Verses: 25
Is It Read At Synagogue?: No.
Famous Quotes/Phrases: I can’t help but think of the movie Aladdin when I read Samuel’s exclamation of “Why have you disturbed me and brought me up?”, a phrase reminiscent of when the door of the Cave of Wonders is awoken by the villain Jafar.
Basic Plot: Achish, who had gained David’s loyalty, compels David to fight with Philistine forces. Saul, meanwhile, sees the assembled Philistines and is frightened, and frustrated that his entreaties to God have gone unanswered. So he decides to talk to Samuel, who had recently died. Saul realizes that the only way to do this is to work with an intermediary who consults with ghosts — a practice Samuel had forbidden during his lifetime.
Saul finds a ghost-conjuring woman in En-dor and disguises himself. Despite the woman’s reluctance, she summons Samuel. Saul asks Samuel what to do, and Samuel responds that Saul’s quest is futile; David is God’s chosen, and Saul and his sons are about to die on the battlefield.
The woman feels pity and feeds a famished Saul, but nothing can give him true comfort at this point.
What’s Strange: Despite the sense that Saul’s demise is now a foregone conclusion, Richard A. Gabnel claims in his book The Military History of Ancient Israel that his military strategy indicates that he won’t go down without a fight. “Depressed as he might have been that Yahweh had deserted him, it is difficult to believe that a warrior of Saul's hard experience would have squandered [tactical] advantages and deployed in the open terrain,” he writes. “In every previous battle between Saul and the Philistines, Saul always chose the terrain with a careful eye to neutralizing the Philistine advantage in chariots. It seems extremely unlikely, then, that he would have invited a battle on the open plain where the Philistine chariots could be employed with devastating effectiveness.”
What’s Spectacular: Samuel’s unexpected reappearance in this chapter gives us one last chance to reckon with his legacy. It’s clear that, even in death, his steadfast adherence to God’s rulings are very much intact. Even though Samuel’s life is ultimately filled with disappointment — at his son’s ethical failures, at God appointing a king, and at Saul’s shortcomings — he seems to have made peace with it, for better or worse.
By contrast, Gabnel’s analysis of Saul’s actions indicates that this beleaguered king is still resisting reality until the bitter end. I sometimes wonder which approach is better. I remember an anonymous quote I saw in a high-school yearbook: “If at first you don’t succeed, QUIT! There’s no sense being a darn fool about it.” I imagine the originator of that quote would’ve wanted to take Saul by the scruff of his neck and offer him the same advice. But we also know that some of the most amazing feats in human history have taken place when the odds have seemed longest.
Perhaps we won’t know until our backs are against the wall whether we are more like Samuel or like Saul. Maybe we need to be a little bit of both.
Shabbat Shalom!
Thank 🙏 you Rabbi Rosenbaum for that interesting story. Shabbat Shalom!