone leaves as individuals in their uniqueness. Moshe Binyamin challenged me, claiming that if everyone exited within their own path there was no inclusion, but rather segregation; that only a journey that brought everyone together was a true inclusive path. Today I hear him. Perhaps louder than I initially did, for as the days have passed since we studied his perspective has grown and reverberated in my mind.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I now desire to integrate the two parts and ask: can we all leave Egypt together or do the Straights leave through one tunnel in the ocean, the L\u2019s, the G\u2019s, B\u2019s, T\u2019s, Q\u2019s, the Z\u2019s and other segments of our community leave in their own individual paths? Are the moderates in one lane, flanked on the left by the progressives and the liberals, and on the right by the conservatives? \u00a0Is the vision of the Torah the ideal being asked of us, and the Midrash describing the current reality, at best? (No different than God\u2019s vision in Creation of \u201cTwo Great Lights\u201d and our reality of \u201ca Great light and a Small light\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When I think of these questions at Passover, can I say that my sense of liberation this year is one that does not allow for fragmentation? Can I say that I can no longer leave Egypt if it means, \u201cto each her\/his\/their own\u201d and that until we can leave as One, I choose to stay?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I don\u2019t know if this is possible, I don\u2019t even know what I\u2019m asking for looks like. I don\u2019t know how to get there. What I do believe is that if I continue to stand like my Primordial-Soul- Mother, Miriam the prophetess, watching over her brother, \u201cfrom a distance\u201d that redemption is possible.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I want to say to the One-and-Only this year: \u201cin the same way \u201cYou revealed Yourself to me from a distance \/ <\/em><\/span>me\u2019rachok<\/b> Hashem nir\u2019ah li<\/span><\/em>,\u201d (Jeremiah 31:2) I too will \u201cstand from a distance \/ <\/span>va\u2019titatzev achoto <\/span>me\u2019rachok<\/b><\/em>\u201d<\/em> until \u201cI can know what will be \/ <\/span>ley\u2019dah mah ye\u2019aseh lo<\/span><\/em>\u201d \u00a0(Exodus 2:4).<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":49304,"alt":"","title":"Dt1-inclusivity - Artson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson.jpg","width":1920,"height":855,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-300x134.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":134,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-768x342.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":342,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-1024x456.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":456,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":684,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":855,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-1200x534.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":534,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt1-inclusivity-Artson-943x420.jpg","home_baner-width":943,"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":"Redemption - 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He is an activist advocating for moral limits on Israeli arms exports, and on behalf of African refugees, and a proud husband and father of 5. He received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, and from the Israeli chief rabbinate.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. ","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33860,"alt":"Avidan Freedman","title":"Avidan Freedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","width":856,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-251x300.jpg","medium-width":251,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-768x919.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":919,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-856x1024.jpg","large-width":856,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","1536x1536-width":856,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","2048x2048-width":856,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-351x420.jpg","home_baner-width":351,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"65","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Sweetening the bitter with the bitter","post_main_content_content":"

No baby in their right mind would choose to be born. Leaving the warm, albeit cramped, haven of the womb, where gratification is so instant that there is no feeling of need, in order to enter a harsh reality mostly defined by lacking something- it's no wonder they cry so much. That cry cuts deep into the hearts of the new parents, reminding that, as much as they may want to, they cannot continue providing for their child's every need as they once did.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is the cry of the Jewish people after they are forcefully pulled from the womb of Egypt through the birth canal of the Reed Sea. From a world where everything was provided for them, they now face the barren desert. But although God could accomplish what every new parent fantasizes about, He chooses not to, and this decision carries a critical message for us.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When parents bring a child into the world, it is only the first of many difficult but necessary situations in which the child will feel that her parents are needlessly, inexplicably torturing her. Somewhere at the core of their cries, even before they learn to express it verbally, always lies the bitter accusation- \"Mom, Dad, why did you DO this to me?\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

God's first answer to this question, to instruct Moses to throw a tree into the bitter waters, is explained by a wondrous Midrash quoted by Ramban.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\" 'And God showed him (<\/span>veyorehu<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/i> a tree.' The verse doesn't say 'to show' (<\/span>vayar'ehu<\/span><\/em>) but 'to instruct' (<\/span>vayorehu<\/span><\/em>). God taught him His path, that is, he instructed and taught him that God's way is to sweeten the bitter with the bitter.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A parent's first instinct when hearing their child's cries is to want to stop it as soon as possible, in any way possible (a candy, a screen, some combination of the two). That sends the message that, essentially, it really was better in the womb. The first thing we can teach our children is that this life's bitterness, pain, and dissatisfaction are real, but in this world we live in, we sweeten the bitter with the bitter.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Now if you'll excuse me, my baby is crying...<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86553,"alt":"","title":"ps88-fetus baby","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-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":"The School Of Life, Lesson 1: Life Is Pain, And That's OK","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Sweetening the bitter with the bitter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86553,"alt":"","title":"ps88-fetus baby","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ps88-fetus-baby-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":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Exodus","chapter":"15","chapter_main_number":"65","date":"20251127","wall_id":"65"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"428","name":"Parent","old_id":"828"}]},{"order":3,"id":"41903","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"The Manna Principle ","post_title":"The Manna Principle","slug":"the-manna-principle","old_id":"41903","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":41901,"post_title":"Micha Odenheimer","slug":"micha-odenheimer","old_id":"41901","first_name":"Micha ","last_name":"Odenheimer","description":"Micha Odenheimer is a journalist, rabbi, and social entrepreneur who in 2007 founded Tevel b'Tzedek, an Israeli organization doing development work and offering a Jewish platform for service learning with impoverished and marginalized communities in the developing world. Micha has reported on poverty, globalization and human rights from around the world including Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Burma, Haiti, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia, and written for the Washington Post, The Guardian, The London Times, The Jerusalem Report and Haaretz. Micha also founded the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jewry.","short_description":"Micha Odenheimer is a journalist, rabbi, and social entrepreneur, founder of Tevel b'Tzedek.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":41902,"alt":"","title":"Micha Odenheimer","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293.jpg","width":514,"height":431,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293-300x252.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":252,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293.jpg","large-width":514,"large-height":431,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293.jpg","1536x1536-width":514,"1536x1536-height":431,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293.jpg","2048x2048-width":514,"2048x2048-height":431,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293.jpg","post_full_size-width":514,"post_full_size-height":431,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Micha-Odenheimer-e1539342521293-501x420.jpg","home_baner-width":501,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"66","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Anti-hoarding, anti-wealth accumulation \u2013 anti-Egypt","post_main_content_content":"

Redemption, along with the giving of the Torah, is marked by a new means of sustenance. The Israelites are lifted out of the by now seemingly inevitable economy and culture of hoarding through the story of the manna. The Sages rightly saw the manna as creating a preparatory, material basis for divine revelation. \u201cThe Torah was not given,\u201d says the Talmud, \u201cbut to the eaters of the manna.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What is the essential quality of manna? It is a sustenance unmediated by a human economic system. It cannot be stored or hoarded. Left overnight, it spoils, corrupts, and crawls with worms. Each and every person is charged with gathering just enough manna to eat for one day. The Torah calls this \u201c<\/span>d\u2019var yom b\u2019yomo<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u2014\u201ceach day\u2019s matter on that day\u201d (Exod. 16:4). Pharaoh uses this very expression after imposing heavier burdens upon the Israelites after Moses\u2019s initial intervention on behalf of the beleaguered people. There, \u201ceach day\u2019s matter\u201d refers to the arbitrary quota of bricks that each person was to produce\u2014bricks for a giant storehouse (Exod. 5:13).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the story of the manna, to emphasize the revolutionary nature of the Exodus\u2014in which Egyptian reality is stood on its head\u2014the phrase is used again, but this time it refers not to the gross accumulation of resources, but to the modest amount of sustenance each person needs for that particular day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

To emphasize the centrality of the manna principle in Judaism, God commands Moses, at the very end of the manna narrative, to place a jar with one omer of manna in the Ark of the Covenant, alongside the tablets of the law, in the holy of holies. In its immediacy, in the total economic equality it represents, and in its negation of accumulation and stockpiling, it repudiates those cultures in which economic and political power are centralized and conjoined through the storage of food and other forms of capital.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Seen in the light of the narrative arc stretching from Eden to the giving of manna, the meaning and direction of the economic justice legislation of the Torah becomes more readily apparent. The Torah\u2019s purpose is to create an \u201canti-Egypt,\u201d in which exploitation is not allowed free reign because land, wealth, and the means of production have not been concentrated in the hands of the few. Rather than the consolidation of land in the hands of one person, the Torah commands that the land of Israel be divided, so that each family has its own plot of land, of a size appropriate to the needs of the family. As with the manna, the principle of land distribution is, \u201cTo each according to their needs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As if to emphasize the nature of this society as opposite that of Egypt, the priests are the only group not allotted land; ironically, in Egypt the priests were the only group that was allowed to keep its land in the face of Joseph\u2019s feudalization of the Egyptian economy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

cover illustration:\u00a0\"Moses and the Jews Gathering the Manna in the Desert\" fresco in church Chiesa dei SS. Bartolomeo e Stefano by Mattia Bortoloni (1749 - 1751), Bergamo, Italy.\u00a0<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":41907,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_661394770","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","width":5036,"height":2280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-300x136.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":136,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-768x348.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":348,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-1024x464.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":464,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":695,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":927,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-1200x543.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":543,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-928x420.jpg","home_baner-width":928,"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 Manna Principle","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Anti-hoarding, anti-wealth accumulation \u2013 anti-Egypt","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":41907,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_661394770","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","width":5036,"height":2280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-300x136.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":136,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-768x348.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":348,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-1024x464.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":464,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":695,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":927,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-1200x543.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":543,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/shutterstock_661394770-928x420.jpg","home_baner-width":928,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Mattia Bortoloni, shutterstock # 661394770","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,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Exodus","chapter":"16","chapter_main_number":"66","date":"20251130","wall_id":"66"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"469","name":"Egypt","old_id":"869"},{"term_id":"592","name":"Economy","old_id":"992"},{"term_id":"637","name":"Manna","old_id":"1037"}]},{"order":4,"id":"42056","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Write Down As A Memory, In A Book ","post_title":"Write Down As A Memory, In A Book","slug":"write-down-as-a-memory-in-a-book","old_id":"42056","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36663,"post_title":"Beth Kissileff","slug":"beth-kissileff","old_id":"36663","first_name":"Beth ","last_name":"Kissileff ","description":"Beth Kissileff is the editor of the anthology Reading Genesis (2016 - https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/us\/reading-genesis-9780567381521), and the forthcoming Reading Exodus, and the author of the novel Questioning Return - https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Questioning-Return-Novel-Beth-Kissileff\/dp\/1942134231. \r\nHer journalism appears in many publications; she has taught most recently at the University of Pittsburgh. Visit her online at www.bethkissileff.com. ","short_description":"Beth Kissileff is the editor of the anthology Reading Genesis (Bloomsbury\/ T and T Clark, 2016) , a journalist and teacher.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36664,"alt":"","title":"BethKissileff","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","width":3478,"height":3200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-300x276.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":276,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-768x707.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":707,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-1024x942.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":942,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1413,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1884,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-1200x1104.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1104,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/BethKissileff-e1533157952224-456x420.jpg","home_baner-width":456,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"67","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Writing gives us the ability reinterpret and reshape memories in a renewed way","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cWe just don\u2019t see books as the most effective delivery mechanism for Jewish wisdom.\u201d \u00a0This line was delivered, with utter seriousness, by a grants officer at a foundation devoted to spreading such wisdom to explain why my grant proposal for a project to help rabbis write books was not funded.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Exodus 17:14 and most of Jewish history, are testaments which contradict the grant officer\u2019s claim. In this verse is the instruction to write down in a book the events that occurred in the battle with Amalek. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Memory is about defining and shaping a past and life events. \u00a0It seems no coincidence that it is only after the cataclysmic event of the crossing of the Sea of Reeds that written memory is first discussed in the Torah. Writing something down shapes it and enables others to access. \u00a0Once we see the past, we are able to shape it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Historian Frances Yates\u2019 1966 classic<\/span> The Art of Memory<\/span><\/a><\/em> details how information was memorized and preserved in a world before writing and printing was widely accessible. Yates wrote, \u201corderly arrangement is essential for good memory.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Memory is a kind of deliberateness, that enables us to recall specific things people and places, and events. \u00a0When memories are written down, as God asks Moses to do here, those who read the memories are able to ascribe meaning to them in a way not possible when they are a jumble of details devoid of purpose or meaning. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The act of writing something down imposes an order upon it, a plan in which it is possible to divine a meaning from that event. It is utterly in contradiction to a theory of the world as being in chaos, without order, that Amalek represents as a civilization utterly lacking a moral compass of any sort. This lack is depicted in the fact that, in a later description of the event, Amalek \u201cchance\u201d upon the Israelites (Deut 25:18) meaning they don\u2019t believe in any kind of divine arrangement or causality, only in chance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The ability to interpret a memory, and understand it differently than it had been in the past, is the key to Jewish wisdom. \u00a0We are so concerned with written texts, as rabbinic Jews, because they allow us to reinterpret and re-access memories in a renewed way, differently in each generation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

God tells Moses to \u201cwrite this as a memory in a book\u201d (Exodus 17:14) for good reason. \u00a0Writing is one of the lasting keys to Jewish wisdom, the repository of both the memory itself and our ability to read, reinterpret and reshape that memory.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":71654,"alt":"","title":"jer36-heads-books","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-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":"Write Down As A Memory, In A Book","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Writing gives us the ability reinterpret and reshape memories in a renewed way","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":71654,"alt":"","title":"jer36-heads-books","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/jer36-heads-books-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":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Exodus","chapter":"17","chapter_main_number":"67","date":"20251201","wall_id":"67"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"405","name":"Memory","old_id":"805"},{"term_id":"644","name":"Writing","old_id":"1044"}]},{"order":5,"id":"112149","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"Cloaks Make The Men ","post_title":"Cloaks Make The Men","slug":"cloaks-make-the-men","old_id":"112149","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"256","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"David tears off more than a corner of Saul\u2019s robe\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Faced with his pursuer, David has a very tough choice to make in chapter 24. Saul is laying in the cave fast asleep. David enters the cave with sword in hand and has the chance to kill Saul. It is unclear what Saul would have done in this same situation, but based on his actions to date, he would not have hesitated to kill David. David decides against ending his troubles, and instead cuts off a corner of Saul\u2019s cloak. He runs outside the cave and from a safe distance he lifts up\u00a0 the cut corner and calls out to Saul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul sees that David could have killed him but did not, and asks David for forgiveness. He also admits for the first time that: \u201cI know now that you will become king, and that the kingship over Israel will remain in your hands\u201d (verse 21). Why does this act of David cause Saul to say this?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Robes are extremely symbolic in the book of Samuel. Samuel\u2019s mother makes him a cloak to wear in the Temple when she drops him off. When Saul fails to kill Agag, he tears Samuel\u2019s cloak as the prophet walks away. Jonathan pledges his loyalty to David by removing his clock and giving it to David. When Saul tries to capture David near the young prophets, he removes his cloak while crying out in prophetic ecstasy. David cut off Saul\u2019s cloak as a way to show the king that David was close enough to kill him, but he did not.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s reason is that he would not want to kill the man anointed by God. The irony of course, is that David too is an anointed of God. Saul may have finally realized this message when he saw the ripped cloak. He must have had a flashback to the ripped cloak of Samuel. This devastating memory may have shaken him awake from his rage to remember that this transition was from God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But David does not walk away unscathed from this encounter. According to the midrash, because David ripped the cloak of the anointed of God, later in life he will not be warmed by the cloaks placed upon him (I Kings 1:1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":52015,"alt":"","title":"deut29-clothes","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","width":200,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":300}},"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":"Cloaks Make The Men","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"David tears off more than a corner of Saul\u2019s robe","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":52015,"alt":"","title":"deut29-clothes","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","width":200,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/deut29-clothes.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":300}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","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,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"I Samuel","chapter":"24","chapter_main_number":"256","date":"20260823","wall_id":"256"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"835","name":"King","old_id":"1235"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":6,"id":"58889","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"Echoes Of The Stories Of Jacob and Sons\u00a0 ","post_title":"Echoes Of The Stories Of Jacob and Sons\u00a0","slug":"echoes-of-the-stories-of-jacob-and-sons","old_id":"58889","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":"256","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But the subterfuges of the heroes of Genesis are nothing next to David\u2019s","post_main_content_content":"

The Bible\u2019s authors certainly knew their Bible. At times of drama, they artfully deploy linguistic and thematic motifs from other biblical books to illuminate the textual unity of the Tanakh and give us keys for how to read its stories.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Today\u2019s chapter is a stunning example. Its heart is the moment when Saul recognizes David, holding a shred of Saul\u2019s cloak in his hand. David shows Saul that he could easily have killed him a moment earlier in the cave and that Saul\u2019s suspicions of David\u2019s hostility are therefore baseless. Saul admits the truth and breaks down in grief and contrition.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In recounting this encounter, the author unleashes a blizzard of references to stories in Genesis.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

First, after David\u2019s speech protesting his innocence, Saul answers in amazement, \u201cIs that your voice, my son David?\u201d (v.16) echoing Isaac\u2019s \u201cthe voice is the voice of Jacob,\u201d when his younger son comes to him disguised in Esau\u2019s clothes. Then in the same verse, Saul \u201clifts up his voice and weeps,\u201d the exact words used to describe Esau\u2019s weeping in the same Genesis story when he realizes that Jacob has taken his blessing.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Second, Saul then says to David, \u201cyou are more righteous than me.\u201d (v.17) These are almost the precise words that Judah uses in Genesis 38 when confronted by his daughter-law Tamar. She had also disguised herself; at that moment Judah recognizes that his suspicions of her were false.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Third, Saul admits \u201cyou did me good, but I did you evil,\u201d (v.17) reminding one of Joseph\u2019s words to his brothers, \u201cwhile you thought to do me evil, God thought to do good.\u201d (Gen. 50:20) Here is yet another story of self-revelation after Joseph has disguised himself from his brothers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Fourth, David holds out the piece of Saul\u2019s cloak up as evidence of his guiltlessness, as Potiphar\u2019s wife holds up Joseph\u2019s cloak. To her husband this is testimony to his guilt, but to readers it is evidence of his hasty flight and innocence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What are we to make of this excess of intertextuality? The Genesis stories show people who dress up, dissimulate, hide and sometimes morally compromise themselves in pursuit of a larger kind of justice, truthfulness or integrity. They raise hard questions about the elusive nature of authenticity and the limits of deception to pursue justifiable ends. Their denouement involves simultaneously the recognition of someone who has been disguised and the acknowledgement of that person\u2019s basic honesty despite the accommodations they have made with a tricky reality.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In his flight from Saul\u2019s murderous rage, David has lied to Ahimelech that he is on a mission from the King, pretended to be a madman, and arguably through another deception, been indirectly responsible for the massacre of the priests of Nob. The subterfuges of the heroes of Genesis are nothing next to David\u2019s. By placing David in their company, the author suggests that despite all, the integrity of the future king, expressed in his unmistakable voice, still remains. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: <\/span>Intertextuality 1, 2008, altered book assemblage \/ teodorapetkova<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58892,"alt":"","title":"isam24-Intertextuality","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","width":695,"height":526,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-300x227.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":227,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","medium_large-width":695,"medium_large-height":526,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","large-width":695,"large-height":526,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","1536x1536-width":695,"1536x1536-height":526,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","2048x2048-width":695,"2048x2048-height":526,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","post_full_size-width":695,"post_full_size-height":526,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-555x420.jpg","home_baner-width":555,"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":"Echoes Of The Stories Of Jacob and Sons\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"But the subterfuges of the heroes of Genesis are nothing next to David\u2019s","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58892,"alt":"","title":"isam24-Intertextuality","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","width":695,"height":526,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-300x227.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":227,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","medium_large-width":695,"medium_large-height":526,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","large-width":695,"large-height":526,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","1536x1536-width":695,"1536x1536-height":526,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","2048x2048-width":695,"2048x2048-height":526,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality.jpg","post_full_size-width":695,"post_full_size-height":526,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam24-Intertextuality-555x420.jpg","home_baner-width":555,"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":"24","chapter_main_number":"256","date":"20260823","wall_id":"256"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"625","name":"Lying","old_id":"1025"},{"term_id":"721","name":"Text","old_id":"1121"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"881","name":"Genesis","old_id":"1281"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":7,"id":"58886","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"Is That Your Voice, My Son David? ","post_title":"Is That Your Voice, My Son David?","slug":"is-that-your-voice-my-son-david","old_id":"58886","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34245,"post_title":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger","slug":"rachel-sharansky-danziger","old_id":"34245","first_name":"Rachel Sharansky","last_name":"Danziger","description":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a Jerusalem-born writer and speaker who blogs about Judaism, parenting, and life in Israel. She currently lives in Boston, where she teaches about storytelling in the bible and the subversive depths of Hebrew words.\r\n","short_description":"Rachel Sharansky Danziger is a Jerusalem-born Boston-based writer and speaker about Judaism, parenting, and life in Israel. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34246,"alt":"","title":"RSDanziger","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","width":1171,"height":1769,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-199x300.jpg","medium-width":199,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-678x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":678,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-678x1024.jpg","large-width":678,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","1536x1536-width":1017,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger.jpg","2048x2048-width":1171,"2048x2048-height":1769,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-794x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":794,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/RSDanziger-278x420.jpg","home_baner-width":278,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"256","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"David walks away, branded as a son by the king who seeks his death\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cIs that your voice, my son David?\u201d asks Saul, and his question is an open hand, an invitation to connect. He doesn\u2019t dismiss David as an enemy, he doesn\u2019t treat him like a rebel. He calls him \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019, my son. He invites him to say \u2018yes, it is my voice,\u2019 and thus accept this designation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But how can David answer in the affirmative, when Saul\u2019s \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019 could mean so many different things? The word \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019 might express an emotional truth, or simply refer to David\u2019s status as Saul\u2019s son-in-law. It might even mean nothing more than an impulse of the moment, a knee-jerk response to David\u2019s usage of \u2018avi<\/em>\u2019, \u2018my father\u2019, in his address. Furthermore: can David access the meaning of Saul\u2019s \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019, when his experiences of being a son are vastly different than Saul\u2019s?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our first glimpse of Saul focused on his connection to his father: \u201cThere was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish son of Abiel\u2026 a man of substance.<\/span> He had a son whose name was Saul, an excellent young man\u201d (9:1-2). Kish set Saul on his path to greatness by sending him to seek lost asses, and worried when his son failed to return. We never see David\u2019s father expressing similar emotions; in fact, \u201cour first glimpse of David is his absence\u201d from his father\u2019s house and mind (David Wolpe, David: The Divided Heart, p.1 ). Jesse didn\u2019t include David in his meeting with Samuel, didn\u2019t reveal his youngest son\u2019s existence until the prophet asked him if he had more sons, and didn\u2019t summon him until Samuel explicitly demanded to meet this absent boy. Throughout this exchange, Jesse never mentioned his youngest son by name. Before we know anything about David himself, before we even know his name ,we know that his father kept him at a distance.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Whatever Saul meant by saying \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019 would have been influenced by his own experiences. But whatever David might have heard within this word would have been shaped by his own. How can he answer in the affirmative, when he can\u2019t access the world of associations and meanings that shapes this word on Saul\u2019s lips? How can he accept this open hand, and build a bridge across uncrossable divides?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul\u2019s question remains unanswered, and the word \u2018beni<\/em>\u2019 echoes over the deep divides it cannot bridge. One day, David will cry this word when he himself will battle a beloved rebel. For now, he walks away, branded as a son by the king who seeks his death.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: J<\/span>ames J. Tissot, 'David and Saul in the Cave' (1896-1902), The Jewish Museum \/ 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That Your Voice, My Son David?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"David walks away, branded as a son by the king who seeks his 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saves the evil Nabal from the retribution he may have deserved - and in the process, rescues David and his monarchy from the stain of an extrajudicial execution","post_main_content_content":"

A study in contradictions:\u00a0 He, a man of selfish ambition; she, a woman of towering generosity. He lacks the vision to behold the most basic humanity in others, while she perceives the hidden depths of their potential. He is literally called Nabal, which means \u2018lowlife\u2019, \u2018degenerate\u2019, but her name, Abigail, alludes to joy, redemption, and a loving closeness with her heavenly Father.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Indeed, the only thing it would seem they have in common is that they are, inexplicably, married.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> *<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A pair of opposites: The one, a man who is ready to ascend the throne and devote his reign to the unification of Heaven and earth. The other, a man who can\u2019t bear to relinquish a fraction of his wealth nor utter a simple word of gratitude, even to pay his dues. David, a man who loves God with every fiber of his being; and Nabal, a man who cares only for himself.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Alas, it appears that the only tie binding them together is their shared ancestry as descendants from the tribe of Judah.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span> *<\/span><\/p>\r\n

They appear to be headed for a clash. David has judged Nabal as a rebel against his nascent monarchy and found him liable for callously failing to remunerate the debt he owes David\u2019s entourage, for outrageously refusing to even acknowledge David\u2019s existence.\u00a0 Abigail\u2019s prophetic intuition tells her that as odious as Nabal\u2019s actions have been, David is on the verge of committing a grave error. As he is not yet in power, to execute Nabal would be an extrajudicial, unforgivable offense that would permanently jeopardize David\u2019s future as king.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Thus, Abigail finds herself in a bizarre predicament, needing to protect the life of the man she should love, yet despises, from the man she reveres, but knows to be wrong in this moment. With little time to think, she jumps into action, smoothing over Nabal\u2019s poor treatment of David and his men. However, it is her next act that cements her reputation as a woman of great courage, in addition to great kindness. She warns David not to \u201cshed blood without cause\u201d, and implores him to spare Nabal\u2019s life, not for Nabal\u2019s sake--but for David\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Humbly, he yields to her wisdom, and Nabal is stricken by God with a fatal illness. Grateful and in awe of the woman who saved his sovereignty, David ultimately proposes marriage to, and is accepted by, Abigail. At last, Abigail is united with a worthy man who shares her ability to see people as they truly are.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Abigail tends Nabal<\/em>, John de Teye and followers, c. 1380, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, MS 38-1950, f. 78 detail \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58916,"alt":"","title":"isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","width":395,"height":343,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal-300x261.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","medium_large-width":395,"medium_large-height":343,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","large-width":395,"large-height":343,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","1536x1536-width":395,"1536x1536-height":343,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","2048x2048-width":395,"2048x2048-height":343,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","post_full_size-width":395,"post_full_size-height":343,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-Abigail_tends_Nabal.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":343}},"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":"Nabal, Abigail And David: A Study In Contradictions\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Abigail saves the evil Nabal from the retribution he may have deserved - 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She has been sharing her passion for Jewish texts of all kinds for over 15 years, with students of all ages. Sarah\u2019s essays have been published in a variety of internet and print media, including Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Action, OU Life, The Lehrhaus, TorahMusings, and more. Sarah lives in Cleveland with her husband and four children, but is privileged to learn online with students all over the world through www.TorahTutors.org and www.WebYeshiva.org. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Sarah Rudolph is a freelance Jewish educator, writer, and editor.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34251,"alt":"","title":"Sarah R","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","width":2824,"height":4246,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-681x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":681,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-681x1024.jpg","large-width":681,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","1536x1536-width":1022,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R.jpg","2048x2048-width":1362,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-798x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":798,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Sarah-R-279x420.jpg","home_baner-width":279,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"257","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Abigail\u2019s integrity, goodness, intelligence and reasonableness give her the ability to clean up her husband\u2019s messes\u00a0\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

We can learn a lot about a person\u2019s character from observing how others interact with them.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When David, the newly minted almost-king of Israel, sent messengers requesting food from Nabal the Carmelite and was rudely rebuffed, he immediately prepared to wipe out the offender\u2019s estate. It was Nabal\u2019s wife, Abigail, who rode out to face David and talk him down \u2013 but it\u2019s an unnamed \u201cyoung man\u201d of the estate, himself an unsung hero of the story, who begins to show us her heroic character.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Though the narrative elsewhere refers to \u201chis servants\u201d and \u201cher servants,\u201d it doesn\u2019t specify whether this young man was a servant of Abigail\u2019s or of her husband\u2019s. Whichever of them he is assigned to serve, he knows to turn to Abigail when disaster looms. In fact, he brazenly points out to her that her awful husband is impossible to talk to (v.17). Apparently, Abigail is much more approachable and reasonable \u2013 and known for her integrity and ability to solve problems.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In telling her the situation, the young man emphasizes that David\u2019s men had previously assisted Nabal\u2019s shepherds (\u201c<\/span>But the men had been very friendly to us\u2026all the time that we were with them tending the flocks<\/span><\/em>\u2026\u201d - v. 15-16). He knows Abigail will appreciate the injustice of Nabal\u2019s refusal to return the favor.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

More than that, he has no doubt that once informed of both the injustice and the imminent danger, she will do something about it: <\/span>So consider carefully what you should do, for harm threatens our master and all his household<\/span><\/em>. <\/span><\/i>(v. 17)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Telling the mistress of the estate what to do? We might be surprised at the young man\u2019s <\/span>chutzpah<\/span><\/em> \u2013 until we realize that Abigail responds just as he expected her to, hurrying to gather food to rectify her husband\u2019s mistake without a word to him. We realize that perhaps this is not the first time Abigail has had to clean up her husband\u2019s mess; perhaps she\u2019s built a reputation so the servants know they can come to her for that purpose.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Nabal, whose very name means \u201cdisgusting\u201d and is an apt description of his character (as Abigail herself attests in verse 25), has his reputation, and Abigail has hers. Their contrasting characters were introduced in general terms in verse three: he is \u201ca hard man and an evildoer\u201d; she is \u201cgood of intellect\u201d in addition to being beautiful. Even before we see her act, the servant\u2019s trust in her goodness and intelligence shows just how deeply those descriptions represent who Abigail was.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And the crown of a good name rises above them all<\/span><\/em> (Avot 4:13).<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58922,"alt":"","title":"isam25-womans character","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","width":1920,"height":1633,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-300x255.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":255,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-768x653.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":653,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-1024x871.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":871,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1306,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1633,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-1200x1021.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1021,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-494x420.jpg","home_baner-width":494,"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 Servant\u2019s Chutzpah, And His Mistress\u2019 Prudence","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Abigail\u2019s integrity, goodness, intelligence and reasonableness give her the ability to clean up her husband\u2019s messes\u00a0\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58922,"alt":"","title":"isam25-womans character","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","width":1920,"height":1633,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-300x255.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":255,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-768x653.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":653,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-1024x871.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":871,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1306,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1633,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-1200x1021.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1021,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-womans-character-494x420.jpg","home_baner-width":494,"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":"25","chapter_main_number":"257","date":"20260824","wall_id":"257"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"466","name":"Goodness","old_id":"866"},{"term_id":"526","name":"Husband\/Wife","old_id":"926"}]},{"order":10,"id":"58927","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Michal, Abigail, and Achinoam: Some Perplexities of Polygamy ","post_title":"Michal, Abigail, And Achinoam: Some Perplexities of Polygamy","slug":"michal-abigail-and-achinoam-some-perplexities-of-polygamy","old_id":"58927","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":58556,"post_title":"Caleb Gitlitz","slug":"caleb-gitlitz","old_id":"58556","first_name":"Caleb ","last_name":"Gitlitz","description":"Caleb Gitlitz, a student at Beth Tfiloh Dahan in Baltimore. In first grade, he began giving Divrei Torah, which he still enjoys doing today. He loves studying Tanach, and is fascinated by all it has to offer -- both the prose stories and the prophetic poetry. ","short_description":"Caleb Gitlitz, a student at Beth Tfiloh Dahan in Baltimore.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":58557,"alt":"","title":"caleb gitlitz","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","width":402,"height":457,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","medium_large-width":402,"medium_large-height":457,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","large-width":402,"large-height":457,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","1536x1536-width":402,"1536x1536-height":457,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","2048x2048-width":402,"2048x2048-height":457,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz.jpg","post_full_size-width":402,"post_full_size-height":457,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/caleb-gitlitz-369x420.jpg","home_baner-width":369,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"257","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Why King Saul may have resumed his pursuit of David\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

The 25<\/span>th<\/span> chapter of I Samuel features an encounter between David and Abigail, the wife of Nabal. The most perplexing part of the chapter appears at the end when David marries both Abigail and another woman named Achinoam of Jezreel. At this time, King Saul also gives David\u2019s original wife, Michal, to Palti ben Laish. But didn\u2019t he and David just reconcile in the previous chapter? Why would he take Michal and give her to another man?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

While it was unfortunately an era of widespread polygamy \u2013 especially for kings \u2013 King Saul perhaps felt as though David had betrayed Michal by not returning to her after the reconciliation in chapter 24 and that David had instead sought out two more wives. This perhaps rekindled King Saul\u2019s hatred of David. While David should have returned to Michal (whom he had not seen since chapter 19), he remained in hiding and lived with two other women.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Additionally, this reasoning may be supported by the juxtaposition of the verses describing how King Saul took Michal from David and gave her to Palti immediately following the verses describing David\u2019s two marriages. This may well have been why King Saul could not accept David as a future king: since he had neglected King Saul\u2019s own daughter \u2013 his wife.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

With this in mind, we can now understand why King Saul resumed chasing David in the following chapter; King Saul perhaps feared for his daughter and believed that David was not giving her the respect she was entitled to. Although King Saul was certainly wrong in his actions, he should have discussed these concerns with David. Indeed, it was through his union with Achinoam that one of the most wicked men in Jewish history emerged: Prince Amnon (who we will meet II Samuel 13).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Had King Saul mentioned his concerns for Michal to David instead of giving her to another man and resuming the chase, things would have gone far better for both him and King David.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Giovanni Battista Venanzi, 1668 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58928,"alt":"","title":"isam25-david_wives","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","width":364,"height":370,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives-295x300.jpg","medium-width":295,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","medium_large-width":364,"medium_large-height":370,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","large-width":364,"large-height":370,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","1536x1536-width":364,"1536x1536-height":370,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","2048x2048-width":364,"2048x2048-height":370,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","post_full_size-width":364,"post_full_size-height":370,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":370}},"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":"Michal, Abigail, And Achinoam: Some Perplexities of Polygamy","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Why King Saul may have resumed his pursuit of David\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58928,"alt":"","title":"isam25-david_wives","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","width":364,"height":370,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives-295x300.jpg","medium-width":295,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","medium_large-width":364,"medium_large-height":370,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","large-width":364,"large-height":370,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","1536x1536-width":364,"1536x1536-height":370,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","2048x2048-width":364,"2048x2048-height":370,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","post_full_size-width":364,"post_full_size-height":370,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam25-david_wives.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":370}},"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":"25","chapter_main_number":"257","date":"20260824","wall_id":"257"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"526","name":"Husband\/Wife","old_id":"926"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":11,"id":"59049","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Better (Not) Kill Saul\u00a0 ","post_title":"Better (Not) Kill Saul\u00a0","slug":"better-not-kill-saul","old_id":"59049","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56118,"post_title":"Tzvi Sinensky","slug":"tzvi-sinensky","old_id":"56118","first_name":"Tzvi ","last_name":"Sinensky ","description":"Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky is the Director of Interdisciplinary Learning and Educational Outreach at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, NJ. He holds a graduate certificate degree in Gender Studies from Utah State University, and is pursuing a PhD on the intersection between Jewish thought and gender studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. ","short_description":"Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky is the Director of Interdisciplinary Learning and Educational Outreach at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, NJ.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56119,"alt":"","title":"tzvi_sinensky","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","width":240,"height":280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","medium-width":240,"medium-height":280,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","medium_large-width":240,"medium_large-height":280,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","large-width":240,"large-height":280,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","1536x1536-width":240,"1536x1536-height":280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","2048x2048-width":240,"2048x2048-height":280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","post_full_size-width":240,"post_full_size-height":280,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/tzvi_sinensky.jpg","home_baner-width":240,"home_baner-height":280}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"258","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"But as opposed to David, who feigns madness, Saul is the true madman who seals his own fate\u00a0\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

Had we not known better, we might think that Saul\u2019s deranged pursuit of David has finally come to an end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David again has the ability to kill King Saul, and again he decides against it, declaring that he \u201cwould not raise a hand against the Lord\u2019s anointed\u201d (v. 23). Instead, he calls out to Avner, Saul\u2019s commander-in-chief, accusing the general of having failed in his duty to protect the king. Saul hears David\u2019s voice, and is overcome with emotion. David pleads with the king to stop pursuing him: Why does my lord continue to pursue his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of?\u201d (v. 18) Saul is finally convinced, and declares with conviction, \u201cI am in the wrong. Come back, my son David, for I will never harm you again, seeing how you have held my life precious this day. Yes, I have been a fool, and I have erred so very much\u201d (v. 21). The chapter concludes, \u201cDavid then went his way, and Saul returned home\u201d (v. 25). Even if it is not quite a storybook ending, it seems that the conflict has been resolved.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Yet the following chapter opens with David fleeing for his life yet again, this time into the land of the Philistines, beyond the borders of Israel. What happened? Is Saul condemned to pursue David to the death? Is he monomaniacal, Captain Ahab to David the hunted prey? God\u2019s spirit has been removed from Saul; perhaps he is destined against his will to sheer insanity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A partial answer may reveal itself in our chapter\u2019s final verse, which strikingly parallels a passage in the book of Genesis. After Abraham unsuccessfully pleads with God not to destroy Sodom and its surrounding cities, the Torah states, \u201cWhen the Lord had finished speaking to Abraham, He departed; and Abraham returned to his place\u201d (Gen. 18:33). The language is almost identical to our verse, in which David goes on his way, and Saul returns to his place.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The implication of the verse in Genesis is that Abraham, having exhausted all his options and failed to sway God\u2019s mind, ultimately retreats. Extending the analogy to Saul, the implication is that when the text writes that \u201cSaul returned to his place,\u201d it is not a mere geographical description, but a psychological one. Saul genuinely desired to be swayed by David\u2019s moving words, but he failed, remaining irrationally implacable. Try as he might, Saul was unable to overcome the jealousy-driven impulse toward violence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As opposed to David, who feigns madness (chap. 21), Saul is the true madman. Yet this does not mean that he bears no responsibility. By having sinned against God and forfeited the kingdom, he not only gave up his royal position but also inverted his relationship with God. No longer endowed by a healthy, divine spirit, he is overtaken by a spirit of madness. However moving the words of David, Saul has sealed his own fate.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: <\/span>Thomas Staziker \/ 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David, Ahad Ha\u2019am, Herzl, \u201cwhite hat\u201d hackers and the question of protecting the kingship and the public good","post_main_content_content":"

David receives another opportunity to kill his pursuer Saul, but he again declines to do any harm to the king, \u201cthe anointed one of God.\u201d This would have been the simplest case of self-defense; Saul was leading an army of 3,000 men in search of David, but David ordered his nephew Avishai to stand down, warning, \u201cwho has ever cast a hand against the anointed one of God and been guiltless?\u201d Instead, David takes a spear and water jug from the sleeping Saul and, like a valiant<\/span> \u201cwhite hat\u201d hacker<\/span><\/a>, dutifully informs Saul\u2019s men of their security failure: \u201cWhy have you not guarded your master the king, when any anonymous one of the people (\u201c<\/span>ahad ha-am<\/span><\/em>\u201d) could have come to destroy the king your master.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In 1889, early Zionist intellectual Asher Ginsberg adopted <\/span>Ahad ha-Am<\/span><\/em> as a pen name for his first published essay,<\/span> explaining<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI am no author and have no intention to ever enter the community of authors, and only incidentally am I revealing my opinion in this matter, as an anonymous one of the people whose spirit is engaged with the concerns of the people.\u201d Decades later and widely regarded as one of the great Zionist thinkers, Ahad ha-Am was still writing under the same name.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ahad ha-Am did not explicitly tie his identity to the <\/span>ahad ha-am<\/span><\/em> invoked by David here or to the one referred to by King Avimelekh in Genesis 26:10. But his name was his destiny, and in time <\/span>Ahad ha-Am <\/span>became known for \u201ccoming to destroy the king.\u201d\u00a0 Ahad ha-Am relentlessly criticized the political Zionism of his nemesis Theodor Herzl, deriding the movement as overly preoccupied with power and insufficiently concerned with the sacred ideas of Jewish spirit and culture. He condemned Herzl\u2019s efforts to enlist support for a sovereign Jewish state by conducting diplomacy with world leaders, and he called upon the message of the Prophets, who<\/span> \u201csought with all their might to ensure that the ends would never be subjugated to the means and the \u2018flesh\u2019 would never rule over the spirit.\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

To the extent Ahad ha-Am saw any value in a Jewish state, he wanted it to be guided by its prophets, not its kings.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Of course, Ahad ha-Am did not \u201cdestroy the king,\u201d and he remains a footnote in the story of the triumph of political Zionism. The <\/span>ahad ha-am<\/span><\/em> of David\u2019s imagination also failed to harm the king, because David himself intervened, not out of concern for Saul in particular but because of his zeal for the institution of the \u201canointed one of God,\u201d the institution he and his descendants were chosen to control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":59054,"alt":"","title":"isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","width":651,"height":664,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-294x300.jpg","medium-width":294,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","medium_large-width":651,"medium_large-height":664,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","large-width":651,"large-height":664,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","1536x1536-width":651,"1536x1536-height":664,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","2048x2048-width":651,"2048x2048-height":664,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","post_full_size-width":651,"post_full_size-height":664,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-412x420.jpg","home_baner-width":412,"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":"One Of The People","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Of David, Ahad Ha\u2019am, Herzl, \u201cwhite hat\u201d hackers and the question of protecting the kingship and the public good","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":59054,"alt":"","title":"isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","width":651,"height":664,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-294x300.jpg","medium-width":294,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","medium_large-width":651,"medium_large-height":664,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","large-width":651,"large-height":664,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","1536x1536-width":651,"1536x1536-height":664,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","2048x2048-width":651,"2048x2048-height":664,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3.jpg","post_full_size-width":651,"post_full_size-height":664,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam26-ahadhaam-herzl3-412x420.jpg","home_baner-width":412,"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":"26","chapter_main_number":"258","date":"20260825","wall_id":"258"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"423","name":"Politics","old_id":"823"},{"term_id":"638","name":"Zionism","old_id":"1038"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":13,"id":"59062","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"Where is Ziklag? Now We Know ","post_title":"Where is Ziklag? Now We Know","slug":"where-is-ziklag-now-we-know","old_id":"59062","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":42746,"post_title":"Michal Kohane","slug":"michal-kohane","old_id":"42746","first_name":"Michal ","last_name":"Kohane ","description":"Currently based in Israel, Rabbanit Michal Kohane is a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, a writer, community leader and teacher of Talmud & Torah. She holds degrees in Israel studies , education and psychology, and has been a leader and educator in Northern California for over 25 years. Her first novel, Hachug (\"Extracurricular\") was published in Israel in 2016 and her weekly blog can be found at http:\/\/www.miko284.com\r\n\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Currently based in Israel, Rabbanit Michal Kohane is a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, a writer, community leader and teacher of Talmud & Torah. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":42747,"alt":"","title":"michal kohane","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","width":214,"height":226,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","medium-width":214,"medium-height":226,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","medium_large-width":214,"medium_large-height":226,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","large-width":214,"large-height":226,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","1536x1536-width":214,"1536x1536-height":226,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","2048x2048-width":214,"2048x2048-height":226,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","post_full_size-width":214,"post_full_size-height":226,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/michal-kohane-e1540448078529.jpg","home_baner-width":214,"home_baner-height":226}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"259","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Ancient history is today\u2019s headlines!","post_main_content_content":"

As if in preparation for 929 reading Samuel I chapter 27, finally, after seven archeological digging seasons, a group of Israel and Australian researchers concludes that they found Ziklag. Ziklag is mentioned in this chapter as the city given to David to dwell in by King Achish, son of Maoch of Gat, when David runs away yet again from King Saul, this time taking six hundred men with him, and heading towards the Philistines, hoping Saul will not be looking for him there.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai Zerachia (1724-1806), known by his acronym as the ChiDA writes in his book the Chochmat Anach<\/em> that Ziglag was named so because in traditional Hebrew letter-number equivalencies, known as \u201cgematria,\u201d \u05e2\u05d9\u05e8 \u05e6\u05e7\u05dc\u05d2\u00a0 the City of Ziklag equals 503 which is exactly (almost) the sum of the forefathers\u2019 lifespans: Abraham \u2013 175; Isaac \u2013 180; and Jacob \u2013 147. Well, it\u2019s off by 1 (502), but close enough for the ChiDA to imply that our forefathers were with King David, especially here, since this is the place from which he went up to Hebron, to begin his kingship.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For the archaeologists it\u2019s the town near Kiryat Gat. Previously, there had been a number of suggestions for the location of this city, but in all the earlier suggestions, there is no continuous settlement that includes a Philistine one (as is indicated by the name) as well as one from the time of David. This one has a number of exciting findings, which hopefully will be organized and open to the public for everyone to travel to, see and learn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

You can read more and see photos in these articles: <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> and <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

POSTSCRIPT: Several days after we posted this, a new article came out with some other points of view:\u00a0
\r\nA Debate Begins: Mere hours after team claims to have uncovered 3,000-year-old biblical town of Ziklag south of Jerusalem, two of their peers insist they most certainly have not<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Photo credit: <\/span>Emil Aljem, Israel Antiquities Authority<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":59064,"alt":"","title":"isam27-ziklag","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag.jpg","width":1920,"height":817,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-300x128.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":128,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-768x327.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":327,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-1024x436.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":436,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":654,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":817,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-1200x511.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":511,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam27-ziklag-987x420.jpg","home_baner-width":987,"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":"Where is Ziklag? 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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":"260","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Reading the story from the mental health angle","post_main_content_content":"

The very troubled and troubling relationship between David and Saul comes to a head when David flees to Gath in the land of the Philistines. David has been suffering relentless persecution by the king, Saul, for some time now, resulting in him living in hiding in fear of being found and killed. Eventually he feels his only option is to leave his land and seek protection from the Philistines.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But the David and Saul story has so many more layers than just persecuted\/persecutor. On the surface it reads like a disturbing abusive relationship scenario. Saul repeatedly sets out to attack David; David understands he\u2019s at risk and goes into hiding; then David eventually comes forward, tries to repair the relationship, and accepts Saul\u2019s apparent remorse and rehabilitation \u2013 only to have the pattern repeat. But at the same time, the Tanach and commentaries often speak glorifyingly of Saul\u2019s humility, modesty and dedication to his people, the kingship and God.\u00a0 How do we reconcile these conflicting personas of tormentor and holy, committed prophet and king?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Saul narrative openly speaks of his mental illness, referring frequently to his deep depression and linking each \u201coutburst\u201d phase of his behaviour to a decline in his mental health. But when Saul is well, he clearly demonstrates his reverence for David and commitment to God. David evidently recognized that it\u2019s not \u201cthe real Saul\u201d who was persecuting him but rather that Saul too was a victim of his illness. The real Saul was the God-fearing, dedicated king \u2013 it just didn\u2019t shine through all that often.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In a time when mental health was little spoken of, likely heavily stigmatized, and largely untreatable, David handled the situation as best he could. He kept the door open to Saul, repeatedly letting him know that a positive relationship between them was still attainable. At the same time David recognized that he had to protect himself from harm. And sadly, there came a point in time when David admitted that there was nothing more he could do for Saul and his only option was to remove himself completely from the situation. Even God himself finally withdrew from Saul in this chapter (verse 6): \u201cSaul inquired of God, and God did not answer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These are very difficult chapters to comprehend but considering them through a lens of mental health education allowed this reader to at least make my peace with Saul.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":59135,"alt":"","title":"isam28-mental 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And David: Navigating A Difficult Relationship","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Reading the story from the mental health angle \u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":59135,"alt":"","title":"isam28-mental 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He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"260","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A guest column by the Gaon R. Shmuel bar Hofni (d. 1034)","post_main_content_content":"

The opinion of R. Shmuel bar Hofni, Gaon of Sura in the latter half of the 10<\/span>th<\/span> century, has been known ever since it was cited by Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi)\u00a0 in his commentary: \u201cHe said that in spite of the fact that the Sages appear to have confirmed that the woman resurrected Samuel this cannot be accepted because it contradicts reason.\u201d Thanks to the Cairo Genizah, however, we now possess a portion of the original commentary, which took the form of a response (<\/span>teshuvah<\/span><\/i>) to a questioner. Here are some key excerpts (translated from the Judeo Arabic).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The first question [derives] from the language of Scripture: \u201cSaul knew that it was Samuel\u201d (14). The petitioner asked: If Samuel did not truly arise and was not visible, what apparition was [Saul] shown that is referred to by Scripture as \u201cHe knew\u201d? [The Gaon] replied: Knowledge is used metaphorically to signify thought, as in \u201c`Onan knew\u201d (Gen. 38:9). Similarly \u201cSaul knew\u201d [means] he thought, felt, and believed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The second question: \u201cSaul said to Samuel, \u2018Why have you agitated me\u2019? And he replied, \u2018Why do you ask me?\u2019\u201d (15). This states explicitly that Samuel spoke to him, and he could not have spoken to him unless he was alive. We say [in response] that \u201cSamuel said\u201d means that Mistress \u2018Ob said to him that Samuel is speaking to you such and such. If one were to ask, but Scripture does not [explicitly] state that the woman said that Samuel had spoken? We would respond that while this is true, reason mandates that Scripture is only speaking from the perspective of Mistress \u2018Ob. This is not distinct from the language of Scripture in the case of the emissaries of the king of Jericho, \u201cThey pursued [the Israelite spies] all the way to the Jordan\u201d (Joshua 2:7) even though they were actually with Rahab [and could not have been the subjects of the pursuit]\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

[The witch also] misled him into initiating this inquiry by saying \u201cWhom shall I raise for you?\u201d [leading Saul] to reply, \u201cRaise up Samuel for me\u201d (11), and she fooled him into thinking that she had that ability. Every time we encounter the word \u201che said\u201d or \u201che spoke,\u201d wherein it is impossible to be the speech of the one so identified, then we may say that it may be as we have explained in this episode. If it is not impossible, then we may not purge any \u201csaid\u201d or \u201cspoke\u201d of its literal sense unless it contradicts reason or is [otherwise] impossible. Look at the language of Scripture \u201cThe vine spoke\u201d (Judges 9:13); it is as we have explained that it is inconceivable and preposterous for a vine [to speak].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":59142,"alt":"","title":"isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","width":399,"height":480,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon-249x300.jpg","medium-width":249,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","medium_large-width":399,"medium_large-height":480,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","large-width":399,"large-height":480,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","1536x1536-width":399,"1536x1536-height":480,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","2048x2048-width":399,"2048x2048-height":480,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon.jpg","post_full_size-width":399,"post_full_size-height":480,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam28-samuel_ben_hofni_gaon-349x420.jpg","home_baner-width":349,"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":"No, We Don\u2019t Believe in Seances, Ghosts And The Talking Dead","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A guest column by the Gaon R. 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