Torah Study Blog

The Book of Judges has a common motif where God protects the Israelite people, but then the Israelites do something to offend God. Next, God allows the Israelites to be conquered by an enemy, only to have a hero arrive who saves the people. The people return to worshipping God but, inevitably, they offend again and the cycle repeats.

One of the heroes of the Book of Judges is Samson. From birth, Samson was promised to God as a nazirite; which meant he must not consume grape products, cut his hair, or come into contact with dead bodies. The stories of Samson were likely ancient folk tales that were well known in the community and the editors of the Bible wanted to preserve them.

Samson as a nazirite has been a little problematic for the Rabbis. In the stories, Samson kills many, many people, so we know he was in frequent contact with dead bodies. And Samson had a strong attraction to Philistine women.

The Philistines were a people who lived on the coast of current day Israel. Most of the information we have about the Philistines comes from the Hebrew Bible, but there is a reference in Egyptian text from about 1100 BCE mentioning the Philistines, so we know they were a real people. The Israelites had frequent skirmishes with the Philistines. But there were also times that the Philistines and the Israelites worked together. King David lived among the Philistines for 16 months (I Samuel 27), and Abraham lived among the Philistines for “a long time.” (Genesis 21) (As an aside, some current day Palestinians claim they are descendants of the Philistines, which would mean that they have been in the land of Israel longer than the Jews. However, recent archaeological finds have uncovered pig bones in a Philistine settlement, which would have been anathema to Palestinian ancestors, thereby debunking that claim.)

After the birth of Samson, the next story is when he is ready to get married. He sees a Philistine woman and decides that she is the one he wants to marry. His parents question why he wants to marry outside his people, and we are told that “this was the Lord’s doing: He was seeking a pretext

against the Philistines, for the Philistines were ruling over Israel at that time.” (Judges 14:4) God wanted this interfaith marriage and he directed it to happen, therefore it is okay!

God is also the reason that Samson has superhuman strength. Following are summaries from the Samson stories:

On the way to contract the woman for marriage, “a full-grown lion came roaring at [Samson]. The spirit of the Lord gripped him, and he tore him asunder with his bare hands.” (Judges 14:5-6) During the pre-marriage feast, Samson asks his Philistine co-merrymakers a riddle and gives them seven days to answer it. If Samson stumps them, Samson will win a substantial prize. If they correctly guess the riddle, Samson will owe a substantial amount. The Philistines threaten the intended bride, and her family, unless she coaxes the answer out of Samson. She nagged Samson so much that he revealed the answer to her, which she then revealed to her fellow Philistines. When Samson realized he has been had, “The spirit of the Lord gripped him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men.” (Judges 14:19)

A year later, Samson was, again, disrespected by the family of his intended wife, so he, “caught three hundred foxes. He took torches and, turning [the foxes] tail to tail, he placed a torch between each pair of tails. He lit the torches and turned [the foxes] loose among the standing grain of the Philistines, setting fire to stacked grain, standing grain, vineyards, [and] olive trees.” (Judges 15:4-5) The Philistines were angry and burned the intended wife, and her father, to death.

Next, three thousand Philistines tracked Samson down, intending to beat him to a pulp. In a ruse, Samson presented himself to the Philistines as a man who had been bound with ropes and was now their prisoner. Then, “the spirit of the Lord gripped him, and ... the bonds melted off his hands. He came upon a fresh jawbone of an ass and he picked it up; and with it he killed a thousand men.” (Judges 15:14-15)

Sometime later, Samson fell in love with the Philistine, Delilah. From the beginning of the story, Delilah is in cahoots with the Philistines to find out what makes Samson so strong, so that he can be defeated. Delilah will earn 1100 shekels for her treachery. Samson tells Delilah three different ways he can be made weak, but they were all fibs and he remained strong.

Once again, Samson was nagged so much by a woman, this time Delilah, that he relented and told her that he will lose his power if his hair is cut. Delilah had a man cut Samson’s hair while he slept, the Delilah called for the Philistines to seize him. The Philistines gouged out Samson’s eyes and shackled him to a mill to work as a slave.

One day all the lords of the Philistines were celebrating their god, and they remembered their victory over the mighty Samson. The Philistines called for Samson to be paraded before them and then tied between two pillars of the Temple where the celebration was being held. Apparently, they failed to notice that Samson’s hair had grown back. Samson called out to God to remember him, and his strength was restored and he broke the pillars, causing the entire Temple to collapse. The Philistine lords, an additional 3000 men and women who were also at the Temple, and Samson himself, perished.

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter