Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the Historical Books of Tanach;
JOSHUA, JUDGES, SAMUEL, KINGS (Nevi’im Rishonim) These four books ostensibly are merely the history of Israel from the entry into the Promised Land until the destruction of the Temple and the temporary loss of independent statehood. In fact they are actually, in a specifically Jewish sense, the most deeply religious and spiritual books of the Bible. One does not have to be specifically Jewish to see or feel the religion and spirituality in the revelations of the prophetic writings or in the words of the Tehillim. They speak to all people, as evidenced by the fact that the Bible is still the world's bestseller and there are millions of non-Jews who regularly recite the Psalms. However, it is specifically and intrinsically Jewish to understand that G-d is revealed in the prosaic material, in the political, social and military events in the lives of ordinary men and women, kings and leaders that are described in the Nevim Rishonim. Here are described the ideology and religious thoughts in Judaism, while in Chronicles we have the purely historical. Curing the Water of Jericho - On
Being a Jewish Prophet, part 9 [Melachim Bet 2:19-25] Elisha came to Jericho straight from the Jordan, scene of Elyahu’s ascent to heaven. The people came to meet him, telling him that whilst Jericho was a beautiful and pleasant city, its waters were bad, bitter and unpleasant, till the land caused people to die at an early age [lit. miscarried]. “How then could they call it a pleasant place to live? Adam HaRishon decreed that every inhabitable place on earth should be inhabited, so Hashem gave every place a charm or beauty in the eyes of some people so that they would desire to live there “(Rashi and Maharsha on Sotah 47a). Now to this day, the spring of Jericho waters the whole of this fertile oasis making it the city of palms, orchards and plenty and so it had been when Israel entered the Land. Yet the sins of man had perverted nature and they were to be punished. When Hiel rebuilt Jericho, despite the Cherem of Yehoshua against such building after his destruction of the city, all his sons had died. Then Achav had argued that their death, like all the events in the affairs of Mankind, were mere accidents but definitely not the reward or punishment of G-d as revealed through His prophets. So Eliyahu had brought the drought and subsequently rain to prove that these were only from G-d, not merely the workings of nature. Later, Eliyahu renewed the herem on Yericho, so that the waters were cursed and the inhabi- tants started to die prematurely (Radak and Abarbanel). “Elisha said, give me a new jug and put salt in it. He went to the source of the water [Ma’yan Elisha as we know it] and threw the salt there” (verses 20-21); and the waters were cured. Both the bad waters and the cure were answers once again to the evil wrought by the builders of Yericho; to Achav’s ideology, albeit given in the reign of his son. Normally, salt causes brackishness and
bad water, but here the salt made the water sweet, pure and good. This
miracle calls to mind the one brought about at Mara by Moshe (Sh'mot
15:23-26), when his casting a bitter tree into waters unfit to drink,
similarly changed them into good and pure waters. “Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said: See how different are the ways of Hashem from those of Man. With them, sweet cures that which is bitter but with Him, the bitter sweetens bitter” (Yalkut Shimoni). Rashi, following the Mid- rashim, calls Mara, ‘a miracle within a miracle’; the usual understanding being that of a doubly powerful miracle. However, perhaps the idea of a miracle within a miracle teaches us the real significance of all miracles. To simply understand G-d’s miracles as showing that He is more powerful that the forces of nature, is simply saying that our G-d is more powerful than any other. What really is demonstrated by miracles is that these forces never have either power or existence of their own but are all servants and creations of Hashem. Therefore, they are simply doing His commands, both when they follow the normal ways He determined for them and also when they are made to follow His new instructions. Elisha’s miracle is followed by a story that Chazal saw as referring to two social sins [verses 23-25]. The first lay at the door of the people of Yericho. “One who does not accompany another to bid farewell, causes blood-shed. [The obligation to accompany a departing guest is codified in halakha] We see this from the people of Yericho; they should have accompanied Elisha in a farewell gesture, instead we read ‘he went up to Bet El [from Yericho] alone… and the two bears came and killed 42 children’” (Sotah 46b). These bears came, although there is no evidence of bears in that part of the country at that time, when people mocked Elisha because of his baldness in contrast to Eliyahu who is described as being a hairy man. By their insult they implied that Elisha was an inferior prophet, thus actually mocking G-d Himself who had sent him. Although the text refers to them as
children, this could not be a reference to their ages, since children are
not liable halakhically at that age. Our sages see this as referring to
their spiritual and religious level, seeing them as empty of any moral or
religious beliefs, but primarily as lacking in faith in G-d. Their anger at
Elisha flowed from the loss of their livelihood as water carriers for
Yericho; now that he had cured the water there was no longer any need for
them to bring water from elsewhere. They lacked the faith in G-d to provide
for them. “To earn our livelihood be’emunah, in faith, does not mean
primarily to earn it honestly. In addition it means to have faith that He
provides for all our needs” (Arukh Hashulchan, Orech Haim, section 56). [The
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