Whoever edited the Hebrew Bible chose to end the Book of Judges with a bloodbath and a painful plea for centralized order - followed immediately by the Book of Samuel - the prophet who will anoint the first king of Israel. The book begins with his dramatic birth story, almost as if the newborn baby boy will sooth some of the traumas carried over from the previous chapters and generations. But there are other ways to tell this tale of transformation. The Greek version of the Bible, known as the Septuagint, chose a different order, and inserted the book of Ruth, which begins with “when the judges judged” - after Judges and before Samuel. Biblical scholar Tikva Frymer-Kensky, in "Reading the Women of the Bible" writes that “the first few chapters of Samuel and the book of Ruth have a lot in common. Each story culminates in a birth that will lead to kingship, and each is a peaceful idyll in which good people live their lives in a world very different from the violence portrayed at the end of Judges. “
Also common to both books is the central figure of a woman who is front and center, a model mother, as well as the role model for faith, love, leadership and loyalty. The Book of Samuel starts with a focus on his mother, Hannah, the first woman in the Bible to take prayer into her own hands.
In some ways, this surprising angle begins to weave the themes that will distinguish this complex book - yearning for order and stability, as well as a longing for meaningful spiritual relationship with the mystery of all of life. In some ways, this book will take us deeper into the religious and political evolution of the nation of Israel. Perhaps it’s also an opportunity for each reader to reflect on our own personal relationship with the sacred.
The story begins, as so many do, with a barren woman. The call to adventure.
Hannah is one of two wives of Elkanah, a distinguished man from the tribe of Ephraim. Peninah, the second wife, whose name means ‘pearl’ , bears children. But Hannah - which means ‘grace’, is not able to - a tough social status with a potentially unstable financial future. And yet, she is loved by Elkanah who offers us a different masculine role model in opposition to the violent males in previous chapters.
The family travels on the annual pilgrimage to the shrine at Shiloh, bearing sacrificial gifts to the priests, and while there, Hannah makes a bold move. She enters the shrine, where women are not allowed, where the ark of the covenant is housed and where Eli, the old priest, grandson of Aaron watches over, and begins to pray. She doesn't prostrate herself as is the custom. She stands tall, weeping, and addressing God directly.
It’s a bold move. Throughout the Hebrew Bible thus far YHWH has communicated with men and women, including those seeking children, but none before Hannah took the initiative to demand a child this directly, ask for help, activate the power of prayer. She somehow knows what words to use, how to ask for exactly what she badly needs, and how to negotiate and make a deal with YHWH: the son that will be born to her will be dedicated to divine service in the holy shrine. She doesn't say ‘if’ - she says ‘when’.
Her words are silent, but her fervor is strong. Eli the priest first mistakes her for a drunkard but when she articulates her situation with eloquence - he blesses her on her way. She walks out beaming.
And it works. Hannah names her healthy baby Samuel - a pun on the Hebrew word for ‘loan’ (and also a wink at the name of the man who will be the first king - Saul. There are even some scholars who claim that this ‘miracle birth’ story is in fact about Saul, not Samuel, somehow conflated over time.)
By the time the boy is a few years old and weaned, Hannah takes him back to Shiloh on the annual pilgrimage, along with a fantastic feast of offerings. She faces Eli the priest and delivers what will become an epic biblical line:
אֶל־הַנַּ֥עַר הַזֶּ֖ה הִתְפַּלָּ֑לְתִּי וַיִּתֵּ֨ן יְהֹוָ֥ה לִי֙ אֶת־שְׁאֵ֣לָתִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁאַ֖לְתִּי מֵֽעִמּֽוֹ׃
“This is the boy I prayed for; YHWH has granted me what I asked for.”
It’s a beautiful moment - and a famous line that stands for all the invisible hopes tied with the power or prayer, often from the place of deep despair.
With what must have been difficult resolve, she honors her vow, lets her weaned boy go. Samuel will grow up as an apprentice to the old priest and eventually take over and change the rules. He learned how to do so from his mother.
“Hannah is the sole architect of her own redemption”, writes Prof.Nehama Aschkenasy. “When Hannah finally talks, she does not elaborate on her sorrow, but states her request clearly and effectively. The heretofore voiceless Hannah turns out to be a creative negotiator and a gifted wordsmith...Hannah’s word created a world..
Hannah’s ordeal.. offers a dramatic treatise on prayer and on the diverse functions of language. At its lowest, language is the abuse of the defenseless and the deprived; at its highest form, prayer, it is a means for a person to transcend the ephemeral, limited human condition, and reach great heights.
That a woman is made to epitomize the grandeur of language and fashion the paradigm of the prayer activity is an essential feature of this tale. Through a creative use of language and its sacred possibilities, Hannah catapulted herself from the immediate constraints of her time and place, from becoming forever frozen in the position of the “woman at the window,” a bystander in history, into the eternal memory of her people. She influenced the course of Israelite progression in time and therefore was given a place of honor in the sacred text that chronicles it.”
Many generations later, in the aftermath of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the sages sought suitable role-models that will teach the people how to pray instead of offer sacrifices. Hannah becomes the primary example for how to stand, speak, petition and praise the source of all life. Even the Amida Prayer - a posture that requires standing up and facing the direction of the temple, observed by pious Jewish women and men till this day - is attributed to her in the Talmud.
Her story is so significant that it was chosen to feature on Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the Jewish year, on which the world is born again. There is perhaps some subtle irony here. The pilgrimage on which Hannah and her family traveled to Shilo annually was likely the remnants of ancient local customs in which the deity would be visited with offerings and supplications. We don’t know anything about the name of the holiday or reason for the pilgrimage - had it been once of the centralized holidays as later institutionalized by the Jerusalem Temple it would have likely mentioned it. But here we have the evidence of ancient pious paths, in local shrines, by people who defy the religious bureaucracy, only to become, with time, the very paradigm of faith and religious practice. Just like the modern High Holy Day season, often the only time a year Jews gather to pray and/or ponder their relationship to their community, faith and purpose, each with our own secrets and wants, Hannah’s heartfelt prayer during that annual pilgrimage proved to be not only the opening chapter of this book about prophetic purpose but also the hallmark of the Jewish myth of time, agency, autonomy and hope. In a cruel world, where no leaders rule with mercy, it takes a bitter, barren woman to start overturning the tables and birth a new order in the world.
Welcome to the Book of Samuel.
Image: Hannah and Samuel in the temple, Rembrandt c. 1650, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
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Marilyn - those who sow in tear will reap in joy.. (but hang on to your seatbelt.. war's hardly over yet..) Welcome to Samuel!
Absolutely beautifully told!!! Todah Rabah