Toward a King!

Tisha B'Av meets Tu B'Av 

Jonathan, the grandson of Moses is one of Tanach’s most complex characters. Perhaps in the tradition of first born sons, we can expect Jonathan's connection with his grandfather to reflect in him the essential traits that we know of Moses.

So what are the qualities of Moses that Jonathan carried into the next generation? What, of his grandfather's causes motivated him to struggle for and express in his own life? Tribal structure is a rigid mosaic that strongly influences personalities, against this backdrop I explore Jonathan.

The information I used to write this is from and based on the compilation known as Me’Am Lo’ez as translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

After Israel’s re-entry to their land each tribe conquered and settled their allotment except one. The last tribe, Dan had been abandoned, left to struggle against the mighty Philistines one of Israel’s greatest opponents, but they failed in their quest.

At the time, Jonathan a priest of the Levite tribe had distanced himself from the decaying priesthood in the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the territory of Ephraim. Nearby, a competing temple of idolatry attracted Jonathan and Micah, its founder enlisted him as high priest.

Without their full land allotment, leaders of Dan advanced to conquer and settle land in the extreme north. On one trip they forcefully raised Micah's temple and moved it, with Jonathan to the mountain opposite the valley of the temple in Shiloh. Perhaps a statement to the other tribes who had not fully supported them in their original conquest.

On one occasion Jonathan, The Levite priest and his concubine were traveling south-north from Bethlehem in Yehudah through Jerusalem (Jebus) to the area of Shiloh in Ephraim. It was nearing sun set, but he pushed on past Jebus, the fortified city until he reached Gibeah in Benjamin a territory sandwiched between rival tribes Yehudah and Ephraim.

The residents of Gibeah were unfriendly and refused to accommodate them until one elderly man opened his heart. That night certain townsfolk violently threatened the old man and his guests demanding the concubine be released to them. Eventually Jonathan capitulated, the concubine was gang raped and left to die in the cold night at the front door of the man’s house.   

Jonathan was incensed especially because the elders refused to hand over the perpetrators or bring them to justice. Jonathan journeyed home, where he cut her body in 12 pieces and sent a piece to each tribal leader demanding they bring Gibeah to justice. The tribe of Benjamin refused to concede. This motivated Israel’s first major civil war and men of the tribe of Benjamin were almost entirely wiped out.      

Once the tribal leaders realized what they had done to the tribe of Benjamin they instituted a leniency among tribes to repopulate it. They allowed inter-tribal marriages for the benefit of the women of Benjamin. Today that is the festival of Tu B'Av, which is 6 days after the temple destruction's on Tisha B'Av.

The corruption of leadership and justice was a battle Jonathan silently witnessed and eventually rose to crush. First it was the corrupt priesthood, which he abandoned for an alternative existence. Next he was transplanted from serenity to politically inspired, inter-tribal religious distortion of the justice his grandfather instituted. Finally he was stirred to act and unite the tribes against one of their own to uphold justice.

The expression of Moses, through his grandsons actions finally motivated the nation to seek a leader who would unite them. That was a job for young Samuel, who had been appointed high priest at the end of the Tabernacle period in Shiloh. His first choice was King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin who was weakened through idolatry and corrupt belief. In this sense apparently Jonathan’s actions resembled his grandfathers to fight corruption and uphold justice while Samuel sought peace.    

In Egypt, several hundred years before these events Ephraim’s brother Menashe was once represented as the translator who instigated tensions between Joseph (father of Ephraim and Menashe), Yehuda and Benjamin. However, in the writings of Samuel he poetically tainted Jonathan with a super-scripted Jonathan son of Gershom son of Menashe, which in Hebrew reads Moshe (if the superscript 'n' is removed). Rivalry between Ephraim and Yehudah was fierce, but Yehudah would prevail and ultimately the permanent temples were built in Jerusalem.     

The basis of a temple is justice for peace! Not simply rigid law enforced on a people to their detriment as it was in Gibeah, nor corrupt practices that suppressed leaders who would otherwise benefit the majority. Like Moses, Jonathan struggled for a temple culture that would balance the nation and a justice that would permit and motivate all people to realize their true potential, but just like Saul, his justice suffered his corrupted faith.