{"id":60114,"date":"2018-07-09T17:43:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-274\/"},"modified":"2023-02-22T10:13:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:13:59","slug":"wall-274","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-274\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Prophets-II Samuel-11"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"274","date":"20260916","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","books_group":"Prophets","hide_acf":true,"home_image":false,"home_posts":false,"home_posts_title":"","posts_home":[],"posts":[{"order":1,"id":"59792","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"JPS Audio Bible - II Samuel Chapter 11 ","post_title":"JPS Audio Bible - II Samuel Chapter 11","slug":"jps-audio-bible-ii-samuel-chapter-11","old_id":"59792","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"JPS Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"II Samuel 11","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Hear the daily chapter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/929-bible\/JPS_Audio_Bible_II_Samuel_Chapter_11","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"60260","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- II Samuel 11 ","post_title":"Listening to the Prophets with Rabbi Abby Sosland- II Samuel 11","slug":"listening-to-the-prophets-with-rabbi-abby-sosland-ii-samuel-11","old_id":"60260","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56624,"post_title":"Abby Sosland","slug":"abby-sosland","old_id":"56624","first_name":"Abby ","last_name":"Sosland","description":"Rabbi Abby Sosland is a spiritual advisor, writer, and educator, based at The Leffell School in Westchester, New York. 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","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":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Joab sends a subtle, literary warning to his king\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

David and Bathsheba is one of the more controversial stories in Tanach. Did David sin with Bathsheba? Was Bathsheba perhaps divorced, so it was more palatable? Did David really have Uriah killed for no reason or did Uriah perhaps deserve to die because he refused an order from the king? There are strong allegiances to each side of the debate. Chapter 11 here, and the absence of the full story in Chronicles, does seem to indicate that whatever happened was quite untoward.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There is also a textual reference, seemingly out of place, in the middle of the story. David sends a message to Joab to send Uriah to the front lines on a suicide mission. Joab complies and Uriah is killed while attacking a walled city. As the defenseless soldiers charged the wall, they became easy targets for soldiers attacking from above. Joab sends a message back to David to let him know the plan was a success. Instead of just a simple message (\u201cmission accomplished\u201d), Joab adds a reference to the book of Judges. He tells the messenger that David may be upset by the attack on the wall because back in Judges Abimelech was killed by a woman dropping a millstone on his head as he attacked a tower.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What does Abimelech getting killed have to do with Uriah? Joab knew that David gave the direct order to send Uriah to the front! Joab may be trying to send a subtle message to David. Abimelech represented the first of the \u201cbad judges.\u201d Instead of leading the people, he did whatever he wanted, and essentially held them hostage. The message to David could be to be careful about what he is doing; sending Uriah to his death was something Abimelech would have done. Joab does not want to see David corrupting his power by treating his subjects with no respect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Another possible message could be the way Abimelech died. The text makes a big deal that Abimelech was killed by a woman. Perhaps the message is that David needs to be careful. He is risking everything for Bathsheba. It is not that Bathsheba will kill him, per se, but that what he is willing to do to have her could result in the downfall of his monarchy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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","post_title":"Uriah Is To David As David Was To Saul?","slug":"uriah-is-to-david-as-david-was-to-saul","old_id":"112882","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":101758,"post_title":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam","slug":"naomi-bromberg-bar-yam","old_id":"101758","first_name":"Naomi ","last_name":"Bromberg Bar-Yam ","description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. She explores her work and life through Torah drashot, rituals and children\u2019s stories.","short_description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. She explores her work and life through Torah drashot, rituals and children\u2019s stories.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":101760,"alt":"","title":"-62028435af471--62028435af472Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","width":361,"height":449,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":449,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":449,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":449,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":449,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":449,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-338x420.jpg","home_baner-width":338,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The attitude of kings to dedicated soldiers who constitute threats\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Political leaders wield enormous power, military leaders perhaps even more so and the power of a king who is also the military leader is off the charts. When used in the service of their people, with God\u2019s guidance and\/or human checks and balances, the power can be contained and constructive, providing security for the nation. However, it is difficult for the one in power to distinguish national from personal interests, and power is sometimes used for personal gain or vendetta.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Stories and motifs often repeat themselves in Biblical narrative. The stories of Saul and David, and of David and Uriah reflect back and forth on one another like infinite mirrors.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul knew that his kingship would end with him, and understood that David, not his own son Jonathan, would succeed him on the throne. In the first of many attempts to kill David, Saul sent him to a seemingly impossible battle, in order that he would die. \u201cThe king desires no other bride price than the foreskins of a hundred Philistines\u201d (1 Samuel 18:25). Saul intended to bring about David\u2019s death at the hands of the Philistines.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our chapter is eerily similar:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. He wrote the letter as follows: \u201cPlace Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest; then fall back so that he may be killed\u201d (11:15).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s and Uriah\u2019s responses reflect one another as well. Both men were righteous and devoted; David to Saul, who was God\u2019s anointed, and the kingship, Uriah to his king, his soldiers and the Ark of God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David had multiple opportunities to kill Saul (i.e. 1 Samuel 24:7-8 and 26:9-11) and adamantly refused:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord \u2013 the Lord\u2019s anointed \u2013 that I should raise my hand against him.; for he is the Lord\u2019s anointed. David rebuked his men and did not permit them to attack Saul (1 Samuel 24: 7-8).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Similarly, Uriah\u2019s refusal to go home to be with his wife while the Ark and his soldiers were in danger reflected these values: honor and respect.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Uriah answered David, The Ark and Israel and Judah are at Succot, and my master Joab and Your Majesty\u2019s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As you live, by your very life, I will not do this.\u201d\u00a0 [The next day Uriah again] \u201cwent out to sleep in the same place, with his lord\u2019s officers; he did not go down to his house\u201d (11:11-12, 13).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Though the situations were very different, it seems that David took from Saul\u2019s play book when he had Uriah killed. Both were dedicated soldiers, but also personal threats. What other ways could both problems have been resolved?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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Is To David As David Was To Saul?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The attitude of kings to dedicated soldiers who constitute threats","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":101762,"alt":"","title":"-62029f2bc4076--62029f2bc4077gen4-murder blood 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","post_title":"Just Who Was On The Roof?","slug":"just-who-was-on-the-roof","old_id":"60272","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":39842,"post_title":"Avigayil Halpern","slug":"avigayil-halpern","old_id":"39842","first_name":"Avigayil ","last_name":"Halpern ","description":"Avigayil Halpern graduated from Yale in May of 2019 and is beginning study toward rabbinic ordination at the Hadar Institute. Avigayil has written extensively on issues of Jewish observance and gender in the Jewish media, and was an opinion columnist for the Yale Daily News.","short_description":"Avigayil Halpern graduated from Yale in May of 2019 and is beginning study toward rabbinic ordination at the Hadar Institute","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":39843,"alt":"","title":"A. 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The instigating image of the saga of David and Bathsheba is that of Bathsheba in her bath. The image of the woman in her bath, nude in a private moment, is a recurring trope in art; it is an image that is vulnerable -- the woman in the bath isn\u2019t undressed for anyone\u2019s visual pleasure, but rather because she is bathing herself. That vulnerability is one that can be played on by those in power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The mental picture I have of Bathsheba bathing is that she herself was bathing on the roof, which made her visible, but this is not how the Jewish Publication Society nor Robert Alter translates the verse: Both versions have David as the party on the roof, observing Bathsheba. The two versions of the verse are born of a textual ambiguity: the verse is unclear if David sees Bathsheba while he is on the roof or while she is on the roof. The commentators Metzudat David and Radak both offer similar remarks: they each note that it is David on the roof, and -- as specified by the Radak -- Bathsheba in the bath in her own home, seen perhaps through a window.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The impulse of both commentators to clarify that Bathsheba was inside indicate that it is not a given from the plain sense of the verse. Indeed, Bathsheba is sometimes portrayed in art as bathing outside, as in Artemisia Gentileschi\u2019s painting \u201cBathsheba.\u201d What is at stake if Bathsheba was bathing on the roof?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Radak\u2019s painstaking emphasis that Bathsheba was indoors, in her home, seems to suggest that it would be a problem for her to be bathing elsewhere. The home is the appropriate place for a woman to take a bath; if Bathsheba was bathing indoors, she is a more \u201cperfect\u201d victim of King David\u2019s inappropriate attentions. A woman cannot be blamed for taking a bath inside her living space.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But what if Bathsheba was bathing on the roof? Would she then be more blameworthy in David\u2019s indiscretion? If Bathsheba sat outdoors, enjoying the sun on her skin, as Gentileschi -- a rare woman painter in her era -- depicts her, is she somehow liable for tempting the king?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Even as Bathsheba later demonstrates power and influence in the Davidic court, in this moment he is the king and she is his subject. The demands of the king cannot be refused. It is vital to see this as modern readers of this text; it is irrelevant where Bathsheba was bathing. Her agency here is limited by her status and David\u2019s. We should be able to imagine the Bathshebas of the world able to enjoy the warmth of the sun, the fresh air, unburdened from the guilt of offering temptation to powerful men. David\u2019s sin should not keep Bathsheba indoors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Artemisia Gentileschi - Bathsheba at Her Bath (ca. 1636-1638) \/ 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Aviva is a Jewish educator with over twenty years of experience in curriculum development, classroom teaching, school administration and educational consulting. Upon making Aliyah in 1996, Aviva developed formal and informal educational materials for Melitz and at the Leo Baeck Education Center. She then served as the head of the department of Jewish Studies at Immanuel College, London.","short_description":"Aviva Golbert is the Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":47904,"alt":"","title":"aviva golbert","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782.jpg","width":1639,"height":1811,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-272x300.jpg","medium-width":272,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-768x849.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":849,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-927x1024.jpg","large-width":927,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782.jpg","1536x1536-width":1390,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782.jpg","2048x2048-width":1639,"2048x2048-height":1811,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-1086x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1086,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/aviva-golbert-e1548150612782-380x420.jpg","home_baner-width":380,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"I learn from the best, most miserable elegy maker of all. My second husband. David.","post_main_content_content":"

When Jonathan died \u2013 Jonathan, whom David loved above all women \u2013 David wrote him an elegy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Amnon died \u2013 Amnon, David's son, who \"loved\" his sister, Tamar \u2013 David mourned him every day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Absalom died \u2013 Absalom, David's next son, who loved ten of David's women \u2013 David cried and cried for him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

So when Uriah dies at the hand and command of David \u2013 Uriah, commander in David's army, Uriah, my love, Uriah, my husband \u2013 I keen over him. After all, I have learned and will learn, from the best, most miserable elegy maker of all. My second husband. David.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Uriah, <\/span>ishi,<\/span><\/i> my man. Uriah <\/span>Ha-chiti, <\/span><\/i>the Hittite.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>We weren't expected to marry \u2013 you, a foreign soldier, come to fight on behalf of our young, vibrant king in his early days; me, daughter of another of the king's military elite.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>But we did.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Oh we did.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>You Hebraicized your name when you joined the army, when you met me, when you chose your place in Israel \u2013 you became the Light of God \u2013 but still, my people would never let you forget, never let us forget, that you were not born of us. Uriah. <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>The Hittite. From far away. <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Not a Jew. The non-Jew. The Jew-by-choice who remains the outsider.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>You were gone at the front, but I still went to purify myself for you. Just in case. Like clockwork. You can never be too ready.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>I thought of you on that roof.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>And so.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>I can only ask: why did you not come to me when David called you back to Jerusalem?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why did you not send word?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why did you keep your armor on?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why did you not come home?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>You would have had a son. A prince. And no one would have been the wiser.
\r\n
\r\n<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Bathsheba Mourning Her Husband - James Tissot (1836 - 1902) \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60281,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","width":477,"height":298,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot-300x187.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":187,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","medium_large-width":477,"medium_large-height":298,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","large-width":477,"large-height":298,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","1536x1536-width":477,"1536x1536-height":298,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","2048x2048-width":477,"2048x2048-height":298,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","post_full_size-width":477,"post_full_size-height":298,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","home_baner-width":477,"home_baner-height":298}},"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":"An Elegy For A Husband","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"I learn from the best, most miserable elegy maker of all. My second husband. David.","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60281,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","width":477,"height":298,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot-300x187.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":187,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","medium_large-width":477,"medium_large-height":298,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","large-width":477,"large-height":298,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","1536x1536-width":477,"1536x1536-height":298,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","2048x2048-width":477,"2048x2048-height":298,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","post_full_size-width":477,"post_full_size-height":298,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-bathsheba-mourning-tissot.jpg","home_baner-width":477,"home_baner-height":298}},"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"383","name":"Death","old_id":"783"},{"term_id":"526","name":"Husband\/Wife","old_id":"926"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"},{"term_id":"912","name":"Uriah","old_id":"1312"}]},{"order":7,"id":"60286","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"What Did Uriah Know and When Did He Know It? ","post_title":"What Did Uriah Know and When Did He Know It?","slug":"what-did-uriah-know-and-when-did-he-know-it","old_id":"60286","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":59369,"post_title":"Henry Rieser","slug":"henry-rieser","old_id":"59369","first_name":"Henry ","last_name":"Rieser ","description":"Henry Rieser is involved in volunteer activities in Washington Heights, NY, and audits classes at Yeshiva University in Tanach and American Jewish history. He is a U.S. Army veteran and a retired Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. \r\n","short_description":"Henry Rieser is involved in volunteer activities in Washington Heights, NY. He worked as a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and is a U.S. Army veteran.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":59371,"alt":"","title":"henry reiser","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","width":378,"height":480,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","medium_large-width":378,"medium_large-height":480,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","large-width":378,"large-height":480,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":378,"1536x1536-height":480,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":378,"2048x2048-height":480,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":378,"post_full_size-height":480,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/henry-reiser-1-331x420.jpg","home_baner-width":331,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Seemingly none the wiser, there are hints that perhaps Uriah understood his fate","post_main_content_content":"

When Bathsheba messages the king that she is pregnant, David has to devise a cover-up (v.5). He calls on Joab, his military commander to send Uriah home, ostensibly to get first hand information on how things are going on the battlefield. David is counting on his meeting with Uriah to grant the soldier leave time to go home to his wife.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Uriah declines the king\u2019s offer and when he meets with David<\/span> a second time, he asks, \u201c\u2018 . . . my master, Joab and Your Majesty\u2019s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As you live by your very life, I will not do this\u2019\u201d (v. 11).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are two suggested reasons for Uriah\u2019s<\/span> not going home. One is that he would soon be returning to the front and it was customary for soldiers in combat to desist from sexual relationships. The thinking was that celibacy would make them more aggressive on the battlefield. A second view is that having spent a night in the palace barracks with his comrades, Uriah learned of the king\u2019s affair with Bathsheba.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David<\/span> tries once more to get Uriah to go home to Bathsheba by getting him drunk. However, instead of staggering home, Uriah returns to his fellow soldiers.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The next day, David<\/span> sends Uriah back to the front with a sealed message to Joab. In this message, Joab is ordered to place Uriah in the thick of battle to ensure that he gets killed.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As Uriah is returning to the field, does he believe that by disobeying a direct order from the king, he has committed a capital offense and may be carrying his own death warrant? If so, he may also realize that he is a \u2018dead man walking\u2019 as there would be no way he can come out of this situation alive. Does this compel him to go willingly to his certain demise?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Pieter Lastman, David handing over a letter to Uriah, 1619 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60287,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and uriah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","width":608,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-300x247.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":247,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","medium_large-width":608,"medium_large-height":500,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","large-width":608,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","1536x1536-width":608,"1536x1536-height":500,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","2048x2048-width":608,"2048x2048-height":500,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","post_full_size-width":608,"post_full_size-height":500,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-511x420.jpg","home_baner-width":511,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"What Did Uriah Know and When Did He Know It?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Seemingly none the wiser, there are hints that perhaps Uriah understood his fate \u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60287,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and uriah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","width":608,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-300x247.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":247,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","medium_large-width":608,"medium_large-height":500,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","large-width":608,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","1536x1536-width":608,"1536x1536-height":500,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","2048x2048-width":608,"2048x2048-height":500,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah.jpg","post_full_size-width":608,"post_full_size-height":500,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-uriah-511x420.jpg","home_baner-width":511,"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"383","name":"Death","old_id":"783"},{"term_id":"684","name":"Authority","old_id":"1084"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"912","name":"Uriah","old_id":"1312"}]},{"order":8,"id":"60283","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Abuse of Power ","post_title":"Abuse Of Power","slug":"abuse-of-power","old_id":"60283","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":60052,"post_title":"Alon Meltzer","slug":"alon-meltzer","old_id":"60052","first_name":"Alon ","last_name":"Meltzer ","description":"Rabbi Alon Meltzer is the Rabbi of Or Chadash and Director of Programs at Shalom in hte Sydney, Australia Jewish Community. 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60053,"alt":"","title":"alon meltzer","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","width":1383,"height":1583,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-262x300.jpg","medium-width":262,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-768x879.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":879,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-895x1024.jpg","large-width":895,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","1536x1536-width":1342,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer.jpg","2048x2048-width":1383,"2048x2048-height":1583,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-1048x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1048,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/alon-meltzer-367x420.jpg","home_baner-width":367,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya...","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cYour faith was strong but you needed proof<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>You saw her bathing on the roof<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>She tied you to a kitchen chair<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>She broke your throne, and she cut your hair<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>And from your lips she drew the hallelujah\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Leonard Cohen, in his famous song Hallelujah, speaks of one of the low points of King David. Immortalized as the psalmist, the one with the greatest connection to the Almighty, we see David abuse the power that he was divinely given. He sees Bathsheba bathing. He desires her. He demands her presence. He sleeps with her. She falls pregnant. And immediately after, her husband Uriah is sent to the front lines whereby he is killed by a lethal arrow.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Post #MeToo, the revelation of abuses of power, whereby the powerful, usually male, engages in abusive or coercive techniques, usually sexual, against subordinates or those with less power, usually female, has seen the downfall of many a personality.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Daat Zekenim, a compilation of 13<\/span>th<\/span> and 14<\/span>th<\/span> century writings, in its commentary on Bereshit, seems to place blame on Bathsheba. The Babylonian Talmud seems to absolve David\u2019s sin (Shabbat 56a). While we will explore the response of God and the prophet Nathan in our analysis of Chapter 12<\/a>, at first glance these responses would rightly outrage any moral person in the post #MeToo era.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The human condition is to place our leaders on a pedestal, to glorify them and ensure that they always appear squeaky clean. The Torah, however, has never tried to color our leadership with rose-tinted glasses. Each mistake, each challenge, each misstep is there in black and white, and our job is to think about what we can learn from the many examples. In this case, we shouldn\u2019t have needed a social movement to realize the issues that arise between those in power and those without, especially between the sexes. We should have been the ones to ensure it never happened from the very start.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/YrLk4vdY28Q","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Abuse Of Power","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60284,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-leonard cohen","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen.jpg","width":1024,"height":768,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":768,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":768,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":768,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-leonard-cohen-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"362","name":"Poetry","old_id":"762"},{"term_id":"512","name":"Music","old_id":"912"},{"term_id":"574","name":"Sex","old_id":"974"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"}]},{"order":9,"id":"60289","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"David As Halakhic Authority: Rabbinic Satire ","post_title":"David As Halakhic Authority: Rabbinic Satire","slug":"david-as-halakhic-authority-rabbinic-satire","old_id":"60289","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38322,"post_title":"James A. Diamond","slug":"james-a-diamond","old_id":"38322","first_name":"James ","last_name":"Diamond ","description":"Prof. James A. Diamond holds the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo. His most recent book is \u201cJewish Theology Unbound\u201d published by Oxford University Press. ","short_description":"Prof. James A. Diamond holds the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38323,"alt":"","title":"James Diamond","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","width":1186,"height":1386,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-257x300.jpg","medium-width":257,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-768x898.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":898,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-876x1024.jpg","large-width":876,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","1536x1536-width":1186,"1536x1536-height":1386,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913.jpg","2048x2048-width":1186,"2048x2048-height":1386,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-1027x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1027,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/James-Diamond-e1534858914913-359x420.jpg","home_baner-width":359,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Rabbinic David occupies himself with family purity, while Biblical David exploits the ritual end of sexual abstinence to commit adultery","post_main_content_content":"

Rabbinic responses to David\u2019s corruption are far from unanimous, both whitewashing and condemning his behavior. What has often been overlooked in those normally understood as commending David is the use of literary conventions of irony and satire that can transform an apparent approbation into its very opposite. As such, they provide a deeper sense of the depths of David\u2019s spiraling decadence in the biblical narrative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One example is a view of David where he literally gets his hands dirty in his concern for the integrity of his subjects\u2019 marital relations. In his anachronistic role of rabbi as well as king, he engages in practical issues of family purity where he obsessively applies his halakhic expertise to reunite husband and wife. He surrenders all the imperial privilege due his office to the extent of becoming \u201cfilthy with the blood of the fetal sac and placenta in order to render a woman pure for [purposes of having sex with] her husband\u201d (<\/span>Berakhot<\/span><\/i> 4a).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This opinion constitutes an ironic critique of David by its allusion to the Bible\u2019s single description of Bathsheba aside from her beauty, and the names of her father and husband, in what is at worst a rape by, or at best adulterous tryst with, David. The narrative divulges only one conspicuous detail in three words about Bathsheba\u2019s ritual condition- she had just purified herself after her period (11:4). The biblical David exploited an ideal moment when sexual relations could resume between husband and wife after a period of abstinence, to commit adultery. He pointedly fractured a marriage at a time normally signaling the height of spousal intimacy. Of all the rabbinic halakhic concerns, the choice of family purity as the issue to which David dedicated his expertise toward promoting marital harmony is strikingly at odds with David\u2019s offence. As a precise inversion of it, acerbic irony best appreciates its intention.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Bearing in mind this single biblical observation regarding Bathsheba\u2019s menstrual status turns the Talmud\u2019s projection of David as a halakhic decisor (<\/span>poseq<\/span><\/em>) whose hands are dripping with menstrual blood into a scathing indictment of the real David. By depicting David as engaged in distinctly postbiblical rabbinic activity, the rabbis have drawn him into their world of values. Irony plays on the clash between the biblical report of David\u2019s immoral relationship with Bathsheba and of the moral and legal values of rabbinic culture. The success of the irony lies in the artful recasting of David in images that the rabbinic academy constructed as mockery by virtue of its precise incongruity with the biblical account. David\u2019s halakhic rulings of a woman\u2019s sexual cleanliness allowing the resumption of relations with her husband caustically underscore his own destabilizing of spousal harmony at that very same moment of sexual purity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image: Mikveh in Tel Aviv \/\u00a0chabadpedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60297,"alt":"","title":"2Sam11-mikveh","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","width":512,"height":711,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","medium_large-width":512,"medium_large-height":711,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","large-width":512,"large-height":711,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","1536x1536-width":512,"1536x1536-height":711,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","2048x2048-width":512,"2048x2048-height":711,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","post_full_size-width":512,"post_full_size-height":711,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"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":"David As Halakhic Authority: Rabbinic Satire","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Rabbinic David occupies himself with family purity, while Biblical David exploits the ritual end of sexual abstinence to commit adultery","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60297,"alt":"","title":"2Sam11-mikveh","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","width":512,"height":711,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-216x300.jpg","medium-width":216,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","medium_large-width":512,"medium_large-height":711,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","large-width":512,"large-height":711,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","1536x1536-width":512,"1536x1536-height":711,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","2048x2048-width":512,"2048x2048-height":711,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh.jpg","post_full_size-width":512,"post_full_size-height":711,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2Sam11-mikveh-302x420.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"475","name":"Humor","old_id":"875"},{"term_id":"662","name":"Halacha","old_id":"1062"},{"term_id":"684","name":"Authority","old_id":"1084"},{"term_id":"742","name":"Purity","old_id":"1142"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":10,"id":"60300","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"David: A Stay-At-Home King ","post_title":"David: A Stay-At-Home King","slug":"david-a-stay-at-home-king","old_id":"60300","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":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The corrupting capacity to exercise the power of life and death at a distance\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

In today\u2019s chapter, David sleeps with Bathsheba, another man\u2019s wife, gets her pregnant, tries and fails to cover up, sends the woman\u2019s husband, Uriah, to certain death in war and finally marries Bathsheba.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is beyond shocking. How could this man of faith, this sensitive musician and courageous warrior commit such a succession of vile acts?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A key clue lies in the story\u2019s opening:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

At the turn of the year, at the season when kings go out to battle, David <\/span>sent<\/span><\/em> Yoab with his officers and all Israel and they devastated Ammon, David remained in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon, David rose from his couch and strolled on the roof of the royal place and saw a woman bathing\u201d (11:1-2).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

No longer the leader who faced Goliath alone and who went out to war at the head of the people (as in chapter 5: 1-2), David now sends men to fight and die on his behalf while he stays safe in his palace, takes a nap in the afternoon and sleeps with another man\u2019s wife. Malbim, a 19<\/span>th<\/span> century commentator, points out that it was David\u2019s remaining in Jerusalem that opened the way to his sin.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Sending others to do his will is the <\/span>leitmotif<\/span><\/em> of this episode. The phrase \u201cand David sent\u201d occurs five times in our chapter; In addition, the word \u201csend\u201d appears twelve times. After sending his men to war, David sends messengers to bring him Bathsheba, sends a message to his general Joab to send him Uriah, sends another message to Joab to put Uriah in the front line of the battle where he will be killed, and finally sends men to bring Bathsheba, after Uriah\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As a king at the height of his power, David can determine the fates of others at arm\u2019s length. Through his retinue of servants and soldiers, he moves around and manipulate people \u2013 bringing Bathsheba, sending Uriah to his death, without his own direct involvement. David kills Uriah through cold-blooded messages without facing the horror of what he has done. His agency is concealed by the trappings of power. This corrupting capacity to exercise the power of life and death at a distance is, I suggest what makes David\u2019s sin possible.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If so, then this helps explain the power of Nathan the prophet\u2019s parable in chapter 12. Nathan tells David a simple story of a rich man with many flocks who seized the single lamb of a poor man to feed a visiting traveler. With this bare tale Nathan cuts through the convoluted connections between David and his deed and confronts him with his terrible responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: David Sees Bathsheba Bathing, James Tissot (1836-1902) \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60301,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david sees - tissot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","width":474,"height":347,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot-300x220.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":220,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","medium_large-width":474,"medium_large-height":347,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","large-width":474,"large-height":347,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","1536x1536-width":474,"1536x1536-height":347,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","2048x2048-width":474,"2048x2048-height":347,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","post_full_size-width":474,"post_full_size-height":347,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","home_baner-width":474,"home_baner-height":347}},"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":"David: A Stay-At-Home King","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The corrupting capacity to exercise the power of life and death at a distance\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60301,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david sees - tissot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","width":474,"height":347,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot-300x220.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":220,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","medium_large-width":474,"medium_large-height":347,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","large-width":474,"large-height":347,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","1536x1536-width":474,"1536x1536-height":347,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","2048x2048-width":474,"2048x2048-height":347,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","post_full_size-width":474,"post_full_size-height":347,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-sees-tissot.jpg","home_baner-width":474,"home_baner-height":347}},"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"412","name":"Responsibility","old_id":"812"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"835","name":"King","old_id":"1235"}]},{"order":11,"id":"60270","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Violence Turned Inward ","post_title":"Violence Turned Inward","slug":"violence-turned-inward","old_id":"60270","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":56443,"post_title":"Moshe Halbertal","slug":"moshe-halbertal","old_id":"56443","first_name":"Moshe ","last_name":"Halbertal ","description":"Prof. Moshe Halbertal is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor of law at New York University (NYU) and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. His latest book, co-authored with Stephen Holmes, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel was published by Princeton University Press in 2017. Halbertal was the recipient of the Michael Bruno Memorial Award of the Rothschild Foundation and the Goldstein-Goren Book Award for the best book in Jewish thought in the years 1997 to 2000. In 2010, Halbertal was named a member of Israel\u2019s Academy for the Sciences and the Humanities.","short_description":"Prof. Moshe Halbertal is a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a professor of law at New York University (NYU) and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":56444,"alt":"","title":"Moshe-Halbertal","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","width":500,"height":500,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-300x300.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","medium_large-width":500,"medium_large-height":500,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","large-width":500,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","1536x1536-width":500,"1536x1536-height":500,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","2048x2048-width":500,"2048x2048-height":500,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal.png","post_full_size-width":500,"post_full_size-height":500,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Moshe-Halbertal-420x420.png","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"And feeling no need for discretion, David was confident to the point of recklessness\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

In the world portrayed by the Book of Samuel, organized political structures -- especially the powers to tax and conscript -- originate in violence. They arise initially from the need to establish an adequate collective response to hostile outside forces. This originally defensive political project, as the author of the Book of Samuel understood it, is inescapably afflicted by the prospect of a self-defeating turnaround: if the sovereign ruler amasses sufficient power to safeguard his people from outside threats, he will also be in a position to redirect that power to torment and abuse his people with sovereign impunity.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The subtlest features of this imperious rechanneling of political violence from foreign threats toward the king\u2019s own subjects go far beyond the potentially unfair but in principle acceptable burdens of taxation and conscription against which the prophet Samuel so heatedly warned. These features are explored through two narratives that recount the king\u2019s indefensible killing of innocents -- first, Saul\u2019s massacre of the priests of Nob in 1 Samuel 22 and second, David\u2019s muder of his loyal officer Uriah along with the collateral killing of some of Israel\u2019s best soldiers in 2 Samuel 11. Read closely, the beautifully crafted stories of these morally unjustifiable slayings, set in diverse contexts and authorized by two very different kings, convey the Samuel author\u2019s penetrating grasp of the origins and nature of political crime\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Unlike the paranoid Saul, who feverishly mistrusted his inner circle, David was coolly confident to the point of recklessness. He felt no particular need for discretion. He sent one messenger to inquire about the beautiful woman and he sent others to fetch her and bring her to his palace. But David\u2019s nonchalance conveys more than the careless mind-set of a domestically unchallenged ruler. As other readers of these verses have noted, the verb \u201csend\u201d dominates the narrative. By repeatedly employing this verb, the author wishes to stress a central feature of both the way power is constituted and how it operates.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hierarchically organized power is defined by the power-wielder\u2019s capacity to act from a distance. Delegation involves the capacity to create extended causal chains, embroiling and implicating multiple subordinates whose actions radiate downward from an apex or outward from a center. The longer the chain, the greater the power of the sovereign who acts invisibly though its multiple links. It is as if the arm of the sovereign literally reached its remote objective through a succession of proxies carrying out his commands. So the repetition of the verb \u201csend,\u201d which pervades the entire narrative, emphasizes the centrality of acting from a distance to the exercise of great political power. The ruler\u2019s numerous messengers, surrogates, and agents serve not only as tools of his power but, more significantly in the present context, as decoys obscuring the initiator\u2019s identity and disguising his stage-management of the way the action unfolds.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Excerpts from The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Moshe Halbertal and Stephen Holmes, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 81-82.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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

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

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":56668,"alt":"","title":"halbertal-book 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Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"423","name":"Politics","old_id":"823"},{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"},{"term_id":"543","name":"Violence","old_id":"943"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":12,"id":"60305","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"The Objectification And Sexual Assault Of Bathsheba ","post_title":"The Objectification And Sexual Assault Of Bathsheba","slug":"the-objectification-and-sexual-assault-of-bathsheba","old_id":"60305","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":41525,"post_title":"Sivan Rotholz","slug":"sivan-rotholz","old_id":"41525","first_name":"Sivan ","last_name":"Rotholz","description":"Sivan Rotholz is a joint rabbinical and MARE student at Hebrew Union College, where she is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a New Israel Fund Elissa Froman Fellow. She taught feminist Torah study and creative writing at Brooklyn College, Tel Aviv University, and Temple Israel of the City of New York. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College and a Juris Doctorate from Golden Gate University School of Law and is the Managing Editor of the Saturday Poetry Series on As It Ought To Be. ","short_description":"Sivan Rotholz is a joint rabbinical and MARE student at Hebrew Union College, where she is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a New Israel Fund Elissa Froman Fellow. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":41526,"alt":"","title":"sivan rotholz","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","width":320,"height":312,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz-300x293.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":293,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","medium_large-width":320,"medium_large-height":312,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","large-width":320,"large-height":312,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","1536x1536-width":320,"1536x1536-height":312,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","2048x2048-width":320,"2048x2048-height":312,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","post_full_size-width":320,"post_full_size-height":312,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/sivan-rotholz.jpg","home_baner-width":320,"home_baner-height":312}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Consent requires the very ability to say \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d which Bathsheba the king\u2019s subject did not have","post_main_content_content":"

Bathsheba appears soon after the demise of Michal, David\u2019s last wife arriving on the heels of his first. But where Michal\u2019s journey brings her from promise to obscurity, Bathsheba rises from anonymity to power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As formidable as she will become in 1 Kings, when we encounter Bathsheba in 2 Samuel, she is nearly silent. This woman, who will one day orchestrate Solomon\u2019s unlikely ascension to the throne, says just three words in this installment of her story, and they are not \u201cI give consent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One warm spring night, a restless King David rises to his rooftop and gazes out over his city. From his hilltop palace overlooking the surrounding valleys he can see the roofs of his subjects that populate the hillside slopes below. The animal lust of spring is in the air when David spots a bathing beauty on one of the rooftops beneath him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is how it happens. A man spots a woman. He desires her, and therefore feels entitled to have her. And with this David contributes to an era of objectifying women that remains commonplace to this day.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cAnd David sent messengers to fetch her and she came to him and he lay with her\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David is the king, Bathsheba his subject. When we think about abuses of power carried out by movie moguls against actors, by college professors against students, by clergy against flock, we are barely touching upon the degree of power inequity inherent in David\u2019s transgressions against Bathsheba.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David does what he likes with her, but Bathsheba does not give consent. Consent requires not only positive affirmation, which is patently missing here, but also the very ability to say \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno.\u201d Lacking power, status, or authority, Bathsheba is as incapable of giving consent as an intoxicated person or a minor. In its historical moment, one might have called David\u2019s act an acquisition. Today, we would likely call it rape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What follows is tragedy upon tragedy. Bathsheba discovers she is pregnant. When he cannot pass the child off as her husband\u2019s, David has Bathsheba\u2019s husband killed. David then marries the pregnant and recently-widowed Bathsheba. Soon after, the child dies\u2014as punishment for the sins of his father.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Throughout her story in 2 Samuel, Bathsheba is acted upon. Objectified. Taken into David\u2019s bed. In silence she suffers the deaths of her husband and her firstborn son. Throughout this saga, she says only three words: \u201cI am pregnant.\u201d Lacking the power to protect herself or those she loves, she speaks only when she has no choice, her voice a warning that our actions have consequences, that even for those at the top, there will be a reckoning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Bethsab\u00e9e, by Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me, 1889 \/ 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Objectification And Sexual Assault Of Bathsheba","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Consent requires the very ability to say \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d which Bathsheba the king\u2019s subject did not have","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60306,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e,_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me.jpg","width":1024,"height":615,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me-300x180.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":180,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me-768x461.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":461,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me-1024x615.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":615,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me.jpg","1536x1536-width":1024,"1536x1536-height":615,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me.jpg","2048x2048-width":1024,"2048x2048-height":615,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me.jpg","post_full_size-width":1024,"post_full_size-height":615,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-Bethsab\u00e9e_by_Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me-699x420.jpg","home_baner-width":699,"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"457","name":"Rape","old_id":"857"},{"term_id":"483","name":"Feminism","old_id":"883"},{"term_id":"491","name":"Suffering","old_id":"891"},{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"}]},{"order":13,"id":"60309","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"David\u2019s Messengers ","post_title":"David\u2019s Messengers","slug":"davids-messengers","old_id":"60309","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":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"With so many layers of mediation between his desires and their execution, David\u2019s sins can\u2019t be mitigated as an impulse of the moment","post_main_content_content":"

King David started the chain of events that led to his sin with the verb \u201cvayishlach<\/em>\u201d \u2013 \u2018he sent\u2019: \u201cDavid sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him\u201d (11:1). He ended it with another \u201cvayishlach<\/em>\u201d, when sent and brought Batsheba into his palace after her husband\u2019s death. The Hebrew root sh.l.ch<\/em> \u2013 to send \u2013 appears nine additional times between the \u201cvayishlach\u2019s<\/em>\u201d that bookend the chapter. Five of them describe David himself, whose actions are repeatedly carried out by other people. He first inquiries about Batsheba, and then summons her, through messengers. He summons Uriah, and then delivers Uriah\u2019s death sentence, through messengers, including \u2013 horrifyingly enough \u2013 Uriah himself.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By using the root sh.l.ch<\/em> as a leitmotif, the narrative establishes an atmosphere of delays and indirectness. Every action is drawn-out, slowly making its way from subject to messenger to object, and from plan to implementation. It gives us time to watch in horror as David\u2019s nebulous desires and concerns evolve first into sin, and ultimately into murder. It allows us to hope that he will change his mind and recall his messengers, only to be disappointed time and time again. And it forces us to acknowledge that David\u2019s sins can\u2019t be mitigated as an impulse of the moment: with so many layers of mediation between David\u2019s desires and their execution, how can we pretend he didn\u2019t have the time to think his actions through?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The repetitions of the root sh.l.ch<\/em> also offers us a framework for understanding David\u2019s transformation. David\u2019s fall starts with his first \u201cVayishlach<\/em>,\u201d when he sends Joab and \u201call of Israel\u201d to war while he remains \u201csitting in Jerusalem.\u201d(2 Samuel 11:1) Everything that follows is colored by this disparity between David and his people. By sending others to do his work for him, David separated himself from his people\u2019s pursuits and experiences. He lost sight of the Deuteronomistic warning that a king mustn\u2019t allow his heart to \u201crise above his brethren.\u201d (Deuteronomy 17:20) And it was this separation between the sender and the sent that enabled him to stroll the roofs and pursue his own illicit indulgences while his people and the Ark, as Uriah pointedly told him, were \u201csitting in huts.\u201d (2 Samuel 11:11)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Uriah\u2019s mention of the Ark reminds us that David once displayed a similar sensitivity, saying \u201cHere I am sitting in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the LORD sits in a tent!\u201d (2 Samuel 7:2) By disconnecting himself from his people\u2019s experiences, David lost this sensitivity, and so much more besides.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Il Guercino, (1591 - 1666), King David Sending A Message \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60310,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and yoab","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","width":1280,"height":1229,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-300x288.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":288,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-768x737.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":737,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-1024x983.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":983,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1229,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1229,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-1200x1152.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1152,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-437x420.jpg","home_baner-width":437,"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":"David\u2019s Messengers","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"With so many layers of mediation between his desires and their execution, David\u2019s sins can\u2019t be mitigated as an impulse of the moment","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60310,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and yoab","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","width":1280,"height":1229,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-300x288.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":288,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-768x737.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":737,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-1024x983.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":983,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1229,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1229,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-1200x1152.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1152,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab-437x420.jpg","home_baner-width":437,"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"721","name":"Text","old_id":"1121"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":14,"id":"60320","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"A Soldier\u2019s Conditional Writ of Divorce ","post_title":"A Soldier\u2019s Conditional Writ of Divorce","slug":"a-soldiers-conditional-writ-of-divorce","old_id":"60320","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33877,"post_title":"Marc Bregman","slug":"marc-bregman","old_id":"33877","first_name":"Marc","last_name":"Bregman","description":"Marc Bregman received his Ph.D. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1991. He taught at the Hebrew Union College (Jerusalem), The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, and at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheba, Israel. During 1993 he was Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University, and during 1996 he was the Stroum Professor of Jewish Studies and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. During 2005, Bregman served as the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University and was awarded a Teaching Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has served as Forchheimer Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author of The Tanhuma-Yelammedenu Literature: Studies in the Evolution of the Versions (Gorgias Press, 2003). In 2006, Bregman was appointed the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, where he also headed the program in Jewish Studies, until 2013. Bregman retired from UNCG as of July 31, 2017. He has now returned to Jerusalem where he is continuing his research and teaching activities.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Marc Bregman is the Herman and Zelda Bernard Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies emeritus, at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro.","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33878,"alt":"Marc Bregman","title":"Marc Bregman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","width":361,"height":488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-222x300.jpg","medium-width":222,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":488,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":488,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":488,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":488,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":488,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Marc-Bregman-311x420.jpg","home_baner-width":311,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"If Bathsheba indeed had gotten a get, would that get David out of trouble?\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Our chapter narrates how King David had sexual relations with a married woman, Bathsheba. When she informed David that she had become pregnant with his child, David had her husband, Uriah the Hittite, one of his soldiers, killed in battle (2 Samuel 11:2-18).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 107a) presents David as a model of how not to behave: One should never put his own ability to resist sin to the test, since David, king of Israel, did so and failed. David forgot that \u201cthere is a small organ in man that when he starves it, it is satiated; but when he satiates it, it is hungry for still more.\" Rashi understands this to suggest that though David had just that day slept with his legitimate wife, he was nevertheless captivated by the allure of a different beautiful, married woman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Talmud goes on to depict Bathsheba washing her hair behind a screen. To tempt David, Satan shot an arrow that broke the screen leaving the undressed Bathsheba exposed to the king\u2019s view from the roof of his palace. Immediately, \u201cDavid sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him and he lay with her\u2014she had just purified herself after her period\u2014and she went back home\u201d (2 Samuel 11: 4).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, the Talmud also attempts to ameliorate David\u2019s sin of having sex with a married woman (Leviticus 20:10). Bavli Shabbat 56a preserves a tradition that \u201cEveryone who went out in the wars of the house of David wrote a bill of divorcement for his wife.\u201d According to Rashi this was a \u201cconditional divorce document\u201d, Get \u2018al T'nai<\/em>, that would come into effect retrospectively from the time it was formalized in the event that later the husband did not return from battle. This was indeed the case with Uriah. So, at the time of David\u2019s initial liaison with Bathsheba, she might, in effect, already have been considered a \u201cdivorcee\u201d or at least a woman of doubtful marital status. And therefore, David was not clearly guilty of having had sex with a normally married woman.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Such \u201cconditional divorce documents\u201d have sometimes been used in subsequent Jewish history. In medieval times a trader about to set out on a long and dangerous journey might write a \u201cconditional get\u201d for his wife to prevent her from becoming an Aggunah (a woman \u201canchored\u201d in marriage), if he failed to return.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In more recent times, some rabbinic leaders tried to convince Jewish soldiers to grant a conditional divorce to their wives before going into battle. In 2001, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate prepared a form granting a Get \u2018al T'nai<\/em> for soldiers to sign. But the form was rarely signed. Military commanders argued that signing such a document before a military action would weaken morale. And soldiers worried that signing such a form might absolve the government of responsibility for their widows in the case of their falling in action.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60321,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-gett","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","width":374,"height":185,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","medium_large-width":374,"medium_large-height":185,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","large-width":374,"large-height":185,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","1536x1536-width":374,"1536x1536-height":185,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","2048x2048-width":374,"2048x2048-height":185,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","post_full_size-width":374,"post_full_size-height":185,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","home_baner-width":374,"home_baner-height":185}},"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 Soldier\u2019s Conditional Writ of Divorce","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"If Bathsheba indeed had gotten a get, would that get David out of trouble?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60321,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-gett","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","width":374,"height":185,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","medium_large-width":374,"medium_large-height":185,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","large-width":374,"large-height":185,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","1536x1536-width":374,"1536x1536-height":185,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","2048x2048-width":374,"2048x2048-height":185,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","post_full_size-width":374,"post_full_size-height":185,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-gett.jpg","home_baner-width":374,"home_baner-height":185}},"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"627","name":"Talmud","old_id":"1027"},{"term_id":"662","name":"Halacha","old_id":"1062"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"911","name":"Bathsheba","old_id":"1311"}]},{"order":15,"id":"60323","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Whoever Says David Sinned is Mistaken ","post_title":"Whoever Says David Sinned is Mistaken","slug":"whoever-says-david-sinned-is-mistaken","old_id":"60323","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. 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Preface: I once attended a conference on teaching Tanakh at Bar Ilan University. The subject of David and Bathsheba came up, and before the moderator could even call on her, Nehama Leibowitz was on her feet, from the audience, proclaiming: \u201cIt is prohibited to teach chapter 11, without teaching chapter 12.\u201d In deference to Nehama, I recommend reading my observations on this chapter in conjunction with tomorrow\u2019s post: \u201cYou are the Man\u2026 I have Sinned against the Lord<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

On the one hand, the Talmud reports the opinion of R. Shmuel bar Nahmani in the name of R. Yonatan: \u201cWhoever says that David sinned is mistaken\u201d (Shabbat 56a). On the other hand, we have the evidence of the text, which records his tryst with Bathsheba, a married woman, and his complicity in the death of her husband, Uriah, at the hands of the Ammonites. The rabbis deflected the challenge of these verses, claiming that they imply only an intent to sin, without the actual commission.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Full disclosure<\/b>: The Talmud acknowledges that the impulse to exonerate David came primarily from Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi who was descended from David and who manipulated the text (<\/span>mehapekh vedaresh<\/span><\/em>) to absolve him of two capital crimes\u2014adultery and murder.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Woven together, the tapestry of the rabbinic version of the episode reads as follows. David was practicing archery when one of his arrows went astray and knocked over the screen behind which Bathsheba was bathing. Overcome by her beauty, and somehow recognizing her as the intended mother of the son who was to succeed him, he instructed Joab to put her husband, Uriah, in jeopardy, so as to leave his ultimate fate, as it were, to God. As to the charge of adultery, they maintained that \u201cwhosoever went to war in David\u2019s army gave his wife a conditional divorce\u201d so that in case a soldier died, his wife was released retroactively. Therefore, Uriah\u2019s eventual death made Bathsheba a single woman even at the time she dallied with David. (They found an absolution from the murder charge, too, but we plan to confront that when we get to 1 Kings 2.)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In contrast to the talmudic attempt to exonerate David, we have the self-evident testimony of Scripture that David, confronted by the parable of Nathan the Prophet (12:1-4), admitted his guilt (12:13), and accepted its consequences, which included the death of the infant son born of that union\u2014although Solomon, a subsequent child by Bathsheba, does succeed him.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For more on that - see tomorrow\u2019s 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Sin leads to complication and complication to further sin as David uses his royal power to cover his own misdeeds.","tile_preview_image":{"id":108885,"alt":"","title":"-635baf915f04f--635baf915f050tanakh podcast - Alex Israel.JPG","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","width":350,"height":352,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG-298x300.jpg","medium-width":298,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","medium_large-width":350,"medium_large-height":352,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","large-width":350,"large-height":352,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","1536x1536-width":350,"1536x1536-height":352,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","2048x2048-width":350,"2048x2048-height":352,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","post_full_size-width":350,"post_full_size-height":352,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/10\/635baf915f04f-635baf915f050tanakh-podcast-Alex-Israel.JPG.jpg","home_baner-width":350,"home_baner-height":352}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/5MzqFTfdkdH6JOiNUkM24e","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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"589","name":"audio","old_id":"989"},{"term_id":"857","name":"podcast","old_id":"1257"}]},{"order":17,"id":"60312","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Joab, David\u2019s Fixer ","post_title":"Joab, David\u2019s Fixer","slug":"joab-davids-fixer","old_id":"60312","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34891,"post_title":"Miriam Gedwiser","slug":"miriam-gedwiser","old_id":"34891","first_name":"Miriam","last_name":"Gedwiser ","description":"Miriam Gedwiser teaches Talmud and Tanakh at Ramaz Upper Upper school and is a core faculty member at Drisha. 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Chapter 11 begins with Joab at battle while intrigue unfolds in the King\u2019s court. In this sense, it is similar to the last time we last saw Joab, in<\/span> Chapter 3<\/span><\/a>. There, while Joab was at battle, David and Abner had been conducting high stakes negotiations over the future of Israel. Joab had meddled in affairs above his pay grade by taking his personal revenge on Abner, perhaps also with a pretense of second-guessing David for the good of the nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Unlike in Chapter 3, however, in chapter 11 Joab is unflinchingly obedient. When David says to send Uriah back, Joab does. When David says to have Uriah killed, Joab does. Because he simply does what David says, Joab nearly recedes into the background of the chapter, like the many anonymous \u201cmessengers\u201d who carry news back and forth between David and Batsheba, and between Jerusalem and the battlefront.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But Joab is not an anonymous messenger.\u00a0 His name is mentioned 11 times in the Chapter - more than Bathsheba is mentioned (either by name or by designation as \u201cthe woman\u201d or \u201cUriah\u2019s wife\u201d). The text calls attention to the fact that Joab\u2019s obedience is a conscious choice that does not erase him as a subject.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Paradoxically, the fact that Joab could have chosen to disobey, but did not, puts him in a position of power relative to David. David needed Joab\u2019s loyalty, and it\u2019s quite possible that Joab knew why. Joab\u2019s obedience, then, at once compromises him (by implicating him in David\u2019s sins) and elevates him (by giving him leverage over David).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How does Joab use this position? Although Joab never comes out and rebukes David, we can sense a hint of frustration with David\u2019s actions in Joab\u2019s charge to the (anonymous) messenger in verses 19-21. Joab instructs the messenger that David may respond to the news of Israel\u2019s battlefield losses with accusations: \u201cWhy did you come so close to the city to attack it? Didn\u2019t you know that they would shoot from the wall?\u201d Joab instructs the messenger to reply to David\u2019s imagined anger with the simple sentence, five words in the Hebrew, \u201cYour servant Uriah the Hittite was among those killed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps Joab imagined the exchange with the messenger as a prompt that would encourage the king to recognize how far he had gone astray. Joab intended the news to work up David\u2019s indignation over the losses, and only then to have the messenger force David to face the fact that the cause of the losses was his own order to have Uriah killed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We do not know what would have happened had the conversation gone as planned, however, because the messenger front-loads the news of Uriah\u2019s death, perhaps to avoid the king\u2019s predicted anger. It falls to the prophet Nathan, in the next chapter, to use a similar strategy to bring David to a recognition of his sin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Previous installments in this series on Joab can be found at: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>I Sam. 26<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> II Sam. 2<\/span><\/a>, and<\/span> II Sam. 3<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: David and Joab \/ BAS Library<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60313,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and yoab2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","width":600,"height":346,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":346,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":346,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":346,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":346,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":346,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":346}},"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":"Joab, David\u2019s Fixer","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Joab\u2019s obedience to David compromises him, with guilt, but also elevates him, with leverage","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60313,"alt":"","title":"2sam11-david and yoab2","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","width":600,"height":346,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":346,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":346,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":346,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":346,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":346,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam11-david-and-yoab2.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":346}},"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":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"900","name":"Joab","old_id":"1300"}]},{"order":18,"id":"59812","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- II Samuel 11 ","post_title":"A Lesson on the Daily Chapter- II Samuel 11","slug":"a-lesson-on-the-daily-chapter-ii-samuel-11","old_id":"59812","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40936,"post_title":"David Silber","slug":"david-silber-2","old_id":"40936","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Silber ","description":"Rabbi David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. 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1.Bath-sheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite;\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

when King David sent messengers to<\/span>
\r\n<\/span> summon her to his palace<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The king commands; how can I disobey?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A lion roars, and no one can control<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A hungry lion\u2019s passions, or its soul.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>The lion crouches, waiting for its prey.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Ever since my husband went away,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>I\u2019ve dreamt a greedy lion stalked and stole<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A pauper\u2019s lamb; and no one could console<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>The man whose lamb the lion schemed to slay. <\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Why can\u2019t Uriah fly to me? How tame<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>My husband is, a gentle bird whose wings<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Embrace my head and arms before we sleep.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>He loves to sing to me and chant my name,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Then feather me with earrings, bracelets, rings.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Yes, I recall Uriah\u2019s smile, and weep.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

2. Bath-sheba, the widow of Uriah the Hittite;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

for King David, her second husband<\/span>
\r\n<\/span> and the father of her son, Solomon<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The king devotes an hour every day<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>To teach our son to read the Torah scroll,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Recite his psalms, and gain the self-control<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A future king must have; and then, they pray.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>He smiles when watching Solomon at play,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>At climbing trees or riding his new foal.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>I know the king would sacrifice his soul<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>To save our son, this child he won\u2019t betray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But what am I to him?\u00a0 A badge of shame,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A mark of Cain, a leper\u2019s bell that rings<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>As soon as I awake until I sleep.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>He turns his head and never says my name<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Although to all his other wives he sings.<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Yes, I recall Uriah\u2019s smile, and weep.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Rembrandt, Bathsheba with the letter of David c. 1625 until 1650 \/ wikimedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60327,"alt":"","title":"Bathseba met Davids brief, kopie van Rembrandt Harmensz van 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","post_title":"How Active Was Bathsheba\u2019s Participation?","slug":"how-active-was-bathshebas-participation","old_id":"60257","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":54356,"post_title":"Robert Alter","slug":"robert-alter","old_id":"54356","first_name":"Robert ","last_name":"Alter","description":"Robert Alter is the Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has written over twenty books, focusing on such topics as the European novel from the 18th century to the present, contemporary American fiction, and modern Hebrew literature. He has also written extensively on the literary aspects of the Bible. His most recent work is his monumental three volume translation of the entire Hebrew Bible - The Hebrew Bible, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019 - from which the selections in 929 are taken. 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Norton & Co., 2019.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":54357,"alt":"","title":"robert alter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","width":184,"height":275,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium-width":184,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","medium_large-width":184,"medium_large-height":275,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","large-width":184,"large-height":275,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","1536x1536-width":184,"1536x1536-height":275,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","2048x2048-width":184,"2048x2048-height":275,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","post_full_size-width":184,"post_full_size-height":275,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/robert-alter.jpg","home_baner-width":184,"home_baner-height":275}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"274","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The string of verbs possibly reveal a subtext...","post_main_content_content":"

11:4 \u201cAnd David sent messengers and fetched her and she came to him and he lay with her, she having just cleansed herself of her impurity, and she returned to her house.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Commentary: It is not uncommon for biblical narrative to use a chain of verbs in this fashion to indicate rapid, single-minded action. What is unusual is that one verb in the middle of this sequence switches grammatical subject -- from David to Bathsheba. When the verb \u201ccome to\u201d or \u201ccome into\u201d has a masculine subject and \u201cinto\u201d is followed by a feminine object, it designates a first act of sexual intercourse. One wonders whether the writer is boldly toying with this double meaning, imitating an element of active participation by Bathsheba in David\u2019s sexual summons. The text is otherwise entirely silent on her feelings, giving the impression that she is passive as others act on her. But her later behavior in the matter of her son\u2019s succession to the throne (1 Kings 1--2) suggests a woman who has her eye on the main chance, and it is possible that opportunism, not merely passive submission, explains her behavior here as well. In all of this, David\u2019s sending messengers first to ask about Bathsheba and then to call her to his bed means that the adultery can scarcely be a secret within the court.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible<\/em>, vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"From Robert Alter's Bible Translation and Commentary","tile_main_caption":"How Active Was Bathsheba\u2019s Participation?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The string of verbs possibly reveal a subtext...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":54890,"alt":"","title":"Alter-Cover","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","width":1200,"height":693,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-300x173.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":173,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-768x444.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1024x591.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":591,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1200,"1536x1536-height":693,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1200,"2048x2048-height":693,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-1200x693.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":693,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover-727x420.jpg","home_baner-width":727,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":21,"id":"60258","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Biblical Snapshots: What Is David Doing Home Anyway? 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\u201cDavid and Bat Sheva: Sin and Redemption\u201d<\/a><\/u> by Haim Ovadia: Finding redemption after an error.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cRepentance in Tanach\u201d<\/a><\/u> by Nechama Atlas: What does the Bible teach about repentance?<\/p>\r\n

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    \r\n\t
  1. How on earth?<\/em> The story does not give an answer to the question of how we\u2019ve reached such a moral morass, but the plot line and its telling arouse thoughts about the corrupting nature of power, of temptation, of secrecy and lies, and getting entangled in them.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Uriah as mirror to David<\/em>. Uriah the faithful warrior serves as a critical mirror to David\u2019s corrupt actions. National service vs. private lust. Loyalty vs. betrayal. He rejects David\u2019s suggestion: \u201cThe Ark and Israel and Judah are located at Succoth, and my master Joab and Your Majesty\u2019s men are camped in the open; how can I go home and eat and drink and sleep with my wife?\u201d (verse 11). And then he loyally goes back to the front, personally carrying the letter that betrays him and arranges his own death.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. No need to apologize<\/em>. Yoab fears David\u2019s reaction to the report of the casualties of war, those that died with Uriah. But David\u2019s reply is almost apathetic: \u201c\u2018Do not be distressed about the matter. The sword always takes its toll\u201d (verse 25).<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. And what about her?<\/em> Just two (Hebrew) words are reported as having been said by Bathsheba in this whole story: \u201cI am pregnant\u201d (verse 5).<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"II Samuel 11","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to ponder","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","width":1000,"height":1000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-768x768.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":768,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","large-width":1000,"large-height":1000,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","1536x1536-width":1000,"1536x1536-height":1000,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","2048x2048-width":1000,"2048x2048-height":1000,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder.jpg","post_full_size-width":1000,"post_full_size-height":1000,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Points-to-ponder-420x420.jpg","home_baner-width":420,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"11","chapter_main_number":"274","date":"20260916","wall_id":"274"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false}],"static_cube_title":"","static_cube_brief":"","static_cube_color":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall\/60114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wall"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wall"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}