On Sunday February 7th, we took a lit trip to the old city (extremely unfortunately without our dear friend Evan). Leading up to our adventure, we got background on the necessity for leadership and order throughout the tribes. This came to light when we read Judges chapter 19, where a man feels so unsafe and ungoverned that he feels compelled to chop his raped concubine wife and send her body parts to each of the 12 tribes in order to send a message. This plead for a governing body is heard and G-d agrees that a King/ leadership is needed.
G-d tells Samuel the prophet that Saul will be the first king (melech). At this point, we were introduced to the concept of double reasoning or the idea of there being a theological and practical answer to different situations. Here, the idea is that G-d wanted Saul to be king, and that the people wanted a king because the judges weren’t working. Saul (of the tribe of Benjamin) was anointed by Samuel. He created the united monarchy, ruling over all twelve tribes. Soon after, he proved an unworthy king, rushing a sacrifice without the presence of Samuel, not killing the king of Amalek, and later taking the spoils of war when told expressly not to. David, a young man of Judah, is anointed king. Double reasoning is again present through Saul’s demise: he disobeyed God and was also hated by the people.
David married Saul’s daughter, putting him in line for the thrown, but also was praised for his bravery and military successes. David was responsible for the creation of the capital city of Jerusalem, where we went on this tiyul! We started at the “katef hinom” or the “shoulder of hell”, at the Begin Heritage Center. We saw a burial cave and learned that this cave, along with all of the others, lies on the outskirts of the town because they had to keep the town holy and pure. Under the burial beds, we got a look at the ma-ah-se-fah, where the bones of older corpses are kept. The largeness of the caves showed us how big Jerusalem was at the time, and just how many people lived there. Under one of the caves, the birkat hakohanim was found on a silver scroll, a prayer we still refer to today.
David built the city just south of Mount Moriah, a perfect hill for a defendable and livable abode, which we were able to make out during the awe-inspiring and nail-biting presentation and video we were privileged enough to observe. We viewed the site of the fresh spring that David hid to protect the city and the other geographical features. We spent a bit of time deciphering some olden Hebrew found in burial caves, which was quite interesting.
Finishing the day, we learned that David committed a sin (sleeping with a married woman), and after failing to cover it up, had her husband killed. After a day of hyping David up for his huge accomplishments, this huge show of character was revealed to us. Although he repented, do you think that his legacy is tainted by this horrid, malevolent, devious act?
-@zoedress
I think that his legacy has not been tainted. Even though the kids at my temple and I study Kind David's sending of Uriah into the front lines in Hebrew School and other places, it only slightly changes the balance of our views on him. Everywhere else I have seen King David besides on EIE, it is in a laudatory context. We see him as a great King of the Israelites, David Ha-melech, and in the end that is our general view of him. The Bethseva and Uriah instance only sets him in a slightly lower esteem. I guess in that way, it has tainted it slightly, but in my opinion not enough to completely alter our view of him.
ReplyDeleteFirst props to Zoe for a great blog. Second I wouldn't use the word tainted to describe what happened to his legacy. I think this shows he's not perfect, that he's human and at some point he had to make a mistake or trip up. I believe he definitely could've handled the situation a lot better and that killing Uriah was a very bad choice especially in the scheme of things but overall his reign was very successful so I have to remember that when I think of King David
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nichole above. Although he is the famed King of Israel, he is still human. David was able to unite the people and establish a capitol for the Israelites. But his horrible deed still leaves some sort of bad mark on his record. Present day as Reform Jews we are able to overlook certain things in people. To many his great rule contained enough good to outweigh his single, although large, bad. What cannot be looked past is the fact that this is the single largest reason why he lost the title of King of Israel. So although we view him as such a great ruler, he undeniably had a fast and crushing fall from power.
ReplyDeleteHey Alex, love the reply, but just want to clarify one thing about King David. King David didn't fall from power. Rather, for his punishment by God for having Uriah killed, Batsheva loses her first pregnancy, David's days are filled with war, his family is in disarray and he is not allowed to build the Beit Hamikdash (Temple). I realize that I might not have covered all this in our review of David's downfall, so wanted to add it here now. Thanks for giving me the opportunity :-)
DeleteI don't think it really taints his legacy, but it certainly does give us some more insight into what kind of person he was. He is definitely usually portrayed in a positive light, but there were obviously some negative parts too which was really shocking. I believe this blog post portrays both sides of him really well. I think it was good to see a more human side of him and not just the part where it seemed like he never messes up.
ReplyDeleteI do not think his crime of adultery hurt his reputation in the eyes of the Tanakh. The Tanakh is a pro-David piece of literature. This story is meant to give a reason to repent and do tshuva, which is a characteristic of many great people and prophets.
ReplyDeleteRad blog Zoe. It sucks that it was so cold, but it was still a cool experience, plus the falafel was pretty bomb. I think that regardless of what David did, he will still be the king that did so much for our people.
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty interesting. In my opinion, this, along with a few other acts he commits, disqualifies him from being the great king we speak of today. However, looking at what each other king did, I think it's safe to say he was probably the best king of ancient Israel. That deserves at least some merit.
ReplyDeleteReally nice blog post, Zoe! I believe that King David did some wrong however because the Tanakh is so pro-David we see the emphasis on his greatness more. Therefore I do not think that this tainted his legacy.
ReplyDeleteI think that King David has done many great things and that this incident does not stain his legacy, it honestly just makes him seem more human, no matter how disgusting his actions were.
ReplyDeleteI do not think his crime will hurt his reputation. He was a great king and helped out the people, yes he committed negative acts but all the positive he did will outshine the negative.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he did sleep with a married woman, I think that what he did for our people outweighs the bad he did.
ReplyDeleteEveryone makes mistakes. King David made many mistakes, but he also did a lot of good things for his people. He is remembered mostly for the good that he has done, not the mistakes that he has made. The fact that he repented is good. That does not however, make the severity of his crimes less forgivable. Good people do bad things. How many crimes must a person commit before they become a bad person?
ReplyDeleteI first wanted to say that I thought your post was very good and did summarize our tiyul quite well. As for the question, I think that had that story been more known (I didn't know this part of the story until we learned it), it might have been what he was known for, instead of his legacy.
ReplyDeleteI first wanted to say that I thought your post was very good and did summarize our tiyul quite well. As for the question, I think that had that story been more known (I didn't know this part of the story until we learned it), it might have been what he was known for, instead of his legacy.
ReplyDelete