Waiting for Rain: Reflections at the Turning of the Year

Chapter Nine Pouring Out Our Hearts

Chapter Nine
Pouring Out Our Hearts
The High Holy Days are a spiritual odyssey. We travel from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, from Yom Kippur to Sukkot, and from Sukkot, we arrive at Hoshana Rabbah. Liturgical texts and readings from the Torah and the Prophets serve as signposts along the way. They enable us to take stock of our relationship with God, with each other, with our own selves. In addition to texts and readings, we are escorted by people who travel with us and steer our course. One of the most impressive figures threaded throughout our holiday readings is Samuel. We follow Samuel from his birth, recorded in the haftarah of Rosh Hashanah, through his trailblazing campaign of repentance and atonement, commemorated in the penitential prayer we say on Yom Kippur (and, in fact, throughout the Selihot ), “He who answered Samuel at Mizpah— Answer us!” It was Samuel who inspired the water libation on Sukkot, and his call for salvation reverberates in our observance of Hoshana Rabbah. Samuel’s inspiring victory at Mizpah (1 Sam. 7), commemorated in the Hoshanot prayers, was one of the noblest moments in the 181 spiritual history of the Jewish People. In this Hoshana, we implore God to deliver His nation by reenacting the salvation at Mizpah: For the sake of the good man whose reputation waxed and flourished (1 Sam 2:26). He who caused the assembly to desist from injustice. When the nation repented He commanded that they draw water (7:6). On behalf of those as beautiful as Jerusalem (Israel) Save us and deliver us, for You are our Father. (Hoshana, “Le-ma’an tamim be-dorotav”) Samuel taught that recognition of the Kingship of Heaven, and concomitant acts of penitence and atonement, must precede our request for salvation. Only after we have fully internalized the lessons of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can we say with full hearts, “Please O Lord, deliver us.” Only then can we pour out our hearts like water before God and hope for salvation. To understand this idea, let us take a look at Samuel’s assembly of penitence at Mizpah, focusing on the unusual and fascinating detail of the drawing and pouring of water, to which the author of this Hoshana refers. But first, let’s examine two critical junctures in Samuel’s military and religious leadership. They provide the framework for the seminal role he played in the history of Israel and the ongoing role he plays in our religious lives. We begin with two important battles the Israelites waged against the Philistines (1 Sam. 13 and 1 Sam. 7): The silence of the battlefield was deafening. It was the quiet after the storm. The ground was strewn with corpses of would-be invincible Philistine soldiers, felled by the wrath of God. The exhilarated but exhausted Israelites collected the spoils, while their victorious general Samuel combed the area looking for a particular stone. For others, it was an object of no consequence, but for Samuel, its stillness and power was an apt metaphor for the Rock and Deliverer of Israel. With 182
Waiting for Rain the little strength left in him, he called his men to attention, approached the stone, and named it Eben ha-Ezer, declaring: “For up to now the Lord has helped us.” Decades earlier, in the waning years of Eli the Priest, Samuel’s predecessor, the same stone had witnessed a devastating defeat (1 Sam. 4). It was now transformed into a triumphal monument. The menace of the Philistines had been quelled, though not for long. They would return to threaten the people of Israel before Samuel’s lifetime was over. The Philistines are a nation about whom we know little. Despite extensive archaeological research, their language, culture, and religion remain a mystery. It seems they were related to the inhabitants of the Greek islands. They were an adventurous, pugnacious, and resourceful people, who fought tenaciously for their foothold in the Land. The Philistines were not one of the seven indigenous Canaanite nations or among the 31 local kings with whom the people of Israel fought for possession of the Land. At about the same time that the Israelites were entering the Land from the east at Jericho, the Philistines—the sea peoples—were entering the Land from the west. This group of late arrivals presented a serious challenge with which the Israelites were forced to contend...