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. Two Evil Queens in Israel (Melachim
Bet 9-11) Jezebel introduced the fertility rites of Baal and Ashtoret that the Jews worshiped, in addition to Hashem. It seems that apart from the idolatry, in seeing these idols as having the power to grant material success, she and Achav sought thereby to merge Israel into the surrounding nations in a common culture. It was Jezebel who had Navot falsely tried for blasphemy, thereby ensuring his death and giving his vineyard to Achav, who lusted after it. During Achav's life, she held the kingly seal of office and had the authority to kill anyone who opposed the rites of idolatry, and after his death she was considered the Queen Mother, above the other wives. Although Yoram's marriage to Athaliah brought a period of peace between the two Jewish kingdoms, it also introduced idolatry in Judah... and worse. That was the price paid by Yehoshafat for allying himself with evil, as the prophet said to him: "because you have joined Ahaziah [Yoram's father], the Lord made a breach in your works" (2 Chronicles 20:37). "Woe to an evil one and woe to his neighbor" (Negaim 12:6). Yehu, at the command of Elisha, destroyed the House of Achav for their sins that included the murder of Navot. He killed King Yehoram together with Achav's 70 other sons, the nobles of Judah who served as advisers to Yehoram, and Ahaziah, king of Judah. He also killed Jezebel, having her attendants throw her from the palace window in Shomron, this was death through sekilah, just as Navot was stoned at her instigation (Radak). Jezebel met her death dressed in regal clothes, elegantly coiffed and in all her finery; ever the queen. Of her body, they later found nothing except the skull, hands and feet, that they brought to burial as befits a king's daughter. "She would dance before bridegrooms with her hands and feet and shake her head. For this mitzva, she merited that the dogs that ate the rest of her body as foretold by Eliyahu, refrained from eating them" (Rashi and Radak). Alternatively: "This was a reward for her gemilut chasadim. She would go out of her palace and every burial that passed by she would gesture with her hands in respect and would accompany the dead for ten paces" (Yalkut Shimoni and Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer 17). Radak sees the reference to the king's daughter rather than to a king's widow, as the honor accruing to royalty of the gentile nations but not to Achav, king of Israel, since she had caused his death and the loss of his kingdom. Acts of political murder of members of one's own family are a familiar occurrence in world history, but we have our own examples. Yoram had murdered all his brothers who were potential rivals for the throne of Judah, while later at the end of the Hasmonean rule, Herod killed his sons so that they could not rebel against him. When Athaliah heard that Yehu had killed her son Ahaziah, she went and poisoned all the sons of the Davidic dynasty, including her own grandchildren - a true follower of Jezebel. Athaliah either acted in revenge or because she desired to rule in succession to Yehoram. Abarbanel writes that she feared that Yehu desired to now unite Israel and Judah under his own rule and so prepared herself as Yehoram's successor. She reigned for seven years, it seems without any opposition. Like Jezebel, she persecuted the followers of Hashem and her sons broke breaches in the walls of the Beit HaMikdash to reduce its sanctity. Unknown to Athaliah, one male boy escaped her murder. Yehosheva, sister of Ahaziah had stolen Yeho'ash, his infant son from the palace bedrooms and hidden him and his nurse in one of the storerooms of the Temple, where her husband Yehoyada was the chief Kohen in charge of its affairs. They hid Yeho'ash among the kohanimin the Temple for six years. In the seventh year of Athaliah's reign, Yehoyada HaKohen promoted revolt, called on the representatives of the people and the kohanim serving in the Temple to proclaim the boy as Ahaziah's heir. Using the kohanim of the weekly shift as well as of the incoming one as armed guards around Yeho'ash, Yehoyada on Shabbat made his way to the Temple courtyard. The sword with which David killed Goliath, as well as the golden shields that he had taken as booty from the king of Zobah, preceded them. Meanwhile, the captains of the people surrounded the Temple to prevent Athaliah's loyal troops from interfering. Then Yehoyada HaKohen, in the presence of representatives of the people and the prophet Zechariah, as prescribed by halakha, crowned the boy. Although anointment of the king with oil was not necessary in the case of a king's son, it was done here, just as in the case of Shlomo, in order to prevent wars of succession (Tosefot, Sanhedrin 4). When Athaliah protested, she was removed from the courtyard of the Temple, so that spilt blood should not contaminate its holiness, and put to death. "And to the sounds of Shofar,
people acclaimed 'Long live the King'". [The
Parshat Eikev Homepage]
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