CHAPTER SUMMARY

A man named Kish, we are told in the opening of Chapter 9, had lost some donkeys, and suggested to his son Shaul that he take one of the servants to search for them. After traveling for a while, Shaul says to the servant that they should turn back, lest his father stop worrying about the animals and turn his worry to them.

The na`ar, the servant, instead proposes going to ask Shmuel, who was in that nearby city, since maybe he (Shmuel) could guide them. Shaul points out that they have no gift for the man, but the boy says he has a quarter of a shekel of silver, so they go. As they approach the city, they meet a group of women, who inform them that Shmuel was indeed in the city, about to officiate at a celebratory meal. Before recording this conversation, however, the navi pauses to inform us that in times gone by, the Jewish people referred to a prophet as haroeh, the seer, a word that figures in the conversation with the women.

Before Shaul actually meets Shmuel, the navi informs us in an aside (the second time it uses that device in this chapter) that a day earlier God had apprised Shmuel that the next day He was going to send someone whom Shmuel should anoint him king over the Jewish people. When Shaul and his boy arrive in the city, they meet Shmuel, and ask him where they can find haroeh, and he answers that he is haroeh, not to worry about the donkeys, they have been found, and that all of the Jewish people are looking at Shaul adoringly.

Shaul, displaying the modesty that will be an important character trait for us to watch, resists Shmuel's comment, since he and his family are small (insignificant) segments of the Jewish people. Shmuel ignores him, inviting them to stay for the meal he is about to start; he then calls to the cook for the piece of the animal that he had previously set aside, and has Shaul and the boy stay with him.

After the meal, he and Shaul go up to the roof to talk (Rashi says Shmuel was teaching him about the fear of God); they wake up early in the morning, go back to the roof, descend through the city, and are about to part, when Shmuel sends the boy ahead. Alone with Shaul, he now says, here, let me tell you what will be, and there the chapter ends.

STARTING WITH KISH

Just like with Elkanah in the beginning of this sefer, the chapter starts by introducing a figure who will play almost no role in this or any other chapter of Tanakh, Shaul's father Kish. While the focus of this story will be Shaul, we are first told that there was a man named Kish, his lineage, his place of residence, and that he had lost some donkeys, as if he will be the focus of our interest. Yet a verse or two later, he has completely disappeared from the story, never to return. Since we think of Scripture as Holy Writ, Divinely inspired, this form of literary presentation presumably carries some message, worth pondering for a moment.

Two possibilities suggest themselves to me. First, focusing on Kish leads us to think that Shaul is a subordinate character, totally under his father's thumb, a persona we would not expect to find in the man who is about to become king of the Jewish people (and will need to lead them into war). This, then, might be another example of Shaul's modesty (as we noted in the chapter summary), and might mean to imply that leadership does not necessarily depend on a desire to be in control or to thrust oneself into the forefront (a quality we can find in David as well). In that way of reading the chapter, this is a way of lulling us into underestimating Shaul, perhaps in line with God's saying (later in the book) that people only see what is external, whereas God sees all.

Another possibility is that Kish is the easiest way to introduce the issue of the donkeys, which were the vehicle of bringing Shaul to Shmuel. By starting with Kish, bringing up the donkeys, Kish's request of Shaul, etc., the navi allows us to experience the subtlety of God's workings, at least in this one instance. God does not simply ask Shmuel to go to where Shaul lives, pick him out, and anoint him king. Rather, he works it out slowly ("naturally"), so that the various players not see the miraculous nature of what is happening.

The navi describes Shaul in at least some physical terms-- he is called bahur va-tov, which some commentators see as a character description, but he is certainly described as taller than the rest of the people. Certainly we should note that a king is expected to have at least some physical qualities that will inspire the confidence of the rest of the people (Napoleon notwithstanding); it is a mistake, in other words, to assume that kingship simply should go to the most capable leader, since a component of the job is the physical appearance the person is able to present to the public. (The last scene of the movie, "The Madness of George III" or some such title, a British movie with Nigel Hawthorne as the King, actually captures this idea nicely, but it is too complicated to describe fully here).

THE SEER

When Shaul suggests that they turn back, the servant he has with him instead proposes going to where Shmuel is, identifying him as an "ish haelokim," with the added advantage that everything he says will happen actually does. Shaul points out that they have no gift for Shmuel, and the servant says that he has some money.

There are a couple of problematic points in this part of the story. First, it is simply worth noting that Shmuel had become famous not only for being an ish haelokim (those were not necessarily rare; in Chapter 2, we saw one inform Eli of his family's punishment), but for the accuracy of his predictions. Other such people, apparently, only occasionally had the ability to speak in God's Name. Shmuel' s consistency of inspiration and accuracy of prediction set him apart from the others.

Shaul feels the need to come to Shmuel with a gift, as if he were a magician who took money (Radak and others say that Shaul simply was not sure about how Shmuel handled himself). Malbim thinks it was permitted for Shmuel to accept gifts, to compensate for the great effort he had to expend on reaching a state of prophecy. Aside from showing us something of the state of the Jewish people at the time-- they were not sure whether their prophet was more like a seer-for-hire-- the interaction also shows us the relationship between Shaul and his servant. The na`ar, who may have been a slave, was willing to offer money that he had so that they could see Shmuel, who was simply going to tell them about how to find Kish's donkeys (which could theoretically not have concerned him).

Note that the commentators do not seem surprised that people would feel comfortable approaching a navi, a prophet, to find out where their lost donkeys went! In fact, Ramban (Shmot 18:15) thinks that was one of the ordinary tasks of a prophet. That shows us that part of the navi's role, one that Shmuel fulfills completely, ws to make the Jewish people aware of the active presence of God in their midst. His prophecy wasn't of the Yeshayahu type, looking way into the future of the Jewish people; it was simply there to allow the people to feel like they could get direct answers from God when they had issues, personal or communal, that needed tending. Shaul's and the boy's readiness to approach him about donkeys proves he was doing his job well.

ASIDES IN THE NAVI

We mentioned in the summary that here the navi twice informs us about background material in an aside. First we are told that, in times gone by, a navi was called a roeh, a seer, the function that Shmuel would have performed had he told them where their donkeys were (he would have "seen" the donkeys). Second, we find out that God had informed Shmuel of Shaul's arrival a day before it happened.

Commentators struggle with the words le-fanim be-yisrael, formerly among the Jewish people, especially since the tradition has it that Shmuel wrote this book, at least until the point where he dies. I will leave that issue for you to ponder, with two hints: first, how fast do words go out of style (how many teens today know what "groovy" means in its original usage)? Second, even if Shmuel wrote the book, was he writing it only for his own generation, or also for posterity? Finally (in the thinking realm), what does it mean about the Jewish people's development that they changed their term for a prophet from roeh to navi?

Two examples of this plot device in such close proximity should give us pause; I suggest that this is a momentous event in our history and that the navi therefore wants to set the scene as exactly as possible. We should know that at the time the Jewish people first got a king, they thought of their prophets as ro'im, seers, and that the prophet who anointed that king was in fact told by God in advance that this was the man to anoint.

The selection of our first king, then, was not a sudden whim on Shmuel's part, the result of a burst of prophetic inspiration. He had known that he was to select a person he met the next day, and then had another prophecy upon meeting Shaul. This, then, was a decision made with all due deliberation, and guided directly by God. Shaul's later failures, then, will be his own, not a result of the selection process picking a poor candidate.

SHAUL'S MODESTY AND SHMUEL'S INTRODUCTION

When Shmuel and Shaul first meet, Shaul asks where the house of the roeh is, and Shmuel answers that he is the roeh. The Midrash takes Shmuel to task for this, seeing his statement as overweening; it connects this statement to Shmuel's later inability to tell which of Yishai's sons should be anointed in Shaul's place-- God was showing Shmuel that he was not a ro`eh on his own. At some level, the Midrash might seem a little harsh; as Radak notes, Shmuel was simply asking the question he was asked. Radak suggests that Shmuel should have told them to ask someone else, but that seems farfetched-- why send them elsewhere just to avoid answering the question? I would suggest that Hazal meant that Shmuel could have said, "I am Shmuel," or, if they did not know his name (which I doubt), he might have said "People call me that," which does not assume that it is an accurate description.

In contrast to the perceived lack of modesty on Shmuel's part, we have another example of Shaul's humble demeanor here, since he demurs when Shmuel greets him effusively, instead stressing his lowliness. That modesty will eventually lead to his downfall, but for now it might also be an important characteristic for a king. While he needs to be assertive, one of the dangers of kingship is overweening pride, and beginning with a modest character might be a most productive road to take.

POINT TO PONDER: Although Shmuel greets Shaul as a great man, and gives him a special portion of the meal he was leading, he does not tell Shaul why he was so happy to see him that night. They stay up talking, but even in the morning, as Shmuel is about to send him on his way, he still does not tell him what is going on. Instead, he walks with them on the roof, and then down through the city, and then sends the boy ahead of them. Only then does he decide to tell Shaul what will happen with him (as we will see in next week's chapter). Why wait so long? Shabbat Shalom.