David, Batsheva and the Flood

May 28th, 2009 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Spiritual Growth

3 Comments

People have been asking me about my Twitter Tweets about the connections between the David and Batsheva story and the Flood. The end of Bereishit describes how powerful men took the wives of other men for themselves.

The Midrash (Midrash Shmuel 26) and Talmud (Sotah) connect David and the Flood when he was digging the foundation for the Altar.

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3 Comments

• Él-Ad Jun 5, 2009 at 9:42 am

  Please may we have clarification/elucidation to this entry?It leaves one wondering in perhaps the wrong direction and not many of us have access to the sources listed.
• Rabbi Simcha Weinberg Jun 5, 2009 at 10:15 am

  Both the Talmud and Midrash connect the story of Batsheva to the flood: When David was digging the foundations for the Temple/Altar there was a threat of a flood. King David was only able to stop the flood by using a strategy based on a woman accused of adultery – a Sotah. He had to write God’s Name on a earthen shard and throw it into the surging waters, causing the Name to be erased.
  The verse is clear that David Hamelech sinned, but in terms of abuse of power, not Batsheva. A powerful man took a woman associated with another man. He did not execute Uriah directly, as he should have with a person who rebelled against the king, Yoav is criticized for not arguing with his king, and David did not go through the Sanhedrin. The verse in Kings II even mentions David’s sin in the way he killed Uriah. He should have dealt directly with the issue with clarity for all to see.
  This was the king’s first time not joining his people in battle. Which is implied in Uriah’s argument.
  At the end of his life, when the people no longer allowed him to go into battle, when he was perceived as weak, he took a very public and clear stand with Batsheva, asserting that only her child, Shlomo, could be king. He dealt in a straightforward manner fixing the damage caused by his indirect execution of Uriah. See TheFoundationStone.org article on the Haftarah for Chayei Sarah http://www.thefoundationstone.org/bible/haftarot/124-thebestinus.html
• Él-Ad Jun 9, 2009 at 7:21 pm

  So many people mistakenly jump to a conclusion and misjudge King David as having done something wrong in marrying Bat Sheva vs. *how* he married her, which we need to learn from and which you so lucidly illuminated for us above. Thank you Rebbe.

  I once heard your father ztllh’h ask in a very strong, no-objections tolerated tone of voice (on an Aish HaTorah tape recorded shiur) why it was necessary for a student who had just posed a question to impute an aveirah to our king Dovid ha-melech’s actions.

  I was and still am surprised and frightened at how strong a stance the Rosh Yeshivah took in rebuking the student. Rav Yaakov was (at least acting) so angry that I was fearful and would have hated to be in the seat of the person who made the negative comment. Rav Yaakov made it clear that he was not going to tolerate the question and wondered aloud twice why the student or anyone for that matter felt a need to go & assert questions in that direction. (Even the Gemarah says, “Anyone who thinks David ha-melech sinned has completely mistaken [David's actions].”)

  The other thing I learned from listening was how Rav Yaakov defended Dovid ha-melech! It was absolutely amazing how seriously and how high the Rosh Yeshivah held the honor of Dovid ha-melech, one of *our* kings if not *THE* king of all earthly kings of Israel. It is a real lesson in derech eretz. So many of us speak of historical figures without the kavod they deserve. Not only do we owe respect to the living, but evidently to great people long after they are in olam habah.