The (Second) Book of Samuel: chapter 2

Welcome to 2 Samuel, Shmuel part Bet, chapter 2

Episode 32: Who Rules Who

This week David becomes king yet again (this is his second inauguration). This time, his monarchy is over his tribe, Yehuda and is immediately tested as his troops come into conflict with those of his rival Ish-Boshet, the son of Shaul and the hereditary ruler of the Jewish people. What ensues is a battle that never should have happened as sparing gives way to warring.

Capped by the tragic death of David nephew Asa'el Avner is forced to retreat as Yoav and David's men claim victory. Next week we will see the repercussions of a battle that takes place in the strategic location of Give'on.

Thanks for joining, I hope you enjoy and would be grateful if you could recommend this channel to a friend.

Welcome to 2 Samuel, Shmuel part Bet, chapter 1

Episode 31: Lying and Dying

This week we transitioned from the death of Shaul to its immediate aftermath. We encounter a bizarre account of shaul's last moments told from the perspective of an outsider, an Amalekite

From a literary perspective the author wants us to recall the tragedy of the death of Eli and his sons from the beginning of Sefer shmuel. The context there is a failure of leadership which begets a national ruination. Such is there case again here where Shaul’s death precipitates a major military loss.

But somehow that loss is not truly our focus, because the paradigm has shifted to the role of the leader. There was no one to lament the death of Eli and his sons, but in our chapter that task falls to David who both acts decisively to show that he will brook no ill will towards his predecessor, as well as showing his compassion and admiration for his liege lord shaul and his dearest friend Yehonatan.

We end our chapter with some unanswered questions around the chronology from the combining of the Shaul and David narratives. Is it possible that David sent gifts from his spoils of war while the nation mourned the death of their king? It should go without saying that we cannot believe the Amalekite's account. He seems to be the first in a number of people who believe they can ingratiate themselves with David by being a part of the downfall of the king's perceived enemies, only to find that in doing so they themselves become David's enemy and are immediately vanquished.

Thanks for joining, I hope you enjoy and would be grateful if you could recommend this channel to a friend.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-seventh in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 27: Avigail, Kingmaker

Chapter 25 is pivotal in the course of the life of David. We try to read past the surface and detect both a Naval whose actions appear justified and a David who seems to be on the verge of turning into Shaul. Avigail's message to David is nuanced and layered, she delicately points out the error in David's ways by, for example, alluding to David's victory with a slingshot, as a reminder that it was David who rejected the need for a sword in the first place.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

In this podcast we put the book of Yonah into context. The story is familiar to many but we try to unpack some of the information that is being alluded to for the reader. What is the city of Nin'veh supposed to conjure for the reader? Why is Yonah concerned with being labeled a false prophet? 

We also examine the book's structure and use of language and how these things shed light on some of the profound themes lurking beneath a superficial reading

Source sheets

This shiur covers two topics - the siman of Korech at the seder - what can we learn from this sandwich? - and Shir HaShirim, the megillah which is read over Pesach - how does it connect to the mysterious Keruvim? We offer a new perspective on how to relate to this holy song. 

Essays with sources

• Korech
• Shir HaShirim

Join us as we explore the symbolism of Yachatz at the seder. How does breaking apart underlie the seder as a whole and how we relate to the concept of chatzot? 

Read the full write up here

What is the meaning of a Seder, and how does having one allow us to achieve freedom from the servitude of Egypt? This shiur discusses the idea of a seder being a process towards an end goal, how that goal addresses issues raised both by Purim and the exile of Egypt and we find, startlingly enough that the root of all the issues raise can be traced back to Yaakov's encounter with Lavan. 

This shiur was based on my essay of the same name. Chag Sameach!

The final shiur on sefer Iyov we try to answer the most pressing questions - what is the book of Iyov trying to teach us? Who won the bet, God or Satan? What is the meaning of God's reply to Iyov? Why do bad things happen to good people? We review the answers of classical commentaries, Chazal and modern thinkers and then propose a radical reading with a little help from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Iyov's final defense, Elihu and God's first response

Discussion of whether or not Job (Iyov) passed Satan's test

Iyov chapter 2

Continuation of Iyov chapter 1

chapter one of the book of Iyov

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-sixth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 26: The Tables have Turned

This is the first of 3 chapters where David’s enemies fall into his hands and he refrains from killing them. Chapter 24 finds David conflicted on how to deal with Shaul, whom he finds in a precarious position. David must both act in accordance with what he believes is the will of God, but also in a way that will spare him and his men continued suffering. We discuss whether or not David has a halachic obligation to kill Shaul and the poignancy of Shaul’s temporary reprieve from his divine madness is powerfully felt.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

This is a review of the previous shiurim on biblical criticism and an introduction to the new series on Iyov

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-fifth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 25 The King in Waiting

The information provided by the Urim v'Tummim is unusual. In this chapter we find multiple queries and uncertainties in just how people know what they know. If David is told by the urim v'tummim that Saul will come down, and therefore David flees and Saul doesn't end up coming down, what does that mean for the veracity of the urim v'tummim? Is the urim v'tummim providing a sci-fi potential alternate reality? We discuss, spoiler alert, the fact that an angel potentially saves David from Saul's attack and see an echo of the Akeida story. We also contrast David and Doeg wondering why a frum Esav is contrasted with a krum Yaakov. 

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-fourth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 24 Wherever I May Roam

In chapters 21 & 22 David goes on the lam. We follow the “refuge who would be king” to Nov and then the Plishti city of Gath wondering why David would choose this, the worst possible location for which to flee. Luckily the king of the Plishtim has a good sense of humor about the situation. However, when Doeg, here in the role of Haman, informs Shaul of David’s access to a divine message, something which plays upon the king’s paranoid insecurities, a Churban of Nov ensues.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

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Map of David’s movements (courtesy of R’ Weinberg) https://www.thelivingtree.org/?downloadMedia=true&requestUrl=http://media.thelivingtree.org/audio/nach/03-shemuel_i/21-david%27smovements.pdf

Episode 23 Fomenting Rebellion? Welcome to our twenty-third in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Whither Malchut Chapter 20 brings collective amnesia as we pretend that Shaul didn’t just try to kill David. Instead David concocts an elaborate ruse to force his dear friend Yehonatan to see the truth of his father’s madness. We note parallels between the rosh chodesh meal of Shaul and the feast of Esther and offer an explanation for why Yehonatan needed to be bothered with shooting arrows when he was able to simply speak to David directly in the end.

Lastly, I offer an extended musing on the concept of Mored b’Malchut as applied to David and Yonatan and find a surprising explanation in the story of Uzziah which has many similarities to the current situation in Israel.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-second in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 22 The betrayals

This chapter (19) begins to overtly express Shaul’s desire to kill David at the same time as those closest to Shaul including his daughter and mentor conspire to help Shaul’s enemy. We continue the motif of Shaul as Lavan and explain why Shaul didn’t simply have David killed at night in his bed. We note the parallel between our story of a king sending 3 waves of messengers to are unable to bring back the person the king wants because they have been spiritually elevated with the story of Oneklos the convert. For more on the pattern of Aggadot which are covertly sourced in Tanakh see our series, A Twice Told Tale on the retelling of Tanakh in the Aggadah.

Lastly, we wonder why Psalm 59 is the first time chronologically that David makes a direct reference to life events from the book of Samuel.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twenty-first in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 21 - Shaul descent into the maelstrom

In this shiur we offer an explanation for why Shaul doesn’t seem to recognize David when the two had met in the previous chapter. We also attempt to understand the repetitious nature of the chapter by positing a novel literary technique that forces the reader to experience events as though they were the character (the movie reference was Momento). Thanks to Susan Ackerman’s insight that in Tanach love is never explicitly reciprocated, we avoid a reading that sees David as cold and calculating. Lastly we are perplexed by Shaul’s request, and David’s acceptance of a bride-price that involves mutilating the enemy and find shades of the Lavan story that will continue into the next chapter.

All this and more.

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#Tanach #Shmuel #David #Shaul #Michal #Bible

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twentieth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 20

David vs. Goliath.

In chapter 17 we experience collective amnesia as David’s anointment seems to have caused no effect on anyone. We offer an explanation for why Goliat hasn't appeared in any previous battles. We briefly site the fatuous exegesis of Malcom Gladwell wherein the Philistines send a decrepit acromegalic as their champion. We raise the most confounding question of why Shaul does not recognize David and hint that the solution is related to David's relationship with Yonatan.

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our Nineteenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 19

In chapter 16 we encounter the beginning of the transition from the kingship of Shaul to that of David. Is Shmuel’s protest against going to select a successor for Shaul to be taken serious in light of the fact that just a few short verses beforehand he was telling Shaul the he would do exactly that? David’s anointment seems to be a strange non-event and we note the parallel between David’s selection as a court musician and Esther’s appointment as Queen. Finally, from a story perspective what is the point of anointing David here and what impact does this Ruah Hashem have?

We do begin to broach the topic of Shaul’s madness but there is much more to explore.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our eighteen in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 18

We complete our study of chapter 15 with many open questions. Is Shaul able to successfully repent? Is Shmuel falling into the same trap as Eli in closing the door on returning Shaul to God’s good graces? We cite the brilliant textual clue from the mishbetzot Zahav to explain how the Amalek nation persists after the death of Agag. We offer several answers for how Shmuel, a nazir, was able to kill Agag which would render him taamei.

Additionally we cite many comparisons between our chapter, and the book of Shmuel in general, and Megillat Esther. I neglected to cite this important article by Professor Yitzhak Berger from which I learned much of this material.

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Welcome to part 3 of our history of halacha in Bayit Sheni series entitled Away Apart, the Parting of the Ways Between Judaism and Christianity. So far we have set the background by outlining the various groups that were around in the first few centuries of the common era and what their beliefs were. We explained what sources we had for our knowledge at the time and then honed in on Jesus’s teaching, his perhaps revolutionary attitude towards Rome, as well as Paul and the spread of Christianity after Jesus’s death

All of this drove us towards our fundamental question when and why did a Jewish sect of Nazarenes, meaning people who followed Jesus of Nazareth, when amd how did those people, who were all Jews stop being Jewish. To put it better, how halachically could a Jewish group at that time become a goy for the purposes of things like minyan or yayin nesech amd and the like.

What we found was the basic answer to our question is you can't. There doesn't seem to be a historical halachic precedent for a Jewish group doing something that transformed them into a non-jewish group. To the extent that even the Samaritans who were not really a Jewish group to begin with were considered for some halachic purposes as if they were jews. Yiddishkeit is like hotel California, you can check out any time you like but you can't ever leave

Which takes us to this week. Now we start to explore various historical events which individually could not be seen as creating that schism between Jews and Christians, but adding them all up cam perhaps collectively point us in the right direction. We touch on things like the various wars between the Jews amd Rome, the malediction of the heretics, the Jewish tax, the Christians changing their calendar to move sabbath to Sunday and much more.

Some of these events had a more direct impact on whether the average stam Jew in the first few decades of the 2nd century viewed a Jewish Christian as Jewish or Christian.

Thank you for listening and I  hope you enjoy

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Link to Birkat HaMinim in Cairo Geniza

Select Bibliography

• Ophir, Adir and Rosen-Zvi, Ishay: Goy, Israel’s multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile (Oxford, 2018)

• Cohen, Shaye J. D.: From the Maccabees to the Mishnah (Westminster John Knox Press, Third Edition, 2014)

• ⸺ The Beginning of Jewishness

• Schiffman, Lawrence H.: Who was a Jew? (Ktav, 2019)

• ⸺ Texts and traditions : a source reader for the study of Second Temple and rabbinic Judaism

• Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm has a series of classes on this topic

• Faur, José: The Gospel According to the Jews (Moreshet Sepharad Publishing, 2012)

• Part 1 Adele Reinhartz, Especially Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAOizrgSIc0&ab_channel=JewishStudies-Fordham   - h/t Malka Simkovich

• 
  

• Toleration within Judaism and the Parting of the Ways between Judaism and

•  Several works by E.P. Sanders

• Ruth Langer cursing the christians

• Basser, Herbert W. Studies in Exegesis (Brill, 2002)

• Neusner, Jacob First Century Judaism in Crisis

  Reuven Kimelman, “Birkat Ha-Minim and the Lack of Evidence for an Anti-Christian Jewish Prayer in Late Antiquity

Brandon, S. G. F. (Samuel George Frederick), Jesus and the Zealots; a study of the political factor in primitive Christianity

Solomon Zeitlin's Studies in the early history of Judaism

Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, Herford, R. Travers

• 
  

• Aharon Shemesh, “King Manasseh and the Halakhah of the Sadducees,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 52, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 27-39

• GOODMAN, MARTIN, et al. “TOLERATION WITHIN JUDAISM FROM THE SECOND TEMPLE TO THE PRESENT.” Liverpool University Press, 2013

• The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred, Eyal Regev, The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library, 2019

• ⸺ Did Early Christians Mourn the Destruction of the Temple?, TheTorah.com 

Instone-Brewer, David , THE EIGHTEEN BENEDICTIONS AND THE MINIM BEFORE 70 CE. The Journal of Theological Studies Published By: Oxford University Press, Vol. 54, No. 1

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our seventeenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 17

We creep into some morally murky waters with chapter 15. How do we understand the biblical mitzvah to wipe out Amalek completely when it would seem the Amalekites of Shaul’s time should not be blamed for the acts of their nation hundreds of years prior? Can Shaul not cite precedent of Yericho and Ai in dedicating the best spoils to Hashem and holding the enemy king for a public spectacle?

The theological questions get even harder (if you can believe it!) when we consider, broadly speaking, the implications of whether or not God changes God’s mind.

Additional topics include an excursus on the Teraphim and a recourse to ancient eastern views on the symbolism of the hem of robes

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our sixteenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 16

We seek to plumb the depths of the exceedingly rich chapter 14 including noting how Yonatan's approach to basically everything is the inverse of Shaul. This leads us to another example of our Twice Told Tale series wherein we compare chapter 14 to the story in the talmud of Dama ben Netina. Next we point out the historical curiosity of the British using the geography of our perek to combat the Ottoman Turks in WWI.

Additional topics include comparing Yonatan and Shimshon an excursus on the Urim v'Tummim and a discussion of David Jobling's reading of Yonatan as essentially a junior David to serve as the transition from Shaul to David

All this and more.

Thank you for joining us, I hope you enjoy this podcast and will consider sharing it with others.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our Fifthteenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 15

While we found the roots of Shaul’s heroism in chapter 13 this week we encounter a confused king who seems to be winning in spite of himself. In chapter 14 we find many surprises including Shaul’s son Yonatan who seems bent on doing everything differently than his father. We note how much of the scene where Shaul curses anyone who eats with death and Yonatan’s subsequent eye opening experience is patterned after the story of eating from the tree of knowledge.

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our fourteenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 13 – I’m not even supposed to be here today

After a deflating capstone to Shaul’s third inauguration last week, we analyze chapter 13 and find the roots of Shaul’s heroism this week. Shaul is put to an impossible test by Shmuel, essentially a Kobayashi Maru for you star trek fans. However, after experiencing failure Shaul does not cower as Dante Hicks in Clerks but instead rises to the occasion inspite of seemingly insurmountable odds. Will it be enough to secure his kingship when the navi has already indicated it is lost?

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our Thirteenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 13

We analyze chapters 11 and 12 this week. Chapter 11 is essentially an inversion of the story of Pilegesh b’Giveah. This is literally and figuratively Shaul’s crowning achievement, and yet it seems to be ruined by Shmuel in the Navi’s semi-valedictory speech. Shmuel, in passing the torch to Shaul, channels Moshe in his disclaiming of having wronged anyone during his tenure. He then attempts to instill the fear of God in the people by threatening their crops with rain, and perhaps much more. This warning is a valiant attempt to illustrate how important it is for the people, and their king, to continue to be subservient to Hashem and not rely solely on their king.

By way of pure irresponsible conjecture we note that the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly (see links below) could have overlapped with Shmuel’s speech.

All this and more.

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Additional Resources

• Map courtesy of Rav Matis Weinberg (PDF)
• Levantine iron age geomagnetic anomaly
• How they discovered this based on the bricks baked by Nevuchadnezzar II (video)

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our twelfth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 12

This week we discuss why, absent a directive from God, kings are anointed with oil and what such a symbolic act might mean. We note, with Dr. Micah Goodman that while Shmuel may not be in favor of kingship broadly, he seems to be accepting of Shaul as king because of Shauls obsequious nature. Lastly we note the lottery-like process of selecting Shaul before the people reminds us of the wicked Achan.

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our eleventh in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 11

This week we transition from a world where Jewish leaders were Shofetim, judges, to one where they are kings, and we do so, from Shmuel’s perspective, very begrudgingly. We note the similarities between the Shaul story and that of Yosef and we try to explain why it would be necessary, conceptually, for the first king of Israel to seemingly be so unworthy of the office.

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our tenth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 10

This week we answer the questions from chapter 8 and the previous shiur and discuss how the request for kingship creates two distinct offices, that of ruler and of prophet, both dependent on one another for success. We also try to uncover how the events in chapter 8 are connected to the wildly different perspective in chapter 9.

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our ninth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 9

This is the chapter you’ve been waiting for (sorry, chapter 7 wasn’t recorded), we finally begin the transition to a king and a royal line and it is perplexing and mystifying. How is it possible that Shmuel allows his sons to not follow in his ways when he saw first hand the results of Eli and Eli’s children? Why would the people who clearly identify the problem with dynastic leadership expressly request dynastic leadership? Where does the mishpat Hamelech that Shmuel shares with them come from? And perhaps most surprising, if God tells Shmuel to listen to the people and appoint a king, twice, why does the chapter end with Shmuel’s failure to do so?!

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our eighth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy Episode 8.

This week we cover chapters 5-6, and try to understand, fundamentally what the need is for all this information. Meaning, why include two chapters of God destroying the Plishtim when we can sum up the events in 2-3 sentences. However, what we uncover is an intentional patterning on a previous story in the Chumash. Then we turn our attention to ask what the author is trying to accomplish through the use of this pattern. All this and more.

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Welcome to part 2 of our series on the history of halacha entitled away, Apart, the Parting of the Ways Between Judaism and Christianity.

This week we look at a few interesting statements from Chazal regarding Christianity including the only time that the Christian testament is quoted verbatim in the gemarah, by a Taanah no less!

Then we explore whether or not a person or sects beliefs at at the end of Bayit Sheni could have put them beyond the pale. What we find is a Judaism which, while not being very easy to join, was nearly impossible to be cast out of. This to me is utterly remarkable. Pre-Rambam Pharasaic or Rabbinic Judaism was extremely tolerant of a wide range of beliefs, or put another way, once you're in, you're in.

That being the case we will spend next time looking into historical, rather than halachic factors that pushed Christianity out of Judaism

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our seventh in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy Episode 7.

This week we cover chapter 4, the downfall of Eli, the loss of the aron and the destruction of Shiloh. We seek to understand why the destruction of the Mishkan is absent from the text even though it is cataloged elsewhere in Tanach. This week we conclude our exploration of Eli’s failure as a leader and point out how the destruction here is necessary to shift away from a corrupt Kohen paradigm to a prophetic one with Shmuel, who the people did not consult even though were just previously told that all his words came true and God was with him.

All this and more.

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We conclude our learning of Song of Songs by reviewing the approaches heretofore cited and and offer our own explanation for the need for this work to be written as music specifically.

Music conveys more than just information, it evokes feeling. The Song of Songs is an homage to exactly that.

Put another way Shir Hashirim is a song about the concept of song, it is an ode to the artistry of human creation, or perhaps the collaboration that artist forms with the divine.

We also seek to explain the absence of the name of Hashem and conclude with the words of the poet Rilke, “Gesang ist Dasein"

Thank you for joining us and Mazal Tov!

The unfinished notes for this series can be found here

From Understanding to Meaning

We continue to analyze patterns in language and theme between Song of Songs and other parts of Tanakh. Two specific examples of wayward and broken relationships that are contrasted are in Hoshea chapter 2 and Mishlei/Proverbs chapter 7.

We use these comparisons to explain the necessity for writing Song of Songs poetically, rather than simply saying that Hashem and the Jewish people love each other, the reason for the metaphorical language is to contrast with other prophetic metaphorical language that is used to describe the Jewish nation straying after idolatry as a form of harlotry or a debasing of their loving relationship.

Approaches to Understanding the Text Citing from Rishonim and Achronim we discuss how to understand allegory and metaphor in Tanach generally and Song of Songs specifically. Does eros lead to agape?

Next we identify some recurring themes such as everyone guarding something.

We then trace many terms used for love and relationship in Song of Songs with their original sources in the Gan Eden story and see how their use in the megillah is attempting to illustrate the resolution for earlier breakdowns in relationships.

Finally we try to understand the meaning of the parallels between Shir HaShirm and the Keruvim and the story of Bilaam.

Exploring themes and patterns of meaning in Song of Songs while trying to avoid apophenia. We use musical structures such as Rondo and Ritornello to understand the repetition and variation across the songs.

In this episode we take the Artscroll introduction to Song of Songs to task for claiming that it would be false to read this megillah according to it's simple, straightforward and literal meaning - what is called pshat. We find that Rashi disagrees with Artscroll and we explore how the concept of pshat is meant to be understood.

We begin our exploration of the meaning of Song of Songs, why it was written, why it is missing any overt religious message, and who wrote it. There's also a great anecdote about C.S. Lewis's Jewish child.

We complete our straightforward/pshat reading of Song of Songs, chapters 7 and 8. Please note some terminology as written and translated in the Megillah is for a mature audience.

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our Sixth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy Episode 6. This week we cover chapter 3 which juxtaposes Shmuel’s ascent with Eli’s decline. We offer a unique reading of Shmuel’s sleep in the Mishkan and finally we ask why Shmuel’s first prophecy seems to be so inconsequential to Eli, to Shmuel and to us the reader?

All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our fifth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy Episode 5. This week we complete chapter 2 which continues the theme of the thing and its opposite, in this case Shmuel is contrasted with the sons of Eli. We struggle to understand the magnitude of the sins of the sons of Eli and we point out that perhaps not everything Eli hears about his children is factual. We explore whether or not these men lost their free will and finally we ask why , whatever the nature of their sin might be, why would it have such eternal consequences?

All this and more.

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An exploration of the lesson of Tu b'Av as seen through 3 Hosheas

Whither Malchut

Welcome to our fourth in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy.

Episode 4. This week we begin chapter 2 and are immediately confronted with the perplexity of Chana’s famous prayer. How do these seemingly disparate statements hang together and why, as Rashi and others point out, is she continuously referring back to the misery she experienced at the hands of Penina. The solution we offer is to see Chana casting herself as a new Naomi, with the hopes of being the progenitor of kingship. All this and more.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our third in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or SamuelThe Book of Samuel: Episode 1 and the founding of Jewish monarchy. This week we complete chapter 1 and take a brief detour to ponder the source of the name Nitzevet (Bava Batra 91a) and contrast the story of Chana with that of Naomi and find similarities in language and theme. We then try to understand the implications of this comparison for malchut. All this and more. Thanks for joining us and please consider sharing this recording with others.

Welcome to the book of Shmuel chapter 1. This week we trace some of the background for the first perek back to the story of Pilegesh b’givah by noting the unusual term miyamim yamima. In sefer shoftim we come to identify the roots of the kingship of Shaul as related to Yavesh gilead and we understand how unlikely a king from Shevet Binyamin would be.

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Whither Malchut

Welcome to our first in a continuing series on the book of Shmuel or Samuel and the founding of Jewish monarchy. This week we introduce the book and what the goal of the work seems to be. We point out the famous question that the authority of the king as depicted in the Torah is extremely limited and is in stark contrast to the god-kings of the ancient world. Where do concepts like mored b’malchut come from and why is it so important to have a limited monarch. All this and more. Thanks for joining us.

Lastly on a personal note I am release this shiur on the first yartzeit of my father, may the Neshama of yaakov ben akiva Nachum have an Aliyah.