Stories are deadlier than swords. Swords kill only those who stand before them, stories decide who will live and die in generations to come.
"The Secret Book of Kings" by Yochi Brandes and Translated by Yardenne Greenspan
Summary of Secret Book of Kings
Shlom'am, a young man from the tribe of Ephraim, has grown up in the shadow of several secrets. He wonders why his father is deathly afraid of the King's soldiers, and why his mother has lied to him about the identities of those closest to him. Knowing his parents won't divulge more than they have to, Shlom'am sets out on his own to unearth his mysterious past.
At the height of his journey, Shlom'am encounters the Crazed Princess. Princess Michal, daughter of the ill-fated King Saul and discarded wife of the illustrious, dangerous King David, seems doomed by the annals of history; hellbent on seizing the throne, David wiped out her father's line and left her isolated...and plotting. Only Michal knows the shocking circumstances of Shlom'am's birth. Only she can set into motion his destiny to become Jerobaam, the fourth king of Israel.
Hiden by the Scribes
"The weapon I'm talking about is stories. The son of Jesse has recruited many scribes to his cause...this group is disseminating awful stories about [Saul]...the story is so terrible I can't bear to repeat it. The Judeans are trying to convince the nation of Israel that Father did not die a hero defending our nation, but rather he was punished by God for his sins" -The Secret Book of Kings, 210
Holidays
Page 1: There is no Jewish holiday today that takes place on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (which in post-Biblical times became known as the month of Heshvan). According to the Bible, and as still observed today, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth) takes place on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (later known as the month of Tishri). The Bible does state that King Jeroboam, the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel (who seceded from the United Monarchy and took power in the north after the death of King Solomon), instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month (1 Kings 12:32-33). Already in the opening words of the book, then, Yochi Brandes is suggesting a history somewhat different from that described in the Bible and giving a different perspective on origins of the holy days of the north.
Page 11: In the world of the book, the tribe of Judah observed a holiday called the Festival of Ingathering, which occurred earlier on the calendar than the Festival of Booths (Sukkoth); when the Judean kings took power over the north and the south, they demanded that the north observe Judah's holidays. The commander is trying to determine whether the residents of Zeredah are obeying the law. (In our own day, "Festival of Ingathering" and "Festival of Booths" are two names for the same Jewish holiday.)
Page 403: Jeroboam mentions the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the precise day that the tribe of Ephraim celebrates its Festival of Rain (see Part I, chapter 1 of The Secret Book of Kings). The bible tells us in 1 Kings 12:32 that Jeroboam “instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar.”
Page 106: When the Mad Princess says, "I prayed for this child," she is using the same formulation that Hannah uses in 1 Samuel 1:27 when she brings Samuel to serve God at the Shiloh temple, as she had promised when she had prayed to God to give her a child. In using this formulation, the Mad Princess is also restoring a story to its original family. Some scholars believe that the Biblical story of the circumstances of Samuel's birth was actually written initially as the birth story of Saul. Hannah's entire statement, in 1 Samuel 1:27-28, is "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” The words translated as "what I asked" (which is actually two phrases in the Hebrew), "I give him," and "will be given over" are all variants of the root that is also the root of the name Saul. In fact, "will be given over" is "saul" in Hebrew. These scholars speculate that when Saul fell out of favor, his famous birth story was transferred to another character. As Saul's daughter, the Mad Princess reclaims this story for the House of Saul.
Page 239: David plays innocent, but the ones spreading the monstrous tales about your father are his own scribes. They just haven't made up their mind yet whether to portray Saul as a weak and cowardly king or as a cruel and bloodthirsty one....but Merab was right. The nation does have a short memory. Repeat a story enough times, and, better yet, write it down in the book of chronicles, and it becomes a reality.
Page 344: “'Do you know the story that David’s scribes made up about your great-grandfather and the prophet Samuel?' asked Ahijah. 'They made up lots of stories about them.' 'The one about the tearing of the coat.'" Ahijah refers to 1 Samuel 15:27-28: “As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.’”
Page 345: "He cut off a large piece of fabric from his new cloak and commanded me to spread out my hands." See 1 Kings 11:30-31: “ . . . and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.
Then he said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.”’”
Page 376: “I have faith that the scribes of Judah will spoil my favorable prophecies, just as they did Samuel’s. They’ll write in their books that I rejected Jeroboam and prophesied a terrible future for him and his family.” Ahijah's statement alludes to the later prophecy the Bible says he gave to Jeroboam's wife in 1 Kings 14:7-16: “Go, tell Jeroboam that . . . the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam . . . .”
Page 392: “Because of his compassion, they lost a king in whom even his most bitter rivals could find no fault.” This view of Saul corresponds to the view expressed by Samuel (a Talmudic sage, not the prophet in the Bible) in the Talmud (Yoma 22b): "Rabbi Judah said in the name of Samuel: 'For what reason did the kingdom of the House of Saul not endure? Because he had not a single flaw.'"
Page 399: “'For example,' Ahijah says, thinking out loud, 'for example, the story about the tearing of my new cloak in the field. Future generations will see right away that I was correcting the wicked story that the scribes of Judah made up about Samuel and Saul.'” The story about Samuel and Saul is in 1 Samuel 15:27-28: “As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.’”
The story about Ahijah and Jeroboam is from 1 Kings 11:29-31: “About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.
Then he said to Jeroboam, 'Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: "See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.”