Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Learning with my son Gavriel

I was recently studying with my son Gavriel(age 12)and his best friend Moshe, Samuel II chapter 6 which discusses the incident that occurred when King David recovered the Ark Of G-D from the Philistines. King David and the people around him were celebrating the return of the Ark to the Jewish people and were on a spiritual high, "dancing and rejoicing with all kinds of musical instruments". Then Uzzah ruins the celebration when he grabs onto the ark(thinking that it was going to fall).G-d becomes angry with him and kills him for his blunder. It then says that David became angry and in the next passage it says that "David feared G-D on that day"(it is interesting why on "that day" King David feared G-D. What about until now didn't King David fear G-D?-for another post...).
I pointed out to my son that through out the Bible the Jewish people are constantly achieving highs only to be slammed back into reality with a tragedy.By the giving of the Torah the Jewish people achieve a plateau by experiencing prophecy as a nation, receiving the ten commandments and then are suddenly brought down by the worst cardinal sin, idol worship(the golden calf).The same thing happens by the inauguration of the Tabernacle where the Jewish people are once again in ecstasy over having completed a place(house)of worship where the Jewish people can gather to meditate and worship G-D. In the middle of this celebration, once again tragedy strikes when the children of Aaron (Nadav and Avihu) are struck down for bringing a strange fire on the alter. Here again, by King David the same cycle of climbing to a high and then being brought down by a tragedy once again strikes the Jewish people.
My son then turns to me and points out something in this chapter of Samuel that I never noticed before. In verse 3 it states " They placed the Ark of G-D upon a new wagon and carried it from the house of Abinadab which was in Gibeah. Uzzah and Ahio,the sons of Abinadab,guided the new wagon".The father of Uzzah is mentioned as Abinadab.If you read this name backwards in Hebrew you have the names Nadav and Avihu(the two sons of Aaron that died by the incident of the tabernacle).Coincidence?