Shimshon, the Judge, the Hero By Rabbi Shai Finkelstein

we go the answer is that it was true [Music] because you leave right away I just want to ask a question since you looked up into all these different things about Chon is there any connection between today Aza and the whole thing AA and him or is it only that he wants credit for the other eye and that is this world there's no connection maybe but not you so why don't you sit here maybe it's better okay hello everyone so uh first we would like to say that this show is sponsored um by Mel David's daughters and son-in-laws um in his memory we all remember him and should be okay so the not sure if it's the final sh about shim but this is definitely the final soci about Shimon um and if last uh if last week we spoke a little bit about the mystical uh aspect of Shimon and his his in his figure so now we will try to make a connection between Shimon is he considered as a gior he should be viewed and remembered as shim shim Shimon the judge or he has anything to do with mashiah so that's what we will try to explore today so the Torah States in when yob gave a blessing to Dan to his son Dan so he spoke about Dan and his tribe and he says the Dan will judge his Nation like any other tribe would be like a snake that they can bite the horse and then the rider will fall backwards okay so that's what Jakob says to however at the end of where gives a blessing give a to Dan it says so he compared down to what to a lion CB a g so I guess he grew since time of yob from a snake he became a lion so obviously we need to understand what what what does it mean and why there is such a difference between and what is the difference really between a snake and and a lion so that's what we're going to see a little bit later Rashi says so basically what does it mean it's not that he's going to judge his Nation but rather like what we say that will Revenge for his people not his people God forbid for his people so Dan which Shimon comes from the tribe of Dan he is going to Revenge the Jewish people's blood and Sorrows from so that's what yob said to to so all the people will be with him and he will basically revenge for he will do the revenge for everyone so yov basically prophesies this prophecy what does it [Music] mean now this nobody tribe done that as we figured out in the last few weeks we know nothing about this chevet he didn't do anything extraordinary besides Shimon this is the only person he was able to produce which was on a semi good connotation we have p m if you want which obviously it's not flattery uh it's not a it's not a compliment for the tribe so here based on Rashi he says that when yov gave a he says to him he is going to be what is like this very special tribe which is Yehuda yud now this is interesting so now Dan who is the least of the tribes going to be like Yuda now we commented about it last week that when you speak about the way they encamp even though yud was and was when they basically were in the circle so you have Yehuda and Dan are basically where together were together they close the circle they were together okay so we still don't have any understanding of why is he considered as a serpent or as a snake but let's see the the says right that's what mhe said to Dan that he's going to be like a lion c so basically he says he's like a lion cob not that Shimon is like a lion cob but rather what Shimon did to the lion cup you remember when he saw this lion he basically throw him apart and then the honey came came for that so basically Moshe prophesies that that's what Shimon will do and what does it mean if you remember every time that we spoke about it says that like suddenly the spirit of God just like Came Upon him and then he awoke so that's maybe what it means so that's what the says comes along the rashbam and says what are you talking about says if you think that this to is about you have no idea how to learn the narrative he was very gentle say you want to tell me that Yakov before he dies is going to give you a prophecy and a blessing to shevan that the Shimon will come out from this tribe and he will do what married three non-jewish women eat non kosher food and will die with the plishtim and they will take one of his eyes is that a Braha I don't want to hear a curse from from yob right what kind of a you really think that that's what yov had in mind says the rashbam who happens to be related to Rashi how his grandson okay he happened to be related to him and he says even is wrong so what's the he says but rather he didn't specify a single person an individual from chevan but rather he spoke about the entirety of chevan which is what that it was he was at the end of the Mahan which means the rasham says I'll give you a very easy simple and by the way Mak sense solution Yakov saw in his prophetic Vision that Dan chevan the entire chevan will always be the the last one to go and even you need to know that you have a mission the one that leads the group obviously is responsible right the one at the end of the of the group also have responsibility he needs to what to make sure that he defends the group from the back because many times people will go quickly to the front but they will forget what the back so therefore he needs to protect the back says yov toan you I know you're going to be the last one in my trip in in the desert says Moshe and also later on in the time of yosua and therefore I bless you to be gim to be Mighty to be strong so you can protect the Jewish people so it's nothing to do with Shimon it's all to do with the tribe itself which means all that rash brings shows that what that means what not to judge so it doesn't talk about an individual judge shim but rather is to fight therefore when yov saw that chevan will be Fighters and they will be at the end of the camp so they will be the last one to go so he blessed them with what with strength and might so they can fight the enemies very simple but that would mean that Don Don should be the one that to destroy Malik then because because the Malik was did did exactly that try to you know but he shouldn't destroy am he can fight them he shouldn't doesn't need necessarily to destroy them he had to defend them from them but not to destroy them no I me no no that's what I'm saying I don't think so I think that it needs to come from your I understood what you ask from it needs to come from YF and not from shevan because shadan was just placed there for the time of mhe and Yeshua that's it and YF was something for eternity so the in says the following now don't be too surprised okay you all you all you all sit you're comfortable who is that the one like God ah this is wonderful right we have so much uh we have so many trouble to try to understand sh after this eight weeks and we really asked the question so many times why is he in the Bible more than good things right you go ahead and explain to your kids that you have a judge who really fought for the Jews you know and he was married to three non-jewish women and he gave up his secret for a woman and then he died with a p team and no one cared about him and his parents were not that sophisticated right this story is so out of touch with tanak and now we say that what that this guy is judging Nation like hasem himself which by the way you understand thatan breaks the P he manipulates the P the P says what so how does he read the P that's it what do you do there didn't care much and he manipulated the in order to have a but obviously knows the stories of shim and we will need to understand how can you compare shim to what to so to speak to was named after God shim from the word shees with the word so you have the so shim take the V out so you can put a so he was named after God so he's judging like God and he's named after God I thought that the only one who has the name of God in him is yud is something else but and who um um okay so it's only Yehuda so also named after God so the says so if he's named after God so you can't erase the name of Shimon if you see the name of Shimon you cannot erase it because then you are it's not exactly it's like protects the entire universe did what every single agree so what's what's what's wrong with with Shimon now the only thing that I can tell you about Shimon unlike any other judge no one cared about him he was not charismatic in terms of getting people to follow him that only the people didn't follow him they extradite him that we learned in few weeks before which means unlike any other judge that had followers Kon sh for sure okay H also have some followers Shimon Clum nobody nothing only women so the wrong kind of women well not true even they they followed him I think he followed them so there is a little difference so the idea the idea is is what is that in a way Shimon protect all the Jewish people without getting anything in exchange anything in return so okay so now let's see bit Raba bit Raba is also somewhat of an early early midash around the fifth century was composed in Israel fifth sixth Century so Dan what does it mean what we he's fighting like God himself but what does it mean it does not need anyone to what to help him Le I did it by myself so this is how Shimon who came Froman he doesn't need anyone to help him and he doesn't need any weaponary he give him a check of a donkey and he will do fine so why is he compared to a snake so he says most of the animals go two by twos did you see a group of snakes together no no you don't want to see them I understand but I'm saying basically we see always one one snake what in a pit uh in a pit yeah but a on the on the path look I'm not an expert on snake so I would just take whatever the mid says but I think that when you see them walking crawling on the earth so it just it's one so that's what he says and that's what Shimon did Shimon never hang out with any other friends okay so he will be like a snake so the is a very vengeful animal and Shimon was a very vengeful person but it was for a purpose so when saw his prophetic Vision he saw this person cannot bring Redemption m okay here we have a beginning of a very interesting thing yob looks at Shimon and he says wow this is an incredible potential he fights by himself he does not need any helpers he's a vengeful person for the right purpose he should be What ruler a ruler more than that he should be maybe mashia he should be mashia but the problem he says what and why he can't bring the G because he's vengeful like person a person like him who does things out of vengefulness I would guess cannot be mashiah so therefore what do you need to bring you need to bring from God but mashiah is not from God mashia is from where Yehuda so what mashia from God he says I'm going to sendii is at least according to most ofin he is from Chev God and he will come from the akev what does it mean he will come from the AEV he will come in an indirect way because Nai also he is not the go what is the purpose of Eli he proclaims that the G is about to come but he just say there's going to be a day right and then mashia will come so now we have something very interesting look at how many tribes are involved in Gula you have chevan who at least has a potential then you have chevet God then you have chevet and then you have chevet Yehuda so we have four tribes which is very interesting four tribes I'm just thinking Dan is everybody except and no I'm talking about the M servants the M servants the M servants we have from the from M servants for B Zila also had children but they are related to but who is God from from from from ra for is we don't need Google we have tanak okay Zila God is from Zila so that's Le and Dan is Dan is Le no I think yeah okay sorry okay so basically we have four tribes who are involved with the G okay says ran by the way you see that all the commentators everyone disagree with the rasham they all think that yov gave a blessing to whom to Shimon not to the entire so then he says if you look at all the Book of Judges the only judge that fell that fell in the hands of his enemy was shim all the other judges won the war and survived I mean some of them were maybe assassinated but basically none of them what none of them fell in the hands of their enemies so he says promise that he will guarantee the life of the judge so how come that he was killed he was the last judge but after him we have what yes even though was also considered as a as a judge but really his main mission was a and a teacher and at his time there was sh and so after saw that after not only that he didn't really save the Jewish people entir entirely but also he what he fell in the hands of his enemies this is one of the most anti- zionis message which means when yov saw that Shimon fell he basically says from now on I don't trust that g will come through a warrior a judge but rather from now on I only trust God that you will bring the Gula so I had to bring this commentary even though I not exactly um agree but it's interesting because why is it that Shimon fell in the hands of his enemies and that's what yov saw and that's why he prayed after Shimon is dead there is no Yeshua anymore answer is he was the last judge and from now on I the people understand that the only one who can save us is God okay so that's what the ran says so now take a look at the mid it says that man shim's father was from the family of Dan so therefore he wants to say which is very interesting this midash says that when it comes to the territory when the territory was split basically chud and chevan were neighboring neighbors and they basically have a a common border like a a border that b a shared border and therefore until now we said that came from what Froman says the mid it's not Froman not from the tribe of then from the from the family of them what does that mean so he says so he was Froman but his grandma mother was from Yuda by the way who else has like a mixed marriage that we know someone who really Judah will be very familiar with him uh in the next H he is from where from bamin and from Yuda that's what the gamar describes yeah that each she says blamed each other for M's faults so basically so why is that so important to me to know that Shimon came from both oh because we want to connect Chan and chud together so we already connected them in the way they encamped and according to the midash it's also in the way they what that they dwelt in the land of Israel okay and he says the following this is really relevant to who are The Architects of the Mish did you pay attention to that one yes what did you make out of it once again front and back yeah yeah so basically what do you have you have an opportunity to build a mishan which is the place of the dwell the the divine presence to dwell and you need to have these two tribes Yehuda and Dan and then he said when it comes to this idea this concept of is it names after this is a z my understanding of zor is pretty limited but I will try my best the yudah is a lion the tale of the Lion is also a lion right if you see a taale of a lion what do you see in front of you not a tail you see what you see a lion you don't want to try to pull the lion the tail to see what's what's be what's in the front right you don't want to mess with it you understand that there's a lion there basically yehudah was able to what to bring the to to clarify what iset is and then he says he was the tail of the lion that's why he was in the back very good what we say be a tail for Lions rather than a head to the foxes that was Dan is but don't forget he still the tale of a lion and now he says something about because don't forget Moshe blessed um chevan also as what as G also what does it say so he's also a lion and what does it mean he's a lion there's only one lion there are not two lions he is the taale of the lion but he's also a li and therefore when came along and attacked us and it says what what is zav a tail okay so he tried to attack the tail thinking that the tail is not connected that means what that even a most distant Jew who doesn't even think he's Jewish he does not know that what he's connected to the tail so then he says so he continues continues with another aspect to it and he says evil hates good and it has no desire to attach himself to him someone who is cursed cannot glue himself cannot cement himself to someone who is blessed that was said about whom do you remember when had a daughter and he wanted her to marry and says to him I'm very sorry you are a great guy but you should expect that what that there will be a continuation to the sentence which is and someone who is blessed is not attach himself to someone who is cursed but it's not doesn't does say that it only say says the half um the first halfz because he was from Canan and was cursed by Noah thanks for the clarification um go oh I understand okay and so but with alas we know that he wanted to attach himself to Abraham so why he was rejected so answer is because it's was was just not the right time in the right place okay what can you do okay so I'm not going to go into all of that I want to go a little bit further I'm skipping a bit do you see turn to page three the fourth line you see so basically sadok starts with what he wants to show that someone who is cursed cannot attach himself to someone who is blessed so elazar he was cursed he wanted to he wanted basically he wants to say that AR does not want to he wanted but it didn't work second one estif what with why do you think wanted ysf so much so the narrative is that look he was a handsome guy 17 years old you know the midash says that she saw in her prophetic Vision or whatever prophecy that she will have a daughter she will have a descendant from him and she thought that she should be the mother but rather it was really her daughter who was married that later on to to Y so now he brings biblical figures that they try to do something which it seems to be odd but they they did it because they have a little bit of a some kind of what of um connection identification with the other but they were wrong in their calculation so es potifar she had something to do with Joseph he's going to be really her son-in-law but not her husband okay according to the midash wanted to have relationships with Miram and Y the me and they said no and why because who came from because of Moshe and Moshe has something to do a little bit with the Egyptians the mid says that he accepted all the gim and all the AR all the people the common the common people even from Egypt that came and joined the Jewish people and according to many mid they ledel that's the okay that mixture of people so we see that there's something very interesting that sometimes what they call opposite attracts right uh that that basically when you have opposite people on on different attract opposite attract so basically you have that people did something that it's strange but it's because they have some kind of of identification with the other and now H that was a connection oh that was a connection she enticed take a look at that now we have a list of people who got connected even though they should be totally separate so let's go over it schlomo with those wife a lot of wives Sho with all a thousand women I mean 300 wives and 700 concubines or vice versa and most of them were what not not Jewish sh and then and with Z Sal who is the tri head of the tribe of Shimon with and so how can I explain that they got really connected I'll try to explain that that's little bit of above my pay grade it's but I'll try my best I think we all have sometimes an experience you go to a room you see someone and you have immediate chemistry the guy you don't know the guy you don't know the person he doesn't even talk to you yet but you already feel what some kind of connection there are many psychological explanations to that there are many spiritual explanation to that however if you see someone or you talk to someone that you have zero connection and you don't feel any attachment to him you're not going to talk to him Shimon and those wives or shim or schlomo with those wives what kind of a connection they have I don't know if I gave you a sh about scho did I give you a sh about yes I did here no that's what I remember so suie remember so we spoke about the idea that schlomo saw an incredible opportunity because he was so wise he thought that by marrying all those women he will basically convert all of them and they will convert their families and they will convert all their societies and the entire world will reach the level of what he's going to what to bring the world to yeah even though he was so smart sometimes his wisdom basically went against him Shimon also used them in order to fulfill his Divine Mission now I will tell you something that uh I saw many many years ago which um I don't know exactly yet what to do with it but I think it's very interesting so let's digress for a second um this guy Zim Salu you remember him the head of the tribe of Shimon of Shimon he took Kat and he did it totally in appropriate thing with her P came killed them okay the brings a very interesting story about RAB AKA tonus who was that Roman general at that time he put Rabbi AKA in jail and he said you know what I am going to show everyone that this RAB AKA it's not what they thought it's not what they think he's not righteous he's not Pious I have a wife my wife says to FS she's beautiful no man could resist her I'm going to put her in the same cell with RAB AKA so she's trying her magic and Rabbi AKA does not respond so after a while she gets frustrated and she knocks on the little gate and she said get me out of here this guy is crazy so they took AA out as well and he smiled he cried and he spit so she looks at him and she said you are crazier than I thought and you explained to me you you saw me and you had no uh no desire to be with me and now you speakit you cry and you laugh I mean what's going on with you so he said to like that I speakit because I know where you came from like everyone else okay I cried because after your death your beauty will die with you and I smiled because I'll tell you later ler she got intrigued and what did she do according toal take gu no she converted to Judaism and she married Rabbi AKA and he told her that's why I smiled because you're going to be my wife okay one second the story does not end there then re we know the way he died was tortured to death andal say that the way he was buried was that like an angel came put him in a cave put him on a bed it was not the angel it was elahi who came put rabaka on his bed and basically that's how he buried him now the interesting part is that kby the princess the medanite princess according to the zor now how I'm going to say it without telling you how much I believe in it or not um okay she was a she has the N of Dina you remember DIN and now there is something very interesting in that when saw DIN and in many it says what is soul soul you can say my eyes desired my heart my desired her so basically from the getg and that falls into you can get you can accept it you cannot accept it I don't really care but I think it adds a dimension to the story of Shimon basically sh had some kind of an inclination or some kind of tendency towards Kusa but he didn't know how to put it into place so what does he do he sees another da and he takes her by the way din did not beg to get out of there at all how do we know that Brothers to P her brothers had to take her and according to the other mid she basically made them promis her that one of them will marry her and who was that Shimon now take a look there no problems brothers and sisters that's fine back then it was before before mat so basically what do we have again Shimon is the one to marry da after this desecration so saduk says that kby this prince medanite princess she was somewhat of a this of and Z comes from Chet Shimon and he's making a mistake unlike his ancestor Shimon who save din from he goes into the midst of the midianites and does whatever he do who killed Cosby and P who is how many people were killed as because of what Cosby did 24,000 is that number means anything to you how many students Raba had 2 24 student 24,000 students which it might be an exaggeration might be not but whatever it is so the idea is now again you can accept it and you can reject it I'm not really I don't have any gain in it but I think it adds a interesting Dimension the dimension of one of the things that really bothered us from the GetGo from the first CH on Shimon how can you explain that there is a judge in tanak who his entire marriage life was only with non by the way same thing with okay now he did other things too but he built a better mikdash okay sh didn't do it but the thing is is that also how do I view them what radok says is that it's not just because they gave up or they gave into their desires there was some kind now it might be a justification but but there is might there is some kind of a an attractiveness to what to what we call something holy in someone and they thought that they can fix him now I will add one more thing which is um which is um um no which is interesting that most of the times for example okay what kind of I mean the guy was crazy his son his son KES he gave the second permission to continue the there was AES number one that was before or we we have like um mix of names there but he gave permission for the the Jews to build the BET mikdash then there was a that was written by ham and others to stop the constructions they stopped it and then the son Esther son gave the second permission so basically what do we have here so there was something in a that basically a was a CLE so I cannot deny it I might not be in love with it or I cannot rationalize it but I can understand and cannot deny the idea that there is some kind of spark of Holiness by the way in andal the idea of galut of Exile it's also part of this idea which means when a Jew goes somewhere he takes with him you can see in all the they talk about what that you take the what the those Sparks of Holiness from everywhere in the space and then that when that space become sparkless it's gone it's gone the K is when the Kusa is gone the place Falls a I'm not a I love history just look at every country that was not nice to Jews or expel them did they become wealthier better exct New York is now look about history Rome okay Spain Germany England France all of them basically when they did not treat many of them invited Jews to come yeah Britain is a great example what what is that 17th century they invited them back yeah they were expelled in 1290 took them you know 500 years English people are a little slow so so the thing is what took them almost 500 years to to get them back and now they also have issues with them the idea is and again it's not about you know I'm it's just the idea of that we believe that K is the basis for everything everything that is lasting needs to have some kind of I will tell you one thing mid um just because of the events that we have says that b is also has a right on on on is they also has a right a right is isites the Muslims they also have a right on Medina on on is and why because of Brit now they don't do what we do they don't do Priya and this is the PRI is to uncovering the skin because we uncover the skin we also have a we have a greater right but they also have a right and until that right will empty they will still have a claim on ER is if I would know how to answer that question believe me I will not give a shi here would be a so this is the idea so they have and what's what's behind it is that we understand that if someone has a control or have something some kind of a privilege over someone he has a right I'll give you another example when Moshe saw OG meash he was terrified not because OG was a giant because of what the Midas says it because OG has a he was the pit he was the refugee from the Maul he told Abraham about later on about lot so because of that mosha was afraid that maybe there is a spiritual uh Merit for OG so he will not be able to defeat him give me another example yob when he came back to Israel he was afraid of as why ABA Jakob was not here for 22 years and who respect his parents I mean at least his father as so he was afraid that that spiritual Merit will what will protect them and will defeat us if anyone here think that the war that's going on is it's not a spiritual I mean obviously there is an active uh physical wall but the root of this wall is a spiritual there is no question and not only here in the entire world it's evil against good it's it's Purity against total tum and they fight it's and I'm not trying to you know to become a prophet or something like that or a mystical Guy this is just simple this is very simple that you see it everyone everyone who reads the narrative can see it you don't need to be a so let's continue with one more say page three in the Middle where it says yes good this is the main part of the desecration of holiness that desecrate the Holiness of God when the Jews came back from B many of them did what intermarried and that was something that Mal says to them you desecrated the name of God I will explain in a minute Shan had a very special Mission he was at the end and everyone who didn't behave the Anan the cloud spit him out who brought them back Dan Dan was like the first K organization okay he will bring the people back after the Anan spit them out what does it mean he thought that that's the right thing to do to reach out to the other which is really the other and to try to what to bring them back which means Shimon viewed himself as someone who can reach quote unquote to the dark side and to be able to what to to basically not only to influence to take them out from the dark side and to bring them to what to the light now this is interesting because you have others who were afraid of it yonah for example was sent to what to the dark side to make them to bring them to the light and he was afraid he ran away Shimon not only did not run away what did he do he ran towards it because he thought he so strong and he has this Talent he was a na he was he grew up into what we will call Holiness he felt he has this power to do it but he didn't but it was not his Destiny Rabbi y as you explained predestined Proclaim you cannot redeem the people your job is only up to this much yeah but he he I'm sure if he knew it or not he felt like very much like schl that he can reach out to the further not only Jew but a further a further person and to bring them under the wings of God which on one hand it's a wonderful thing on the other hand if it doesn't work disaster it's a disaster schl one of his most favorite wives was the Egyptian princess but and the midash me the midash it's based on the narrative he took him if I'm not mistaken seven years to build the bet mikdash it took him I think 11 years to build her little Palace and also because she had to have her uh morning uh beauty sleep so he will not open the gate ofam so there was no noise until she wakes up a so and then was very upset with it which means it influenced him I'm not saying that the T said it he his heart was not as perfect as David's heart why because of those women who basically deviated his heart you know what the gamar says on that P with that I will conclude and we'll continue next time begged God to erase that verse that his heart was not as perfect as David heart because of his wife's he says I would prefer to be to clean a a what do you call it a be sewer okay to clean up sewers and not to be named forever as a fool who those wives cause me to deviate so again Torah you can't have those wives how oh so that's what I'm saying he he thought no they says the Torah says you can't marry someone who is not Jewish how can do no but many wives also oh the many oh the many wives allowed himself to do whatever he wanted he increased his uh amount of horses and gold and women he says I will do it and nothing will happen and obviously things happen the idea is that sometimes when you are too smart or you believe in yourself too much you will fail now when will be that time that you can really bring everyone no okay that's for today