YINR 929: Tanach Yomi

Chapter 14 foreshadows the story of Delilah in chapter 16. Shimshon has a secret—here it is his riddle, there it is the source of his strength. His love interest is pushed to reveal the secret by the Philistines—here his bride-to-be is threatened by the Philistines at the party, there Delilah is bribed to obtain the information. Both times his love interest pesters him to reveal the secret. Both t...

Shimshon is probably the most famous of all the Judges, and yet his story is very different than all others. The story begins in similar fashion to Gideon. An angel of God approaches to set up the leader. But this time it is different. The angel appears to Shimshon’s mother, before Shimshon is even conceived. וַיֵּרָא מַלְאַךְ ה׳ אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ הִנֵּה־נָא אַתְּ עֲקָרָה וְלֹא יָלַד...

One of the unique characteristics of Charles Dickens was his creative use of character names gave life and character traits for his characters. Names like Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) as someone who is stingy, Thomas Murdstone (David Copperfield) who is harsh and strict, and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, a woman who’s life is frozen in time, Perhaps Dickens got the idea from the sto...

Eager to gain G-d’s support against Ammon, Yiftach makes a calculated mistake. He vows that the first thing that walks into his barn will be given as a burnt offering to G-d. וַיִּדַּר יִפְתָּח נֶדֶר לַה׳ וַיֹּאמַר אִם־נָתוֹן תִּתֵּן אֶת־בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן בְּיָדִי׃ וְהָיָה הַיּוֹצֵא אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִדַּלְתֵי בֵיתִי לִקְרָאתִי בְּשׁוּבִי בְשָׁלוֹם מִבְּנֵי עַמּוֹן וְהָיָה לַה׳ וְהַעֲלִיתִיהוּ עוֹלָה (Ju...

Judges is a unique book. Each chapter or few chapters takes place in a different era with different leaders. Some of the Judges have long backstories, but some have no stories at all. Chapter 10 falls into the latter category. Tola the son of Puah the son of Dodo comes after Abimelech with only his location listed. וַיָּקָם אַחֲרֵי אֲבִימֶלֶךְ לְהוֹשִׁיעַ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל תּוֹלָע בֶּן־פּוּאָה בֶּן־ד...

One of seventy sons, Abimelech kills his brothers and then is appointed leader of the people of Schchem and a band of hooligans. But is Abimelech a Judge? He does not conquer an enemy of the Israelites. Although the people of Shchem appoint him as a ruler over them, it does not seem like he even ruled over the city. The word used to describe his “reign” is “Vayasar” (verse 22). Rashi interprets th...

At the end of the chapter, there are two strange things that Gideon does. The first is after Gideon finally captures the two kings. Instead of killing them himself, he asks his son to kill them. His son wavers, and instead the kings taunt Gideon into killing them. At the end of the chapter, Gideon collects rings from the people to create a fancy robe. Why are these two points included in the story...

In chapter 6, Gideon tested God through special signs, in chapter 7, God uses His own test. Back in Joshua, after the defeat of Yericho, the people prepare to attack Ai. Secure in their victory over the walled city, the people choose to send a smaller force to attack the city of Ai. The tactic fails, and the force is routed. The motivation there may have been hubris that led to the Israelite defea...

Chapter 6 begins with a messenger (or angel) of God again coming to the people and telling them that God took the people out of Egypt and so they should follow Him and stop worshipping idols. When the angel (or messenger) comes to Gideon to appoint him as judge, Gideon has an amazing response. “If God is with us, why do all of these bad things happen? Where are all the wonders we keep hearing abou...

Like Moshe after the defeat of the Egyptians, the Israelites after the defeat of Og, and Moshe again at the end of his life, Devora composes an epic poem describing her victory. The Song of Devora is a complex poem that includes rhymes (e.g., verse 3—“melachim” and “roznim”): repeated words (the word “az” appears five times), narrative (verses 24–30 recalling the story of Yael): midrash (verse 20:...

For the first time in Israelite history, the nation has a female leader. Females had played important roles in the past. The foremothers were integral in the development of the nation. Miriam played a leading role in the Exodus and sang a special song with the women after the splitting of the sea. The daughters of Tzelofchad helped change the rules of inheritance. But Devora the prophetess was the...

The era of judges begins with a bang with the story of Ehud and Eglon. After a brief generic interlude describing Otniel as the first of the judges, the text tells the gory and crafty story of the second Judge, Ehud ending in a climatic murder scene with some guard deception reminiscent of The Godfather when Michael Corleone kills Sollozzo & McCluskey, Besides being an exciting chapter, chapte...

“An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, ‘I brought you up from Egypt and I took you into the land which I had promised on oath to your fathers. And I said, “I will never break My covenant with you”’” (verse 1). וַיַּעַל מַלְאַךְ ה׳ מִן־הַגִּלְגָּל אֶל־הַבֹּכִים וַיֹּאמֶר אַעֲלֶה אֶתְכֶם מִמִּצְרַיִם וָאָבִיא אֶתְכֶם אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם וָאֹמַר לֹא־א...

“Rav Adda, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: Had Israel not sinned in earlier times they would have been given the five books of the Torah and the book of Joshua alone. They needed the book of Joshua because it includes the arrangement of Eretz Yisrael.” (Nedarim 22b). אָמַר רַב אַדָּא בַּר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא אִלְמָלֵא חָטְאוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא נִתְּנוּ לָהֶם אֶלָּא חֲמִשָּׁה חֻמְשֵׁי תּוֹרָה וְסֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁע...

The last chapter of Joshua contains Joshua’s review of the Israelites from Abraham until that point. At the end of the chapter, Joshua and Elazar pass away. In between, the Navi mentions that they buried Joseph’s sarcophagus in Shchem. “And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem…” וְאֶת־עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרַיִם קָ...

Chapters 23 and 24 of Yehoshua contain two farewell addresses by Yehoshua. In chapter 31 of Deuteronomy, Moshe gives his final address to the people. In it, he includes a fatalistic message from God. When the people enter the land they will disobey me, they will worship other gods, and they will be punished. In Yehoshua’s chapter 23 address, he tries to break this fate set up by Moshe. He warns th...

Joshua gives permission to the two and a half trans-Jordan tribes to return to their land. They kept their promise to assist in the conquest of the land. Now they can go back to their lands. But immediately something goes wrong. They build a large altar on the Jordan river. The tribes in Canaan are quite upset. It seems like these tribes are creating their own tabernacle. A few centuries later, in...

Now it is time for the Leviim to get their promised lands. The chapter begins with the Leviim approaching Joshua and Elazar the Kohen Gadol, but Joshua and Elazar are not the ones who give out the cities at all. In fact, it seems like there is a contradiction. “So the Israelites, in accordance with the LORD’s command, assigned to the Levites, out of their own portions, the following towns with the...

Moshe set aside three cities of refuge in Deuteronomy and now Joshua completes the project. The three established by Moshe could not function without the three inside the land that Joshua establishes. The text lays out the exact locations of the cities: “So they set aside Kedesh in the hill country of Naphtali in Galilee, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba—that is, Hebron—in...

All the tribes receive select portions of land except for Shimon. “The portion of the Simeonites was part of the territory of the Judites; since the share of the Judites was larger than they needed, the Simeonites received a portion inside their portion” (וַיְהִי חֵבֶל בְּנֵי שִׁמְעוֹן מִתּוֹךְ נַחֲלַת בְּנֵי יְהוּדָה כִּי־הָיָה חֵלֶק בְּנֵי יְהוּדָה רַב מֵהֶם וַיִּנְחֲלוּ בְנֵי־שִׁמְעוֹן בְּתוֹךְ...

Seven tribes remain without allocation of land. Reuven, Gad, Menashe, Yehuda, and Ephraim all had their land allocated already. Joshua sends cartographers out to map out the remaining part of the land and assign it to the remaining tribe (יהושע י״ח:ד׳: ״הָבוּ לָכֶם שְׁלֹשָׁה אֲנָשִׁים לַשֵּׁבֶט וְאָקוּמָה וְאֲשַׁלְּחֵם וְיָקוּמוּ וְיִתְהַלְּכוּ בָאָרֶץ וְיִכְתְּבוּ אוֹתָהּ לְפִי נַחֲלָתָם וְיָבֹאו...

“The Josephites complained to Joshua, saying, ‘Why have you assigned as our portion a single allotment and a single district, seeing that we are a numerous people whom the LORD has blessed so greatly?’” (verse 14) (יהושע י״ז:י״ד: ״וַיְדַבְּרוּ בְּנֵי־יוֹסֵף אֶת־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ לֵאמֹר מַדּוּעַ נָתַתָּ לִּי נַחֲלָה גּוֹרָל אֶחָד וְחֶבֶל אֶחָד וַאֲנִי עַם־רָב עַד אֲשֶׁר עַד־כֹּה בֵּרַכַנִי ה׳״). Why did t...

Judah was the first tribe in the lottery and Joseph is the second. This continues the trend of setting up these two tribes as conflicting leaders of the nation. In this very brief chapter there are two interesting points. The first is that Menashe is not referred to as half the tribe of Menashe here, even though this is referring to the half in Canaan and Moshe constantly referred to the half in t...

When a TV show or movie becomes very popular, the creators like to spin off to a companion series borrowing some secondary character from the main feature. Perhaps Hollywood got the idea from Joshua chapter 15. Chapter 15 begins the rather dry section of the Book of Joshua that demarcates the various boundaries of the different tribes. Imbedded in chapter 15 is a spinoff preview of the first chapt...

“The British are coming!” Paul Revere yelled as recorded in the famous Longfellow poem. “Paul Revere’s Ride” But Revere did not ride alone and Revere did not actually finish the ride. Samuel Prescott, a fellow midnight rider, was able to evade British patrols and complete the journey to warn the colonists up the countryside. Despite a more successful ride, Revere gets all the praise. Besides, the...