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.
Author Archives: Penina
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
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
“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.
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.”