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. A new power had arisen in the Middle East and the political vacuum in which the Jewish political entity had flourished in Eretz Yisrael since the Exodus, came to an end. For over 1000 years the two super powers, Egypt and Bavel were equally powerless to exert authority over the Fertile Crescent, but now Assyria in Northern Mesopotamia had defeated both of them and began destroying the many smaller kingdoms as well; Aram, Edom, Moav, Tyre and Zidon all collapsed. The Assyrian king Sargon then carried the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel into exile and destroyed that kingdom. His son, Sennacherib, now turned to Judah and Chizkiyahuits king. He levied a heavy tax for which the king had to remove even the golden hinges of the gates of the Temple. When the king as a ruse to gain time to fortify the city and bring the waters of the Gichon by the Shilo'ach tunnel into the city walls, thus denying them to the enemy, failed to fulfill the rest of the levy, the Assyrians attacked. First they besieged Lachish a major fortified city south of Kiryat Gat. In the British Museum we have the casts of the huge carvings that Sennacherib adorned the walls of his palace in Nineveh, describing in great detail the siege, capture and exile of its citizens. However, our interest must surely lie in the religious nature of the message borne by the delegation of notables that he sent to Yerushalayim demanding not tribute, but total surrender. The three delegates of high-ranking army and administrative officials came with an army and, finding the gates of Yerushalyim closed before them, camped on the grounds of what today we call the Russian Compound. Rabshakeh, an official title and not his personal name, the leader of the delegation, according to Chazal, was a Jew, an apostate to idolatry (Sanhedrin 60a); perhaps even a son of Chizkiyahu and a brother to the idolater son Menasheh who succeeded as king (Targum Kohelet 10:9); a phenomenon that unfortunately is well known to us from every period of our history. Some say that he believed in idols while others hold that, like Achav, he worshiped Hashem together with others; in both cases that is idolatry. He spoke Ivrit so that all the people gathered on the city walls would understand Sennacherib's threat of destruction and exile, much to the chagrin of the Israeli delegation that did not wish to alarm the informed public; that obviously was Rabshakeh's plan. Furthermore, he used his knowledge of Torah to carefully point out the difference between the scorched earth that the Assyrians meant to leave behind in Judah and the land that they would be exiled to. "I will take you to a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards… of olives and honey" (32). He knew that these words would conjure up in the minds of the Jews Hashem's Promised Land: "Of wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olives and date-honey" (Dvarim 8:8). We are told right at the beginning of his reign, that Chizkiyahu, "trusted in the G-d of Israel; there was none like him [in that trust], among the kings of Judah neither before him nor after him" (5). The main thrust of Rabshakeh's argument was to challenge and question that trust. His strategy to prove that
nothing could save Yerushalayim, was two-pronged, one political and the
other spiritual-religious: Far more startling is the challenge to Chizkiyahu's belief and trust in Hashem. First, Rabshakeh's argues that the gods of other nations, including the kingdom of Israel-Shomron, were powerless to save their followers and there is no reason to trust that Israel's G-d will be more successful. Then he argued that Chizkiyahu's destruction of the idols, asherahs and altars to avoda zara that the people had believed in, had left Yerushalayim defenseless. Finally, the Assyrians were to destroy the city as a G-d-given duty before which there was no protection. In this he referred to the prophecies of Isaiah that G-d would send Assyria to destroy Yerushalayim (Isaiah 7:17; 8:8-9) However, he left out of his political- religious case the possibility and promise of teshuva, that ever-present Divine Mercy grants to all humanity; the teshuva that would postpone the fate prophesied by Yeshayahu. Chizkiyahu demonstrated teshuva
by the eradication of the bamot, both those to Hashem and those to avoda
zara, purifying the Mikdash and calling Israel to the mass celebration of
Pesach. Now he rent his kingly garments, as did David and others, in
abasement and sorrow and fear at any wrong actions; all the rules of teshuva-
acknowledgement of the sin, shame, and actions to correct wrongdoing. Then
he prayed, a prayer that echoes many phrases from those of David and Shlomo
and that have entered our siddurim. [the bracketed phrases are Abarbanel's
comments]: Yeshayahu replied to that prayer: "Concerning Sennacherib, the daughter of Zion, you have insulted and blasphemed …and through your messengers you have insulted Me and threatened Me [Sennacherib thought he would first destroy G-d's House here on Earth and then later destroy His dwelling above (Radak based on Sanhedrin94b)] ...He shall not enter this city neither shall he shoot there an arrow… By the way he comes to attack so he shall return. And I will protect this city to save it for My sake". G-d passed over Egypt and killed their first-born without Israel having to do anything. Moshe at the Red Sea had told Israel, "The Lord will fight for you, you shall hold your peace". So too now, "That night at midnight, an Angel of the Lord went out and slew 185,000 of the camp of Assyria… And Sennacherib turned and went away and returned to Nineveh. While he was prostrating himself in the temple of his idol, his two sons rose up and slew him" (19: 35-37). "Hashem is a man of war, Hashem
is HIS NAME" (Exodus 15:3), and David said: "For the battle is the Lord's" (Shmuel
Alef 17:47). [The
Parshat Vayishlach Homepage]
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