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. And they came to Bet Lechem at the beginning of the barley harvest (Ruth 1:22) We see how our festivals Pesach - Chag HeAviv, Shavuot - Chag HaBikurim, and Sukkot - Chag HaAsif, all reflect the relationship between our religion and the agricultural cycle of the year. Then there are prayers for rain and dew, trumot and ma'asrot, Shmita and Yovel that are all also part of that cycle. The pages of the Tanach resound to the smells, sights and actions of that cycle moving as it does through the Promised Land, by a People who are part and parcel of its rhythm. Strange as it may seem, both secular thinkers and Orthodox Jews today err in their treatment of the importance and the role of the agricultural cycle and nature in Judaism; we can clarify the issue through the background against which the story of Ruth is played introduced by the above verse. Some deny the religiosity of this agricultural cycle seeing these manifestations as nature festivals. So we had settlements celebrating the Omer on Pesach as a mere harvest festival, the Bikurim on Shavuot as offerings to be brought with appropriate ceremony to the offices of Keren Kayemet, and Rosh Hashana that falls at the end of the agricultural year, as an occasion for reporting on the year's successes. However, in truth all the manifestations in Judaism are contrary to nature worship and even to the success, labor and diligence of the farmer. Throughout, Hashem is shown as the master of nature, whose forces have neither independencen or power. Rain, good harvests and successful flocks and herds are throughout the Torah shown to be rewards for mankind's spiritual behavior. The ceremonies are largely aimed at teaching us this truth of Hashem as the sole source of our wealth and success. The Omer has to be paid so to speak to G-d the Owner, before the individual Jewish farmer can eat of the new harvest that is legally his and the product ostensibly of his labor and investment. The same idea applies to the nation through the Two Loaves offered on Shavuot. Prior to that offering, the communal sacrifices may not use the wheat of the new harvest, thereby demonstrating that all national success and wealth has its source in Hashem; thus there is no place for national arrogance at those same successes and wealth. The lesson that Hashem is the real Owner and sole source, who alone provides for the needs of all His creatures is repeated throughout our celebrations of the agricultural cycle. That belief is the source of all our business and economic ethic and morality. We have been in galut for almost 2000 years and for a lot of that time and in many countries, although not as many as is commonly accepted, we have been separated from the soil, nature and agriculture. It was natural therefore that they tended to lose much of their spiritual significance; instead we transformed them. Sometimes they were relegated to be realized in the distant future of our messianic redemption, whilst at others they became mere symbols of religious thought. Irrespective, they lost their significance as a means of acknowledging Hashem through the mundane way of earning a living and seeing Him revealed in the glorious workings of His Majesty in Nature. So the Hoshanot recited on Sukkot have become sorrowful pleadings for atonement rather than the heartfelt prayers to Hashem for His bounty - crops, good weather conditions and natural increase of flocks and herds - and our ability to receive His material blessings that the words of those prayers convey. So we lose the connection between our wealth and material assets and our spiritual welfare and our religious behavior. Simchat Bet Hashoeiva becomes either a form of Sukka visits or Yeshiva celebrations of Torah learning rather than the simcha of a farming nation in honor of Hashem's material blessing, as reported by the Tannaim of the Mishna. Perhaps, it is the opposition or at least the ambivalence, to the State of Israel as an expression of religious significance that perpetuates this downgrading of agriculture despite our return to the Land. "And she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers" (Ruth 2:3). This picture of Ruth from the fields of Moav following the reapers in the fields of barley has captured the imagination of artists throughout the centuries. For us it is more than romanticism, art or literature being as it was an expression of the Torah's way of caring for the poor, the landless, the widows and orphans, and the strangers. But the Torah's way is not merely philanthropy dependent on the kindness or good intentions of the rich. Rather, this gleaning - leket, is one of the rights of the poor in the wealth that Hashem gives to farmers (Vayikra 16:9-10). These include in addition, the right to gather forgotten sheaves - shichacha, the right to harvest the corners that have to be left unharvested by the farmer - pe'ah, and the yields of shmita and yovel. In Pe'ah the Torah actually abrogates the farmer's right of ownership to that corner, since he can not harvest it and then give it to the poor of his choice. Furthermore, when repeating the list of festivals (Parshat Emor), the list is interrupted after Shavuot to teach the law of Pe'ah which is unrelated to the Chagim, and then continues with Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Rabbi S.R. Hirsch comments that after the pride and self satisfaction that is natural when the first fruits of our endeavors are harvested[Shavuot], it is necessary to teach us through the obligation of Pe'ah that all our wealth comes from G-d and that part of it belongs to others. Then we can go on to the Din of Rosh Hashana and the atonement of Yom Kippur. "So she gleaned in the field till evening and then threshed out what she had gleaned... And gave it to her mother-in-law" (Ruth 2:17-18). This is the 76th installment in Dr. Tamari’s series on “Tanach and its messages for our times” [The
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