Jeremy Rosen
Kings of the South: David’s Progeny
Summary
This lecture explores the historical and theological implications of the reigns of various kings in Judea, focusing on the House of David. Jeremy Rosen challenges the idealized view of King David, highlighting the flaws and complexities associated with his dynasty.
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
I have two theories. Theory number one is that since the founders of the new state in ‘48 were secular Jews, they felt more in common with what was a non-religious state than they do to a religious state. The other reason is that Jews were called Jews after Judea and that Judah, Jews, seem to imply only the Judeans and the founders of the state wanted Israel, which after all, was the name of Jacob.
He made mistakes. He was good in certain respects, bad in others, and the Talmud accepts that he made mistakes. By tradition, he added this wisdom and the wisdom text of the Bible, even though the Talmud accepts none of them were written by King Solomon himself, but he did have a cultural revolution within the tradition. Therefore, he is regarded as a good king.
There are two ways of looking at this. One of them is to take the view of Maimonides, the rationalists that say everybody sacrificed. They sacrificed humans to their gods, they sacrificed animals to their gods. There is also the idea that if you sacrifice animals, and you come into contact with them directly and have this interaction, you are more likely to be aware of how precious life is.