DAVID MEETS SHAUL

When David comes before Shaul, they have an odd conversation. David says that no one should worry, since he, David, will fight the Plishti. Shaul says he can’t, because he is only a na`ar, and Golyat has been a warrior since his na`arut. Shaul’s comment here is odd, since last chapter David was described to him as an ish milhamah, a warrior. Perhaps Shaul meant that, with all respect to David’s capabilities, Golyat was an example of a warrior whose experience easily outweighed David’s youth and vigor. Whatever he meant exactly, he certainly doubted David’s chances for defeating Golyat.

David’s reply also puzzles us, at least at first. He tells Shaul of his escapades as a shepherd for his father’s flocks, of his victories over a bear and a lion. The Plishti, he claims, will become like them, for he had disgraced ma`arkhot elokim hayyim, the camp of the living God. His next statement, that the God who saved him from the bear and the lion will also save him from the Plishti, will help us understand what David is talking about.

Before we think about that sentence, though, I would like to note two more oddities of David’s conversation. First, he refers to the Plishti as an arel, an uncircumcised man, a characterization that seems unrelated to the business at hand. Second, he justifies his claim that the Plishti will go the way of the lion and the bear by noting that he had disgraced the Jewish camp, an act that does not seem to create a parallel between the Plishti and the animals.

The first issue, David’s term for Golyat, seems related to a Mishnah in Nedarim 3:11 that says that one who forswears benefit from arelim may benefit from uncircumcised Jews but not from circumcised non-Jews. The Mishnah quotes a verse in Yirmiyahu 9:25 that refers to all non-Jews as arlei lev, uncircumcised of heart. When David refers to Golyat as an arel, then, he may have been focusing on Golyat’s lack of heart-readiness to hear God’s message in the world rather than any physical issues of Golyat’s having had or not had a specific procedure done. This will, for one thing, help us see its relevance to David’s point to Shaul.

Secondly, as a side point, it suggests that the brit milah we perform on our sons when they are eight days old is less about the physical consequences of the circumcision than our hoped-for spiritual consequences. Like a closed tube that needs to have the top cut off to make it ready to take in material, we are born closed to God’s messages and impact on the world. One way to insure that we open ourselves up to that is to give ourselves a permanent physical reminder of our need to be so open.

David’s focus on Golyat’s lack of openness to God makes us even more aware of his justifying his belief by discussing Golyat’s reviling of the Jews. Both factors, Golyat’s being an arel and his being meharef, show Golyat to be ignorant of God’s role in the world. Like an animal—and here the comparison to the lion and the bear begin to become clear—Golyat assumes that brute strength will be enough to conquer any opponent. David, who experienced his incidents with the lion and the bear as proof that God had great plans for him (see Rashi on verse 37), knows that victory comes from God and those who are sensitive to God’s role in the world. The God that David has previously recognized and relied upon when dealing with brutes unaware of the truth of the world will surely save him here as well.

Perhaps further proof that we have correctly revealed David’s subtext in his storytelling comes from Shaul’s reaction. Whereas before he had focused on David’s inexperience and therefore certain loss to Golyat, he now allows him to go, and offers his blessing that God will be with him. As with the Jews he had spoken to in the camp, David has successfully reframed the question for Shaul, bringing God into the equation.

SHAUL'S ARMOR

Shaul's attempt to give David his armor suggests a similar theme to me. The verse reports that Shaul clothes David in his armor and with his sword, and then says va-yoel lalekhet, which would literally mean that he wanted to go in it. It continues ki lo nisah, but (or for) he was not accustomed to it, almost contradicting the first phrase. The Targum Yonatan simply reads va-yo'el as "he did not want to," assuming that sometimes words can mean their opposite. Others suggest that he wanted to go using this armor, but was unable to, because he was unused to it.

Rashi, citing the Midrash, notes that Shaul's armor, which presumably fit his very tall body, miraculously fit David when he put it on. Seeing this, Shaul became jealous, leading David-- acting both sensitively and sensibly--to reject it. The verse then means that he originally was going to go with the armor, but then put it aside, for Shaul's sake.

Noting the framing that David has been doing with both the people and with Shaul, it seems to me that we have another reading for this verse as well. David has stressed all along that victory comes from God, not from might or heroism. When he beat the lion and the bear, it was not by dint of his great courage, but because God had helped him. In such a context, taken to an extreme, there would be no need for armor, since it was not going to be his own might that would carry the day against Golyat. When Shaul clothed him in the armor, however, he was (I suggest) attracted to it--it was a chance to be a "real" warrior, and it felt good. Yet he realized ki lo nisah, that was not his experience in winning battles, and therefore put it aside.

This is obviously not a generalizable strategy-- no matter how great their faith, I cannot imagine recommending that Zahal stop purchasing weaponry and go unarmed into battle against their enemies. Nor do I believe that David rejected battle-armor all his life. Nonetheless, at this moment, where the crucial issue was publicly displaying to the Plishtim, the Jews, and to Shaul, that victory comes from God, it may have been important for David to avoid anything that might have blurred that message. He comes to Golyat as the shepherd he is, with a stick, five stones, and a slingshot.

GOLYAT DOESN'T GET IT

Golyat, of course, mocks David when he sees him, noting that David is a "pretty boy," as was Muhammad Ali in his time. Interestingly, Golyat encourages David to come to him so that he might give his flesh to the birds, a similar locution to the one Yonatan understood (several chapters ago, remember?) as a sign that victory would be his.

David one more time clarifies the issue at hand. You, Golyat, are coming to me be-herev, u-vahanit, u-vakhidon, with all your weapons, and I come to you in the name of the God of Israel whom you have reviled. When I beat you, and cut off your head, this entire congregation (and it is not clear that he means only the Jews) will know that God gives victory however He chooses, not necessarily by obviously greater might. As before, David's weapons and prowess are not being matched against Shaul's; God's are (Ralbag also notes here that David is showing his trust in God). The betting line on such a matchup almost always goes heavily in God's favor, and is a pretty sure bet to boot.

So Golyat rises to attack, is struck in the forehead by a stone and falls forward on his face, unconscious. Rashi notes that the force of the blow should have sent him falling backward, and suggests that this was a minor miracle, to save David the trouble of walking the giant's entire length to behead him. Radak, however, convincingly claims that Golyat did not fall from the force of the blow, but rather was staggered by the stone lodging itself in his forehead. People who fall because they cannot stand for some reason do fall forward.

SHAUL'S PUZZLEMENT AND OURS

So David beheads Golyat, the people shout and chase the Plishtim, and David brings Golyat's head and armor back to Yerushalayim. The last four verses of the chapter, however, go back to an incident that happened as David was walking out towards Golyat, before the fight had begun. Shaul sees him going out, and turns to Avner to find out whose son he is, and Avner says he does not know. When David returns from defeating Golyat, he comes before the king, who asks him who his father is, and David replies Yishai of Beit Lehem.

Hazal saw problems with this conversation--after all, David had just been standing before Shaul, putting on his armor. In addition, of course, Shaul has known David for a while, as his musician, and has sent requests to Yishai for David's continued presence in his court. What, then, could this question (and claim to ignorance by Avner) mean? Hazal place the conversation in an halakhic context, seeing Shaul as wondering whether David was fit to join the Jewish people, since Ruth was a female ancestor, and Shaul (and Avner) did not yet know that the prohibition of Moabites joining the Jewish people applied only to the males. Radak also quotes his father, who thought Shaul saw a regal bearing in David as he went out to battle, and wondered about his lineage, since he knew that the future kings were to come from a particular line of the tribe of Yehudah.

DEALING WITH A KING'S MENTAL ILLNESS

I don't think either interpretation quite captures how odd this incident is. David is well known to both these men, as is his lineage. Shaul's servants knew David when they recommended him, and he has become an important companion to the king during his fits. Yishai is a well-known man among the Jews, and Shaul has corresponded with him about his son. To my mind, this incident may be intended to portray Shaul's mental decline; watching David go out to war, he completely forgets who he is, and has to ask Avner.

Mental illness is always difficult to deal with, particularly in the case of a king, who we have to treat respectfully by God's decree. (I am reminded here of the wonderful movie, The Madness of King George, whose star, Nigel Hawthorne, recently passed away). Avner, faced with a clearly crazy question, does not deal with it, although he later brings David before the king, I would suggest in the hopes of jogging Shaul's memory by close contact. When Shaul nonetheless cannot place David, and asks the question again, David gives us the first example of how he will deal with Shaul's insanity-- he will simply take it, responding as respectfully as possible in each situation, trying to help Shaul retain whatever grasp on the world that he can. A remarkable strategy, given that David will do so even when Shaul is trying to kill him. Shabbat Shalom.