Mount Sinai   -   The Golden Calf   -   The Spies   -   The Promised Land   -   The Time of the Judges 

Passover is often described as the holiday of freedom. And in liberal democracies freedom is often misunderstood as the ability to do whatever you like with no oppressive authority telling you what to do. But that is not how the Bible and Judaism define freedom.

The Jewish idea of freedom is best summarized by that very famous expression -- "Praise the servants of God who are not servants of Pharaoh." That is, freedom is seen a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. It is being free from an oppressive authority in order to stand at Mount Sinai and commit to a certain responsibility.

What happened at Mount Sinai?

To answer quite simply, the Jewish people -- every man, woman and child -- had an encounter with God.

It was a totally unique event in all of human history. The Bible itself states in Deuteronomy 4:33 that this never happened any place else. You can check all history books, you'll never find a similar story of God speaking to an entire people.

All other claims about revelation in human history are based on the experience of one individual or at best a small group of initiates. For example, Islam is founded on the teachings of Mohammed who said that God spoke to him in a cave and revealed the teachings contained in the Koran to him.

The notion of an entire people having an encounter with God is unique to Judaism. And it's the one claim that cannot be faked. So for example, I can claim that I had a vision last night and God spoke to me, and if I'm charismatic enough and you are gullible enough you might believe I am a prophet. But I can't convince you that you saw something that you know you didn't see.

Jews say that we have kept the Torah for thousands of years, not because of miracles or any other supernatural phenomena of Jewish history, but because we all stood at Mount Sinai and heard God speak and for generation after generation that very fact was passed down.

The story of the survival of the Jewish people is going to be to a large extent the story of what's called shalshelet hakabala -- the transmission process of Torah from one generation to the next.

A NATION IS BORN

At Mount Sinai the Jewish people become a nation. Again, this is a unique event which says a lot about the Jewish people. What's so unique about it?

Well, consider how the French became "the French." Did they all wake up one morning to collectively decide they liked white wine and blue cheese and they were going to speak French? No. It was a long process. As with every other nation, this process involved a people living in a specific geographic area for an extended period of time and evolving a common language and a common culture born of a shared historical experience. Eventually, this people developed a political entity and government (with a king at its head) and they defined their boundaries, flew a flag, minted coins and called themselves France.

For Jews the process of becoming a nation started outside their national homeland -- in fact while in bondage and under the most adverse conditions designed to erase any cultural or historical identity. Jews did not become a nation by pledging allegiance to the State of Israel. A scraggly band of escaped slaves became a nation standing at the foot of Mount Sinai and saying to God: "We will do and we will listen" -- that is, pledging to fulfill the commandments of the Torah and with time to understand the mission that came with it.

Just as Abraham said, many, many generations earlier, "I choose to live, and if necessary to die, for the reality of God," so too these descendants of Abraham made the same commitment.

That's how the Jews became the Nation of Israel.

This is why we say that Judaism is not just a religion -- it's a national identity. Being a Jew is not the same as being a Christian. Christianity is purely a religious belief. You could be British, American, French and still be a Christian.

Not so the Jews.

The Jews can certainly become citizens of the countries in which they live and they often look and act like everyone else, but all the while, they and everyone else knows they are different. If they choose to deny this fact, the rest of the world will always remind them of it.

Being a Jew is being part of a distinct people and a nation, which does have a land, does have a language, does have a history and a world mission.

Most importantly, Jews have a specific relationship with God which is not just a religious/spiritual thing, it's an all-encompassing view of the world -- how to live every second of life -- which is unique in the world.

The Jewish national identity was forged by the experience at Mount Sinai where we committed to a mission, and a specific way of life to be lived in accordance with the commandments of the Torah, which is the guidebook for accomplishing that mission on a personal and national level.

THE ULTIMATE SCRIBE

After the original revelation, Moses spent 40 days listening to God talking to him, dictating to him the 613 commandments of the Torah (which are encapsulated in Ten Statements, the so-called "Ten Commandments") and also the principles how to apply these commandments (which are referred to as the Oral Law).

Note that the Oral Law was given first. And the Oral Law has been exclusively in the domain of the Jews. The Christians adopted the Written Law -- the Torah and other parts of the Hebrew Bible as part of their scriptures -- but the Oral Law stayed uniquely Jewish. Because it is the Oral Law that tells us how to live as Jews.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough how significant the Oral Law is. One can't live as a Jew without it. It's going to become a very important issue when we look at splinter sects in Judaism later on in Jewish history.

The Written Law was written over a period of 40 years while the Jews wandered in the desert and God was dictating to Moses. There's a lot of material in the Bible that's explaining what happens later on in their wanderings, so obviously this wasn't given in advance at Mount Sinai or there'd be no free will.

Although the Torah -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy -- are called the Five Books of Moses, Moses was not the author. Moses was the scribe -- the ultimate scribe. God dictated to Moses.

But it's very clear, and the Bible says over and over again, that Moses was unique among all prophets.

And there arose no prophet in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.(Deut. 34:10)

Prophecy means that a human being is able to transcend to a higher level of spiritual reality, and of course, what that level is depends on the prophet's direct experience of the infinite. Most prophets would get a vision and put that vision into words. Moses' prophecy was unique in that God spoke to him. He "heard" God directly.

And the Torah is considered a direct dictation, which is why the Five Book of Moses have a unique position among all holy books of the Jewish people and a unique authority in the Jewish world.

With the Ten Commandments in hand, Moses came down the mountain and what he saw shocked him to such an extent that he dropped the stone tablets. Below the mountain, where just a few weeks ago, they stood in an encounter with God, the Jews were worshipping an idol in direct violation of the law they had just been given.

The day for this infamous event is forever marked in the Hebrew calendar -- 17th of Tammuz. This would be the day later in history on which the walls of Jerusalem would be breached by the Babylonians and the Romans prior to the destruction of both the first and the second Temple.

It is very important to analyze what happened with the golden calf and why the Torah criticizes the Jewish people so harshly for this sin. And indeed what is revealed here about how God views the Jewish people.

After the greatest national revelation experience in human history when the whole nation hears God, Moses goes up the mountain and comes down 40 days later to find a group dancing around an idol.

Now if I'd had an encounter with the Infinite Creator of the Universe speaking to me and I heard Him say "I am God, don't worship anything else," I don't think I would be stupid enough to be jumping around a golden cow. So what's going on in this story?

This is a classic case of knowing how to correctly read the text of the Bible. When I say correctly read, I mean, ideally in Hebrew but certainly with the commentators because there's an oral explanation going along with the simple, very brief description in the text.

When Moses came down the mountain, were all 3 million Jews dancing around a golden calf? No. The Torah in Exodus 32:28 says it was only about 3 thousand people, mostly the mixed multitude of individuals who left with the Jews because they were so impressed by what went on with the Ten Plagues.

That means only .1% of the Jews participated and 99.9% of the Jews did nothing wrong. Yet God's reaction makes it clear he is blaming the whole nation.

AN EXACTING STANDARD

God holds the Jews to a very high standard because they have a unique responsibility in human history. The world won't get perfected without the Jews and if, God forbid, the Jews blow it, all of humanity, not just the Jewish people, will be doomed. Therefore, the Bible uses hyper-critical language to bring home some important principles:

1. According to your level of knowledge is your level of responsibility. The mistakes of people in positions of power have huge consequences.
2. According to your level of responsibility is your level of accountability. The greater you are, the bigger the impact of your decisions, therefore you must be held to an extremely high standard.

The Jewish people had been given the responsibility for the world at Mount Sinai, and these principles explain the criticism that God levels against Jews and why it is so super-strong.

We also learn here another fundamental idea of the Torah -- that every Jew is a guarantor for every other Jew. The nation of Israel is a "body" and the individual Jews are like cells in this body. If part of the body does something wrong, the whole body is held accountable.

Judaism teaches you're either part of the problem or you're part of the solution, and that you have a legal obligation to be part of the solution. Being a by-stander is not an option.

This issue repeats itself over and over again in the Bible and throughout Jewish history.

That's why when a small group of Jews does something wrong and the rest of the nation doesn't stop them, all are held accountable.

THE AFTERMATH

Moses spends a lot of time back in the camp dealing with the aftermath of the golden calf debacle. He smashes the idol, gathers loyal Levites around him and executes those responsible. (As you might have noticed the Bible is not a liberal book. While it is full of the merciful acts of God, it also emphasizes that there are serious consequences for wrongdoing.)

He goes back up the mountain on the 1st of Elul -- Rosh Chodesh Elul. Elul is the month before Rosh Hashana, before 1st Tishrei, the beginning of the Jewish year. He spends forty days on the mountain again. He comes back down with the second set of tablets, and this is a clear sign that God has forgiven the Jewish people. What's the day Moses comes back down? Yom Kippur.

All Jewish holidays are tied to specific historical events. Each of these events implants within the holiday a certain spiritual power which can be accessed.

From Yom Kippur we get the spiritual power of teshuva -- of repentance, of returning to closeness with God and repairing relationships with our fellow human beings.

As a sign of forgiveness God tells Moses He will dwell among the Jewish people, and He instructs how His "home" is to be built.

"They shall make for Me a sanctuary and I will dwell among them." (Exodus 25:8)

Following this command, the Torah spends many chapters giving intricate descriptions just exactly how to build this portable sanctuary.

The sanctuary consisted of a large tent -- called a "Tent of the Meeting" or Tabernacle -- surrounded by a courtyard. Inside the courtyard was an altar where sacrifices were offered. In the tent were two rooms. The outer room held a seven-branched candelabra, a table with twelve loaves of bread on it, and an incense altar. The inner -- called the Holy of Holies -- held the Ark of the Covenant.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Anyone who has seen Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark has seen a pretty good replica of what the Ark looked like. It was a wooden box covered with gold and it was decorated on top with two small statues of winged cherubs facing each other.

The commentators say that the two cherubs -- a boy and a girl -- normally faced each other but when the Jewish people were not getting along with God they would be turned away from each other.

Inside the Ark were the two sets of the Ten Commandments -- the broken set inscribed by God, and the second set inscribed by Moses.

The whole structure -- called the Mishkan in Hebrew -- was not a portable synagogue or a museum. It was a tool to be used by the Jewish people individually and as a nation, to connect to God.

When it was completed, the Torah relates that the "clouds of glory" -- a manifestation of God's infinite presence called the Shechina -- would literally rest on the sanctuary as a tangible sign that God was with the Jewish people.

When the sanctuary stood, people would feel holiness in the world in a way we can't begin to understand today.

Because we don't have it, only 369 of the 613 commandments are applicable and most of those are "don'ts." Most of "do's" are focused on how to use the Mishkan to connect to God. The loss of that structure has tremendous implications for the Jews' ability to relate to God and fulfill their mission as a people.

This sanctuary -- which was readily dis-assembled and assembled -- the Jews carried around in the wanderings in the desert for 40 years. Then, when they came into the land of Israel they assembled it in four different locations. After David became king and made Jerusalem his capital, he planned to build a permanent structure just outside the city, atop Mount Moriah where Abraham had offered Isaac as a sacrifice to God and where Jacob had dreamt of a ladder to heaven. But he never got to do it.

Finally, in 825 BCE, his son King Solomon built the first Temple there, and it became the permanent sanctuary until it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 422 BCE. At this time the Ark of the Covenant disappeared never to be seen again. (We will discuss the speculations where it might be hidden when we reach that point in history.)

Seventy years after the first destruction and exile, the Jews returned and the Temple was rebuilt and then again destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, never to be rebuilt again. The golden Dome of the Rock, which is there now, was built on the site in the year 691 CE and it has stood there ever since.

But we are getting ahead of the story. At this juncture in time, the Jewish people have experienced a national revelation. They've been given the Torah, and built the sanctuary for God to dwell among them. Now they are ready to enter the Promised Land.

After year at Mount Sinai, the Jewish people pack up their portable sanctuary and come to the borders of the Land of Israel.

They should have entered the land at this point, but somebody said, "Wait a minute, let's scout out the land."

So they select 12 "scouts" or "spies" -- one from each of the 12 tribes -- and send them in to do some reconnaissance work.

We have to spend a little time talking about the tragedy of the spies, because the implication of this event is going to reverberate throughout all of Jewish history. It's going to put into place one of the most significant and certainly most depressing dates in the Jewish calendar -- the Ninth of Av -- Tisha B'Av. Virtually every major disaster in Jewish history is going to be connected to the Ninth of Av -- which is the exact date when both the first and second Temples were destroyed.

Again, actions of the Jews have huge consequences. Jews have suffered throughout history because of that mistake they made "back then." So what was the terrible mistake of the spies?

These 12 spies spend 40 days scouting out the land and they come back with a huge cluster of grapes saying, "You all see the size of these grapes? You should see the size of the people who eat them. They are giants! No way we can beat them. We may as well go back to Egypt."

Only two of the spies dissent from this report: Joshua ben Nun, who is Moses' chief student, and Caleb ben Yefuna from the tribe of Judah.

But the Jewish people accept the majority report of the spies. The people break down in tears at the news and refuse to budge.

Moses is absolutely horrified and God is very angry. He issue two decrees of punishment:

1. God tells the Jews that because they displayed this lack of faith after He had brought them so far, they are doomed to wander in the desert for 40 years until the entire adult male population had died off. (The women, who always carried the standard of faith in Judaism, didn't listen to the spies and lived to go into the land.)
2. God tells the Jews that because they cried on this day for no good reason, they will cry on this day in history for some very good reasons. (We will see how this is carried out in future installments in this series.)

DEATH OF MOSES

The Jews wander for 40 years.

Near the end of the 40 years of wandering, they find themselves -- as they did a number of times before -- without water. And as they did a number of times before, they are complaining. God tells Moses to speak to the rock and water will flow.

For the past 40 years Moses has had the hardest job on the planet earth -- leading an unruly group of people God himself described as "stiff-necked." We've talked about the Jewish people's greatest strength and greatest weakness. What's their greatest strength? Their complete dedication to an idea, which enabled them to outlast the greatest nations in history and die for an ideology that would change the world.

What's their greatest weakness? Their complete, stubborn dedication to an idea that makes every Jew think he's right and every Jew think that he's going to change the world his way. This is a group that is impossible to lead.

(A humorous story illustrating this point is told about a meeting between former US President Harry Truman and then Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. Truman was bemoaning the difficulties of leadership and remarked, "You have no idea what it is to be a president of a country of 250 million people." To which Meir responded, "You have no idea of what is to be a prime minister of a country of 2.5 million prime ministers.")

So after 40 years of trying to lead this unruly group, Moses loses his temper for one moment. "You rebels!" he shouts. And instead of speaking to the rock as he was commanded to do, he hits it.

And God says to Moses, "Because you don't believe in Me, you're not going to go into the Land of Israel with the Jewish people."

The Sages say that anger is a form of idolatry, because if God runs the world, then everything that happens to you, whether for bad or for good, is the will of God. Losing your temper is a form of denial that God is running the world, a rejection of the idea that whatever happens is for your own good.

For Moses -- the ultimate prophet to whom God spoke face-to-face -- to get angry for a few seconds, the consequences are awesome. It's a desecration of God's name, done publicly in front of the Jewish people.

The consequences show just how accountable people on such high levels are for the little mistakes they make and the repercussions of those mistakes.

Moses, of course, sees his error right away and accepts God's judgment.

THE FINALE

Moses now prepares the people for their entry into the Promised Land. The last of the Five Books of Moses is his farewell address to the people.

Note that the Five Books of Moses contain very little information about the wanderings of the Jews -- especially considering this period of time covered 40 years. After the tragedy of the spies, the Torah skips ahead 39 years, a time period which is only mentioned in hindsight in the Book of Deuteronomy as Moses reviews their mistakes.

When Deuteronomy begins, Moses already knows he's not destined to bring the Jewish people into the Land of Israel, and this entire book is his Moses' farewell address to the people. Here Moses reviews the commandments, and reiterates the Jewish national mission. The most common idea he repeats over and over again is: "Keep the Torah."

In a nutshell, Moses says, "If you keep the laws between 'man and God' and between 'man and man', everything will go fine for you. No other nation will touch you. You'll have material prosperity, and you will live to change the world. But if you don't keep the Torah, if you break your end of the bargain, then the land will vomit you out, your enemies will attack, and you will suffer."

The message is clear. The solution to all our problems has nothing to do with external threats. It always has to do with the Jews' relationship to each other and their relationship to God.

The 20th century was the first time in Jewish history where large numbers of Jews left God, and were left wondering, "Where is God?" World War One broke out on the Ninth of Av. The German sweep into Eastern Europe beginning in 1914, uprooted Jewish communities and demolished centuries of tradition. It was the precursor to the horrendous Holocaust.

A Holocaust survivor writes: "The quintessential element that distinguishes this event (the Holocaust) was the search for God. Every Jew who remained in the ghettos and the camps remembers "the God Syndrome" that shrouded everything else. From morning till night we cried out for a sign that God was still with us... We sought Him, but we did not find Him. We were always accompanied by the crushing and unsettling feeling that God had disappeared from our midst."
(Machshavot Magazine, Vol. 46, p. 4)

Throughout the rest of Jewish history, Jews in even the worst circumstances have viewed external problems, even the worst problems like being slaughtered en masse in the Crusades, as divine retribution for their mistakes. You will never find Jews, until this century, saying "Where is God?" They are always saying, "It's because of wrongdoing that God has done this to us."

Having delivered this final message, Moses dies and is buried on Mount Nebo somewhere across the mountains in Jordan. We are deliberately not told where it is, so nobody will worship his grave over there.

Joshua assumes leadership. Judaism is a meritocracy. Real leadership in Jewish history goes to the people, not those who were born into the right families, but to the people who are best suited for the job. So the job of successor does not go to Moses' sons (who are barely heard of) but to Joshua ben Nun, Moses' chief disciple who had proven his mettle in the incident with the spies.

The Bible continues with the Book of Joshua.

The Book of Joshua begins:

And it was after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, "Moses my servant has died and now arise and cross the River Jordan. You

 and all this nation go to the land which I give the Children of Israel. Every place on which the soles of your feet will tread I have given to you, as I have spoken to Moses. No man shall stand up before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. I will not weaken my grasp on you nor will I abandon you. Just be strong and very courageous to observe and do in accordance with all the Torah that Moses my servant has commanded you. Therefore, do not stray right or left in order that you will succeed in wherever you go."

The Book of Joshua describes the conquest and settlement of the Land of Israel during a very significant period of Jewish history.

At this time the so-called Promised Land is bounded by the Egyptian empire to the south and the Assyrian empire to the north. But it is not ruled by either of them. In fact, there is no one power ruling this section of land, rather it is settled by seven Canaanite tribes who inhabit 31 fortified city-states scattered all over the map, each ruled by its own "king."

(Jericho is one of these city-states, so is Ai, so is Jerusalem, where Canaanite tribesmen called Jebusites dwell.)

Before they enter the land, the Jewish people send an envoy to the Canaanites with the message, "God, the Creator of the Universe has promised this land to our forefathers. We are now here to claim our inheritance, and we ask you to leave peacefully."

Needless to say most of the Canaanites don't. (Only one tribe does the right thing and gets out.)

Meanwhile, Joshua has clear instructions from God that if the Canaanites don't get out, the Jews must wipe them out, because if they remain in the land they are going to corrupt the Jews. It is made clear that the Canaanites are extremely immoral and idolatrous people and the Jews cannot live with them as neighbors.

This is like saying today that living in a bad neighborhood messes up your kids. You have to always be careful about outside influences.

So what happens?

THE BATTLE OF JERICHO

The people go into the land and they fight a series of battles. The first is the battle of Jericho, the entrance to the heartland of Canaan.

Some archeologists have suggested that the easy conquest of this heavily-fortified city was made possible by a well-timed earthquake. But isn't it remarkable that precisely when the Jewish people need the city to fall, there is an earthquake and it does? Of course, they call it a miracle.

The waters of the Jordan part and they cross on dry land, then the Jordan refills with water. Next they march around the city walls, which crumble before their eyes. They conquer the city, taking no booty as commanded by God.

Hard to believe?

Writes archeologist-physicist Charles Pellegrino in Return to Sodom and Gomorrah:

... we are told (in Joshua 4:18) that the waters of the Jordan quickly returned to their normal level. This is consistent with the recent history of the Jordan's natural dams. Within forty-eight hours (and typically within as few as sixteen hours), the waters piling up behind an earthquake-made barrier overflow the mount, tearing great holes in it as they spill forth. (p. 267)

Pellegrino details (pp. 257-268) the excavation of what is believed to be the ancient city of Jericho. He notes many findings that support the story as it is told in the Book of Joshua, including the fact that the storehouses of grain -- a very valuable booty -- had been found intact.

It must be clear by now that this is not the typical war of conquest such as we read about in human history of bloody warfare, of raping and pillaging. God has said, "Nothing like that here. And if you follow My instructions all will go well."

ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

The Jews move on to the next city-state, a place called Ai.

But here things don't go so smoothly. In fact, they meet with a terrible defeat with many of their number killed. Traumatized by the experience, they plead to know why God had abandoned them and quickly learn the terrible truth -- that one person, Achan, had stolen some items back in Jericho.

One person out of 3 million didn't listen to God and everyone suffers!

The fascinating thing here is that the Bible seems to be saying that obedience to God's commands is paramount and that as far as the Jews are concerned -- it is all for one and one for all.

As an outgrowth of that lesson, Judaism teaches that there is such a thing as collective responsibility as well as individual responsibility -- no person is an island, each exists as part of the whole and is responsible for the actions of others as well as his or her own.

In today's world, the motto seems to be "Mind your own business." If we operated on the same level as they did back then, half the world's problems would disappear.

LIFE IN THE LAND

Despite many difficulties on the way, the Israelites do finally lay claim to the Promised Land but their life there is far from calm, particularly after Joshua dies. The Bible relates that they had only themselves to blame:

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord ... and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers ... and he gave them over into the hands of their enemies." (Judges 2:8-14)

From a simple reading of the text, one might assume that the entire Jewish people abandoned the Torah and started worshipping idols. But this, in fact, was not true. As with the incident of the golden calf (see Part 12) only a small percentage of the people sinned, yet the entire nation is held accountable.

The highly self-critical nature of this passage is typical of others which make the Hebrew Bible a unique document -- a holy book of a people, but also relating the sinful history of this people. It has been said that if the Hebrew Bible was not written by the Jews, it must have been written by anti-Semites. As Gabriel Sivan observes in The Bible and Civilization:

Biblical heroes and heroines ... are depicted as they are, with their virtues and their human failings ... This ethically uncompromising aspect of the scriptural narrative particularly impressed the Anglo-Jewish writer Israel Zangwill: "The Bible is an anti-Semitic book. Israel is the villain not the hero in his own story." Alone among epics, it is out for truth, not high heroics. (p. 10)

There is no question that the criticism of the Jews in the Bible is hyper-criticism, but there are two reasons why the slightest offense by a small group of people is condemned so strongly:

1. As noted above, every Jew is responsible for every other Jew, and what one does reflects on all.
2. It's such an obvious point in the moral history of the world that as soon as you tolerate something, it becomes bearable, and before long it will become common.

Therefore, here God is driving home an important point to the Jews: You're on a very high spiritual level. If you tolerate even small indiscretions by a few, eventually these few are going to pollute the nation.

Indeed, this is eventually what does happen, but before it does the Jews enjoy a honeymoon period in the land known as the Time of Judges.

The Talmud calls the Book of Judges, "the Book of the Straight."

Why?

Because the ultimate goal of every Jew is to use his free will to work out what is wrong and right, using the Torah as a guide. And this is what happens in the Time of Judges.

In those days, there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his eyes. (Judges 21:25)

Some say this verse sounds like a description of anarchy. But there was no anarchy; the vast majority of Jews were totally dedicated to Torah and were making decisions in the right way, and didn't need someone tell them what to do. Indeed, that is the ideal situation.

Of course, the lack of leadership following the death of Joshua did have negative consequence; a small minority took it as a license to slip into idolatry and immorality. This happened largely because the Jews did not get rid of all of the Canaanites, as they were commanded to do, and the Canaanite pagan influence was felt.

Whenever the Jews abandon God, the repercussions are immediate:

And they forsook the God of their fathers and they went after other gods. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers and he gave them over to the hands of their enemies. (Judges 2:8-14)

This is one of the most important patterns we have to understand in how Jewish history works. When the Jews betray their covenant with God, bad things happen -- usually, an enemy comes and attacks.

The covenant with God doesn't just cover the behavior of man toward God, it also includes the commandments mandating the behavior of man toward man. But both are a must.

HEED THE WARNING

God says over and over again -- keep the Torah, all facets of it and no one will bother you. You will live in peace in your land. You will prosper, and not only that, the whole world will come to learn from you and you will elevate the entire planet.

But if you don't, a big fist will not come out of heaven and swat you, because God acts in history. What will happen instead is a physical enemy will appear or a famine will hit the land, and all will suffer.

When bad things happen to Jews, it is never by chance. It is always a consequence of Jewish actions, and therefore, the remedy is never to deal solely with the external threat. If an enemy attacks, defense is in order, but so is introspection; the presence of enemy is only a symptom of a deeper problem that must be dealt with.

We see this in the Time of Judges which extends from 1244 BCE to 879 BCE.

And the Lord raised up judges and they saved them [the Israelites] from the hands of those who had spoiled them. (Judges 2:16)

Who are the Judges?

The Judges are Jewish leaders who arise during this time, unify the people, get them to repent, deal with the spiritual problems of the nation, and also deal with the physical threat.

They are military leaders who know how to mobilize the nation for war against an enemy, but their real power lies in their Torah knowledge and ability to adjudicate Jewish law.

We will highlight a few of the 16 Judges described in the Bible:

DEBORAH

One of the first of the Judges is a woman -- Deborah. (See Judges, chapter 4-5.) She is famous for sitting under a palm tree where anyone could seek her advice, and from where she issued battle orders.

Barak, Israel's top warrior during that time, refuses to go into battle without her. Together they lead the troops against the much larger Canaanite force backed up by 900 iron chariots, of which Israel had none.

The Book of Judges describes a key battle with the Canaanites led by Sisera.

On the even of the battle, Barak is doubtful that Israel's warriors could ever beat such a strong opponent but Deborah stands firm. An unexpected storm is unleashed in the heavens, and the resulting downpour turns the ground to mud; the iron chariots get stuck and the Canaanites panic.

Deborah's prophecy that "This is the day on which the Lord will deliver [the Canaanite general] Sisera into your hands..." is thus fulfilled.

SAMSON

Samson is the Judge famous for his superhero strength, and for leading the struggle against Israel's arch-enemy, the Philistines. (See Judges, chapters 13-16.)

The Philistines were a seafaring people who inhabited the coast of Israel and Lebanon in the area of Gaza-Ashdod-Jaffa. They had migrated into the area from somewhere in the Mediterranean and settled there in the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age.

Excavations show that the Philistines -- despite what the word "Philistine" has come down to mean in the English language -- were very sophisticated culturally. They had perfected iron tools and iron weapons, gaining an important technological advantage over their neighbors.

With their might, they started encroaching on the Jewish people who are living in the highlands during this time.

Samson was one of the people who takes on the Philistines. He is a most unusual man who never cuts his hair and he has superhuman strength because of this.

To undermine the Philistines he pretends to join them by deliberately marrying a Philistine woman but she is killed by her own people; he then consorts with another Philistine woman -- Delilah. A big mistake.

Delilah catches on that Samson is a major threat to her people. She figures out the secret of his superhuman strength and cuts off his hair while he is asleep. As a result the Philistines are able to capture him. They then blind him and throw him in prison.

But they forget that hair grows. As his hair grew back, his superhuman strength returns.

Unaware of this, the Philistines decides to execute Samson in a public display at the Temple of Dagan, one of their gods.

As the masses gather to watch the execution, blind Samson asks a slave boy to position him next to one of the columns supporting the temple. With his renewed superhuman strength he overturns the column and collapses the whole place killing all inside.

He dies giving his life for the Jewish people and the Bible says he killed more Philistine enemies in that moment than he vanquished the whole rest of his life.

SAMUEL

The last of the Judges is the Prophet Samuel, who is one of the most important prophets in Jewish history, and who is also famous for anointing the first two kings of Israel -- Saul and David. (See 1 Samuel, chapters 1-16.)

By the time Samuel appears on the scene, the Jewish people have gone through close to 400 years of no strong central leadership. They had to live up to a very high level of individual responsibility or else God would let them know they were off course via the Canaanites or the Philistines or the Midianites. This was a very hard way to live. In the final analysis, the nation couldn't maintain this level of scrutiny without stronger guidance.

When Samuel was younger, he would travel the land adjudicating Jewish law and giving people advice, but now that he has grown old, he can't do it anymore. Meanwhile, his two sons, who have taken over for him, prove unpopular with the people.

So a delegation is dispatched to ask Samuel to anoint a king instead:

And they the people said [to Samuel] "Behold, you have grown old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now set up for us a king to judge us like all the nations. And the thing was displeasing in the eyes of Samuel ..." (1 Samuel, 8:5-7)

Samuel doesn't want to do it, but God tells him to go ahead and find a king for the people.

And this is how the Time of Judges comes to a close. Samuel functions as a Judge for 13 years and the last of two years he actually co-leads the Jewish people with the first Jewish king whose name is Saul.

Lessons 1 - 5  Lessons 6 - 10  Lessons 11 -15  Lessons 16 -20