Study of II Samuel is Coming Oct 3

Stay tuned as we pick up our study of King David and all the assorted siblings, soldiers, children, wives and mothers.  On October 3rd join us for II Samuel, Chapter 1 & 2.   Read David's poignant lament over the deaths of Jonathan and Saul, and learn about his first days as King over Judah.

Wednesday July 18 Ruth starting with Ch 2

We will study Ruth in detail.  We will read through the text and consider issues of identity (both loss and change), redemption, affliction by YHWH, the role of women in transforming society, love between women, Naomi as a Jobian figure, the significance of the book of Ruth in the biblical narrative, the place of both Ruth and Boaz in the genealogy of King David.

Study with Penina - Ruth - Wednesday July 11

We will study Ruth in detail in two classes. We will read through the text and consider issues of identity (both loss and change), redemption, affliction by YHWH, the role of women in transforming society, love between women, Naomi as a Jobian figure, the significance of the book of Ruth in the biblical narrative, the place of both Ruth and Boaz in the genealogy of King David.

Wednesday, June 20 Rebecca

We will study Rebecca and consider to what extent she is (or is not) shown in the text to be much like Abraham.

We did a short study at Shavuot;  this will be more intensive.  The text for the class can be found here.

Wednesday, June 6, 7:30pm, 1 Samuel Chapter 31 and 2 Samuel Chapter 1

 
















-------Marc Chagall  The Death of Saul

Join us as we finish the first book of Samuel (it really finishes with 2 Samuel Ch 1).
Cry with us as we say goodbye to Saul whom we have come to know.
As we study David's famous elegy over the slain Saul and Jonathan, question with us, "Who is David?"

"Thy beauty, O Israel,
Upon thy high places is slain.
How the mighty are fallen."
--- 2 Samuel 1:19

“David’s story has a way of shifting out from under us. 
It is a story that refuses to be tamed, secured, or neatly ordered.” 
  --David M. Gunn and Danna Nolan Fewell. Narrative in the Hebrew Bible. 

Wednesday, May 16, 7:30pm, 1 Samuel Chapters 28-29

The Witch of Endor Raising the Spirit of Samuel, 1800, by William Blake

Clipped on 12-May-2012, from Drawing Life by Fred Hatt

Chapter 28 is the story of the ghost-wife, or necromancer, also called the Witch of Endor, who conjures Samuel up from the grave in response to Saul's plea.   Some commentators feel this story is the basis for the witches in Macbeth.

"This woman has defied the decree against calling the dead [Lev 20-27;  Deut 18:10-11] and is still adept at her trade.  This story sets the stage for centuries of Jewish women's spiritual arts that were banished underground but somehow managed to survive...Talking directly to God, the spirit world, the dead and angels bypasses the traditional authority structure.  It is a rebellious act. It circumvents the authority of the king, the priests, and the institutional prophets." 

"How ironic that an unnamed woman, practicing an illegal craft, becomes advisor to the king!"  
-----Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael in The Women's Haftarah Commentary

Wednesday, May 2, 1 Samuel Chapters 26-28

The chief business of women in the reigns of Kings Saul and David seems to have been to rescue men from the craft and greed of each other.
------Elizabeth Cady Stanton The Woman's Bible (1898)

David, as a man who is sincere but hardly a saint, has through the ages provided a powerful model for repentance...He emerges from Samuel as a humble and humbled king, who points the way to the possibilities of genuine change."
------Everett Fox Give us a King

He is also, from the start, quite calculating, and it can scarcely be an accident that until the midpoint of his story every one of his utterances, without exception, is made on a public occasion and arguably is contrived to serve his political interests."  He is "constantly prepared to do almost anything in order to survive."
------Robert Alter The David Story

To seek clearly circumscribed definitions in this text is to be frustrated at every turn.  What is a king, a priest, a military leader, and what is the difference?  That question is the story of Samuel and Saul.  What is an assassin, what is a politician, and what is the difference?  That is the story of David.
------Regina Schwartz in "Not in Heaven"

Wednesday, April 18, 1 Samuel Chapter 25 (maybe more)

"Abigail is an extraordinary woman who is ready to take risks in order to save her husband
and household members from David's wrath."
    --Shulamit Valler

"Neither Michal nor Abigail seem to have made idols of their husbands;
they did not even consult them as to what they should think, say, or do. 
They furnish a good example to wives to use their own judgment and
to keep their own secrets, not make the family altar a constant confessional."
    --Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898)

Wednesday, April 4, 1 Samuel Chapters 23 and 24

1 S 24:16  "Saul said: 'Is this thy voice, my son David?'  And Saul lifted up his voice and wept."

"Despite Sha'ul's failures and his subsequent descent into monomaniacal pursuit of David, there is something that leads many readers to view the first king of Israel not as evil, but as tragically marred...Sha'ul is not a misfit but a 'mighty' warrior who has fallen, surely not a cause for rejoicing."
       ----Everett Fox

1 Samuel 21 and 22 - March 21 at 7:30pm

Wednesday, February 29, 1 Samuel Chapter 20
Wednesday, March 21: Chapters 21 and 22

King David feigns madness before Achish  (1 Sam 21:14-16)

"It is noteworthy that David feigns madness in order to survive, in contrast to Saul, whose genuine madness reflects his loss of control over the kingdom." 
    ---Robert Alter

What's Love Got to Do with It? David and His Lovers

Wednesday, February 15, we read 1 Samuel Chapters 18 and 19 in English

 
The theme for Chapters 18 and 19 is "What's Love Got to Do with It"  (thank you Tina Turner!)

 
Michal helps David to escape from Saul


In Chapter 16:21, we already learned that Saul loved David: "And David came to Saul, and stood before him, and he loved him greatly."
 
In our next study session, we will read that Saul's children loved David. 
18:1 "And it came to pass...that the soul [nefesh] of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."
18:20 "And Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David.

Did David love anyone?  Does the text place more emphasis on Jonathan's love for David than Michal's, although both of them save David's life?  Join our reading and discussion next Wednesday.

Study with Penina - 1 Samuel 16 and 17 - February 1 at 7:30pm - RSVP

Wednesday, February 1, we read 1 Samuel Chapters 16 and 17 in English
 
In Chapter 16 we at last meet David, soon to be King, a contradictory and complex characater.

"The Bible certainly does not idealize him, but he is all the more appealing for that.  No bit of human hope and despair, bravura and foolishness and bitter melancholy, smoldering hatred and deepest love, is foreign to him."
     --James Kugel

As recent interpreters have pointed out, he is a man whose feelings are often hidden from us, a man who is acclaimed and loved by others (including his readers) but of whom it is never said that he loves anyone...David, as a man who is sincere but hardly a saint, has through the ages provided a powerful model for repentance...He emerges from Samuel as a humble and humbled king, who points the way to the possibilities of genuine change."
     ---Everett Fox

And stay tuned:  in Chapter 18, to be read on February 15, we will meet two of the people who love David, Jonathan and Michal.

1 Samuel 14:24 - 15:35 : Study with Penina January 18

Wednesday, January 18, we read 1 Samuel Chapters 14:24 -15:35 in English

"The old story of the battle of Michmash Pass and the cursing of Jonathan leaves us in a condition of gloomy uncertainty about Saul.  We do not yet know what is to become of him, but we look ahead to the events to come with little hope for him left."
    ----P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. 

1 Samuel Chapter 15:
22 But Samuel said [to Saul]:
"Does YHWH delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
As much as in obedience to the command of YHWH?
Surely, obedience is better than sacrifice,
Compliance than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
Defiance, like the iniquity of teraphim.
Because you rejected the command of YHWH, [YHWH] has rejected you as king."

Study with Penina 1 Samuel 7-8, November 2, 7:30pm RSVP

Study with Penina Announcement

                       


1 Samuel Chapters 7-8
Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm to 9pm.  Eitz Chayim library. 
Bring your Tanakh, snacks, wine.
RSVPs appreciated
 
No prior study or knowledge of text study or Hebrew is required! 
Books provided if you don't have your own.

Review and study material can be found on Penina's blog
See New York Times article in links:  "The Scrolls as a Start, Not an End"

We meet each 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening to study the book of Samuel.

Study with Penina 1 Samuel 5-7 October 19, 7:30pm

Study with Penina Announcement

                                

1 Samuel Chapters 5-7
Wednesday, October 19, 7:30pm to 9pm.  Eitz Chayim library. 
Bring your tanach, snacks, wine.
RSVPs appreciated
 
No prior study or knowledge of text study or Hebrew is required! 
Books provided if you don't have your own.
Review and study material can be found on Penina's blog

Throughout the year we will meet each 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening to study the book of Samuel.

And they placed the Coffer of YHWH on the wagon,
along with the chest and the gold mice and the images of their tumors.
And the cows went-straight on the road, on the road to Bet Shemesh:
on one path they went, going-along (and) lowing,
but they did not turn right or left.
---1 Sam 6:11-12 (Fox translation)

"Against the spareness and swift efficiency of normal Hebrew narrative style, the writer here lavishes synonyms and repetitions in order to highlight the perfect geometry of the miracle: against all conceivable distractions of biology or sheer animal unknowingness, the cows pursue an arrow-straight...trajectory... [T]he milch cows...are going strenuously against nature: their udders full of milk for the calves they have been forced to leave behind."
---Robert Alter, The David Story

October 5, 2011 Study Session

Study with Penina Announcement

                                

1 Samuel Chapters 3-5
                                 
Wednesday, October 5, 7:30pm to 9pm.  Eitz Chayim library. 
Bring your tanach, snacks, wine.
 
No prior study or knowledge of text study or Hebrew is required! 
Books provided if you don't have your own.

Throughout the year we will meet each 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening to study the book of Samuel.

YHWH said to Shemu'el:
Here, I am about to do a thing in Israel
such that all who hear of it - their two ears will ring!
---1 Sam 3:11 (Fox translation)

I will do such things,--
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be
The terrors of the earth.
---King Lear

Leaders fail in Samuel, "and it is in confronting their failures that the reader is empowered to ponder the meaning of responsibility and leadership for our own time.  The narratives...unfold in a way that cautions human beings about the exercise of power and takes offenders to task."
---Everett Fox

"Women play a larger role in the books of Samuel than in most of the rest of the Bible... It has, in fact, been suggested that one of the major themes of the stories of David and his family is precisely the unavoidable link between public and private life within a ruling family."
---Jo Ann Hacket

Notes from Class 9/7/11 - Deeper look at Nefesh and "After she/they ate"

Nefesh – Beth related Hannah's bitter nefesh to Creation –

The actual language in Gen 1:7 is that God breathes into the nostrils of the adam the breath of life: nishmat chayyim. This life force that comes from God is not so different from nefesh perhaps, so the idea that Beth expressed, that Hannah’s bitter nefesh comes from feeling she is without God’s lifegiving force is still an informative connection.

1 Samuel 1:9: 

וַתָּקָם חַנָּה, אַחֲרֵי אָכְלָה בְשִׁלֹה וְאַחֲרֵי שָׁתֹה

This verse is translated in several ways:

Robert Alter The David Story

And Hannah arose after the eating in Shiloh and after the drinking.

Alter says (The Art of Biblical Narrative, note on page 83): “I vocalize ‘eating’ differently than does the Masoretic text, which seems to make Hannah the subject, something contraindicated by the indication that she is breaking a fast in verse 18.”

Everett Fox Give us a King (no annotation)

The Rabbis on Hannah as an example of prayer

Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakoth 

(31a) R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah! [I Sam. I, 10ff]   Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart:(עַל-לִבָּהּ) from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips. But her voice could not be heard: from this, it is forbidden to raise one's voice in the Tefillah. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken: from this, that a drunken person is forbidden to say the Tefillah.

Hannah - Marat Nefesh (bitter soul) and Ani (affliction)

I Samuel 1:10-11 says of Hannah (my translation and emphasis)

¹⁰ With a bitter soul she prayed to [against, upon] the Lord and wept copiously.

¹¹She vowed a vow, saying: Lord of Hosts, if seeing, You will see the affliction of Your handmaid, and remember my request and not forget Your handmaid, and You will grant to your handmaid male seed, I will give him to YHVH all the days of this life, and a razor will not go on his head.

Bitter soul in the Hebrew is marat nafesh.  Marat  is a form of the word mar, meaning bitter, and nafesh  is translated sometimes as soul, spirit, or life-source.

The word translated as affliction is ani. 

In “Reading Ruth” Aviva Zornberg discusses the uses of the word mar (bitterness) and ana ( a form of ani - affliction) in relationship to Naomi.  Zornberg’s interpretations can help us to understand Hannah. 

We start by listening to Naomi say Hashem ana vi, which may be translated as “God afflicted me.”  Zornberg discusses what this means. 

What exactly does “afflict” mean?  Rashi says, “He testified against me, that I had been guilty in his presence.”  I had been guilty of something.  He testified against me, that I am incriminated of some unknown crime.  Then Rashi quotes another reading.  Ana vi: midat hadin, God’s faculty of judgment has afflicted me.  God in his role as judge, as punisher, has come out and afflicted me.  So ana vi can mean to afflict, to impose pain on me, or it can mean to testify against me. (pg 68).

Naomi’s bitterness comes both from suffering the losses of her husband and the sons she has borne and raised, and from feeling humiliated that God is afflicting her.  Zornberg goes on to say

Naomi assumes that all who witness her suffering know she must be guilty.  In interpreting Hashem ana vi- God has born witness against me – Ibn Ezra supports this translation by reference to a verse in Job.  [He] refers us to Job 10:17: techadesh edekha negdi – you are constantly sending new witnesses against me.  The chapter of bitter complaint in which Job says this begins by his saying, adabra bemar nafshi, let me speak in the bitterness (mar) of my spirit. 

[JPS translation of Job 10:1 is I am disgusted with my life;  I will give rein to my complain, t Speak in the bitterness of my soul]

The word mar, of course, echoes one of the words Naomi uses regarding herself several times.  What does Job say in the bitterness of his spirit?  “I say to my God, don’t condemn me.  Let me know why you quarrel with me” (Job 10:2).  Let me know why You have it in for me.  I feel there is a mystery in the destiny You have imposed upon me.  I must be guilty – I assume I must be guilty – but I am not clear why.  At least tell me exactly what it is that justifies this terrible suffering.  “If I am wicked, woe to me.  But if I am righteous, yet I still can’t lift up my head: (Job 10:15).  In the next phrase, listen carefully to the Hebrew: Seva kalon u-reeh onyi – because I am filled with shame, and look upon my affliction.  Onyi – from the same root as ana in Naomi’s ana vi.  I’m filled with shame as I look on my affliction knowing that the affliction must mean guilt.  (pg 69-70)

How does this help us to understand Hanna’s bitter sprit and her affliction?

Ruth Chapters 2.16 to 3.18

Supplement to discussion in class July 6, 2011

Chapter 2

• As a reminder, in verse one of  chapter 2, we are introduced to Boaz, who is identified in as kin to Naomi and as ish gibor chayil, a mighty man of valor.   When he finds that Ruth is gleaning in his field, he offers her extra gleanings and food, and protection from the young men who might otherwise humiliate her.   He offers this paltry help, even though he states that he has heard about how she has followed Naomi to this land and taken care of her.  We should ponder what is wrong with this picture?
• Ruth gleans in Boaz’s field and takes food to Naomi.  Because of Ruth’s generous loving-kindness towards her mother-in-law, Naomi’s spirit is revived.  She blesses the man who took notice of Ruth.  How did she know it was a man?  Ruth did not say so.
• The key to Chapter 2 is the revitalization of Naomi.  Naomi is brought out of her bitterness and despair through Ruth’s acts of loving-kindness, although she does not yet take action.  
• 2:20 - Naomi offers up a blessing when she discovers that it is Boaz who owns the field where Ruth was gleaning.     “Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not failed in his kindness to the living or to the dead!”  The text is a bit ambiguous (is Naomi blessing Boaz or God?), but certainly Naomi understands that Ruth has been fortunate to light upon the field of her kinsman, Boaz.  While Boaz has not offered much help, he has at least protected Ruth in the field and provided her with extra gleanings.

o   Tikva Frymer-Kensky has pointed out that this may be a formulaic blessing of God, as it is very similar to the words of Abraham’s steward (Reading the Women of the Bible, p 246), who said in Gen 24:27: “Blessed be YHWH the God of my lord Abraham who has not left off his acting benevolently (hesed) and faithfully with my master.”   Note that this episode begins with the steward asking for a micreh – Gen 24.12.  See blog commentary on Ruth 2.3.

Chapter 3

• 3:2-4 Naomi takes action because Ruth’s hesed has redeemed her. She instructs Naomi how to attract Boaz.  The scheme is not without risk.