Haftorah Parashat Naso
Shoftim 13;2-25
Finding the Middle, the Example of Physicality
One obvious connection between Shimshon and the parsha is that he was designated a “nazir” from before he was born, and the laws of being a “nazir” are outlined in the Torah reading. Looking at the haftarah suggests a stronger connection, one that not only explains better Shimshon’s role in Jewish history but also the nature and meaning of being a nazir at all.
As is true of all people, understanding Shimshon’s parents is crucial to appreciating the drama and themes of his life. Hazal see Manoah and his wife as both remarkably righteous yet also remarkably attached to the physical, a combination that goes far to explaining why Hashem would make their son a nazi, and the particular rules of nezirut to which Shimshon was required to adhere.
The Righteousness of Manoah and His Wife
On the righteous side, the Midrash sees Manoah as one of the leaders of the Jewish people Moshe saw before he died. The comment both assumes that Manoah was a leader of his generation, and also that whatever function Shimshon performed in Jewish history was one that was already known to be needed in the time of Moshe.
After the angel appears to Manoah’s wife—which, if you hold to Rambam’s view of prophecy, already means she must have been at a high intellectual/spiritual level—Manoah prays for a reappearance and gets it; the ability to successfully pray for a particular outcome is usually a sign of spiritual sophistication. Bamidbar Rabbah points out that Manoah’s wife runs to him when the angel returns, and sees her as a good example of how righteous people do everything with alacrity.
When dealing with the angel a second time, Manoah offers a sacrifice, which bothers Zevachim 119a, , since one view in the Talmud thinks that personal altars and sacrifices were prohibited for the entire time there was a functioning Mishkan in Shilo. The Talmud explains Manoah’s act as an an hora’at sha`ah, a short-term breaking of the rules that scholars and/or prophets may initiate. This assumes that Manoah had the authority and right to issue such rulings.
Finally, Manoah asks the angel’s name, reminding us of Yaakov Avinu, who also concluded his experience with an angel by asking for—but not getting—the angel’s name. At the same time, this last example suggests that he hadn’t realized that the angel was beyond his comprehension, a point made by the name Peli, which means wondrous or inconceivable.
On the Other Hand
At least balancing their righteousness, is the parents’ excessive physicality. Manoah’s wife describes the man she saw as “looking like an angel,” words that reveal, as Radak points out, that she (and the rest of her generation) thought of angels as having a physical form. In addition, Hazal blame Manoah for “going after” his wife, especially if he walked behind her, an act that Hazal saw as too easily leading to improperly physical thoughts.
Manoah’s concern that the angel eat with them and his certainty of death when he realized that the angel was not human further demonstrate his difficulties balancing the physical and metaphysical. For him, sharing food was necessary to sealing one’s thanks for a message brought, and the possibility of surviving a conversation with an angel seemed beyond possibility for a human being. The latter case is particularly striking, since the wife’s point—that Hashem would not bother to predict Shimshon’s birth or give her rules of conduct if they were going to die—is so clear that only a deeply held counterbelief could have led Manoah not to realize it himself.
Their focus on their physical lives may also explain the tension caused by their childlessness that several midrashim see in their marriage. While the angel notes that she was barren, when she repeats his words to her husband, she leaves that out (the Midrash thinks the angel allowed her to, to foster peace in the family). Along those lines, another Midrash suggest that the angel reappeared to her (rather than to him or them) to lead him to appreciate her more. One final Midrash to mention sees the angel as telling her she was barren so that she would stop blaming her husband for it. Each one, then, saw their lack of children as a deep wound in their marriage, and blamed the other for it.
Shimshon: What Kind of Nazir?
The parents’ having contradictorily incorporated both great righteousness and attachment to the physical goes a long way to explaining their being given a son who would be required to weigh his attachment to the physical throughout his life. Especially since Shimshon was allowed to come into contact with corpses, an essential prohibition to ordinary nezirut, his status as nazir seems focused on grappling with how to avoid excessive physicality, such as personal grooming (which has some aspect of concern with sexuality to it) and proper use of food.
Given what we know of Shimshon and his struggles with his sexuality, the preparation was not only necessary, it perhaps did not go far enough. His great physical gifts, which provided such salvation to the Jews of his time, were also the burden under which he eventually broke.
A Spirituality Bound by the Physical
The Midrash’s assumption that Manoah and Shimshon were shown to Moshe and that Manoah and his wife struggled to put the physical and spiritual in their proper places give a perspective of Shimshon and nezirut that link the parsha and haftarah productively. Once we refuse to reject either the physical or the spiritual, how to give each its proper due is no simple task (as Shimshon’s ultimate failure shows). Thus, it is reasonable that Hashem would know that the Jews would at some point need a leader like Shimshon, with a father like Manoah.
It also shows us the reason the Torah would establish the institution of nezirut, even while preferring that people not make use of it. For those who need a period of intense training, nezirut can restore or inculcate an awareness of the physical that will then allow that person to put it into proper perspective in the rest of their lives.
[2] And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
[3] And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
[4] Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
[5] For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
[6] Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name:
[7] But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
[8] Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.
[9] And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.
[10] And the woman made haste, and ran, and shewed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day.
[11] And Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am.
[12] And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?
[13] And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.
[14] She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.
[15] And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.
[16] And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread: and if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.
[17] And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour?
[18] And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
[19] So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wondrously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
[20] For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.
[21] But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.
[22] And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
[23] But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.
[24] And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.
[25] And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.