Has there ever been a people whose heroes are so deeply flawed?
The first Jewish king, Saul, errs and is told by the prophet Samuel that his kingship is over. Instead of accepting the verdict – a divine edict since Samuel is God’s conduit – Saul becomes determined to do anything to preserve his throne, including murder. He attempts to kill David, his presumptive successor, with a spear but fails. Saul instructs his servants and his son, Jonathan, to end David’s life but Jonathan, the epitome of loyal and devoted friendship, warns David, who flees.
The first book of Samuel ends with the Philistine attack on Israel in which most of Saul’s sons, including Jonathan, are killed. Saul throws himself on his sword and dies.
The story of Saul is an extraordinary study of the hold power has on an otherwise great man.
King David, the most renowned Jewish king, falls in love with his military commander’s wife and has the commander sent to a vulnerable part of the front in the war so he will be killed and David will be able to consummate his love. David’s successor, Solomon, known as the wisest of men, author of much of Judaism’s wisdom literature, takes foreign wives who eventually corrupt the nation by importing their pagan gods.
Even the patriarchs and matriarchs, venerable, holy and righteous, were not perfect according to Jewish tradition. Abraham, the embodiment of lovingkindness, and chosen by God to be the first Jew, erred in leaving Canaan for Egypt during a famine and told the pagan king that Sarah was his sister, not his wife. Both actions can be justified on a practical level – he feared for his wife’s safety and believed she would be less likely to be taken to the king’s harem if he thought she was Abraham’s sister – but Abraham is criticized by Jewish sages for not trusting God sufficiently. Sarah is the object of criticism for despairing of having a child and giving her handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham.
The criticism continues with Jacob who steals Esau’s blessing, and with Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam.
When Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah, his brother, Aaron, is coerced into building the infamous Golden Calf to mollify the Israelites who are impatient to see their leader, Moses. Miriam denigrates Moses’ choice of wife and is punished by God. Even Moses himself – in Jewish tradition, the greatest man who ever lived – displeases God by hitting the rock, instead of speaking to it, to make it miraculously yield water to quench the thirst of the people.
“No religious literature”, writes Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Great Britain, “was ever further from hagiography, idealization and hero-worship.”
One of the chief purposes of Jewish biblical writing is to convey the idea that all people, even the most illustrious religious figures in history, are imperfect but capable of spiritual growth. No one is too great to fail. The most worthy and esteemed must work every day at the details of daily life.
Conversely, no one is doomed to failure by fate or circumstances. The sons of Korach – who rebelled against Moses and was punished by God Himself – sang songs in the Temple of Solomon.
We see in the kings and the patriarchs and matriarchs, the flaws inherent in greatness, the contradictions at the heart of the human condition, the questions that remain with our best efforts at understanding. Imperfect and fallible, we are all on life’s journey in which, as Sacks so eloquently puts it, “the greatest have failings and even the worst have saving graces.”
So, if even role models are imperfect and the worst are capable of redemption, what is Jewish scripture teaching? Simply put, that no one is expected to be perfect but all are required to strive for moral and ethical growth.
As the English poet, Robert Browning, wrote: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/Or what’s a Heaven for?” It is the attempt that is more important than the goal, the inner struggle more significant than any idealized destination. The quest itself is the purpose. n
Paul Socken is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo.
