Shimshon ( Samson) is the great Jewish hero. The symbol of Jewish defiance and overcoming odds, throughout the ages. Yet the character described in the Book of Judges (Shoftim) is both complex and contradictory.
From birth he was a Nazarite. The Nazir was described in the Book of Bamidbar (Chapter 6) as anyone, man or woman, who chose to be more religious, to take on an extra degree of self- denial. This meant letting one’s hair grow without being cut and not drinking wine or any product of the vine. This was supposed to raise one’s spiritual level. Usually, it was an adult who chose to take this step. But in the case of Shimshon, it was something that his parents were told to do after the appearance of an angel or messenger of God. Another Biblical example of a child born late to a barren woman.
I have only met two Nazirites in my lifetime. The great scholar and mystic R. David HaCohen (1887-1972) who used to teach selected students at Mercaz HaRav Kook Jerusalem. And his son R. Shear Yashuv Cohen (1927-2016) whom he made a Nazir at birth. But when Shear Yashuv grew up he renounced it. Later he fought in the army and went on to become the Chief Rabbi of Haifa. Father and son were both vegetarians.
Shimshon’s life story doesn’t seem to indicate, on the surface at any rate, significant spiritual sensitivity. He lived at a time of Philistine oppression, when the Israelites were in no position to stand up to them. The Book of Judges says that as he grew, God blessed him, and the spirit of God moved him in the area in which he lived. So that it does appear that in his early life he was indeed behaving in a manner that suggests religious commitment.
The Bible records that he found a Philistine woman in Timna whom he wanted to marry. He persuaded his parents to agree. Even when they tried to dissuade him and pointed out that there were plenty of suitable Israelite girls. His parents didn’t realize that this was as the text suggests, all part of the divine plan to familiarize himself with the culture, tactics and their weaknesses. I do not recommend that members of Tzahal marry into Hamas for this reason!
The biblical narrator says that on the way to visit his bride he encountered a lion which he overcame with his bare hands and left dead at the roadside. And once again the narrator describes this as the spirit of God moving him. He then proceeded to celebrate the betrothal with the locals.
Later, on his way back for the marriage, he passed the decaying carcass of the lion he killed, now hosting bees and producing honey. At the party he found himself surrounded by thirty Philistine young men, who were suspicious of him, and he bet them sets of clothing if they could solve his riddle which was “ Out of the eater came something to eat.” The Philistines approached his wife to reveal the answer and threaten to burn her parents’ house down if she doesn’t agree. Her tears persuaded Shimshon to reveal the answer referring to the honey inside the dead lion. Shimshon was furious at her betrayal but also at the Philistines who threatened her. In his fury he killed the thirty men and gave their clothes to the those who ‘solved the riddle.’ Nevertheless, came back later to claim his wife. By which time her father had given her to somebody else. Shimshon then caught 300 foxes, attached torches to their tails and sent them through the Philistine corn fields and burned them all up.
The Philistines retaliated by threatening the tribe Judah and demanding Shimshon. Shimshon agreed to be bound and handed over to them. But when he was brought to the Philistines, he broke his shackles, found a fresh jawbone of an ass and ( somewhat implausibly) killed 1000 men. Exhausted and dying of thirst he appealed to God who responded by providing him with water. Once again, his special relationship with God was clear. And this established him as an accepted leader over Israel whom he judged for 20 years.
The actual chronology is vague. Was the twenty years up to that moment or after he died? Either way Shimshon consorted with a Philistine prostitute in Gaza. Hardly an example of religious piety. The Gazans gathered round the house and lay in ambush waiting for dawn to capture him. But he woke up at midnight , grabbed the heavy gates of the town together with the gate posts and locks, and hauled them all the way from Gaza, which is near the coast, to Chevron in the mountains of Judea , which seems rather unlikely given the distance unless he had some transport.
But his denouement is close. He fell in love with a woman called Delilah. Shimshon’s name comes from the word Shemesh which means the sun. In contrast to Delilah from the Hebrew word for night Lilah, darkness, doom. The symbolic battle between good and bad that runs throughout the ancient and Near Middle East, famously culminating in the Dead Sea Scrolls on “ The Wars of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness,”
Again, the Philistines approached the woman and bribed her to discover where Shimshon got his phenomenal strength from. You might wonder why Shimshon didn’t learn his lesson from the previous seduction unless of course the lesson is that love blinds.
She begged Shimshon to reveal the source of his strength on three occasions. Each time she tied him up while he slept. Then cried out “ The Philistines are upon you.” Each time he woke and easily freed himself. Again, one wonders why he did not just get out of town.
Finally, she got the better of him. He confessed it’s the hair! He was shorn, captured, blinded and sentenced to hard labor. On the day of the great festival to the Philistine god Dagon, they brought him to the temple to torture and make fun of him. But during his incarceration his hair begins to grow back. He asked the young man who led him, to direct him to the two pillars that supported the full house and a massive congregation on the roof. He appealed to God to avenge himself in the famous line “May I die with the Philistines” and demolished the house and everybody in it.
In so many ways this is a modern and very relevant story to the position we find ourselves in today.
Shimshon is a metaphor for our divided nation. He has a religious side and a physical side. Just as in Israel today there are those who are passionately religiously committed and those who are not. We were equally divided, as are the different sectors of Israeli society, and one did not need to be a religious paragon to fight. Salvation can come from anywhere and anyone. Then we faced an enemy based in Gaza who used deception to get the better of us. We were over-confident, deceived, deluded.
Shimshon’s aim was not to eradicate Philistine society or all the Philistines. He just wanted to be left alone. Like us he was faced by enemies for whom violence was the only language they understood. We can learn from Shimshon to avoid overconfidence and misjudging the enemy as well as how powerful sexual attraction can be! But we can also learn that victory comes at a price.
Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom
Jeremy
January 2025
