YINR 929: Tanach Yomi

A short thought for each chapter/perek in Tanach for Tanach yomi/daily Bible study by Josh Blechner

YINR 929: Tanach Yomi is a religion podcast hosted by Josh Blechner, with 278 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Josh Blechner hosts YINR 929: Tanach Yomi, a religion show with 278 episodes published.

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  Episode #22

  II Shmuel 22: Psalm Psreview

  Oct 1, 20262 minS9

  Chapter 22 and chapter 18 of Psalms are almost identical chapters. David wrote most of the psalms in the book of Psalms, but obviously they all do not appear in the books of Samuel, Kings, or Chronicles. Chapter 22 (and chapter 18 of Psalms) is an exception. The introductions to each of the chapters demonstrate the difference between the two books. “David addressed the words of this song to the LORD, after the LORD had saved him from the hands of all his enemies and from the hands of Saul” (II Samuel 22:1) (וַיְדַבֵּר דָּוִד לַה׳ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת בְּיוֹם הִצִּיל ה׳ אֹתוֹ מִכַּף כָּל־אֹיְבָיו וּמִכַּף שָׁאוּל) and “For the leader. Of David, the servant of the LORD, who addressed the words of this song to the LORD after the LORD had saved him from the hands of all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul” (Psalms 18:1) (לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְעֶבֶד ה׳ לְדָוִד אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לַה׳ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת בְּיוֹם הִצִּיל־ה׳ אוֹתוֹ מִכַּף כָּל־אֹיְבָיו וּמִיַּד שָׁאוּל). The verse from our chapter places David as the active person. David spoke these words to God after he was saved from all of his enemies, including Shaul. The verse in Psalms begins with the musical instruction: “for the leader”. This lets the reader know that the chapter is for the leader of the choir to lead. The next part matches the thematic context of the chapter. In II Samuel, it simply sets the context. Because the chapter appears here, some commentators explain that “Shaul” in “saved him from the hands of all of his enemies and Saul” is really a general catch-all for all those within Israel who tried to harm David. If one reads the verse in chapter 18 of Psalms alone, one could assume that this psalm was written by David much earlier in his life, around the time that God first saved him from Saul. When one opens the book of Psalms and is looking for a psalm that best matches the message one is trying to convey, this introductory verse is important. If the reader wants to thank God after an enemy has been vanquished (or perhaps to offer it as a prayer to help vanquish enemies), then this introduction would point to this chapter as the most relevant.

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  Episode #21

  II Shmuel 21: Humane Sacrifice?

  Sep 30, 20263 minS9

  Chapter 21 reads differently than the previous chapters. Until this point, the chapters were written in simple chronological order describing the trajectory of the reign of David. The second part of the chapter is a summary of certain battles with the Philistines. These battles take place over the course of David’s entire life as they include the battle against Goliath. They are not battles that occur chronologically after chapter 20. The first part of the chapter tells a bizarre tale of David and Gibeonites. This chapter also seems out of place chronologically and may have happened earlier on, but was put here because it did not fully work with the sequence of the David story. There is a famine in the land and David asks God for the reason behind the punishment. God responds that it is punishment for Shaul killing members of the Gibeonites in violation of the promise made between Joshua and the Gibeonites. The text is unclear as to why this famine is happening now and why David is being punished the actions of Shaul. To appease the Gibeonites, David selects descendants of Shaul to be tortured and executed by the Gibeonites. The select group seems arbitrary except for the fact that David specifically avoids picking Mephiboshet because of his promise to Jonathan. Instead, he picks three sons of Ritzpah, Shaul’s concubine and two sons of Michal. Poor Ritzpah has been on the wrong side of a few stories in the life of David and Michal has fallen far from being David’s first wife. How could David just select random people for death? It was not like these people were responsible for the killings. The Gemara in Yevamot has the same problem and explains that David did not choose these people himself. Instead, all the descendants of Shaul walked by the Ark, and the “guilty” ones were selected out. This is similar to the story in Joshua of how they figured out who stole the booty from Jericho. But the text says that David specifically did not select Mephiboshet. That seems to go against the selection process in the Gemara. The Gemara anticipates this and explains that David did not not select Mephiboshet. Instead, David told Mephiboshet to not come to the selection ceremony just in case the Ark would select him. Radak addresses the moral problem of executing Shaul’s descendants by explaining that God expressly authorized or required what happened, so this was not David arbitrarily punishing innocent children for their father's sins but a divinely revealed judgment whose underlying guilt was not fully disclosed by the text. Radak’s explanation may answer part of the question, but the story is still deeply unsettling. And perhaps that is precisely why it belongs here. Chapter 21 is not the next event in David’s story; it is part of Sefer Shmuel’s retrospective on David’s reign. As the book winds down, chronology gives way to reflection. We are shown episodes that did not fit neatly into the narrative before but that complicate our understanding of David and his kingship. Shaul’s sin produces consequences during David’s reign, while David’s attempt to correct that sin leads to actions that themselves demand explanation. The story therefore resists the simple contrast that we might have expected between the failed reign of Shaul and the successful reign of David. The transition from one king to the next did not wipe the slate clean, either historically or morally. It may also be an indirect way for the text to warn about what’s coming in the next book based on David’s misdeeds at the end of II Shmuel.

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  Episode #21

  II Shmuel 20: Two Wise Women and a General

  Sep 30, 20264 minS9

  The appearance of an אשה חכמה in II Samuel 20 immediately recalls the אשה חכמה of Tekoa in II Samuel 14. The parallels are striking: in both, Yoav faces a political crisis involving a dangerous individual whose fate is intertwined with that of a larger group, and in both a wise woman uses speech to avert death. Yet the second episode reverses the first. Tekoa argues, in effect, “save the individual so that you do not destroy the family”; Abel says, “give up the individual so that you do not destroy the community.” At the center of both stands Yoav. In chapter 14, Yoav recruits the Wise Woman of Tekoa to persuade David to restore Avshalom. Significantly, “וַיָּשֶׂם יוֹאָב אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים בְּפִיהָ”: Yoav puts the words in her mouth. The woman possesses the חכמה, but Yoav supplies the דברים. He constructs a fictional case in which executing a guilty son would extinguish his family’s future, inducing David to rule that the son should be spared and then turning that judgment back upon Avshalom. The episode reveals Yoav’s extraordinary political perception. He understands David, diagnoses his paralysis, anticipates his response, and engineers a solution. But Yoav’s wisdom is primarily instrumental: he knows how to produce the outcome he believes political circumstances require. In the end, that “solution” proves disastrous. Avshalom returns, but the underlying estrangement remains, leading eventually to rebellion and civil war. Ironically, as discussed yesterday, Yoav himself kills the man he had maneuvered David into restoring, despite David’s command that Avshalom be spared. What remains constant is Yoav’s conviction that he must determine what political necessity requires. Against this background, chapter 20 radically reverses the roles. Yoav’s army besieges Abel because Sheva ben Bichri has taken refuge there. This time Yoav does not seek an אשה חכמה; an אשה חכמה seeks Yoav. In Tekoa, Yoav speaks through the wise woman. At Abel, her opening demand is “שִׁמְעוּ שִׁמְעוּ”: Listen! Yoav, who once controlled the voice of wisdom, must now submit himself to it. The woman rebukes him: “אַתָּה מְבַקֵּשׁ לְהָמִית עִיר וְאֵם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל; לָמָּה תְבַלַּע נַחֲלַת ה׳?” Yoav is so intent on eliminating a threat to Israel that he is prepared to destroy part of Israel to accomplish it. She forces him to distinguish ends from means. Sheva can be separated from Abel; the guilty individual can be surrendered without destroying the innocent community around him. The narrator emphasizes that she acts “בְּחָכְמָתָהּ,” with her wisdom. Unlike Tekoa, Yoav stands behind her supplying the script. Her wisdom accomplishes what Yoav’s political calculation could not: it draws the proper boundary around responsibility. The two women therefore express a single deeper principle. Tekoa warns against destroying the larger whole merely to punish one guilty person; Abel warns against preserving or pursuing one person in a way that destroys everyone else. חכמה requires identifying precisely who bears responsibility, what is threatened, and what must be preserved. The contrast also traces Yoav’s evolution from פה to חרב, speech to sword. In chapter 14, Yoav understood that words might solve a political crisis. After Avshalom’s rebellion, however, he increasingly resolves obstacles through force: he kills Avshalom, kills Amasa, and finally batters Abel’s walls. At precisely that moment, an אשה חכמה interrupts violence with “שמעו שמעו.” The reversal is beautiful: Yoav once understood what a wise woman’s words could accomplish; now a wise woman must remind him. Yoav is unquestionably shrewd. He reads people, understands power, and acts when others hesitate.. Wisdom means knowing what must be preserved while pursuing a necessary end, where responsibility begins and ends, and when one’s means have begun to consume one’s purpose. First Yoav finds the Wise Woman; then the Wise Woman finds Yoav. First Yoav teaches through wisdom; finally, wisdom teaches Yoav.

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  Episode #19

  II Shmuel 19: Protect the Crown

  Sep 28, 20263 minS9

  This moment has been simmering for a long time. David was king over Israel, but he owed a lot of his military success to his top general Yoav. They were supposed to be hand and glove, but Yoav and David did not always see eye to eye. When David wanted to bring Avner into the fold, Yoav took matters into his own hands and killed him. Avner was not only IshBoshet’s general, but he had also killed Yoav’s brother in battle. Yoav killed Avshalom when David told everyone to let him live. This was after Yoav had coaxed a reunion between the two. The fact that Yoav did not hesitate to kill Avshalom after spending political capital to bring him back shows how black and white Yoav’s thinking was. Killing Avshalom was an admission that he had made the wrong choice to bring David’s son back into the fold. He did it anyway, because Yoav’s main goal was protecting the crown and defeating its enemies. In this line of thinking there is no opportunity for nuance. A threat is a threat and it must be dealt with. Next chapter, Yoav will kill another rival for chief military officer. David’s calculation here seems uniform- he refuses to punish those that rebel and instead wants to try to rehabilitate them and bring them back to the fold. David may be thinking politically here. Just as he did not try to kill Shaul, he also wants to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Yoav outburst in chapter 19 reveals his thinking. “Today you have humiliated all your followers, who this day saved your life, and the lives of your sons and daughters, and the lives of your wives and concubine by showing love for those who hate you and hate for those who love you. For you have made clear today that the officers and men mean nothing to you. I am sure that if Absalom were alive today and the rest of us dead, you would have preferred it” (ו) וַיָּבֹא יוֹאָב אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ הַבָּיִת וַיֹּאמֶר הוֹבַשְׁתָּ הַיּוֹם אֶת פְּנֵי כָל עֲבָדֶיךָ הַמְמַלְּטִים אֶת נַפְשְׁךָ הַיּוֹם וְאֵת נֶפֶשׁ בָּנֶיךָ וּבְנֹתֶיךָ וְנֶפֶשׁ נָשֶׁיךָ וְנֶפֶשׁ פִּלַגְשֶׁיךָ. (ז) לְאַהֲבָה אֶת שֹׂנְאֶיךָ וְלִשְׂנֹא אֶת אֹהֲבֶיךָ כִּי הִגַּדְתָּ הַיּוֹם כִּי אֵין לְךָ שָׂרִים וַעֲבָדִים כִּי יָדַעְתִּי הַיּוֹם כִּי לוּ אַבְשָׁלוֹם חַי וְכֻלָּנוּ הַיּוֹם מֵתִים כִּי אָז יָשָׁר בְּעֵינֶיךָ (verses 6-7). David’s mercy here is seen as weakness by Yoav. In some ways, Yoav is like Michal, Shaul’s daughter who looked out the window and was disgusted that David would debase himself in front of the people. To each of them respect for the crown trumps everything. Those that disrespect the crown need to be taken care of, and those that respect the crown are to be rewarded. Perhaps then, Yoav was David’s fiercest protector, willing to do the ugly things that David could not bring himself to do. Or perhaps Yoav’s conception of protecting David had slowly become indistinguishable from protecting Yoav himself.

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  Episode #18

  II Shmuel 18: Missing the Forest and the Trees

  Sep 27, 20264 minS9

  The chapter begins with almost a mirror image of the Batsheva story. There, David remained behind in the city while Yoav and the army went out to fight. Here, David insists on going out with his troops, but his commanders implore him to remain behind in the city for his own safety. David seems determined not to repeat his earlier mistake, yet once again the decisive action will take place far from him.As the battle unfolds, the Navi gives us a strange description of the battlefield: “The battle spread out over that whole region, and the forest devoured more troops that day than the sword . (יח:ח)What does it mean that the forest “devoured” more than the sword? Rabbeinu Yonatan understands the forest as dangerous in a very literal sense: wild animals of the forest attacked Avshalom’s troops. Radak offers a different natural explanation, understanding the forest itself, with its pits, trees, branches, and difficult terrain, as causing more casualties than the actual fighting. That reading fits particularly well because the verse never says that these losses were suffered exclusively by Avshalom’s army. In the confusion of a battle spread across a dense forest, the terrain itself could become a more dangerous enemy than the opposing soldiers.But perhaps the Navi is also preparing us for what happens immediately afterward:“Avshalom encountered some of David’s followers. Avshalom was riding on a mule, and the mule passed beneath the tangled branches of a great terebinth; his head became caught in the terebinth, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule beneath him continued on.” . (שמואל ב יח:ט)Read together, verses 8 and 9 feel almost like statement and demonstration: first we are told that the forest is devouring the combatants, and then we watch the forest quite literally capture the most important combatant of all. In fact, perhaps “the forest devoured more than the sword” need not refer only to quantity, but also to quality. The sword may have killed more ordinary soldiers, but the forest captured the one person upon whom the entire rebellion depended. The great “get” of the battle was Avshalom himself, and it was not a sword that defeated him. The forest delivered him helplessly into the hands of David’s men.That may explain another unusual detail in verse 9. Avshalom is left “between heaven and earth,” בֵּין הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבֵין הָאָרֶץ. The phrase does more than describe his physical position. Avshalom wanted to occupy David’s place on earth as king, but at this moment he possesses neither the earth beneath his feet nor any way to rise toward heaven. Even the mule, the sign of royal status upon which he had been riding, simply continues onward without him. The aspiring king is literally left with nothing beneath him.Chazal add another layer to the irony. Avshalom was famous for his extraordinary appearance, and Shmuel has already gone out of its way to tell us about his remarkable hair and how heavily it grew (שמואל ב יד:כה–כו). The Midrash connects that vanity to his rebellion: the very aspect of his appearance in which Avshalom took pride and which helped feed his sense that he was worthy of kingship becomes the instrument of his downfall. What helped convince Avshalom that he should wear the crown ultimately prevents him from ever wearing it.There is therefore a striking progression in these verses. David and Avshalom have assembled armies, appointed commanders, and planned a civil war, but the decisive actor is something neither side controls: the forest. The battlefield itself seems to turn against Avshalom. The forest “devours,” the tree catches him, and the mule carries on without him. Avshalom sought to seize David’s kingdom through human power and human admiration, but in the end he is defeated before a sword ever touches him. The battle against Avshalom is won not merely in the forest; in an important sense, it is won by the forest.

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