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 inspired 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. It is an amalgamation of references including Tanach, Midrash and Gemara that allows these time bound events to be connected.

After Israel’s re-entry to their land each tribe conquered and settled their allotment except one. For the last tribe Dan military support from the other tribes had dissipated. Tribe Dan was left to struggle for its allotted land against the mighty Philistines, arguably Israel’s greatest opponent as a result tribe Dan failed in their quest.

At the time, Jonathan a Levite priest had distanced himself from the insular and decaying priesthood at the Tabernacle of Shiloh in the territory of Joseph's son Ephraim. Nearby, at a competing temple of idolatry Micah, its founder enlisted Jonathan as high priest.

Without their land and only trivial support from the rest of Israel's tribes, breakaway leaders of Dan moved to conquer and settle land in Israel's extreme north. Disappointed with their tribal brothers, on one trip Dan's leaders forcefully raised Micah's temple and moved it, with Jonathan to the mountain directly opposite the valley of the tabernacle 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 companion were traveling from south to north, from Bethlehem in Yehudah through Jerusalem (Jebus) to the area of Shiloh in Ephraim. It was nearing sunset, but Jonathan 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 old man’s house.   

Jonathan was incensed especially because the elders of the town 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 Benjamins tribal leaders bring the people of Gibeah to justice. Tribe Benjamin refused to concede. This prompted Israel’s first major civil war and 25,000 men of the tribe of Benjamin were killed nearly wiping out the entire male population.      

Once the tribal leaders realized what they had done they instituted a leniency to repopulate Benjamin. They allowed inter-tribal marriages to benefit the women of Benjamin. The women would come out to the fields dressed in white, today that is the festival of Tu B'Av, which takes place on the Jewish calendar 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 decaying priesthood, which he abandoned for an alternative existence. From that serenity he was thrust into politically inspired, inter-tribal religious distortion of the justice his grandfather instituted. Finally he was stirred to act and unite the tribes against 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 prevailed against insular priestly ascension and had been appointed high priest after the Holy Ark had been stolen by the Philistines from the Tabernacle in Shiloh. Samuel's first choice was King Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, but he 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 first sought peace.    

In Egypt, several hundred years before these events Ephraim’s brother Menashe was once the translator who mediated tensions between Joseph (the father of Ephraim and Menashe), Judah and Benjamin. When Samuel wrote this story, he poetically obfuscated Jonathan using a super-scripted 'n' Jonathan son of Gershom son of Menashe, which in Hebrew, if the superscript 'n' is removed, reads Moshe. Rivalry between Ephraim and Judah was fierce, but Judah would prevail and ultimately the permanent temples were built in Jerusalem on the southern end of Benjamin's land adjacent to Judah.     

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.