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Shoftim 13-18 and the reward for sin!

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Nach Summary Shoftim 13-18

Perek 13 – Bnei Yisrael sinning and are occupied by the Philistines for 40 years. During this time, Manoach and his wife are promised via an angel that they would have a child – and that child should be a nazir (no wine nor cutting hair). The child is called Shimshon.

Chapter 14 – Shimshon marries one of the Philistines in order to find a pretext to get revenge on the Philistines. He kills a lion with is bare hands and tells a riddle to the Philistines during the wedding meals. They persuade his wife to get Shimshon to tell her the answer and she relates it to them. Shimshon kills 30 Philistines and takes their clothes to pay the people who found the answer to his riddle.

Chapter 15 – Shimshon causes a mass fire amongst the Philistines after his wife’s father refuses to give his wife to him. Shimshon kills more Philistines, breaks through his ropes and uses a donkey jawbone to kill 1000 Philistines.

Chapter 16 – Shimshon evades capture by removing gates of a city. Shimshon falls for Delilah, and the Philistines persuade her to get him to tell her the secret of his strength. Eventually he tells her it’s his long hair and – after cutting his hair – they capture him. Imprisoned, they do not realise that Shimshon’s hair has grown back. He is taken in to the large Philistine party to be mocked, and pulls down the pillars, killing himself with many Philistines.

Chapter 17 – Michyahu makes an idol and hires a Levi from Beis Lechem Yehuda to be his priest.

Chapitre 18 – The tribe of Dan seeks land for inheritance. They send spies, who come across Michah and his Levi priest. They take this priest as well as many articles from Micha’s ‘temple,’ destroy a city and “builds an idolatrous sanctuary“ (Ascroll)

(From Rabbi Frand) Samson (shoftim 16;28) asks HaShem to give him the merit of one of his eyes, which had been knocked out by the Philistines, in order to give him the strength to ‘raise (‘bring down’ more accurately!) the roof’ of the party. How could he ask for reward for his eyes having been poked out – that was a punishment for being swayed by the physical beauty of Delilah? Why is he asking reward for a punishment?
The answer is a fundamental way to view the goal of a punishment. Punishments are not all there to ‘smack us on the bottom’ for doing bad – they are so we can grow from them and become better than we were before the sin. This is how Shimshon could receive reward for punishments; because he is actually receiving reward for having grown spiritually from the punishment – that’s what he is asking. He is asking for reward for having used the punishment appropriately to learn and grow spiritually.
This concept is also seen in Rashi Vayikra 14;34 (via Rabbi Frand!). He brings a midrash (based closely on the wording of the posuk) that says that HaShem guaranteed bnei yisrael that they would have to break down their houses (because of tzara’as – leprosy – of the house form) and would find treasure underneath it. Yes, you heard correctly, that is the medrash. Question is ‘why are we getting a reward for the tzara’as which was caused by sin in the first place? Again, when we understand that the punishment is intended to make us better people, then we can now understand that we are not getting reward for having sinned to cause tzaraas, but rather for having used the punishment of tzaraas to grow and learn.
The same is true of all tests in life – they take on a new perspective when one internalises that they are planned exercises to better ourselves and develop good character traits consequently. Have a great Shabbat.
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