CHAPTER SUMMARY

Shemuel has several points he wishes to make to the people at this second coronation; each will be useful for our more in-depth study. First, he checks that there are no lingering complaints against him, monetary or otherwise. When the people agree that there are none, he calls for God and His anointed (Shaul) to be witness to that fact.

Shemuel then moves on to an analysis of their improprieties in their relationship with God. God has sent them Moshe and Aharon, taken them out of Egypt, and brought them to Israel. He then watched them forget Him, leading to their being punished several times by the attacks of a foreign oppressor—Sisera, Plishtim, and Moav. Each time, when the people called out to God and repented their sins, and begged for salvation, God sent them leaders—Yeruba`al (Gidon), Bedan (Shimshon), Yiftah and Shemuel.

In light of that history, Shemuel can complain about how differently they handled the arrival of Nahash, when they insisted on being given a king. Now, Shemuel says, here is the king you requested, but know that your safety depends directly on your (and your king’s) fidelity to God. To prove the error in their seeking a king, Shemuel offers a sign: that day, in the middle of the harvest, God would make a thunderstorm. Shemuel calls out to God, and the sign occurs, striking fear in the hearts of the people, who beg him to pray for them in light of the great evil they have done by asking for a king.

Shemuel replies that the people have indeed committed great evil, but if they don’t turn away from God, and serve Him with their whole hearts (and not follow vanities, etc.), God will not leave His people for the sake of His great Name, having chosen to make them His nation. Shemuel also could not imagine refraining from praying for the people and continuing to guide them on the proper path, which if they follow will bring them good from God, and if they leave will lead to their, and their king’s, destruction.

THE ACCOUNTING

Shemuel’s speech to the people seems somewhat out of place at this juncture. Rashi in the beginning of Deuteronomy notes that both Yaakov Avinu and Moshe Rabbenu correctly waited until the end of their lives to fully admonish the Jewish people. Shemuel apparently chose now for that accounting, probably because this was the stage where his public responsibilities would change radically. Whereas before, Shemuel was the people’s leader, he is now going to hand over that job to Shaul, receding to the post of navi (official gadfly, there to tell the people and their leader when they have done wrong). In making that switch, he apparently feels it is an appropriate time to settle scores.

Before he can serve as God’s representative in this discussion, however, Shemuel needs to check that he himself is iniquity-free. He not only claims that he has not perverted justice or taken monetary reward, he calls for any counterclaims to be publicly registered. As far as I can tell, this is so that he leaves office with a clean slate (a valuable lesson for other leaders on their leaving office) and so that he can bring up their continuing relationship with God in the next section of the convocation.

BRINGING GOD INTO THE EQUATION

When the people agree that Shemuel has not done anything wrong, Shemuel repeats the question, this time calling God as witness to his propriety, and the people agree. Here, Shemuel has not only verified his own innocence by calling on the Witness of All, he has also begun the lesson he currently wishes to teach the people (and, indeed, has been teaching them his whole life), that God should be the source of their truth and their protection. It is not only that those assembled there admit to Shemuel’s integrity, God does, too; seeing Shemuel rely on that reminds the people of the importance of His presence in their midst. POINT FOR CONSIDERATION: As Shemuel will largely disappear as a public figure after this, what are the ways in which he has furthered God’s presence among the people?

Remembering God segues smoothly into the admonition Shemuel wishes to register. While the people are here willing to accept God as witness, they have rejected Him as leader. The model until now—with Moshe and Aharon, Gidon, Shimshon, Yiftah, and Shemuel all having served under that model—was for the people to serve God directly, with leaders only being appointed at times of specific crisis. When Nahash arrived, however, the people suddenly insisted on a king, when (until now) God had been the King.

THE CONTEXT OF LEADERSHIP

Three points of interest in Shemuel’s comments here do not pertain directly to his own intentions in the presentation. First, Rashi notes that he groups 3 lightweight leaders—Gidon, Shimshon, and Yiftah-- with 3 major leaders, Moshe, Aharon, and Shemuel. Since, in the old model, leaders clearly appeared as God’s messengers, those with different capabilities could all still be equated, since they were each the appropriate messenger of God for that time and place. In the phrasing of the adage, generations receive the leaders they deserve; in that sense, all those leaders are equal. In an hereditary monarchy, it will be more difficult to keep the king’s role as messenger of God fully in mind. FOR FUTURE THOUGHT: When David is running away from Shaul, we will see him consciously treat Shaul as God’s anointed on several occasions; this awareness betokens David’s consciousness of God’s role in the Jewish people’s continuing life.

Radak notes that Shemuel includes himself in the third person, and suggests that prophets do not recognize what they are saying in the course of their prophecy. That would mean that Shemuel recited this speech to the Jews while in the midst of prophesying. The likelihood of that claim depends on one’s view of prophecy and how it works. Rambam, for example, thinks it only happens in a vision, with clear physical symptoms (your whole body shakes, and a great fear falls upon you). It is possible that Shemuel said this to the people while in that state, but it seems equally likely that he had had a prophecy and was now, from a position of ordinary wakefulness, communicating that to the people.

Finally, Shemuel connects the people’s request for a king to the appearance of Nahash, which explains why he immediately attacked when Shaul had been selected. It also clarifies Shemuel’s and God’s negative reactions (past and present) to the request—this was not a rational search for a king, it was a panicked response to the appearance of a new enemy. Despite having vanquished enemies before with God’s help, this time the people had decided they knew better, and it was to that, I think, that Shemuel was taking umbrage.

STRESSING THE SIN

Having made this point, Shemuel then fortifies it by providing the people a sign that they have incurred God’s displeasure—it would thunder and shower that day, during the dry summer harvest months. At one level the sign stems just from his having defined when the rain would come. Rashi adds that rain is a bad sign in the summer- I believe because it makes it more difficult to harvest the crops, and might even hurt some of them. Ordinarily, God does not bring such negative signs to the people.

Rashi sees that as a proof of Shemuel’s power, to stress to the people that they should be listening to him, since he even has the power to "make" God act out of the ordinary. Alternatively, one could suggest that it shows the people just how badly they have acted, so that God will administer a sign He ordinarily would not.

PARTIAL REPENTANCE, PARTIAL FORGIVENESS

Either way, the rain has its desired effect, inspiring fear in the people, who ask Shemuel to pray for them, lest they die for their sin. Their comment is as telling in what it does not say as in what it does—for all their "recognizing" their sin, the people do not say (for example) "All right, let us give up our human king and return to God being king." A key component of teshuvah is the interest in foregoing the sin in the future; the Jews seem determined to continue with their king, they just worry that it will hurt them.

Shemuel responds in kind, reminding them that they have indeed committed a great evil, but that they will be okay, as long as they adhere to God’s standards, for God will not abandon them for the sake of His great Name. These words differ from a simple assurance of God’s continued support in two ways. First, Shemuel seems to go out of his way to remind them of the enormity of their evil. In light of their (even now) continued insistence on getting a king, he seems to wish to continually remind them of their sin, so that they not lose sight of it in the context of his fundamentally comforting words.

That God saves us sometimes for the sake of His own Name, the other departure from simple comfort, is a double-edged sword. To some extent, it means that we will be protected even at times that we do not deserve it, because the Creator, as it were, has a strong stake in our survival. At the same time, it means that we cannot always interpret our prosperity or salvation as signs of our goodness; there may be times when God saves us le-ma`an shemo hagadol, for the sake of His own Name. In the light of our current context, Shemuel is both assuaging their worries as well as stressing their lack of merit, an important balance to keep in mind. POINT TO PONDER: Reading this, do you think the Jews would walk away feeling good or bad about their relationship with God (and Shemuel)? Do you think Shemuel cares? Why or why not?