The Reading
The Summary
Shemuel Alef Chapter 5
The Pelishtim place the Ark of the Covenant in the house of their god Dagon in Ashdod, as if to indicate that their idol had triumphed over of the God of the Jews. The next morning, when they arrived at the temple, the statue of Dagon had fallen over before the Ark. They put it back on its stand; the following morning, the severed head and hands of Dagon were found at the threshold of the temple. Stubbornly committed to their pagan superstitions, this spectacle persuaded the priests of Dagon to institute a new “custom” that prohibited stepping directly on the threshold in the spot where the limbs of their god had been discovered. (Dagon was a fish-man god, therefore he had no feet.)
The residents of Ashdod were then smitten with plagues and with painful hemorrhoids. Assuming that this was the result of the conflict between the God of Israel and Dagon whose house was located in their territory, they asked the rulers of the Pelishtim to transfer the Ark somewhere else. It is moved to Gat and then to Eqron; each time, deadly illness and painful affliction strikes those who dwell in the city where it is placed. Recognizing that the unbearable suffering they are experiencing is associated with their continued possession of the Ark, the Pelishtim resolve to send it back to the Jews as soon as they possibly can.
There is a clear connection between this narrative and that of the story of the plagues in Egypt. This link is explicitly acknowledged by the Pelishtim in their reflection upon what is befalling them and their consideration of the appropriate response. The suffering they experience forces them to release the Ark, representing the Divine presence, from its captivity and to free it to travel to the Holy Land.
The Pelishtim are compelled to acknowledge the power and dominion of the God of Israel, and although they first attempt to deny His omnipotence – they hope that moving the Ark from city to city, they will eventually find a location He is unable to afflict – they ultimately realize that His judgment is inescapable. The parallel to Pharaoh in Egypt and his resistance but eventual capitulation to the plagues is quite evident.
It is interesting to note that Hashem did not provide assistance or support to the Jews in their battle against the Pelishtim, yet He is very persistent in hammering the Pelishtim with plagues so they will relinquish the Ark. We saw that the Jews’ overemphasis on the Ark was an unfortunate distortion of their religious priorities; yet here it seems as if Hashem Himself is more zealously protective of the Ark than of His people!
In order to understand what is happening here, we must distinguish between the circumstances at hand. The Jewish people, because of their distance from Torah and mitzvoth, were unworthy of Divine help; to empower them and bless them would be to implicitly validate their corruption. However, the fact that the Pelishtim had successfully taken the Ark was at first perceived as proof of the superiority of their god, Dagon, to Hashem; allowing such a desecration of Hashem’s name and boon to the practitioners of idol worship would have been just as disastrous as allowing the Jews to prevail in battle in their state of corruption. This explains the critical need for Hashem’s miraculous intervention here – it was for the sake of His glory, not that of the Ark.