Shimshon: Rebel with a cause Hadar Shavuot Retreat

(1) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If anyone, man or woman, who wants to do something marvelous and utters a nazirite’s vow, to set himself apart for the LORD, (3) he shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant; he shall not drink vinegar of wine or of any other intoxicant, neither shall he drink anything in which grapes have been steeped, nor eat grapes fresh or dried. (4) Throughout his term as nazirite, he may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine, even seeds or skin. (5) Throughout the term of his vow as nazirite, no razor shall touch his head; it shall remain consecrated until the completion of his term as nazirite of the LORD, the hair of his head being left to grow untrimmed. (6) Throughout the term that he has set apart for the LORD, he shall not go in where there is a dead person. (7) Even if his father or mother, or his brother or sister should die, he must not defile himself for them, since hair set apart for his God is upon his head: (8) throughout his term as nazirite he is consecrated to the LORD.

(1) The Israelites again did what was offensive to the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. (2) There was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children. (3) An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “You are barren and have borne no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. (4) Now be careful not to drink wine or other intoxicant, or to eat anything unclean. (5) For behold you are pregnant and will bear a son; let no razor touch his head, for the boy is to be a nazirite to God from the womb on. He shall be the first to deliver Israel from the Philistines.” (6) The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me; he looked like an angel of God, very frightening. I did not ask him where he was from, nor did he tell me his name.

Behold you are pregnant. You will be pregnant.

(1) Once Samson went down to Timnah; and while in Timnah, he saw a girl among the Philistine women. (2) On his return, he told his father and mother, “I saw one of the Philistine women in Timnah; now get her for me as a wife.” (3) His father and mother said to him, “Is there no one among the daughters of your own kinsmen and among all our people, that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson answered his father, “Get me that one, for she is the one that looks good to me.” (4) His father and mother did not realize that this was the LORD’s doing: He was seeking a pretext against the Philistines, for the Philistines were ruling over Israel at that time. (5) So Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah. When he came to the vineyards of Timnah [for the first time], a full-grown lion came roaring at him. (6) The spirit of the LORD gripped him, and he tore him asunder with his bare hands as one might tear a kid asunder; but he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. (7) Then he went down and spoke to the woman, and she pleased Samson. (8) Returning the following year to marry her, he turned aside to look at the remains of the lion; and in the lion’s skeleton he found a swarm of bees, and honey. (9) He scooped it into his palms and ate it as he went along. When he rejoined his father and mother, he gave them some and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey out of a lion’s skeleton. (10) So his father came down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, as young men used to do. (11) When they saw him, they designated thirty companions to be with him. (12) Then Samson said to them, “Let me propound a riddle to you. If you can give me the right answer during the seven days of the feast, I shall give you thirty linen tunics and thirty sets of clothing; (13) but if you are not able to tell it to me, you must give me thirty linen tunics and thirty sets of clothing.” And they said to him, “Ask your riddle and we will listen.” (14) So he said to them: “Out of the eater came something to eat, Out of the strong came something sweet.” For three days they could not answer the riddle. (15) On the seventh day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband to provide us with the answer to the riddle; else we shall put you and your father’s household to the fire; have you invited us here in order to impoverish us?” (16) Then Samson’s wife harassed him with tears, and she said, “You really hate me, you don’t love me. You asked my countrymen a riddle, and you didn’t tell me the answer.” He replied, “I haven’t even told my father and mother; shall I tell you?” (17) During the rest of the seven days of the feast she continued to harass him with her tears, and on the seventh day he told her, because she nagged him so. And she explained the riddle to her countrymen. (18) On the seventh day, before the sunset, the townsmen said to him: “What is sweeter than honey, And what is stronger than a lion?” He responded: “Had you not plowed with my heifer, You would not have guessed my riddle!” (19) The spirit of the LORD gripped him. He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of its men. He stripped them and gave the sets of clothing to those who had answered the riddle. And he left in a rage for his father’s house. (20) Samson’s wife then married one of those who had been his wedding companions.

(4) After that, he fell in love with a woman in the Wadi Sorek, named Delilah. (5) The lords of the Philistines went up to her and said, “Coax him and find out what makes him so strong, and how we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless; and we’ll each give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.” (6) So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me, what makes you so strong? And how could you be tied up and made helpless?”

The verse states: “And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah” (Judges 16:4). It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: Even if she had not been called by the name Delilah, it would have been fitting that she be called Delilah, for she weakened [dildela] his strength, she weakened his heart, and she weakened his deeds.

(1) Ben Zoma says...Who is the mighty one? He who conquers his impulse, as it says, "slowness to anger is better than a mighty person and the ruler of his spirit than the conqueror of a city." (Proverbs 16:32).