Our study of the Prophets (N’vi’im) focuses on the Books of Joshua (Yehoshua), Judges (Shoftim), Samuel I and Samuel II (Shmuel Aleph and Shmuel Bet), and Kings I and Kings II (M’lakhim Aleph and M’lakhim Bet). These fascinating accounts of the “Early Prophets” (N’vi’im Rishonim) cover the periods from when the Jews first entered the Promised Land of Israel (during the times of Joshua) through the centuries after Joshua, when Judges ruled the Nation, and then into the periods of the Kings of Israel. The Kings’ epoch begins with the Prophet Samuel being assigned to anoint Saul (Sha’ul) of Benjamin, and that reign leads into the Davidic dynasty that focuses in great detail, initially, on the lives of David and then Solomon (Shlomo). Tragically, after Solomon’s reign, the great Jewish Nation divides in a civil war that sees the creation of two countries: the Northern Kingdom (Israel) with its capital in Samaria (Shomron), and the Southern Kingdom (Judah, or Yehudah) with its capital in Jerusalem.
The stories of the Early Prophets cover all of Jewish life from the time that we entered the Land until the fall of the first Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. (BCE = Before the Common Era). These centuries of Jewish life bring out the names of great Jewish personages, including among them: Yiftach, Gideon, Deborah, Yael, Samson (Shimshon); the prophets Samuel (Shmuel), Elijah (Eliyahu), and Elisha; great generals including Joab (Yo’av) and Abner (Avner); and Kings including David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Ahab (Ach’av and his wife Jezebel), Ahaz (Achaz), Hezekiah (Chizkiyahu), and Josiah (Yoshiyahu).
These are the books that contain the Biblical stories of David and Goliath (Golyat), the friendship of David and Jonathan (Yonatan), David and Bathsheba (Batsheva), Samson and Delila, Gideon’s trumpet, Yael and the tent pin, the civil war that divided Israel, Elijah at Mt. Carmel, Elisha and the Miracles, Jezebel, and the righteous boy-king Josiah. Along the way, the historical bond between the Jewish People and the lands of Judea (Yehudah) and Samaria (Shomron) become clear, as do the bonds with her cities in Hebron, Bet Lechem (Bethlehem), Shiloh, Efrat, and so many other landmark towns, villages, and cities in the lands that others falsely call “the West Bank” but that we call “Yesha” — the acronym for Yehuda and Shomron, Judea and Samaria.
Monthly Class Taught at Rotating Private Homes
Taught by Rav Fischer