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June 22, 2001/Tamuz 1, 5761, Vol. 53, No.38
Samuel combines monarchy, theology
Torah Study
DR. NEIL GILLMAN
Korach/Numbers 16:1-18:32
The high drama of this week's Torah portion, Korach's rebellion against Moses, overshadows an equally compelling, if not quite as dramatic passage in this week's haftarah (companion piece to the Torah). It deals with Samuel's address to the people as he crowns Saul, Israel's first king.
Samuel was a towering figure in Israel's early history. The last of the judges, Samuel led Israel through the tumultuous transition from a loose confederacy of tribes to a united nation under the rule of one king.
His address to the people in this chapter is suffused with an ambivalence, both principled and personal. In principle, he views Israel's wish for a king to be an implicit repudiation of God - who alone is Israel's ultimate and eternal King. But he also views it as the people's implicit repudiation of his own leadership.
It is this double-edged ambivalence which makes this address a fitting companion for the Torah reading where Korach's rebellion forces Moses to defend his own leadership of Israel.
Samuel begins with the personal. He admits that he is "old and gray," that his end is drawing near. He asks for reassurance that he has not taken "anyone's ox or donkey" or "maltreated or oppressed anyone," quoting Moses' challenge to Korach, and that he has never taken a bribe.
From the personal, he moves to the principle. He reviews the history of God's leadership of the people. He lists some of the prior leaders that God had sent to save Israel from its enemies.
Then, he exposes the people's motivation: When they saw the king of the Amorites marching against them, they clamored for a king of their own. He appeals to God who miraculously sends thunder and rain out of season, confirming that God is aligned with him.
Astonishingly, the people confess that their wish for a king was indeed sinful. But Samuel reassures them. True, their wish for a king is sinful, but as long as the people retain their faith in God, God will never abandon them.
There is an underlying irony to this entire episode. We know that Saul's reign was to end tragically, and that before his own death, Samuel was to wrest the kingship from Saul and anoint David as Saul's successor. Samuel's ambivalence was amply justified.
But what touches me most about Samuel's address is its deeply personal and tragic subtext. The narrator's appreciation of the subtle dynamics of leadership is simply stunning. Here is a giant of a man, fully the equal of Moses, nearing the end of a career marked with major accomplishments, but now become "old and gray," consumed with self-doubt, and questioning all that he has done. He must even defend himself against the charge of having wronged anyone or of having taken a bribe.
Even more, he can't help but take the people's clamoring for a king as their rejection of his own leadership. True, God's honor is in his thoughts, but he does not begin with God's agenda. He begins with his own. Indeed, the two agendas merge. He views the people's rejection of God in the light of their rejection of him. He views God's feelings in the light of his own. He projects his disappointment on God. The human dimension merges with the theological.
But after all of the recriminations and all of the self-doubt, he ends on a note of reconciliation, both on his part and on God's behalf. Here, the true grandeur of the man emerges. God will not abandon God's people, nor will he, even after Saul's failure as king. He goes on to anoint David, and only then does he die.
Rabbi Neil Gillman is professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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