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. The Slow Slide to Destruction and
Exile [2] It is true that Ahaz, king of Judah who went in the path of the kings of Israel, radically changed both the scope and the philosophy of idolatry introduced by Yeravam ben Navat and Achav in the Northern Kingdom. However, the severity and extent of social sins and sexual immorality were now similarly radically changed in comparison to earlier times. We see that the period of Shmuel HaNavi, David HaMelech and Shlomo show no evidence of the social anarchy that we find in Sefer Shoftim when each person did as they saw fit because “there was no king in Israel”. Even after, under Yeravam ben Nevat and Achav, the prophets primarily did not cry out against social injustice and oppression; indeed, “The soldiers of Achav suffered no casualties, whereas those of David did, because the former spoke no Lashon HaRa”. We must remember that Avraham, the founder of Israel, told Avimelech in reply to his question as to what led Avraham to fear that they could kill him and take away his wife: “There is but no fear of G-d in this place and they will slay me because of my wife” (B'reishit 20:11). Yet that fear is not expressed solely in Mitzvot Bein Adam LaMaklom. The truth is that all the parshiyot dealing with religiosity, holiness, ritual purity, kashrut, laws of Kohanim and Leviyim, and the Mishkan and its vessels [Truma thru Achrei], are anchored between the two parshiyot that include most of the social and moral obligations of Israel - Mishpatim and Kedoshim. After all, Avraham’s qualities that led HaShem to choose him were: “For I have known him, that he may command his children after him that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice” (B'reishit 18:19). Although the text in Melachim Bet from
chapter 24 onward talks only of idolatry, we are told in 2 Chronicles
(28:6-8) of the murder of 120,000 Judeans by Pekah ben Remalya king of
Israel and the protest of some of his notables that led to the release of
200,000 women and children slaves, captured by his Northern Kingdom. That
inhuman and immoral behavior was only a small part of what we are told in
the writings of the prophets Yeshayahu, Micha, Hoshea and Amos who all lived
before, during and after Ahaz’s reign. They bear witness how idolatry led to
sexual immorality, fraud, injustice and murder- ethical anarchy and social
corruption. “Concerning Shomron and Yerushalyim in the days of Jotam, Ahaz and Hezkiah… That devise iniquity and plan evil while in their beds at night! When the morning is light, they execute that evil… And they covet fields and seize them; and houses and take them away; Thus they oppress a person… Heads of the House of Jacob and rulers of Israel, that hate justice and pervert all equity; that build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity… the heads judge for reward, the priests teach for hire and the prophets divine for money… Yet will they lean on upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord with us? No evil will come on us’”. (Micha 2:2; 3:9-11). “For three sins of Israel [will I forebear but not] for the fourth [for idolatry, sexual immorality and murder but not for the oppression of the poor (Radak)]. Because they sell the righteous for silver [referring to the bribery of judges in order that they find innocent people guilty; or the kidnapping of people for sale as, Chazal referred this verse to the sale of Yosef [that is why this is the haftara for Parshat Vayeishev] and the needy for a pair of shoes [even for a trivial thing as their shoes, alternatively, oppressing them even down to their very last possessions, their shoes. However, Rashi, seeing ‘naal’ in the connotation of locking in the foot as compared to the freedom of the open sandal, explains that the rich would lock in the poor, that is, buy up all the fields surrounding a poor man’s field and then use their power to force him to sell them his possessions; legal but immoral]. They pant in lust after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the humble; And a man and his father go into the same maid, to profane My holy Name [the absence of any shame, makes all immorality permissible]; And they recline besides the [sacred] altars on clothes taken as pledges for loans [that halachically had to be returned each night to the poor (Shmot 22:25-26)]” (Amos 2:4-8). “It has been told to you what is good and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do justly and to love mercy and to walk in modesty with your G-d” (Micha 6:8). “And Zion shall be redeemed through justice”. This is the 56th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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