CHAPTER SUMMARY

When they are alone, Shmuel takes a cruise of oil, pours it on Shaul’s head, kisses him, and says that God has anointed him as a ruler over His inheritance (the Jewish people). He then outlines for Shaul a complicated series of experiences, all of which come true.

He tells Shaul: You will meet two people at Kever Rahel on the edge of the land of the tribe of Binyamin, and they will inform you that the donkeys had been found and that Kish was now worried about your safety. From there, you will go to Elon Tavor, where you will be found by three people going up to God at Beit El, one with three goats, one with three loaves of bread, and one with a container of wine. They will greet you, offer you two loaves of bread, and you should take it from them.

After that, you will come to Giv`at haElokim--which the commentators define as Kiryat Yearim, where the Aron was currently residing. There, you will meet a group of nevi’im (prophets) coming down from a stage, with musical instruments playing before them, and they will be mitnab’im (prophesying). At that point, the spirit of God will strike you, Shmuel tells Shaul, and you will prophesy with them, and you will become another person. When all of this occurs, Shmuel says, do what you will, for God is with you.

Shmuel then adds another episode that does not seem to happen right away. He says that you will go to Gilgal before me (Shmuel), and I will come and sacrifice with you, and you should wait seven days until I come to tell you what you should do. We will see this incident in a later perek, but it seems to be thrown in here for no particular reason.

All of the other incidents, however, happen, with Shaul prophesying among the group of prophets that Shmuel had predicted. Those who knew Shaul previously could not believe it, saying "Is Shaul, too, among the prophets?" Someone standing there challenged them, pointing out that these other prophets had no familial legacy of prophecy, implying that there was no reason to prevent Shaul from being a navi. That comment seems to have locked this sentiment into the psyche of the time, as it became a proverb—"Hagam Shaul be-Neviim?"

When Shaul finishes with all this, an uncle of his asks him and the boy where they have been, and Shaul mentions that they met up with Shmuel. The uncle asks what Shmuel told him, and Shaul tells him only about the donkeys, not the kingship. After this, Shmuel gathers the people to Mitspah, reminds them that they are rejecting God by insisting that a king rule over them, and then has them present themselves by tribes and families for a lottery. When Shaul is chosen (surprise!), he is nowhere to be found, but God informs them that he is "hiding among the vessels (the pots and pans)." When he is taken from there, he towers over the rest of the people, from shoulder up. Shmuel then says, "See who Hashem has chosen, there is none like him in the whole people," and everyone cheers "Long live the King!" Shmuel then reminds the people of the king’s rights, records them and deposits that record in a safe place, and sends everyone home.

Shaul also goes home, and some people—those whom God had touched, the navi says—accompanied him. Others, benei beliya`al (as Hofni and Pinhas were described at the beginning of the sefer), mocked him, saying how can he save us, and did not give him gifts. Shaul ignores them.

PREPARING SHAUL FOR KINGSHIP

While the anointing with oil is a well-recognized element of declaring someone king, Shmuel’s kiss is not. Radak cites a Midrash Rabbah that notes that the vast majority of kisses are for sexual purposes, but defines four other types of kiss. One of those is the kiss that declares someone to have achieved a status of greatness, and the Midrash uses Shmuel’s kiss to Shaul as the example of such a kiss. POINT TO PONDER: Why would a kiss be the way that we announce, or confirm, someone’s rise to greatness?

OPENNESS TO CHANGE: THE FIRST GROUP

The sequence of events that Shmuel predicts will happen to Shaul are highly detailed and are presumably meant to symbolize something, so we will think about them in that way. (Malbim suggests that each of these encounters rises in the spiritual level of the people he meets, carrying Shaul on a rising level of spirituality as well. While that relates to the idea I will suggest, it is not the same, so I will leave it for another time.) The first group tells Shaul that Shmuel’s other prophecy—that the donkeys have been found and Kish was worrying about Shaul—had come true. One aspect of this encounter is that it helps Shaul realize the extent of Shmuel’s powers, that what he says indeed comes true, which might fortify his belief that he would be king.

The stress on Kish’s worry about his son has two other elements worth considering as well. First, it plants the idea (again, one we have seen earlier in the book) that conditions can change quickly. The worries we have one day are not those we have the next, and our safety, security, and position in the world are not as ironclad as we generally assume. ( As I write this, I begin to realize that maybe the WTC bombing is having more of an effect on my worldview than I have allowed myself to realize).

In this case, though, I don’t think the focus is the worry about Shaul’s safety, but (perhaps) that Kish’s worry will, in a sense, be proven accurate: the son he sent off to find the donkeys will never return to him, since he has been changed into a king. Kish’s worry as a father might then also show Shaul that we sometimes lock people into certain roles in our minds, and worry that those roles might change. Sometimes, in fact, they do change, and we had best be prepared for that. POINT TO PONDER: Assuming I am right, or at least have made a valid point, can you explain why this was going to happen at Kever Rahel, Rachel’s Tomb, and why it is specifically described as being at the edge of the tribe of Binyamin (Shaul’s family tribe)?

THE CHALLENGES OF KINGSHIP: THE SECOND GROUP

The second group he meets are on their way to Beit El, to God (Radak says that they were going to Luz, where Yaakov had built an altar, itself a suggestive location), and have gifts, some of which they will give to Shaul. Shmuel tells Shaul to accept the gifts from them. In light of the modesty we will see in a moment, accepting tribute from people might have been a particularly difficult part of Shaul’s responsibilities as king, and one for which Shmuel (and God) are trying to prepare him. POINT TO PONDER: Can you see any significance to the types of food they are carrying, and that they only give him of their bread, but not their wine or goats?

A GROUP OF PROPHETS—A DIGRESSION ON NATIONAL CHANGE

When he gets to Kiryat Yearim, where the Aron Kodesh was then being kept, Shaul meets this group of prophets. In a moment we can discuss his experience with them, but it is worth pausing to consider their presence among the Jewish people at all. Radak points out that the term benei hanevi’im connotes student-prophets (prophets in training), and names several prophets who were around into the time of David haMelekh.

In light of the comment of the navi earlier (when Shmuel had his first prophecy) that the word of God was rare in those days, there were few outbreaks of vision, seeing a group of student-prophets shows how much has changed. The word of God used to be rare, but now already it is a subject for concentrated study and preparation. One reason to have Shaul witness this, then, might be to stress the possibility of radical change in a relatively short period of time.

POINTS THAT TIME FORCES ME TO OMIT: Consider why the navi mentions that this was at the edge of Plishtim (does it have to do with Shaul’s job as king?). Alternatively or additionally, think about the role of music in inspiring prophecy, as these prophets had musical instruments playing for them.

More significantly than its indication of national change, that third group leads to a change in Shaul himself. When he arrives there, he is struck with prophecy as well. That this was a remarkable change is stressed by the reaction of those who witnessed the event, leading to their question "Is Shaul, too, among the prophets?" The reply, by an unnamed observer, that lineage has nothing to do with prophecy stresses an issue that Shmuel (and God) may have been hoping that Shaul would take to heart: that personal transformation can occur at any time, regardless of lineage, as long as it is aided by God. Indeed, in recounting what would happen, Shmuel says that when this event happens, Shaul should do whatever he wants, since God is with him.

In this presentation of the three encounters, I have been suggesting that they are meant to awaken Shaul to the possibility of radical personal and national transformation, a possibility for which he as king must be prepared. He is no longer his father’s son, who obediently searches for the donkeys when asked. He is no longer to be the generous person who does not take tribute from others, and he is no longer to be the simple person who others could never imagine as a prophet. He is instead to be a person filled with the Spirit of God, ready to initiate action in the name of the Jewish people.

An issue that I will skip for now is why Shmuel mentions the Gilgal episode here, since it will not happen for a while.

SHAUL’S FIRST FAILURE

In our reading of events, Shaul seems to have failed at the first task set for him as king. Armed with the knowledge that when these three events happen, he should feel free to do as the mood strikes since God is with him, Shaul simply goes home. Indeed, his uncle provides an opening for him to share the news, and Shaul refrains. The question of Shaul's modesty in fact dominates the rest of the chapter-- he disappears when he should know that the lottery will choose him, after he is publicly declared king he simply goes home, and he ignores the people who belittle him. Certainly modesty is an admirable quality, but, especially armed with our knowledge that it will get him in trouble later, this modesty seems excessive for someone in his position. God seems to have wanted Shaul to take decisive action, and Shmuel had pointed him in that direction. His refusal, failure, and receding from view, all loom over his future as possible sources of downfall, soon to be realized.

POINTS TO PONDER: In this particularly rich chapter, I would have liked to study the convocation further. For example, why does Shmuel again rebuke them for choosing a king? Does he think he will convince them? Why, when Shaul is chosen, does Shmuel stress his physical beauty--is he, Shmuel, fooled into thinking that that is the mark of a good king (later in the book, he will think David's older brother should be king, also because of his looks)? Or is he pandering to the people's perception of what makes a king? The people who don't respect Shaul are called benei beliya`al, the term used for Hofni and Pinhas at the beginning of the book; do they share any traits (hint: could these people have been unable to believe that Shaul would change so dramatically, and that belief in the stability of social strata is part of being a ben beliya`al?).  Shabbat Shalom.