NACH 13 – Shmuel Aleph 28-31 – Shaul HaMelech – Witch of Endor – Shaul’s Death Was Not Suicide

NACH 13 – Shmuel Aleph 28-31 – Shaul HaMelech – Witch of Endor – Shaul’s Death Was Not Suicide – Speaker: Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld zal.
05:00 – Shaul HaMelech, desperate to know the outcome of an approaching battle, asked a sorceress to summon his teacher, Shmuel HaNavi back from the dead.
12:21 – Shmuel HaNavi told the king that he would die in the battle, but would be with Shmuel in Gan Eden, indicating the complete righteousness of Shaul HaMelech.
*15:59 – Two questions: what gave this sorceress the power to accomplish what tzaddikim couldn’t? And why was Shaul forced to receive the answer to his query through such strange circumstances? Rav Noson of Nemirov zal explains that this was to demonstrate the powerful concern of a teacher for his student.
18:16 – Even though in our time “sorcery” is nothing more than illusions created through fraud and trickery, in those days, authentic magic existed. HaShem allowed witchcraft to be effective to maintain the freedom of choice between good and evil at that time.
20:56 – Dovid HaMelech returned to Ziklag to find it in ruins. In addition, the wives and children of his 600 soldiers had been taken captive. After consulting the Urim veTumim – prophetic device of the Kohen Gadol – Dovid decided to track down the enemy and learned they are from the tribe of Amalek. 200 men stayed behind while Dovid and 400 of his men rescued the captives and took plunder. Dovid HaMelech insisted that the spoils of the battle should be shared equally with all 600 men, to show that the outcome was from HaShem, and not a result of the number of people fighting the battle.
25:05 – The three sons of Shaul, including Yonasan, were killed in the battle against the Philistines. Shaul was mortally wounded in battle and asked his servant to kill him, to prevent the chilul HaShem of a King of Israel being captured and tortured by the enemy. The servant refused so Shaul HaMelech fell upon his own sword and died. When his servant witnessed this, he too fell upon his own sword and died.
27:12 – The inhabitants of Yovesh-Gilad heroically rescues Shaul Hamelech’s body from the enemy and gave him a fitting burial.
28:23 – When Dovid HaMelech heard the report of Shaul‘s death he questioned the messenger carefully and then commanded the execution of this bearer of bad news. Dovid mourned Shaul HaMelech and, even more so, the death of his beloved friend, Yonason ben Shaul.
32:12 – Dovid returned to Eretz Yisrael to take over the kingdom, but encountered opposition from Shaul’s general, Avner, who installed Shaul’s remaining son as king.
*33:45 – The death of Shaul HaMelech is not considered suicide because his act was purely on behalf of HaShem’s honor.
38:18 – What is suicide? The answer to this question can be understood through contrasting the death of Shaul HaMelech with the execution of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradion (2nd century CE): “Since the scroll of the Torah is burning with me, the Power that will avenge this offense against the Torah will also avenge the offense against me.” (Avodah Zarah 17b).
47:37 – Closing blessing.