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. While modeled on the Mishkan that had accompanied Israel in its wanderings in the desert and that settled with them in the Promised Land, there was a major spiritual difference between it and Solomon's Temple, a difference that reflected the significant change that had occurred through the realization of Israel's national destiny. The Mishkan of the desert had been constructed of materials from the vegetable and animal kingdoms. When Israel set up the Mishkan in its first home at Shilo in the Shomron, the walls were built of stone but the covering of the desert was retained. Now Solomon's Temple was constructed completely of stone, the inanimate. In the desert, since that was not the nation's destiny nor its religious purpose, Israel had the spiritual and religious energy to sanctify only the vegetable and animal king- doms and to release the holiness that was contained in them. By their settlement in Eretz Yisrael, they acquired additional levels of spirituality and holiness, through the sanctity that exists there. So at Shilo, they were able to incorporate stone in their Mishkan. However, they still were not of a stature to completely sanctify the inanimate world, so they had to retain the animal-vegetable world as the covering for their Tabernacle. Now with the establishment of Kingship and Jewish sovereignty the religious corpus was complete, so that the full spiritual and religious power of the Holy People and Kingdom of Priests appeared. Now even the inanimate world could be made holy and its forces sanctified; so Solomon's Beit HaMikdash is built completely of stone (Shem Mi Shmuel). Although David had prepared gold and silver for its construction, Solomon used his own wealth as Jewish worship has to be free from any taint. He did not want the nations of the world to say, "He built the house of his God with the wealth that David stole from the temples of our gods". Perhaps there was a criticism of David behind the disregard for the wealth he had gathered to build the Temple. David, when he fled before Saul, ate of the holy bread in the Mishkan at Nob, seeing the danger to his life from starvation as overriding the sanctity of the Lechem HaPanim. However, he accumulated wealth for the Temple during the drought, when that wealth could have been used to alleviate the danger of hunger from his nation (Yalkut Shimoni). In Tishrei, or as our text calls it, Yerech Eitanim, he came to consecrate that Temple in the presence of all Israel. "Rabbi Elazar said, because this is the month that the Patriarchs who are called 'Eitanim', strong ones or the foundations, were born. Rabbi Yishmael said, it is called Eitanim because in that month we have the power of mitzvot - Shofar, Yom Kippur, Succah, Lulav, and Beit HaShoeva" (Rosh Hashana 11a). Rabbbi Elazar saw the Avot as being the spiritual fathers of all Mankind, since they all have a recognition of Divinity and an acceptance of the Avot's dedication to justice and righteousness. Therefore the text uses 'Eitanim' as the Patriarchs who are called 'Eitanim', strong ones or the foundations, so that as it were, they were born in the same month as Mankind was created, which is Tishrei. Rabbi Yishmael insisted that the Avot were specific to Israel and so he linked their birth to Nissan, the month in which they became a nation. Our text uses Eitanim because of the power of the mitzvot. Rabbi Elazar sees the Temple as serving Mankind and Rabbi Yismael sees it as intrinsically for Israel. Solomon's prayer at the consecration combines Judaism's universalism with its particularism. In the midst of enumerating the needs of Israel for atonement, livelihood, health and political security [33-40; 44-63], the Jewish king prays, "Concerning the stranger, that is not of Your people... when they shall stand and pray towards this House, hear them in Heaven and do according to all that the stranger calls to You, so that all the peoples of Earth may know, as does Your People Israel, that this House is called by Your name" [41-43]. In our shlichot prayers we use the words of the prophet, to echo this universalism; " For My House is the House of Worship for all Nations" (Isaiah 56:7) This is the 24th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
Parshat B'shalach Homepage]
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