Why did they hand Samson over to the Philistines?

Why did Samson kill a thousand Philistines in Gaza every day?

How did the Philistines attack Israel—and then, with sheer brazenness, call Samson a “wild man” when he fought back?

What miracle happened for Samson?

Holy words of The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a:

Samson the mighty was the mightiest of all. Every day he would go to Gaza, and every day he would kill a thousand of their soldiers—a thousand Hamas terrorists. No one could harm him, so they decided to hand him over. They brought 3,000 soldiers in order to hand him over. They said to Samson: You know we are under the Philistines—today Hamas rules here! Who rules here? Hamas!

Today the Philistines rule over us—the Philistines today are Hamas!

They asked Samson: Why are you doing this—killing a thousand of them every day?

Samson answered: They took my wife from me—what can I do?

Freedom of speech—now in England they are holding demonstrations in support of Hamas. Hamas is right; killing Jews is considered completely legitimate. Ever since Hitler, that “law” (that killing Jews is legitimate) was never repealed. Hitler said that killing a Jew is the greatest mitzvah. They especially embrace this approach in England, because they are careful to keep the old laws—they are conservative; they don’t change laws. You see them going with Hamas supporters, shouting “Death to the Jews,” and the British government supports it—it is in favor of it.

They ask them: Why (do you think killing Jews is legitimate)? What is this?

The English answer: What do you mean? It’s the law from 70 years ago!

It was the same with Samson. They asked him: Why are you killing them? It’s against international law—what are you doing to them? Poor, miserable people—what do you want from their lives?

So 3,000 came to seize Samson. Samson said to them: Don’t do anything to me—just don’t touch me; I will surrender by myself. Swear to me—I want you to swear an oath that you yourselves won’t harm me.

They said: We did not come to kill you—“And they said to him, saying: No, but we will bind you and deliver you into their hand, but we will not kill you. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock” (Judges 15:13). They put him on the tip of a rock, three hundred meters high.

The Philistines were cheering with shofars and trumpets: We won, we won—we captured the savior of Israel, the biggest thug of all. What bandits these Jews are—every one of them bandits, a nation of murderers. Hitler said: I’m not willing to live together with them—it’s impossible; they are only murderers day and night. We Germans are refined—(all day we speak politely) “Bitte schön,” “Danke schön” (thank you, please). They don’t come near a person, they never touch a person—only caress everyone.

They said: These Jews—these murderers—this will be their end. In the end, in the end, Germany fell—poor thing, it fell. So they said: Who brought us down? The Jews!

The Jews who remained are to blame? But only 10,000 Jews remained! Yes! They brought the Americans, they brought the Russians, they brought the English, they brought the French! We failed because of the Jews—because we left a few Jews alive!

Hitler said: If one Jew remains—one baby—we are lost. There are no people as stubborn and as murderous as the Jews. The whole world believes this to this day; just now there were attacks on Jews at the airport in Dagestan—about a thousand Muslims stormed the airplane.

Then Samson found a fresh jawbone of a donkey: “And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he stretched out his hand and took it, and he struck with it a thousand men” (ibid., 15). Wow—Master of the Universe, what a wild man! Wow—how did we end up with such a wild man?

And Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey—donkey upon donkeys; with the jawbone of a donkey I struck down a thousand men”—each blow, a thousand men. And when he finished speaking, suddenly he fainted from thirst—he hadn’t drunk for three days. “And he threw the jawbone from his hand, and he called that place Ramath-Lehi.” There is Ramat Beit Shemesh; and there is Ramath-Lehi—it is all in the same area.

“And he was very thirsty, and he called out to Hashem, and he said: You have given into the hand of Your servant this great salvation, and now shall I die of thirst?”—Is this how it ends for me after I struck down a thousand men?

His tooth split open and a spring came out from there—from the hollow in the tooth; “the mortar” is the hollow. “And Elokim split open the hollow that is in Lehi, and water came out from it”—what living waters! And he drank—cool, cold like ice—and his spirit returned and he revived.

Therefore he called its name Ein HaKoreh—and there Samson called out to Hashem. Hashem created for him a new spring—Ein HaLehi.

“And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years”—twenty and another twenty is forty; for another twenty years they were still afraid of Samson.