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. His Terrible Swift Sword (Melachim
Bet 9-10) Avraham destroys the idols of his father Terach, Yaakov rebukes the shepherds of Aram for not meeting their obligations as hired workers, Moshe saves the daughters of Jethro from their attackers, Nathan the prophet cried out against David the king, when he sinned with BatSheva: "You are the man", and Eliyahu greeted Achav when he went to take possession of Navot's vineyard: "Have you murdered and also wish to inherit?". Now, Elisha in an act of rebellion sent Yona, who had been brought back to life by Eliyahu, to anoint Yehu instead of Yoram ben Achav, the present king of Shomron. Yehuthen was to kill all of the descendents of the house of Achav, even as Eliyahu had prophesied to Achav after the murder of Navot. This was not an isolated act of one of Israel's prophets. Rather, "[Hashem] will make the house of Achav as He did to the house of Yeravam ben Nevat [at the hands of Basha as foretold by the prophet Achia] and the house of Bashah [by Zimri as prophesied by Yehu ben Chanani]" (9:9). The purpose of all these actions was not a change of regime for political or personal ambition but rather the application of the Divine Reward and Punishment mechanism that is surely a major characteristic of Judaism. Divine Justice had ordered His prophets to call for the downfall of kingly dynasties and the imposition of a death penalty of all their members since they had transgressed His commandments to model their rule on the laws of government in the Torah. Exquisitely symmetrical, the same Justice would call for the downfall and destruction of the dynasties replacing them when these failed to change the royal pattern of behavior as expected. So the house of Yeravam ben Nevat, who was instructed to correct the sins of the house of Shlomo, was destroyed when he set up the two calves – at Dan and Bet El - as idols to wean Israel from the Temple worship in Yerushalayim. Basha who supplanted Yeravam simply continued the idolatry introduced by him and so his dynasty had to be terminated. Omri and his descendants who followed Basha [actually Basha was removed by Zimri but since he only ruled for a few months, Omri is considered the successor] but who did evil more than any king before them were now to be destroyed by Jehu. Jehu was rewarded for obeying Hashem by a dynasty paralleling the four kings of Omri. However, when Jehu, while destroying the temple of the Baal and killing all the worshippers, failed to remove the calves set up by Yeravam, his dynasty of four kings was in turn ended. Yehu was at Ramot Gilead in Trans-Jordan together with the armies of Israel to quell a rebellion by Hazael king of Aram [Damascus], when Yonah came to anoint him. Immediately, he, together with his rebel fellow officers, set out to make their way by chariot to the royal residence at Jezreel in the Jezreel valley. There, the king Yoram was recuperating from the battle wounds inflicted by Aram, with his brother in-law Achziah, king of Yehuda. The description in our chapter (verse 20) of Yehu's speedy and erratic driving has become a phrase in Hebrew: "to drive like the custom of Yehu". After the two kings were killed by Yehu according tothe command of G-d's prophet, Yehu made his way rapidly to Shomron the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. There he assembled all the priests of the Baal and killed them and destroyed their temples. It seems that his zealousness to carry out the destruction of the House of Achav and of the followers of Baal was not pure but had elements of self-aggrandizement. He made a public announcement of zealousness whereas Eliyahu had privately said to G-d, "I have been zealous for Your sake" (Melakhim Alef 19:10), and it was Hashem Himself who said the same about Pinchas (Bamidbar 25:11). So the text tells us that later: "Yehu did not follow the law of G-d wholeheartedly". Chazal were puzzled at what brought Yehu who was a tzadik, to the sin for which his dynasty had to be ended. One opinion is that the lie and subterfuge that he used in destroying the Baal worshippers was his downfall as he was later caught in his own snare. "Sages be careful with your words" (Pirkei Avot 1:11). "Said Abayei,Yehu made a covenant with his lips", when he enticed the worshipers of Baal to come in their masses in order to massacre them: 'Ahav worshiped Baal a little, Yehu will worship him a lot'" (Sanhedrin 102a). In the same source, Rava taught that Yehu learnt from Achia Hashiloni's anointment of Yeravam, G-d's consent to his ways and therefore retained the Golden Calves to prevent Israel going up to the Temple. "Yehu was a G-d fearing man but when power and control came to him, he became corrupted. The Torah referred to him: 'And Jeshurun waxed fat [rich-powerful] and he rebelled'" [Devarim 32:14]( Eliyahu Zuta 7). Yehu was accompanied by Yehonadav
ben Rechev the Kenite, who, since he was zealous for the worship of
G-d, agreed to join the mission of destruction. The Rechabites were
the descendants of Yitro and we hear of them again from the prophet
Yirmiyahu (35:6-10), that Yehonadav had commanded his descendants to
follow a simple and modest lifestyle as being more conducive to
spirituality and the worship of G-d. They did not want a portion in
the Holy Land but dwelt in the wilderness at the fringes of Eretz
Yisrael, continued to dwell in tents, abhorred war and violence, and
abstained from wine and luxuries. Yehonadav, seeing what happened to
Yehu, wanted to remove his descendants from power that corrupts. [The
Parshat Va'etchanan Homepage]
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