King David as a leader in Tsiklag

11 June, 2013 Every year on the first Sunday in June, the twelfth graders in Israel sit their final exam in Bible - Tanach. One of the passages that they have to face in their exam is unseen. This year they had to read 1 Samuel 30 and answer questions about the text. We recently had elections in Israel and after every election there are always accusations about people who paid for votes. In the Hebrew language there's a word for it – bribe - which, according to the Hebrew Bible, blinds the eyes of the wise. In the aforementioned chapter there's a crisis after some of the people of Tsiklag–צִקְלַג - were captured by the Amalekites, a people who were supposed to have been destroyed by the hands of Saul according to 1 Samuel 15.  These were the days prior to the tragic death of Saul in his battle with the Philistines, the days when David was still planning how to become the leader once Saul was out of the picture. There are three major moves that David undertook in order to establish himself as the next leader of the Israelites. Firstly, when he heard what happened to Tsiklag, he came to the city and, along with his men, cried with the city's people, as written: "When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.  Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep" (1 Samuel 30:3-4) " וַיָּבֹא דָוִד וַאֲנָשָׁיו אֶל-הָעִיר וְהִנֵּהשְׂרוּפָה בָּאֵשׁ; וּנְשֵׁיהֶם וּבְנֵיהֶםוּבְנֹתֵיהֶם, נִשְׁבּוּ. וַיִּשָּׂא דָוִד וְהָעָםאֲשֶׁר-אִתּוֹ אֶת-קוֹלָם-וַיִּבְכּוּ: עַדאֲשֶׁר אֵין-בָּהֶם כֹּחַ לִבְכּוֹת." It's really important to emphasize that David had his reasons to cry, since his two wives were captured as well. However, when we read this passage through a modern-day lens, our minds might drift to President Obama or other leaders that have gone to visit the people of a city when a disaster happens. Though the reaction of the people was violent - many wanted to stone him - I'm sure that some of them saw him as a true leader who had empathy for them. In the next passage, we can see David as a religious leader, who asked God, with the help of the "ephod", what to do- "Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son ofAhimelech, “Please bring me the ephod.” So Abiatharbrought the ephod to David. David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” And He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all.”(1 Samuel 30:7-8) "וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל-אֶבְיָתָר הַכֹּהֵןבֶּן-אֲחִימֶלֶךְ הַגִּישָׁה-נָּא לִי הָאֵפוֹד;וַיַּגֵּשׁ אֶבְיָתָר אֶת-הָאֵפוֹדאֶל-דָּוִד.וַיִּשְׁאַל דָּוִד בַּיהוָה לֵאמֹראֶרְדֹּף אַחֲרֵי הַגְּדוּד-הַזֶּה הַאַשִּׂגֶנּוּ;וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ רְדֹף כִּי-הַשֵּׂג תַּשִּׂיג וְהַצֵּלתַּצִּיל." David was able to rescue the people who were captured because he was wise enough to know that God would help him defeat the Amalekites. He had only 600 soldiers, and in the end, 200 of them didn't fight when they were left behind. However, David had the hand of God on his side and God’s approval, thus the Amalekites were defeated and only 400 of them escaped.  The question after the war was about the spoils - who would get them? The 400 warriors wanted the spoils for themselves, but the future King had different plans, as written: "וַיָּבֹא דָוִד אֶל-צִקְלַג וַיְשַׁלַּח מֵהַשָּׁלָללְזִקְנֵי יְהוּדָה לְרֵעֵהוּ לֵאמֹר:  הִנֵּהלָכֶם בְּרָכָה מִשְּׁלַל אֹיְבֵי יְהוָה."   "Now when David came to Tsiklag, he sent some of the spoils to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Behold, a gift for you from the spoils of the enemies of the Lord"(1 Samuel 30:26) David gave the spoils not just to the 200 warriors who were left behind, but also to the elders of Israel in every place that he roamed when he had to flee from King Saul. Whether this was a bribe or not, we can't say for sure since Biblical commentators were relatively quiet on this subject. Our study today has been an examination of some of David's actions before the people chose him to be king. As I've said before - to me David was a brilliant leader, a savvy politician who simply knew exactly what to say and do in order to get elected.  English Transliteration Hebrew To cry livkôt לִבְכּוֹת David dāwid דָּוִד The spoil haššālāl הַשָּׁלָל Bribe šōchad שֹׁחַד Leader manhîg מַנְהִיג Amalekites 'ămālēq עֲמָלֵק Judah yəhûdā יְהוּדָה Source: https://bay165.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#n=1352414934&fid=1&mid=e57d83ff-d2a7-11e2-acb3-00215ad7db9c&fv=1

Some thoughts about Cain and Abel

The story of Cain and Abel is one of the most famous stories in The Bible. The conflict between the brothers, prior to the sin, is not revealed to us in the text. We have to guess what caused Cain to kill his brother, with the help of the verses before the murder. The story starts optimistically; two brothers were born to Adam and Eve, as we read in Genesis 4:1-2- "וְהָאָדָם, יָדַע אֶת-חַוָּה אִשְׁתּוֹ; וַתַּהַר, וַתֵּלֶד אֶת-קַיִן, וַתֹּאמֶר, קָנִיתִי אִישׁ אֶת-יְהוָה. וַתֹּסֶף לָלֶדֶת, אֶת-אָחִיו אֶת-הָבֶל; וַיְהִי-הֶבֶל, רֹעֵה צֹאן, וְקַיִן, הָיָה עֹבֵד אֲדָמָה" "And the man knew Eve his wife; And she conceived and bore Cain, And said: 'I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.' And again she bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, But Cain was a tiller of the ground". However concise those two verses may seem, they actually reflect the beginning of the tension between the brothers. Cain was born first and Eve explained his name in relation to The Lord; she created a man with the help of G-d. Even though he was still a baby, Cain was considered "a man", in the eyes of his mother. This reminds me of the expectations that parents have of their children. Here, maybe Eve expected Cain to mature quickly and become a man, with the help of The Lord, as soon as possible! Perhaps if Adam had named him, his destiny would have been different. In any case, Eve's actions seemed to have produced the opposite of what she had intended. Another point of view has to do with the relationship between Adam and Abel. After his sin in the Garden of Eden, Adam was able to distinguish between good and evil. He probably also understood that he wouldn't live forever and that it was time to create descendants. Maybe he just slept with Eve, without paying attention to the tension that was created after the birth of the 2 sons. A midrash called "Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer" tells us another story about the "knowing" of the man. According to this midrash, Adam knew that Eve was pregnant from Satan and not from him. Abel, on the other hand, was born second, with a negative connotation to his name (foolishness, useless, etc.). Yet his occupation appeared first. Does this mean that he was more important, due to his profession as a shepherd? We know from The Scriptures that the shepherd is a sign of a leader, like Moses the prophet or King David. We also know from other mythologies from the area that there were fights between the workers of the ground and the herders of the flocks. Is this story revealing to us the nature of this tension and those conflicts? The Jewish sages noticed within the above mentioned verses, one word that was repeated three times -the word 'et', which means 'with'. From this repetition they interpreted, that Cain had a twin (girl) that was born with him and Abel had two more girls, who were born with him. Were the two brothers fighting over those girls? (According to some of the Jewish sages, such as Rashi, and also Muslim interpretations, the name of the brothers, who fought over the twins were Kabil and Habil). The once implied conflict between the brothers now continues conspicuously, as we read in Genesis 4:3-5- וַיְהִי, מִקֵּץ יָמִים; וַיָּבֵא קַיִן מִפְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה, מִנְחָה—לַיהוָה וְהֶבֶל הֵבִיא גַם-הוּא מִבְּכֹרוֹת צֹאנוֹ, וּמֵחֶלְבֵהֶן; וַיִּשַׁע יְהוָה, אֶל-הֶבֶל וְאֶל-מִנְחָתוֹ. וְאֶל-קַיִן וְאֶל-מִנְחָתוֹ, לֹא שָׁעָה; וַיִּחַר לְקַיִן מְאֹד, וַיִּפְּלוּ פָּנָיו" "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." Cain's offering wasn't as good as Abel's, because he gave fruit from the ground and that's it, whereas Abel gave the best meat from his flock, including the fat portions. So The Lord favored Abel's offering over Cain's and therefore he reacted to Abel's offering, before reacting to Cain's. In the Epistle to the Hebrews 11:4, we read: בָּאֱמוּנָה הִקְרִיב הֶבֶל לֵאלֹהִים זֶבַח טוֹב מִקָּיִן אֲשֶׁר הָיָה־לוֹ לְעֵדוּת " "כִּי צַדִּיק הוּא בְּהָעִיד אֱלֹהִים עַל־מִנְחֹתָיו וּבָהּ עוֹדֶנּוּ מְדַבֵּר אַחֲרֵי מוֹתוֹ "By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks". Like Abel's faith, the story still speaks and will speak forever! For me, this story has one underlying message: Do not be Jealous, be compassionate like The Lord after the sin!

Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation

Hebrew	Transcription	Translation
קַיִן	Qayin	Cain
הֶבֶל	Hebel	Abel
רוֹעֶה	Rô'ê	Shepherd
אֲדָמָה	'ădāmāh	Ground
מֶתַח	metah	Tension
תְּאוֹם	Te'ôm	Twin
קָרְבָּן	qorbān	Sacrifice

Source: http://by126w.bay126.mail.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

The creation of the great sea monsters

The creation of the great sea monsters

Source: http://by126w.bay126.mail.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0 In the first story of creation in Genesis 1, we can see the usage of the verb "to create" (bārā') in two critical and important points in the story- the creation of heaven (this is a general title for the creation of the world) and earth and the creation of man (see Genesis 1:1, 1:27). However, those two occurrences are not the only ones. In genesis 1:21, on the fifth day of creation, we can see another usage of the same verb, as written: וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-הַתַּנִּינִם הַגְּדֹלִים;" וְאֵת כָּל-נֶפֶשׁ הַחַיָּה הָרֹמֶשֶׂת אֲשֶׁר שָׁרְצוּ הַמַּיִם לְמִינֵהֶם, וְאֵת כָּל-עוֹף כָּנָף לְמִינֵהוּ, " וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים, כִּי-טוֹב "And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good". The question that should arise is why the author of this chapter decided to use this verb in connection to the creation of the great sea monsters? Other questions are: who were those creators and why is it important to tell us that they were great? Genesis 1 describes a very clean and sterile picture of the creation; there were no wars, and we can't see any battles with other gods, like we see in other stories such as Mesopotamian or Greek mythologies. In fact, the picture portrayed in every day of creation is almost the same. God thinks to himself, what should be created on this particular day? Then he commands it to be done, and satisfied with the result, he names his creation. This is how the days of creation went by. However, other verses from the bible show us a different picture. If you want to understand the creation of the great sea monsters, you must pay attention to those verses. "The Taninim" appear in The Bible in two contexts: the Egyptian one, which is mostly related to the exile from Egypt, when Moses' staff becomes a "Tanin" (see Exodus 7:9-12, here the meaning of the "Tanin" is a serpent), or the imagery of king pharaoh as one (see Ezeikiel 29:3- this is his nickname here). The second context is important for our discussion today. When Job is speaking with God about his destiny, he asks him, as a human-being: "הֲיָם-אָנִי, אִם-תַּנִּין: כִּי-תָשִׂים עָלַי מִשְׁמָר." "Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, that Thou settest a watch over me? (Job 7:12) Job meant that God shouldn't guard over him like he had to do with the sea and the sea monsters. This verse brings to mind an obvious question- why does God need to watch over the sea monsters? If you look in the book of psalms, you'll find the answer. The verses from this book that speak about "Tanin" create a picture of the war, or great battle between The Almighty and the great sea monsters, as we can see in Psalm 74:13- "אַתָּה פוֹרַרְתָּ בְעָזְּךָ יָם; שִׁבַּרְתָּ רָאשֵׁי תַנִּינִים, עַל-הַמָּיִם" "Thou didst break the sea in pieces by Thy strength; Thou didst shatter the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters" Apparently, God needs to watch over the sea and the sea monsters, because he had a battle with them in the past. The question is when and where did it take place? Furthermore, in Psalm 91:13 there is a reference to "The Tanin" and we can once more see that God is battling with it and other creators. In order to solve this mysterious riddle, we should pat attention to two more occurrences of "The Taninim" in the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 51:9, Isaiah calls on the arm of The Lord to wake up and fight like it fought in the past, with the great sea monsters- עוּרִי עוּרִי לִבְשִׁי-עֹז, זְרוֹעַ יְהוָה--עוּרִי כִּימֵי קֶדֶם, דֹּרוֹת עוֹלָמִים" " הֲלוֹא אַתְּ-הִיא הַמַּחְצֶבֶת רַהַב, מְחוֹלֶלֶת תַּנִּין "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Art thou not it that hewed Rahab in pieces that pierced the dragon? This verse reveals to us a great war in the old ages, between two sides: The arm of God, and sea monsters, Rahab and Tanin. Another thing that we can say is that God won this war and that one of the meanings of Tanin could be a dragon. This war, my friends, could only have taken place during the creation of the world. There was a war between God and the sea and its monsters, which the author of the first chapter didn't want us to know about. This is the reason that he chose to use the same root and verb in the creation of man, the world and the sea monsters. From his point of view, there was no war. God is the only one that creates. No gods or sea monsters can battle him. What about the future? According to Isaiah 27:1, another war in the sea is yet to happen, as written: בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה" עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; " וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם "On that day, the LORD with His great and strong sword will punish leviathan the slant serpent, and leviathan the tortuous serpent; and He will slay the dragon who is in the sea". This is the reason why "The Tanin" should praise The Lord (see Psalm 148:7); this is the reason why the enormous kings of this area are being compared to "The Tanin" (see Isaiah 51:34, Ezekiel 32:2). The picture is clearer now: the great sea monsters were great, but they couldn't fight with The Lord or with the pen of the author of Genesis 1! I wish us all "no more wars", as "Anwar El Sadat" proclaimed. Main phrases of the post + transcription + translation Hebrew Transcription Translation חִידָה hîdāh Quiz, riddle פָּתַר pātar Solved שָׁלוֹם šālôm Peace תַּנִּין tannîn Sea monster גָּדוֹל gādôl Great סוֹפֵר sôpēr Author מַטֶּה matteh Staff, rod מִלְחָמָה milhāmāh War More about the great sea monsters http://www.bibleistrue.com/qna/pqna31.htm http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i4/seamonsters.asp A song for peace/Miry Alony http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY9KWBWjXWM