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. Matzeiva, Bamot, and Mikdash There is a recurrent theme that occurs in the history of the kings of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, wherein a solely ritualistic matter is shown to be of great spiritual importance, so much so that a lack of action with regard to it is considered a blemish in an otherwise praiseworthy character. If we look at the list of kings following Shlomo who did not worship idols, we see that the text tells us that they did right in the eyes of the Lord, still “but the BAMOT he did not remove” or “but still the people sacrificed on the BAMOT”. Even though it was forbidden to sacrifice elsewhere after the Beit HaMikdash was built, it was only after some 350 years that Hezekiah was able to stop this custom of individuals using the altars at various sites other than in Yerushalyim (Melachim Bet 18:4). It is easy to see the question of a centralized place of worship simply as power politics, a means of enforcing the authority and ensuring the political power of the Davidic kings. After all, in the Northern Kingdom, all the kings since the beginning of the separate kingdom under Yeravam ben Nevat had forbidden the aliya to Beit HaMikdash, often under the penalty of death. Pious Jews who were unable to go up to the Beit HaMikdash used local BAMOT. However, actually it really involved something deeply religious and spiritual that is intrinsic and specific to Judaism. Throughout Sefer Bereishit a MATZEIVA [single stone] was used as altars either for sacrifice or to mark something of spiritual significance. This was symbolic of a deeply human need, common to all men and women to have a connection with G-d and to express it; indeed that is the story of Sefer Bereishit. However, with the Exodus and the creation thereby of the Jewish People, a completely new dimension in religion was called into existence. Over and above the individual's relations to G-d, there was now a whole nation whose collective social, spiritual, political, economic and moral lives and experiences were subordinated to HASHEM’s will and meant to be a daily expression of that will; “Judaism is not merely a religion but a nation” (S.R.Hirsch, Exodus 6:7). So instead of the individual’s MATZEIVA so beloved of the Patriachs, there now was the MISHKAN with the MIZBEI'ACH of a number of stones, showing the unity that is a nation in worship. Once Israel entered the Promised Land, the national korbanot, daily and Shabbatot and Chagim, on which our order of prayer is based, and sin offerings that also required adherence to, Klal Yisrael were restricted to the MIZBEACH in the MISHKAN, first at Shiloh and then at Beit HaMikdash. At other periods there were the BAMOT where only freewill offerings and thanksgivings, were allowed. Sometimes the BAMOT were not intended for sacrifices at all, merely to fulfill a spiritual need. For instance, when the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe settled in Trans-Jordan after the other tribes had possessed their inheritance across the Jordan, they felt the danger of spiritual isolation, a need to be linked to the body politic. Therefore (Joshua 22), they built an altar in their territory. Yehoshua, seeing in this a new form of rebellion against G-d, parallel to the sin of Baal Peor that was punished by plague (Bamidbar 25) and the theft by Achan of the spoils of Jericho that was punished by the national defeat at Ai (Joshua 7), threatened them with war. When the two and a half tribes made it clear that their intention was not rebellion but rather a strengthening of religious ties, Pinchas HaKohen devoted himself to making peace between the tribes of Israel He thereby finally merited the priesthood promised to him for his zealousness in killing Zimri during Israel’s sin with the daughters of Moav (Zevachim 101b). “For You have not yet come to your NACHALA and your MENUCHA” (Devarim 12:9); the NACHALA is Shilo and MENUCHA is Yerushalyim [HaMikdash] for a NACHALA flows on, but MENUCHA is final” (Zevachim 117b and Sifri). The transition from the temporary MISHKAN to the MIKDASH - MENUCHA was to be preceded by 2 of the 3 mitzvot obligatory after crossing the Jordan: anointing a king, the national heart of the Jewish spiritual-religious entity, and destroying Amalek, the symbol of divisions both between the people and between them and their G-d. The spirituality of this is shown by the materials of which the sanctuaries were built. The MISHKAN was only of the vegetable and the animal world; that was the limited spirituality of Israel in the desert. Once Israel is settled in its land but before these 2 mitzvot were carried out, the time is ripe for the NACHALA, so Shilo had walls of stone and the covering of the MISHKAN; Israel in its preordained Land had the additional spirituality and could partially sanctify the inanimate world. MENUCHA, that is, the centralized worship of the MIKDASH, after kingship and Amalek, gave Israel an additional spiritual power to sanctify even the stone; it was built completely of the inanimate (Shem Mi Shmuel). It is easy to understand the natural inclination of our fathers that continues even to this day, to constantly revert to the individualized worship of Hashem that is common to all Mankind. However, in Judaism the truth of a nation whose whole social-political-moral- economic being is devoted to G-d is so vital, that even kings who otherwise followed HASHEM were criticized for not enforcing this centrality of worship by destroying the BAMOT. “And Amatzyahu did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord… but he did not remove the BAMOT... And still the people sacrificed on them” (14:3-4)’. This sin, unlike the Jewish tradition that spiritual troubles are rooted in the leadership, is ascribed always to the people, as in verse above. Furthermore, so important is this national centralized worship that the Northern Kingdom was destroyed for not observing it and continuing to worship outside of the MIKDASH. “There were no CHAGIM in Israel like Tu B’av when King Hoshea ben Eilah removed the golden calves in Dan and Bethel. Even when he did so the people still did not go up to the MIKDASH in Yerushalyim. Said HASHEM, ‘Because of all the years that Israel did not go up, they will go into exile’” (Ta’anit 30b; Gittin 88a). This is the 51st installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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