Good discussion topic

King David amongst the Philistines, or how to trick your way into power when you don't have authority.   Note:  men in the bible do this along with women.

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, 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