Haftorah Parashat Bamidbar
Shabbat Parshat Bamidbar, Erev Rosh Hodesh Sivan, I Shmuel 20: 18-42
It’s Not the First Words of the Haftarah
Like so many other haftarot, this text tempts us to dismiss its connection to the day as being a result of its using the words “mahar hodesh” at the beginning. One simple proof that that is incorrect, or insufficient, is that Yonatan’s speech comes after a speech of David’s, in which he had made the same points. All that Yonatan adds is how he will communicate to David the information he discovers about his father’s mood towards Daivd.
By focusing on three aspects of this haftarah, we can offer a more fleshed-out understanding of how it captures the nature of an Erev Rosh Hodesh. Reminding ourselves of how differently the people of Tanach experienced Rosh Hodesh from how we now do so, thinking about Shaul’s struggles with himself, and Yonatan’s actions in support of David will together suggest that our haftarah portrays the day before Rosh Hodesh as a time for reconsidering, renewing, and rearticulating our commitments and devotions in life.
Erev Rosh Hodesh Depends on Rosh Hodesh
The setup of David and Yonatan’s method of communicating with each other, one confirmed by Shaul’s reactions to David’s absence and by Yonatan’s explanation, is that the Hodesh was such an important meal that attendance was mandatory. First, Shaul reveals to us that people ate on the New Moon “be-taharah,” in a state of ritual purity, either because they ate sacrifices or just as an expression of its importance. Second, David’s repeat absence is so upsetting to Shaul he cannot refrain from asking about it. Third, Yonatan believes that David’s having been called home to the family celebration would ring true with his father.
To draw from elsewhere as well, the husband of the woman of Shunem (whose son died and Elisha resuscitated) assumes that the New Moon was a day in which people would make special trips to see the prophet. Rosh Hodesh, these sources show, is a day whose clear significance is not quite fully explained.
Good and Evil Battle in Shaul haMelech
We are perhaps so used to seeing Shaul as the villain of David’s life that we may not realize how tragic a figure he is. When David does not appear on the first day of Rosh Hodesh, Shaul assumes that all is well, that some one-time event kept him away. Here is Shaul, teetering on the brink of an obsession with killing David, but his instinct to explain away negative information is still strong enough to cause him to refrain from commenting on his absence.
Pesahim 3a points out another way in which Shaul is still an example of positive behavior. While asserting the importance of speaking in positive rather than negative terms, the gemara notes that Shaul says that David was “bilti tahor,” lacking in ritual purity, rather than “tamei,” ritually impure.
Shaul shows us that people are not one thing or another, a message I think becomes especially relevant at Rosh Hodesh. After this chapter, Shaul pretty much gives in to the urges that will lead him to chase and try to kill David for just about the rest of his life. And yet even while in the grip of this awful fixation, examples of his admirable qualities still break through. Aside from the two examples we just gave, later in the book, Shaul is at one point on the verge of capturing David, but pulls back when he hears that the Plishtim have invaded.
A lesser man might have assumed, especially given the state of transportation in those days, that an extra day or two taken to catch and dispatch David would not materially affect his response to the invasion, but the call of duty pulls Shaul immediately away.
The fight between Shaul’s two instincts seem to me also to explain the full stop in the text before Shaul turns to Yonatan on the second day of Rosh Hodesh, after he notices that David’s place is once again empty. I assume that Shaul, the man of duty, clean speech, and not jumping to negative conclusions even about David, instinctively knew that he was not going to be able to control his demons once he started on David’s trail. As he watches David’s empty seat, perhaps with the various people at the table making small talk or reporting on the national situation, that empty place looms larger and larger in Shaul’s consciousness, until, almost against his will, his question about David bursts out of him, ushering in a new era in his, and David’s, life.
Yonatan Makes, and Keeps, His Commitments to David
The third piece of our haftarah comes from watching Yonatan’s actions. He commits to David on Erev Rosh Hodesh, agreeing to find out Shaul’s mood and to report back on it to David. At the same time, Yonatan still tries to reason with his father, an attempt that none of the rest of Shaul’s retinue makes, despite his clearly being reliant on them for assistance in his persecution of David (Yonatan, for example, never joins a chase of David). His split loyalties do not show a diminution of commitment to either, since he is as upset over his father’s insistence on continuing his evil ways as he is over the danger to David, both leading him to skip food on the second day of the Hodesh.
Yonatan Follows Through on his Commitment
The end of the story shows Yonatan living up to the commitment he had made on Erev Rosh Hodesh, getting David the message he had promised, but then also staying around to assure him that their bond would remain strong in the face of the coming times of adversity. To me, that suggests that an undercurrent of the haftarah is Yonatan’s making and keeping a difficult commitment.
Erev Rosh Hodesh, the day we will read this haftarah, becomes a day of making commitments on which one can follow through. This relates, perhaps, to the custom of Yom Kippur Katan, where the day before Rosh Hodesh is a fast day in preparation for the atonement of Rosh Hodesh itself. In light of Rosh Hodesh’s being a new beginning, the day before is a day to prepare for that beginning, to choose important paths, and to follow them faithfully and unswervingly even in the face of challenges to so doing.
Yonatan provides an example of this, thus demonstrating for us the experience our Erev Rosh Hodesh should be. Shabbat Shalom and Hodesh Tov.
[18] Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.
[19] And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel.
[20] And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark.
[21] And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth.
[22] But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away.
[23] And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me for ever.
[24] So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.
[25] And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, and David’s place was empty.
[26] Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.
[27] And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place was empty: and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?
[28] And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
[29] And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king’s table.
[30] Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness?
[31] For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.
[32] And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?
[33] And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him: whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.
[34] So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
[35] And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him.
[36] And he said unto his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
[37] And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee?
[38] And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.
[39] But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
[40] And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city.
[41] And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
[42] And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.