Why was Shimshon turned over to the Philistines?
Why did Shimshon kill every day a thousand Philistines in Gaza?
How did the Philistines attack Israel and in their audacity call Shimshon a savage (Pere Adam) when he fought back?
What miracle occurred for Shimshon?
The holy of words of Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit”a:
Shimshon HaGibor was the greatest hero. He would go to Gaza every day; he would kill a thousand of their soldiers, a thousand Hamas-niks. It was impossible to harm him, so they decided to have him handed over. They brought 3,000 soldiers [of Israel] to hand him over. They said to Shimshon, “You know that 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 Shimshon: Why do you do this, every day killing a thousand of their men?
Shimshon answered: They took my wife – what can I do?
Freedom of expression – today in England they are holding protests in support of Hamas [saying]: Hamas are right, killing Jews is totally legitimate. Since Hitler, the law still has not been repealed [that killing Jews is legitimate]. Hitler said that to kill a Jew is the greatest mitzvah. Mainly this is in England, where they remain with the laws of the past. They are conservative; they don’t change laws. So we see that they are siding with Hamas, screaming, “Death to the Jews,” and the British government supports it; they are in favor of it.
They ask them why, what’s the meaning of this?
[The English answer:] This is the law from seventy years ago.
The same thing with Shimshon. They asked him: Why do kill them? This is against international law. What are you doing to them? They are poor people, oppressed. What do you want from them?
Okay, so three thousand came to capture Shimshon. Shimshon said to them: Don’t do anything to me. Just don’t touch me. I’ll hand myself over alone. Swear to me. I want you to swear to me an oath, lest you harm me.
And they said to him: No, we have come to arrest you. “[They said to him, ‘No, rather we will only arrest you and give you over into their hand; but we will surely not put you to death.’ So they bound him with two new ropes] and brought him up from the rock” [Shoftim 15:13). They put him on the top of the rock, three hundred meters high.
The Philistines are blowing shofars, trumpets, “We won, we won. We have caught the savior of Israel, the greatest strongman. What bandits these Jews are. All of them are bandits, a people of murderers.” Hitler said: I’m not willing to live together with them. It’s impossible. They just murder day and night. We Germans are refined, [saying politely] “Bitte schon, Danke schon (you’re welcome, thank you very much)” all day. They [the Germans] don’t come close to a person, never touch a person, only caress everyone.
They said, “Those Jews, those murderers, this will be their end.” In the end, Germany fell; the poor thing, it fell. Then they said, “Who made us fall? The Jews!”
Those Jews who remained [are guilty]? – how many Jews remained already? 10,000 Jews?
Yes, they brought the Americans, brought the Russians, brought the English, brought the French. We lost because of the Jews, because we left a few Jews alive.
Hitler said if a single Jew remains, a single baby, we’re lost. There are no stubborn and murderous [people] like the Jews. The whole world believes in this until this day. Now there were attacks on Jews in the airport at Dagestan. Some thousand Muslims attacked an airplane.[1]
So Shimshon found a fresh jawbone of a donkey – [“He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and stretched out his hand and took it.] He struck down [a thousand people] with it” (ibid. 15). “Wow, Master of the Universe, what a savage! Wow, how did we come across such a savage!”
“Shimshon then said, ‘With the jawbone of a donkey, heap upon heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men!’” – every blow, a thousand men. “When he finished speaking” – suddenly he faints from thirst. He hasn’t drunk already for three days. “And he cast the jawbone from his hand and he called that place Ramat-Lechi.” There is a Ramat-Lechi in Beit Shemesh. There is Ramat-Lechi; all of this is in the same area.
“He was very thirsty and called to Hashem, saying, ‘You have given into the hand of Your servant this great salvation, and now would I die from thirst?’” Will this be my end after I struck down a thousand men?
Then the tooth [in the jawbone] split open and a spring came out of there, from the hole that was in the tooth, from the “hollow,” which is the hole. “And God split open the hollow that was in the jawbone, and water came forth from it” — some flowing water, “and he drank” – cold water, cold like ice, “and his spirit was returned to him and he was revived.”
“Therefore, that place is called En-Hakkorei [Spring of the Caller],” and there Shimshon called to Hashem, and Hashem created for him a new spring, the spring of the jawbone.
“And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years” – twenty and another twenty is forty. For another twenty years, they had fear of Shimshon.
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[1] In late October this year, a horde of Muslims stormed a hotel and airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan, a Muslim area in Russian, in search of Jews, upon hearing that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city.
