Torah Study Blog

This week’s Torah portion includes information outlining the requirements for adults, men and women, who choose to take the nazirite vow. Nazirites are not allowed to consumer any grape products, or any other intoxicants, and nazirites are not allowed to cut their hair. Additionally, nazirites are never allowed to come into contact with a dead body, because it will defile their sacred hair.

We cannot date the earliest nazirite, but scholars believe the nazirite vow is ancient. The Book of Judges includes the Song of Deborah, a military victory hymn, the lines of which are thought to be some of the oldest in the Bible. One passage states, “When locks go untrimmed in Israel, When people dedicate themselves – Bless the Lord!” (Judges 5:2) Scholars believe there may have been a fierce class of warriors who did not cut their hair and were successful in battle. Perhaps the nazirites are an offshoot of that.

The taking, and ending, of the nazirite vow is an expensive proposition involving multiple sacrifices at the Temple, and nazirites must live a life with severe restrictions, so why would anyone willingly do it? The priests were the most powerful people in the biblical communities, but you could only be a priest if you were born into it. The Bible tells us that nazirites were the societal equal to the priests, and the Book of Amos even puts nazirites as equal to the prophets! Additionally, if a person were fanatical about their religious beliefs, taking a nazirite vow might provide them with a way to channel their fervor.

Two of the most famous nazirites in the Bible did not take the vow as adults, but their mothers promised them to the nazirite way of life before they were born: they are the prophet Samuel and the warrior Samson. This week Rabbi Jaech decided to start a several-week study of Samson, whom you might remember as the warrior with long hair who succumbed to the devious ways of his lover, Delilah.

The purpose of theology is to attempt to understand why events happen and to grapple with any greater purpose. Even today, with our modern

scientific minds, people try to give reasons for why things happen. Why did God send hurricane Katrina? Why did God want Donald Trump to become President? How could we have been such a united country after 9/11, but we are so divided now? People living in biblical times had the same basic human need to discover the meaning of life.

Although the Bible tells us that God promised the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and the Book of Joshua describes the complete conquest of the land, the fact is that there were battles and skirmishes in biblical times and people wanted to know why. The Book of Judges contains a series of stories about heroes who, when the Israelites have strayed too far from God, periodically arrive to save the people from their demise. We meet Samson in the Book of Judges, and he was one such hero.

Judges 13 starts with the annunciation of Manoah’s wife. Unfortunately, the wife is never given a proper name so we will call her Wife for this session. An annunciation is when an angel comes to tell a previously barren woman, or in the case of Christianity a virgin, that she will conceive a child. This is a theme that is repeated in the Bible in the story of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and his concubine, Hagar.

Although she has no name, Wife is actually very on-the-ball. The angel tells Wife not to eat any grape products or to cut the hair of her to-be-born son because he will be a nazirite. Wife knows enough to believe the angel.

Manoah, on the other hand, is not as bright. Manoah does not take what Wife says at face value, so he requests from God that the angel come again to deliver his message. The angel comes, repeats the message, and says, “She must observe all that I commanded her.” Basically, the angel says, ‘She knows, I already told her!’ Then the angel ascends to heaven in flames and Manoah realizes it truly was an angel. Again, Wife already knew that.

Next, Manoah makes a meal offering to God. Does God need to eat? Humans create God in our own image – we need to eat, therefore God must, too. We believe that God needs to be nourished and sustained, and he depends upon his followers, us, to give what is needed.

Just as God does not need food but humans do, does God need to be worshipped or is worshipping a human need, too? Religion is sometimes pointed to as the cause of strife in the world. However, Rabbi Jaech pointed out that, while articulated in theological terms, many struggles are really economic and political issues. The issues are not religious structures. Religion gives a point to rally around, but everything actually comes from basic human needs, and religion provides an ethical disguise.

Join us next week as we continue with the stories of Samson, which are old, complicated, and fascinating!

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