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Shoftim Perakim 5-6 (7 Marcheshvan 5769) |
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Written by Rabbi Schwartz
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Wednesday, 05 November 2008 17:15 |
Perek 5 of Sefer Shoftim is the famous Shiras Devorah: The song that praises God and emphasizing his role beyond what happened in the literal storyline. We become acutely aware of the cycle of then-Modern Jewish history (as defined in Perek 2) and we know that God is involved but we don’t know to what extent. 40 years later the cycle repeats itself in Perek 6 when Midian goes from being an ally (think: Yitro and Yael) to being enemy. Amalek joins in, as usual. When Bnei Yisrael cry out to God, He sends an(other) anonymous prophet to assure them that they will be saved. The Shofet highlighted in the next 3 chapters is Gideon. He is different from those that preceded him and he marks a transition in the sefer. Some notable differences to his predecessors: Gideon is clearly chosen by God and actively destroys places of idol worship. Gideon is also a messenger of the people and has many supporters.
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