In 1927, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the founder of right-wing Revisionist Zionism whose current heir is Israel’s re-elected prime minister Bibi Netanyahu, published a historical novel retelling the story of Samson. Rich with blood and lust this was a political parable, building the case for the type of Zionism he would advocate for - might over morals. One of Jabotinsky’s famous quotes is “Foolish is the man who believes his neighbor, however kindhearted and friendly the neighbor may be. Foolish is the man who relies on justice. Justice exists only for those with the fists and the tenacity to achieve it.”
Samson the hero, despite his failings, became a popular modern hero in Zionist lore thanks in part to this novel. It became popular enough so that the author went to Hollywood to help adapt it to the script of DeMille’s 1949 Academy Award winning film "Samson and Delilah". The movie celebrated, without ever mentioning the name, the complex and bloody creation of the state of Israel, just a year earlier.
Jabotinsky’s legacy is far more problematic than the on screen valorization of this violent biblical hero. In recent years, the revengeful words that come out of Samson’s mouth as he is handed over to his enemies by the woman he loves had become a popular and despicable song favored by the populist far-right religious zionists, equating the Palestinians with the ancient Philistines of Samson’s day. Like Jabotinsky, today’s leaders of Israel abhor the lasting ‘foreign’ influence and local presence of those who came before them. Whoever wrote the tale of Samson and gave it center stage inside the Book of Judges likely felt the same way, although the hero is certainly depicted as one who is ambivalent about his loyalty and lust. He hates the Philstines but loves their women. Delilah is the most famous one of all.
As the story draws towards its gruesome end, Samson the Judge falls in love with Delilah, a Philstine woman who lives by the River of Sorek. Aware of the romance, her leaders instruct her to be their spy and help them overpower him. Whether she had to or wanted to - Delilah agrees and tries seducing him to reveal his secret power. With what can be only described as bondage play she fails three times but finally succeeds on the fourth attempt - he admits that his long hair, not cut since birth, is the source of his supernatural powers. She cuts his hair off as he sleeps in her lap, and powerless, the great man is handcuffed, blinded and sent to serve a life sentence of humiliation and forced labor in the center of town.
His final revenge is when, some time later, with his hair beginning to grow again, he’s brought to the great temple of Dagon, the local god, on the big festival, where 3,000 people crowd to celebrate the holiday, and gloat at the once mighty judge. With nothing left to lose, Samson attempts one final and fatal performance act - he grabs both pillars of the temple and topples their entire structure down:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר שִׁמְשׁ֗וֹן תָּמ֣וֹת נַפְשִׁי֮ עִם־פְּלִשְׁתִּים֒ וַיֵּ֣ט בְּכֹ֔חַ וַיִּפֹּ֤ל הַבַּ֙יִת֙ עַל־הַסְּרָנִ֔ים וְעַל־כׇּל־הָעָ֖ם אֲשֶׁר־בּ֑וֹ וַיִּהְי֤וּ הַמֵּתִים֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הֵמִ֣ית בְּמוֹת֔וֹ רַבִּ֕ים מֵאֲשֶׁ֥ר הֵמִ֖ית בְּחַיָּֽיו׃
“Samson cried, “Let me die with the Philistines!” and he pulled with all his might. The temple came crashing down on the lords and on all the people in it. Those who were slain by him as he died outnumbered those who had been slain by him when he lived.”
Jabotinsky chose to end his novel with the last words that the blind giant has for his people:
" Tell them three things in my name, and not two: they must get iron; they must choose a king; and they must learn to laugh."
Iron is weapons - which became indeed the way Zionism asserted its presence in the promised land, ever since the days of Joshua. The king - that’s coming next in our biblical journey, just as many still today clamor for a ‘strong man’, and humor? Well - perhaps it’s all we are left with at the end of the day when these gruesome sagas keep playing out?
David Grossman, no fan of Jabotinsky, though equally fascinated by Samson, gets the final word:
“There is a point in the Samson story — the moment when he falls asleep on Delilah’s lap — that seems to absorb and encapsulate the entire tale. Samson withdraws into his childish, almost infantile self, disarmed of the violence, madness, and passion that have confounded and ruined his life. This is, of course, also the moment when his fate is sealed, for Delilah is clutching his hair and the razor, and the Philistines outside are already relishing their victory. In another moment his eyes will be plucked out and his power extinguished. Soon he will be thrown into prison and his days will be ended. Yet it is now, perhaps for the first time in his life, that he finds repose. Here, in the very heart of the cruel perfidy that he has surely expected all along, he is finally granted perfect peace, a release from himself and the stormy drama of his life...The way that I read the story runs against the grain of the familiar Samson. Mine is not the brave leader (who never, after all, actually led his people), nor the Nazirite of God (who, we must admit, was given to whoring and lust), nor just a muscle-bound murderer. For me, this is most of all the story of a man whose life was a never-ending struggle to accommodate himself to the powerful destiny imposed upon him, a destiny he was never able to realize nor, apparently, fully to understand. It is the story of a child who was born a stranger to his father and mother; the story of a magnificent strongman who ceaselessly yearned to win his parents’ love — and, therefore, love in general — which in the end he never received.”
Samson is the last Judge in this book. What follows in the last chapters of this book are internal wars over religion and sex, land and law, with no king and no judge to lead the way. Maybe myth and history, hand in hand, invite us here to not forget our sense of humor, along with hope and perspective, as we read these stories as warnings and reminders how not to mess up our private and public lives.
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