{"id":60982,"date":"2018-07-09T17:44:01","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-1057\/"},"modified":"2023-03-10T07:05:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T05:05:27","slug":"wall-1057","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-1057\/","title":{"rendered":"weekend-from-20230305-to-20230311"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"weekend","wall_id":"1057","date_from":"20230305","date_to":"20230311","book":"II Samuel","books_group":"Prophets","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"43235","color":"#effaea","size":"1","name":"Artistic Intuition And Creativity ","post_title":"Artistic Intuition And Creativity","slug":"artistic-intuition-and-creativity","old_id":"43235","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38437,"post_title":"Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield","slug":"rachel-jacoby-rosenfield","old_id":"38437","first_name":"Rachel ","last_name":"Jacoby Rosenfield ","description":"Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield is Executive Vice President at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Previously, she served as Director of Experiential Education at American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and as the founding Director of the Jewish Greening Fellowship. Rachel was a fellow in the national Selah Leadership Program, and the Muehlstein Fellowship for Jewish Professional Leadership, and a member of Advancing Women Professional\u2019s Action Learning Team for social justice professionals. She lives in Riverdale, NY, with her family.","short_description":"Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield is Executive Vice President at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38438,"alt":"","title":"Rachel Jacoby Rosenfield","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","width":200,"height":179,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","medium_large-width":200,"medium_large-height":179,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","large-width":200,"large-height":179,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","1536x1536-width":200,"1536x1536-height":179,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","2048x2048-width":200,"2048x2048-height":179,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","post_full_size-width":200,"post_full_size-height":179,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Rachel-Jacoby-Rosenfield-e1534961736337.jpg","home_baner-width":200,"home_baner-height":179}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"81","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"To create objects of holy significance while being vigilant about the danger of graven images","post_main_content_content":"

Sitting in shul on Shabbat my eyes wander from the familiar mosaic of stained glass -- white doves against a techelet-blue background. I critique the paint color, which has never landed quite right on my eyes and admire the parochet, ark curtain, which with the signs of the 12 tribes embroidered in shimmering golden thread against a royal purple background. The visual familiarity of the sanctuary, this haven, mingles with the familiar words of liturgy, the sounds of voices I know so well, so that the sanctuary is not merely a space but a holding place for a sacred community that looks, sounds and feels holy week after week.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The aesthetics of our Jewish spaces, whether our sanctuaries or our homes are expressions, our own embodied interpretations, of how Jewish life should look, feel and be lived. \u00a0When Bezalel is appointed to build the Tabernacle, the Torah tells us that God chooses him because he is endowed with \u201ca divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft,\u201d remarkable in and of itself as Bezalel, like the rest of the Israelites, has just escaped slavery in Egypt. Despite living under conditions that may have deadened the creative spirit, Bezalel bears a unique gift that prepares him to be the architect and builder of the first Jewish building. And maybe more impressive, he is endowed with ability to create a place and objects of holy significance in the context of a text that is extremely vigilant about the danger of graven images. One need only read Exodus 32 to understand why. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

What makes Bezalel so special? A midrash in Brachot 55a parses the difference between the commandment that God gives to Moses to tell Bezalel to make \u201ca tabernacle, ark and furnishings\u201d (in that order, v. 7ff) and the order Moses tells Bezalel to do the work, first the ark, then the furnishings, then the tabernacle (as described in chapters 25-26). \u00a0The midrash tells us that Bezalal objected to the order that Moses presented saying, \u201cIf I do so in the order you have commanded, the furnishing that I make, where shall I put them?\u201d Bezalel, guided by his sense of design, his visual-spatial intuition, recognizes that the instructions Moses conveys could not have been God\u2019s intention. Moses, impressed, responds \u201cyou must have been in the shadow of God\u201d in Hebrew, <\/span>b\u2019tzel el <\/span><\/i>(hence his name) because you got it just right. In other words, you must have overheard God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What Moses misses here, is that Bezalal\u2019s ability to understand is not a matter of overhearing. \u00a0It\u2019s an act of artistic intuition. He has an ability to instinctively understand how the physical world can be reshaped to mediate a sacred relationship between the congregation and God. He is in God\u2019s shadow not as a conduit of God\u2019s word, but as a creative interpreter of it. The ability to fashion the created world into structures, however imperfect, in which the Divine feels proximate and family and community are uplifted and inspired is a sacred one. In some sense, we can all strive to be artists in the spirit of Bezalel, imbued with the sensibility to design homes, synagogues and other Jewish spaces as physical manifestations of our spiritual aspirations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Detail of the Exodus from Egypt from the Bird's Head Haggadah: bird-headed Jews bake matzos for the journey and leave Egypt with their possessions (left-hand page); a blank-faced Pharaoh and Egyptian soldiers pursue the Jewish nation (right-hand page); c. 1300 \/ wikipedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":105177,"alt":"","title":"-62933d4f0e628--62933d4f0e629ex31-birds head 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","short_description":"Shoshana Michael Zucker is a translator and editor and lives in Kfar Saba \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38048,"alt":"","title":"Shoshana Michael Zucker","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","width":231,"height":310,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-224x300.jpg","medium-width":224,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","medium_large-width":231,"medium_large-height":310,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","large-width":231,"large-height":310,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","1536x1536-width":231,"1536x1536-height":310,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","2048x2048-width":231,"2048x2048-height":310,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","post_full_size-width":231,"post_full_size-height":310,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","home_baner-width":231,"home_baner-height":310}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"81","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The economy exists to serve society and not the other way around","post_main_content_content":"

Just before Moses returns to the people with the detailed instructions for building the tabernacle and making its various appurtenances, God repeats the commandment to keep Shabbat (Exodus 31:12-17). As in Exodus 20, the origin of Shabbat in Creation is stressed. This is a message that the newly freed slaves needed to hear. After experiencing uninterrupted labor throughout the years of slavery, they may have found it hard to believe that the new Master\u2013who had defeated Pharaoh with great force, and is now handing down work orders\u2013does not also demand constant work. But the language here is stronger, and two severe penalties, being cut-off from the people and death, are explicitly stated for Shabbat violation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What is so critical?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

First, note the word \u201cnonetheless\u201d (<\/span>\u05d0\u05da, ach<\/em><\/span>). God is emphasizing that building the tabernacle and its furnishings, does not supersede Shabbat rest. The tabernacle is \u201cfor\u201d God (although not as a dwelling) but Shabbat is the everlasting sign (<\/span>\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea, ot<\/em><\/span>) of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. Before the tabernacle, in the Temple, and after its destruction; in the wilderness, in the Land of Israel and in exile: Shabbat is eternal and therefore prior.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But there is more. Apparently, the harsh threats are needed because it is hard for people to accept that our worth as human beings does not derive solely from our work, the income we earn, or even from our creative activity, but rather from the simple fact that we were created in the image of God, just before that very first Shabbat.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Economic production is not the be-all and end-all of society. The economy exists to serve society and not the other way around. That is the deeper message that is often lost, both by those who observe Shabbat and those who do not. In the early years of Zionist settlement, prominent leaders fought for Shabbat to be kept even among \u201csecular\u201d Zionists, as Haim Nahman Bialik urged members of the Kevutzat Geva:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is Shabbat, not the culture of oranges or potatoes, that preserved the existence of our people during all the days of its wanderings, and now that we are returning to the land of our forefathers, you want to discard it like an unwanted object? Without Shabbat, there is no Divine image and no human image in the world.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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He holds a doctorate in English Literature from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford.\r\n","short_description":"Ari Hoffman is a columnist for the Forward, where he writes about politics and culture, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at N.Y.U.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36424,"alt":"","title":"Ari Hoffman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","width":1044,"height":1438,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-218x300.jpg","medium-width":218,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-743x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":743,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-743x1024.jpg","large-width":743,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","1536x1536-width":1044,"1536x1536-height":1438,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400.jpg","2048x2048-width":1044,"2048x2048-height":1438,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-871x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":871,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Ari-Hoffman-e1532985000400-305x420.jpg","home_baner-width":305,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"82","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The fear of being abandoned and the pleasure of celebrating with abandon","post_main_content_content":"

Rarely has tremendous wrongdoing seemed as hopelessly desperate and glamorous as it does in this chapter. Moses has disappeared into the clouds, maybe gone, maybe absconded into angelhood. The ringing trumpets and unfathomable Voice heard at Sinai have disappeared back into Sinaitic silence. In their place, the text crackles with antsy nervousness and unease. Maybe the intimacy of the encounter with the Divine left them on edge, either in destabilizing shock or with a greedy desire for more. Those forty days of waiting must have been textured by the subtle shifting of mood and the rising volume of tented mutterings and increasingly baleful glances. The days added up, perhaps notched onto a hide or grooved into the still fragile psyche of a just-born nation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Sullen waiting soon gives way to a propulsive momentum that swiftly carries the chapter into devastation. The donation of the gold, the acclamation of the calf, and the early rising all point to a people eager for a touch of the Divine, for whom the difficult dwelling in the interstitial spaces between knowing and not knowing, remembrance and purpose have proved too arduous. In a wonderful exploration of the knowledge delivered to us by the senses, the tablets-hauling Moses hears the people before he sees them. Joshua has trouble naming the tune, but Moses does not. Damningly, the melody is not one of war or struggle, but the undulating tones of joy, perhaps reminiscent of the last time the people sang, against the crashing waves of the Red Sea. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

If we lean our ear to the page, we can just make out their song; wild, joyful, holding both the fear of being abandoned and the pleasure of celebrating with abandon. There would be punishment and a reckoning to come. But it might be said that in those moments, the Jewish people felt truly free.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

cover illustration:\u00a0The Adoration of the Golden Calf<\/i>\u00a0\u2013 Picture from the\u00a0Hortus deliciarum<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Herrad of Landsberg<\/a>\u00a0(12th century).<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":43453,"alt":"","title":"Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum,_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb.jpg","width":3558,"height":2145,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-300x181.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":181,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-768x463.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":463,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-1024x617.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":617,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":926,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1235,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-1200x723.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":723,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Ex32-Hortus_Deliciarum_Der_Tanz_um_das_goldene_Kalb-697x420.jpg","home_baner-width":697,"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":"Of 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Presence Is On The Margins ","post_title":"God\u2019s Presence Is On The Margins","slug":"gods-presence-is-on-the-margins","old_id":"43358","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":43209,"post_title":"Jill Jacobs","slug":"jill-jacobs","old_id":"43209","first_name":"Jill ","last_name":"Jacobs ","description":"Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She is a Conservative rabbi and the author of \"Where Justice Dwells: A Hands-On Guide to Doing Social Justice in Your Jewish Community\" and \"There Shall be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law and Tradition,\" both published by Jewish Lights. \r\nShe holds rabbinic ordination and an MA in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she was a Wexner Fellow; an MS in Urban Affairs from Hunter College, and a BA from Columbia University. She is also a graduate of the Mandel Institute Jerusalem Fellows Program. She lives in New York with her husband, Rabbi Guy Austrian, and their two daughters.","short_description":"Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the Executive Director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":43211,"alt":"","title":"jill jacobs.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568.png","width":814,"height":737,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568-300x272.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":272,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568-768x695.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":695,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-1024x891.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":891,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568.png","1536x1536-width":814,"1536x1536-height":737,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568.png","2048x2048-width":814,"2048x2048-height":737,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568.png","post_full_size-width":814,"post_full_size-height":737,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/jill-jacobs.jpg-e1541167596568-464x420.png","home_baner-width":464,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"83","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A response to stiff-necked rebelliousness, and the desire for closeness","post_main_content_content":"

The Yom Kippur confessional prayer begins, \u201cWe are no so brazen or stiff-necked to say to you, \u2018We are righteous and have not sinned.\u2019\u201d This preamble is surprising: we could easily launch into the litany of sins without first noting our refusal to profess innocence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Responding to this question, Rabbi Nathan Sternhartz of Nemirov (1780-1845), a disciple of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, distinguishes between those who deny God altogether, and therefore \u201csay that they are righteous and have not sinned at all, since they reject all of the commandments of the Torah\u201d and those who \u201cfeel the deep pain of sin, such that we still ask for <\/span>teshuvah <\/span><\/i>and forgiveness,\u201d and for whom hope remains. (<\/span>Likkutei Halakhot Orach Chaim<\/span><\/i>, Laws of Tachanun, Chapter 5:5)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

No matter how severe human transgressions may be, those who are willing to do <\/span>teshuvah<\/span><\/i>, and to seek closeness with the Divine, always have the chance for a better future.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Thus, following the Israelites\u2019 greatest act of rebellion to date\u2014the sin of the golden calf\u2014God responds with the most brutal of punishments: the absence of Godself from the community. In contrast to the posture of those who confess on Yom Kippur, the people here <\/span>are <\/span><\/i>so stiff-necked as to have denied God and the divine commandments.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cI will not go in your midst, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on your way.\u201d (Exodus 33:3)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This decision aims to protect the people from divine anger. The commentator Sforno (1475-1550) explains, \u201cIf I dwell among you, the punishment for your sins will be greater.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Even so, the total absence of God turns out to be a burden too difficult to bear. Just a chapter later, Moses begs, \u201cIf I have gained Your favor, O Lord, pray, let the Lord go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people.\u201d (Exodus 34:9) The risk of harsh punishment proves less frightening than the absence of the divine presence.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the meantime, Moses discovers a way to maintain the people\u2019s access to God:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Now Moses would take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp. . . whoever sought the LORD would go out to the Tent of Meeting that was outside the camp. (33:7)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The divine presence may not be readily visible among the people, but remains available on the margins, for those who seek it.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"God\u2019s Presence is on the Margins","tile_main_caption":"The total absence of God turns out to be a burden too difficult to bear: the risk of harsh punishment proves less frightening than the absence of the divine presence.","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Exodus","chapter":"33","chapter_main_number":"83","date":"20251223","wall_id":"83"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"400","name":"Sin","old_id":"800"},{"term_id":"459","name":"Forgiveness","old_id":"859"},{"term_id":"695","name":"Calf","old_id":"1095"},{"term_id":"699","name":"Teshuvah","old_id":"1099"}]},{"order":5,"id":"60859","color":"#f6edf6","size":"1","name":"Joab\u2019s Choice\u00a0 ","post_title":"Joab\u2019s Choice\u00a0","slug":"joabs-choice","old_id":"60859","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. She has a BA from the University of Chicago in the History and Philosophy of Science and a JD from NYU School of Law. She studied in the Drisha Scholars Circle as well as at other programs in Israel and Boston, and has taught at a variety of synagogues and Hillels. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm, and completed a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York","short_description":"Miriam Gedwiser teaches Talmud and Tanakh at Ramaz and at Drisha.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60045,"alt":"","title":"Miriam Gedwiser 2 cropped","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","width":453,"height":522,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-260x300.jpg","medium-width":260,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","medium_large-width":453,"medium_large-height":522,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","large-width":453,"large-height":522,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":453,"1536x1536-height":522,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":453,"2048x2048-height":522,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":453,"post_full_size-height":522,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-364x420.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"281","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Joab serves the kingdom, not the king","post_main_content_content":"

When Absalom first began to assert himself, Joab was<\/span> powerless<\/span><\/a> to stop him.\u00a0 Now, the conflict between David and Absalom is a zero sum game: neither can rule while the other survives. The fact that the conflict centers on the person of David dictates, paradoxically, that David stay out of the military action and Joab take center stage. (Previously, David got into trouble when<\/span> he stayed home<\/span><\/a> while Joab and his men went out to fight). And yet, despite his physical remove, David attempts to dictate the most important term of the battle: \u201cDeal gently with my boy Absalom, for my sake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joab, whose<\/span> obedience<\/span><\/a> seems secure after<\/span> shaky beginnings<\/span><\/a>, is in a bind. His job is to serve the king. But in this case, what the king wants as a father will undercut him as a king; Joab<\/span> knows full well<\/span><\/a> that Absalom will remain a source of potential chaos in the kingdom as long as he is alive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joab\u2019s choice to kill Absalom is highlighted with masterful detail.\u00a0 When informed that Absalom is hanging in a tree, Job asks the messenger, incredulously, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you kill him then and there?\u201d For Joab, it is as if the King\u2019s impossible request to \u201cdeal gently\u201d has simply not registered. The text has Joab\u2019s interlocutor explicitly cite the king\u2019s order, however, to highlight the conscious choice Joab is making.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What is at stake?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The man ends his reply to Joab with a cutting comment: \u201cIf I betrayed myself . . . you would have stood aloof.\u201d The man seems to understand as well as Joab - as well as anyone not blinded by affection or guilt like David - that Absalom must die for the conflict to end. But he also knows that bringing about Absalom\u2019s death in contradiction of David\u2019s edict is a grave personal risk. He almost dares Joab to take that risk upon himself rather than leave it to a subordinate. So Joab does.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What is at stake is, on one side, the stability of David\u2019s monarchy, and perhaps David\u2019s life.\u00a0 On the other side is Joab\u2019s own life and his relationship with David. Joab chooses the high road, risking himself for the good of the kingdom (even if the king doesn\u2019t realize it).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

While such a calculus may seem like it should be made by the king, not his general, Joab can sense (as the events of the next chapter make clear) that David is so compromised by his personal feelings that he cannot make the decision dispassionately or responsibly. Joab serves the kingdom, not the king, and is willing to risk himself to do so.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60860,"alt":"","title":"2sam18-chess","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Joab\u2019s Choice\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Joab serves the kingdom, not the king","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60860,"alt":"","title":"2sam18-chess","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-chess-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"18","chapter_main_number":"281","date":"20260927","wall_id":"281"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"900","name":"Joab","old_id":"1300"}]},{"order":6,"id":"60964","color":"#e0e9ef","size":"1","name":"David and Joab: An Irreparable Rift? ","post_title":"David And Joab: An Irreparable Rift?","slug":"david-and-joab-an-irreparable-rift","old_id":"60964","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. She has a BA from the University of Chicago in the History and Philosophy of Science and a JD from NYU School of Law. She studied in the Drisha Scholars Circle as well as at other programs in Israel and Boston, and has taught at a variety of synagogues and Hillels. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm, and completed a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York","short_description":"Miriam Gedwiser teaches Talmud and Tanakh at Ramaz and at Drisha.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60045,"alt":"","title":"Miriam Gedwiser 2 cropped","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","width":453,"height":522,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-260x300.jpg","medium-width":260,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","medium_large-width":453,"medium_large-height":522,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","large-width":453,"large-height":522,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":453,"1536x1536-height":522,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":453,"2048x2048-height":522,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":453,"post_full_size-height":522,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-364x420.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"282","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Joab may have saved David\u2019s kingdom by killing Absalom, but David will not forgive him for it","post_main_content_content":"

Joab <\/span>put himself on the line<\/span><\/a> to save David from his son, and himself. Now he has to save the kingdom from David\u2019s grief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This time, he doesn\u2019t try the soft persuasion that may have<\/span> worked in other cases<\/span><\/a> (but<\/span> not always<\/span><\/a>), but rather speaks directly and forcefully. \u201cToday you have humiliated all your followers, who this day saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubines.\u201d Joab killed Absalom for the good of the kingship and the nation it represents, not the king personally. He now opens his admonishment to David by mentioning the many people who follow and depend on him, as if to say: \u201csnap out of it.\u00a0 Ordinary people can grieve the death of even a rebellious son, but you have a public role that must come before personal feelings.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this message, Joab seems to have come full circle from<\/span> the first time<\/span><\/a> he killed a potential threat to David: Abner. Then, any politically or nationally reasonable justification (e.g., Abner was a potential fifth column) were secondary to Joab\u2019s personal motive: revenge for Abner killing Joab\u2019s brother. Now, Joab risks the king\u2019s ire to make sure he does what is best for the good of the nation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Now, it is David who seems to have mixed personal\/political motives. David does as Joab says, but does not speak directly to Joab for the rest of the chapter. When David offers the generalship to Amasa, Absalom\u2019s former general (and kinsman of David, Absalom, and the sons of Zeruiah), \u201cin place of Joab,\u201d it is on one level a shrewd political move. The men Joab has been commanding are already loyal to David. To solidify his hold over the others, David needs to bring someone from their side into a leadership position.\u00a0 But David\u2019s offer may also be a way to sideline Joab over Absalom\u2019s death. It\u2019s true that a king should be able to expect that his general will obey orders, which Joab did not. But if this were David\u2019s true motive for deposing Joab we can assume he would not seek to replace Joab, who violated one order, with Amasa, who joined an attempted coup.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Furthermore, When Joab\u2019s surviving brother Abishai suggests that David have Shimei ben Gera killed (Shimei cursed David when it looked like Absalom was ascendant, but now comes groveling back), David shoots back: \u201cWhat has this to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should cross me today? Should a single Israelite be put to death today? Don\u2019t I know that today I am again king over Israel?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s reference to \u201csons of Zeruiah,\u201d plural, tells us that Joab is<\/span> lurking in the background<\/span><\/a> of David\u2019s interaction with Abishai. He berates Abishai for seeking the death of David\u2019s rival, Shimei, as a proxy for berating Joab for killing David\u2019s rival, Absalom.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joab may have saved David\u2019s kingdom by killing Absalom, but David will not forgive him for it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Joab, Asahel, Abishai - The Sons of Zeruiah, James Tissot \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60986,"alt":"","title":"2sam19-sons of zeruiah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","width":449,"height":444,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-300x297.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":297,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","medium_large-width":449,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","large-width":449,"large-height":444,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":449,"1536x1536-height":444,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":449,"2048x2048-height":444,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":449,"post_full_size-height":444,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-425x420.jpg","home_baner-width":425,"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 And Joab: An Irreparable Rift?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Joab may have saved David\u2019s kingdom by killing Absalom, but David will not forgive him for it","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60986,"alt":"","title":"2sam19-sons of zeruiah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","width":449,"height":444,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-300x297.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":297,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","medium_large-width":449,"medium_large-height":444,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","large-width":449,"large-height":444,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":449,"1536x1536-height":444,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":449,"2048x2048-height":444,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":449,"post_full_size-height":444,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam19-sons-of-zeruiah-1-425x420.jpg","home_baner-width":425,"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":"19","chapter_main_number":"282","date":"20260928","wall_id":"282"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"459","name":"Forgiveness","old_id":"859"},{"term_id":"895","name":"Loyalty","old_id":"1295"},{"term_id":"900","name":"Joab","old_id":"1300"}]},{"order":7,"id":"61006","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Joab: Straight Shooter or Loose Cannon?\u00a0 ","post_title":"Joab: Straight Shooter or Loose Cannon?\u00a0","slug":"joab-straight-shooter-or-loose-cannon","old_id":"61006","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. She has a BA from the University of Chicago in the History and Philosophy of Science and a JD from NYU School of Law. She studied in the Drisha Scholars Circle as well as at other programs in Israel and Boston, and has taught at a variety of synagogues and Hillels. She previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm, and completed a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York","short_description":"Miriam Gedwiser teaches Talmud and Tanakh at Ramaz and at Drisha.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":60045,"alt":"","title":"Miriam Gedwiser 2 cropped","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","width":453,"height":522,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-260x300.jpg","medium-width":260,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","medium_large-width":453,"medium_large-height":522,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","large-width":453,"large-height":522,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":453,"1536x1536-height":522,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":453,"2048x2048-height":522,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":453,"post_full_size-height":522,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Miriam-Gedwiser-2-cropped-1-364x420.jpg","home_baner-width":364,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"283","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"He believes he is defending the kingdom - but maybe he is protecting only himself?","post_main_content_content":"

The way Joab kills Amasa is an uncanny echo of the way he<\/span> killed Abner<\/span><\/a>. In both cases, David sought to bring in a new general from a rival camp as a sign of unity. In both, the general was potential or actual rival of Joab, and of dubious loyalty to David. In both, Joab brought his victim close under the guise of friendly conversation, then killed him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What drives Joab here? Unlike in chapter 3, there is no brother\u2019s murder to avenge, and the text does not spell out Joab\u2019s motive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Perhaps, after his experience in the war against Absalom, Joab is done listening to David on matters of military strategy. He has no interest in David\u2019s new general, or in anything but removing the current threat to David\u2019s throne, Sheba, son of Bichri. Joab knows that time is of the essence, as David (<\/span>still not speaking to Joab<\/span><\/a>) told Abishai, \u201cpursue him, before he finds fortified towns and eludes us.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joab stands ready to ignore David\u2019s choice to depose him much as he stood ready to <\/span>ignore David\u2019s order<\/span><\/a> to save Absalom. Joab seems to still be thinking: David doesn\u2019t know what is good for him; what is good for him is me. Amasa, to Joab, is a distraction, and once he is removed (from life, then from the road) Joab can get on with the business of protecting the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Has Joab gone too far?\u00a0 It is dangerous when a one-time exception to the chain of command becomes, instead, the rule.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Even if Joab acts in the service of the king (as Joab sees it), his refusal to be controlled naturally gives him agency and standing independent of the king. \u201cWhoever favors Joab, and whoever is on David\u2019s side\u201d are separate categories to the followers, even as Joab himself believes they are collapsed. Joab has thus, in a small way, replicated the very sort of split allegiance that he has been fighting so hard<\/span> the<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>entire<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>book<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joab is back where we have seen him<\/span> before<\/span><\/a>: at once indispensable to David (he gets Sheba killed without a single battle) and in tension with him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David\u2019s reaction to this situation is hidden for now, but will become clear at the end of his life (in I Kings 2). But first, Joab will have one more chance to prove his loyalty to David, even when David errs. We will pick up there, in II Sam. 24, for the penultimate post in this series.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61007,"alt":"","title":"2sam20-cannon","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","width":1280,"height":728,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":728,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":728,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-1200x683.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":683,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-738x420.png","home_baner-width":738,"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":"Joab: Straight Shooter or Loose Cannon?\u00a0","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"He believes he is defending the kingdom - but maybe he is protecting only himself?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61007,"alt":"","title":"2sam20-cannon","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","width":1280,"height":728,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":728,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":728,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-1200x683.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":683,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-cannon-738x420.png","home_baner-width":738,"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":"20","chapter_main_number":"283","date":"20260929","wall_id":"283"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"895","name":"Loyalty","old_id":"1295"},{"term_id":"900","name":"Joab","old_id":"1300"}]},{"order":8,"id":"60875","color":"#e6f5f3","size":"1","name":"Leadership of Spirit; Leadership of Action ","post_title":"Leadership of Spirit; Leadership of Action","slug":"leadership-of-spirit-leadership-of-action","old_id":"60875","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33992,"post_title":"Bradley Shavit Artson","slug":"rabbi-dr-bradley-shavit-artson","old_id":"33992","first_name":"Bradley Shavit ","last_name":"Artson","description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles, and is professor of philosophy there. Artson is married to Elana Shavit Artson, and they are the parents of twins, Shira and Jacob.\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson is the Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33993,"alt":"","title":"Rabbi Dr Bradley Shavit Artson","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","width":204,"height":199,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-256x300.png","medium-width":256,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","medium_large-width":204,"medium_large-height":199,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","large-width":204,"large-height":199,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","1536x1536-width":204,"1536x1536-height":199,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","2048x2048-width":204,"2048x2048-height":199,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","post_full_size-width":204,"post_full_size-height":199,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Rabbi-Dr-Bradley-Shavit-Artson-e1532029361140.png","home_baner-width":204,"home_baner-height":199}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"281","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"What did the Israelites want David to be doing to advance the battle from within the city?","post_main_content_content":"

David\u2019s civil war with his own son, Absalom, is about to overflow into all out war. The aging king (and tormented father) feels called to stand at the head of his troops, just as he did during his youth, just as the kings of the region do in each of their wars. Boldly asserting his royal leadership, David tells the people gathered for combat, \u201cI shall also go forth with you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Surprisingly, in an age in which being king meant fomenting annual wars and riding in at the front of the army, David\u2019s people come up with a better idea. Despite the example of Pharaoh\u2019s leading the charge, of Assyrian kings riding their chariots against their enemies, the tribes of Israel offer David a better way. They highlight that his value is such that he will actually endanger the troops he escorts into battle \u2013 the enemy will seek to capture him, putting everyone around him at risk. And he is too important to the cause of Israel to fall into the hands of the rebels. \u201cIt is better that you help us from the city,\u201d they tell their king. And King David responds, \u201cWhatever is best in your eyes, I shall do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Where did the Israelites get the insight, unparalleled in their age, that their king can serve the cause best by not being in battle? And what, precisely, did they want David to be doing to advance the battle from within the city? Rashi and the Targum suggest that what David can do is offer prayers, and that the prayers of their poet king would do more to benefit the soldiers than any swordsmanship he might offer. Radak, on the other hand, suggests that what David can offer is his military advice.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Two different understandings of what leadership can offer.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

On the one hand, a sense of spiritual clarity, passion, and a consciousness of the divine. David, the author of Psalms, can provide uplift, courage and inspiration that is no less crucial for victory than the grueling physical exertion that accompanies war.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Or, armed by his many years of front line experience, David can literally harvest the broader perspective of the balcony, getting a view of all possibilities and offering strategies that can\u2019t be seen from the thick of the battle, the heat of the particular moment.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Maybe we don\u2019t have to pick between these possibilities. Leadership, it turns out, involves more than one path. We do need inspiration and passion to motivate the work of victory. We also need strategy and perspective to translate that passion into a pathway to triumph. David can offer both, but only by staying away from the front line.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

They also serve who stand behind the fray, offering uplift, strategy, hope, and tactics.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Frederick Leighton - David, 1865 \/ wikimedia<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":60876,"alt":"","title":"2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","width":800,"height":704,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-300x264.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":264,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-768x676.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":676,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":704,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":704,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":704,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":704,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-477x420.jpg","home_baner-width":477,"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":"Leadership of Spirit; Leadership of Action","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"What did the Israelites want David to be doing to advance the battle from within the city?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":60876,"alt":"","title":"2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","width":800,"height":704,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-300x264.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":264,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-768x676.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":676,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":704,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":704,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":704,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":704,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam18-Frederick_Leighton_-_David-477x420.jpg","home_baner-width":477,"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":"18","chapter_main_number":"281","date":"20260927","wall_id":"281"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"402","name":"Leadership","old_id":"802"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"}]},{"order":9,"id":"60880","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Family Relations And Power Politics ","post_title":"Family Relations And Power Politics","slug":"family-relations-and-power-politics","old_id":"60880","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":"282","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"When latent oedipal tensions come to the fore","post_main_content_content":"

The author presents his deepest insight into the pathologies of dynastic succession in his narrative of Absalom\u2019s rebellion, where the ultimate price of maintaining sovereignty was paid. The dynastic structure explored in the Absalom narrative dislodges what might be the cornerstone of the civilized order -- keeping at bay, repressing, and controlling a latent oedipal tension.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Undone in this rebellion was the immense civilizing effort entrenched in both the firm taboo against having sex with one\u2019s father\u2019s wives and the psychologically intolerable guilt stemming from the possible murder of the father. In the end, the oedipal drama was enacted only halfway. Having chosen political ambition over filial bonds, Absalom had sex publicly with his father\u2019s concubines. But the young usurper did not murder his father. Instead, he was defeated by his father, who possessed more skilled and seasoned military forces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When the family is turned into the exclusive vehicle for securing the continuity of government upon the ruler\u2019s death, the stakes become intolerably high. The winner-take-all nature of hereditary monarchy raises sibling rivalry among the potential successors to a fratricidal pitch. The delicate and arduous work of the civilizing project, especially the discipline imposed on intimate family relations, disintegrates under the pressure of power politics. Patriarchal families are afflicted with horizontal rivalries among brothers and vertical tensions between fathers and sons. These tensions, which are mitigated by deeply rooted social and cultural norms, burst into flames when the family is used as the principal vehicle for the transfer of such immense power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The narratives of Absalom\u2019s killing of Amnon and his rebellion against David manifest the breakdown of the delicate horizontal and vertical family structures under the strain of dynastic politics. Since the family is a centerpiece of political order within a traditional dynastic monarchy, its internal breakdown will also have a ripple effect, destabilizing the body politic as a whole.<\/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. 139-40.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":56668,"alt":"","title":"halbertal-book 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Samuel","chapter":"19","chapter_main_number":"282","date":"20260928","wall_id":"282"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"373","name":"Literature","old_id":"773"},{"term_id":"386","name":"Psychology","old_id":"786"},{"term_id":"423","name":"Politics","old_id":"823"},{"term_id":"914","name":"Absalom","old_id":"1314"}]},{"order":10,"id":"61001","color":"#f7f7f5","size":"1","name":"The Wise Woman From Abel Of Beth-Maacah ","post_title":"The Wise Woman From Abel Of Beth-Maacah","slug":"the-wise-woman-from-abel-of-beth-maacah","old_id":"61001","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":"283","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A minor biblical personality who becomes the undying \"Wise Old Woman\" of Jewish legend and folklore\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

Our chapter records in detail the rebellion against King David led by Sheba son of Bichri. This narrative begins with his dramatic proclamation: \u201cWe have no portion in David, no share in Jesse\u2019s son! Every man to his tent, O Israel!\u201d and ends with his being beheaded (20:1-22).\u00a0 In putting down this rebellion, Joab, David's captain, pursues Sheva ben Bikri to the fortified town of Abel of Beth-maacah. Just as Joab is about to breach the wall and destroy the town, a \"wise woman\" suddenly cries out from the city and convinces Joab to let the town hand over the rebel hiding there rather suffer complete destruction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This otherwise unnamed \"wise woman\" identifies herself by saying: \u201c\u2019Anokhi Shelumey \u2018Emuney Yisra\u2019el.\u201d <\/em>In the biblical context this might be translated: \"I am from among the peaceable and faithful of Israel\". But the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 94:9), interprets the word \u201cShelumey<\/em>\u201d to refer not to peaceability but to completion. This leads to the additional identification of the \u201cwise woman\u201d as the one who completed the number of seventy persons who accompanied Jacob to Egypt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In its primary context, this Midrash serves to solve a numerical problem in Genesis, Chapter 46:8-27, which states that \u201cthe total of Jacob\u2019s household who came to Egypt was seventy persons\u201d but lists only sixty-nine individuals (see Ibn-Ezra to Genesis 46:27). The Midrash states that it was Serah the daughter of Asher who completed (hishlimah<\/em>) the number of seventy. Though Serah is actually named among the seventy persons who came to Egypt (Genesis 46:17), the Midrash here apparently counts her as two persons due to her exceptional longevity, having lived from the time of Jacob until at least the time of David. The Midrash goes on to quote Serah as adding: \u201cIt is I who conveyed (hishlamti<\/em>) the faithful (ne'eman<\/em>) to the faithful (ne\u2019eman<\/em>), Joseph to Moses\u201d. This is an elliptical reference to Serah\u2019s earlier role in assisting Moses to recover Joseph\u2019s bones at the time of the Exodus from Egypt and convey them for reburial in Shechem in the Land of Israel (see Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael Be-Shallah 1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the Bible, Serah bat Asher remains just a name. But because her name is included in both the list of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob (Genesis 46:17) and also in the list of those who made the Exodus from Egypt with Moses (Numbers 26:46 and I Chronicles 7:30), the Rabbinic Sages determine that Serah \"spanned the generations\u201d from Jacob to Moses. Having granted her such remarkable longevity, the Sages go on to include this extraordinary woman among those few immortals who \"never tasted the taste of death\" and who are said to have \"entered Paradise alive\" (Yalqut Shimoni 2:367, Derekh Eretz 1:18).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By identifying Serah as the \u201cwise woman\u201d from Abel of Beth-maacah , the Rabbis develop this minor biblical personality into the undying \"Wise Old Woman\" of Jewish legend and folklore.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Image: Johann Christoph Weigel, Joab and the Wise Woman, woodcut, 1695 \/ 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Wise Woman From Abel Of Beth-Maacah","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A minor biblical personality who becomes the undying \"Wise Old Woman\" of Jewish legend and 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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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This chapter, like Chapter 15, brings us another nameless \u201cwise\/clever\u201d woman. Like the woman in Chapter 15 who pleads with David to reconcile with his son Absalom, this woman involves herself with the general Joab. But unlike Chapter 15\u2019s woman, she comes to Joab of her own accord, ready to negotiate for the fate of her city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Here is a woman who steps forward against an army with a battering ram to defend her city with only clever words. This unnamed woman acts as a de facto leader of her city. One must wonder: was she its leader? Did she act in the face of leadership who were taking no action? What did her neighbors think of her?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is of note that this woman protests against those who \u201cseek to bring death upon a mother city in Israel\u201d (20:19). Robert Alter, commenting on this chapter, asserts that \u201cIn this narrative reflecting a male warrior culture and acts of terrible violence, from decapitation to evisceration, a series of female figures -- Abigail, the Tekoite, the wise woman of Abel -- intervene to avert violence. The city itself is figured as a mother; its destruction would be a kind of matricide, and the wise woman speaks on behalf of the childbearers and nurturers of life in Israelite society to turn aside Joab\u2019s terrible swift sword.\u201d In Alter\u2019s account, this major city itself joins the rich lineage of women in Prophets who stand against the interminable violence of the narrative and the age. (See his commentary<\/a> on this chapter).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Those who step forward in front of battering rams are too often forgotten in the rush of history. The people who put themselves forward to jam the gears of violence are left nameless, in preference for the warriors who leave blood behind them on the road and walk away holding decapitated heads. We must do better to preserve their names.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61020,"alt":"","title":"2sam20-gears","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","width":1784,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-279x300.png","medium-width":279,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-768x827.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":827,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-951x1024.png","large-width":951,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","1536x1536-width":1427,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","2048x2048-width":1784,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-1115x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1115,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-390x420.png","home_baner-width":390,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The Heroines Who Jam The Gears Of Violence","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Why are they nameless, while we remember the warriors carrying the decapitated heads?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61020,"alt":"","title":"2sam20-gears","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","width":1784,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-279x300.png","medium-width":279,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-768x827.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":827,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-951x1024.png","large-width":951,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","1536x1536-width":1427,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears.png","2048x2048-width":1784,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-1115x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1115,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam20-gears-390x420.png","home_baner-width":390,"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":"20","chapter_main_number":"283","date":"20260929","wall_id":"283"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"402","name":"Leadership","old_id":"802"},{"term_id":"600","name":"Women","old_id":"1000"},{"term_id":"604","name":"Mothers","old_id":"1004"}]},{"order":12,"id":"61035","color":"#e8ecf6","size":"1","name":"A Story Of Multiple Covenants ","post_title":"A Story Of Multiple Covenants","slug":"a-story-of-multiple-covenants","old_id":"61035","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":60873,"post_title":"Rori Picker Neiss","slug":"rori-picker-neiss","old_id":"60873","first_name":"Rori Picker ","last_name":"Neiss ","description":"Maharat Rori Picker Neiss serves as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St Louis. 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The famine seems to come out of nowhere.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David, after three years of seeking the cause of this tribulation, turns to God to inquire. And God tells him, \u201cIt is on account of Saul and on account of his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rashi expounds upon this answer. <\/span>On account of Saul<\/span><\/i>, he states, who sinned and who was buried secretly and thus not eulogized with the respect due to him. <\/span>On account of his bloody house<\/span><\/i>, because he wiped out Nob, city of priests. And <\/span>because he put the Gibeonites to<\/span><\/i> death<\/span><\/i>, that when he wiped out the city of Nob he killed seven people from among the Gibeonites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Our story then actually begins in Joshua chapter 9. The people of Gibeon, appearing destitute, approached Joshua and proclaimed themselves to be foreigners, offering themselves as servants in exchange for a pact to spare their lives. Joshua agreed. Yet, the people soon learned that the Gibeonites were not actually from a distant country but were among their neighbors that they had set out to conquer. Nevertheless, the leaders of the community honored their treaty\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Saul, hundreds of years later, then violated this pact. While the text itself never tells the story explicitly, the verse, in referencing it here, tells us that it was in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah that Saul sought to wipe out the Gibeonites.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

David seeks to appease the Gibeonites and asks them what he can do to make expiation for the sin of Saul. The people claim that they want nothing but seven of Saul\u2019s descendants. An eye for an eye, it seems. David gives them over and the Gibeonites impale Saul\u2019s descendants on stakes.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And yet, David does not give all of Saul\u2019s immediate descendants. The text explicitly points out that he spares Mephiboshet because of David\u2019s covenant with his father, Jonathan (I Samuel 20).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, the appeasement of the Gibeonites alone is not sufficient to end the famine. It is only when David properly buries the remains of Saul and Jonathan that God heeds the plea of the land. God, in allowing retribution for the sin of Saul, also demands redress for the injustice done against Saul.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And so we have a story of covenants: covenants that endure despite foundations of deceit, covenants that endure beyond the lives of those who sealed them, and covenants that persist despite factors some might assume to be grounds for termination. And the story of a God who can recognize one\u2019s merits amidst one\u2019s failings, hold simultaneously one\u2019s faults and one\u2019s afflictions, and not only not allow one to cancel the other, but to seek remedy for both.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":51917,"alt":"","title":"dt29-covenant","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","2048x2048-width":1600,"2048x2048-height":900,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"A Story Of Multiple Covenants","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Covenants that endure despite foundations of deceit, beyond individual lives, that take into account both faults and afflictions","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":51917,"alt":"","title":"dt29-covenant","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant.jpg","2048x2048-width":1600,"2048x2048-height":900,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt29-covenant-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"II Samuel","chapter":"21","chapter_main_number":"284","date":"20260930","wall_id":"284"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"395","name":"Covenant","old_id":"795"},{"term_id":"834","name":"David","old_id":"1234"},{"term_id":"885","name":"Saul","old_id":"1285"}]},{"order":13,"id":"61046","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"To Suffer A Mother\u2019s Grief ","post_title":"To Suffer A Mother\u2019s Grief","slug":"to-suffer-a-mothers-grief","old_id":"61046","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":"284","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"And to prove a mother\u2019s love to be the most powerful force in a book about men\u2019s power","post_main_content_content":"

In 2 Samuel David famously cries, \u201cAbsalom, Absalom!\u201d But when I read this book, I grieve for the women. For<\/span> Michal, who falls victim to men\u2019s political power<\/span><\/a>. For<\/span> Bathsheba, who suffers in silence<\/span><\/a>. For<\/span> Tamar, whose life ends where male entitlement begins<\/span><\/a>. For these women\u2014and for all of us\u2014I have dedicated this eight-part series to the women of 2 Samuel. Today I conclude this project with one of the book\u2019s most heartbreaking tales\u2014as faced by one of its most stalwart women\u2014Rizpah the mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When we enter 2 Samuel 21, David\u2019s kingdom has been suffering a famine for three years. The remedy, David is told, is to hand over seven of Saul\u2019s sons to the Gibeonites to be sacrificed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And the king took the two sons of Rizpah\u2026 whom she had born to Saul... and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul\u2026 And he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the hill before the LORD... And they were put to death in the first days of the harvest\u2026<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Focusing on the personal, 2 Samuel 21 tells the story of two mothers who lose every last one of their sons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And Rizpah\u2026 took sackcloth and [made a little tent for herself] from the beginning of the harvest till the waters poured down on them from the heavens, and she did not allow the fowl of the heavens to settle on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rizpah\u2019s sons were brutally murdered. Impaled and strung up for all to see. And when no one took their bodies down\u2014when the Gibeonites and David alike failed to honor the dead by interning their bodies\u2014Rizpah sat vigil. The grieving mother made herself a home on the hillside beneath her dead sons and stayed by their side, protecting them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Biblical scholar Robert Alter points out that \u201cthe beginning of the barley harvest,\u201d when the murders took place, \u201cwould be in April. The bereaved Rizpah then watches over the corpses throughout the hot months of the summer, until the rains return\u2026 in the fall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From spring until fall, a mother sits beside the bodies of her murdered sons. Beneath their shadows, bearing the unimaginable weight of a mother\u2019s grief, she sits until she sees justice done for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Today, Rizpah might be<\/span> Sybrina Fulton dedicating her life to fighting for justice<\/span><\/a> after the senseless murder of her son Trayvon Martin. She could be any mother who lost her child to gun violence, to police brutality or homophobia, to forced separations at the hands of ICE. In the wake of the greatest loss a mother can experience\u2014and amidst unimaginable suffering\u2014Rizpah was at once a tragic figure and a hero, her mother\u2019s love quietly proving to be the most powerful force in a book about men\u2019s power.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":61050,"alt":"","title":"2sam21-grief","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"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":"To Suffer A Mother\u2019s Grief","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"And to prove a mother\u2019s love to be the most powerful force in a book about men\u2019s power","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":61050,"alt":"","title":"2sam21-grief","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","width":1440,"height":1920,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-225x300.jpg","medium-width":225,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-768x1024.jpg","large-width":768,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","1536x1536-width":1152,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief.jpg","2048x2048-width":1440,"2048x2048-height":1920,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-900x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":900,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam21-grief-315x420.jpg","home_baner-width":315,"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":"21","chapter_main_number":"284","date":"20260930","wall_id":"284"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"381","name":"love","old_id":"781"},{"term_id":"484","name":"Mourning","old_id":"884"},{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"},{"term_id":"604","name":"Mothers","old_id":"1004"},{"term_id":"700","name":"Grief","old_id":"1100"}]},{"order":14,"id":"61074","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"David\u2019s Valedictory: A Poetic Analysis ","post_title":"David\u2019s Valedictory: A Poetic Analysis","slug":"davids-valedictory-a-poetic-analysis","old_id":"61074","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34243,"post_title":"Moshe Sokolow","slug":"moshe-sokolow","old_id":"34243","first_name":"Moshe","last_name":"Sokolow","description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University, and teaches a weekly class in parashat hashavu`a at Lincoln Square Synagogue. He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"285","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Key, rich Hebrew terms deepen our understanding of the stark imagery employed","post_main_content_content":"

Here, we have, in classic biblical poetic form, David\u2019s own retrospective on his forty-year reign, composed, as the opening verse indicates, \u201con the day that God had delivered him from the hands of Saul and all his [other] enemies.\u201d From a textual perspective, we should note that the poem repeats itself, essentially, in the form of Psalm 18. Indeed, well-known to many is the appearance of the final verse\u2014#51 in both texts\u2014in the Grace after Meals, wherein the alternation between two versions of M-G-D-L (<\/span>magdil<\/span>\/<\/span>migdol<\/span><\/em>) is assigned to weekdays versus Sabbaths and festivals.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In previous texts (specifically Exodus 14-15, Judges 4-5), we have seen narrative accounts alongside poems and acknowledged that comparisons between the two would be productive. In the present case, however, a comparison would be constrained by the sheer size of the narrative that would have to be contrasted: the entire book we call 2 Samuel and a goodly portion of its predecessor, too, all of which fits the aforementioned qualification of deliverance from both Saul and other enemies. That said, we can still focus on particular aspects of it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I would like to look at verses 5-6, following the old (1916) Jewish Publication Society translation:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For the waves of Death compassed me. The floods of Belial assailed me.
\r\n<\/span>The cords of Sheol surrounded me. The snares of Death confronted me.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In condensed paraphrase, David was saying: \u201cI was in mortal danger,\u201d comparing the threats to his life, first, to being engulfed by water and, second, to being ensnared in a trap. Reading it somewhat more closely, however, makes several finer distinctions possible.<\/span><\/p>\r\n