5 ways Samson is Hercules - Naso - Mythic Torah

Welcome back to Mythic Torah, my regular article investigating monsters, heroes and gods in the weekly Torah reading. This week's reading is Naso, the 2nd reading from the book of Numbers, that explains the jobs of the different priestly families in carrying the Tabernacle, before explaining the laws of the Nazirite, the priestly blessing and the Sotah ritual for a woman suspected of adultery.

My favourite Bible character as a child was Samson, the Nazirite judge from the book of Judges, whose birth story in Judges 13 is taken for the Haftarah for this week's torah portion of Naso.

I loved Samson, primarily because of his resemblance to He-Man (of Masters of the Universe fame).

After all, like He-Man, Samson had super strength, fought bad guys, and even had long hair (I have yet to hear a better explanation for He-Man's haircut than this).

But looking back, Samson is actually a deeply strange character, who sticks out like a sore thumb in the Biblical narrative.

He has super strength, that seems to come from having long hair. While the Bible repeatedly tells us that Samson also served as a Judge for the people of Israel, we never see him serving the people in any of the narratives that are told. Instead of helping people, Samson is motivated by desire, seeing beautiful women and feeling that he 'has' to have them. He spends all his time with Philistines and yet is considered to be a leader of Israel. He is selfish, stupid and violent, massacring Philistines in increasingly bizarre ways.

How can we make sense of this?

Food Fit For God - VaYikra - Mythic Torah

Feasting in Valhalla

Does God need to eat?

Now you make think that the answer is 'obviously no', of course God, who has no corporeal body in any literal sense of the word, does not need physical sustenance from food and drink. But the Ancient Greeks, and other ancient cultures, would certainly have disagreed with you - the Gods of Olympus dined regularly on nectar and ambrosia in order to maintain their youth and immortality. In Norse mythology too, the Gods of Valhalla feast regularly alongside the Einherjar, the honoured dead who were slain in battle.

As we begin the book of Leviticus (VaYikra) with its long descriptions of the sacrifices that had to be brought in temple times in various life situations, we have to ask ourselves this question about the God of the Bible, and consider what the answer might mean about the Torah and its meaning for us today.

Why might we think that God eats?

Well, the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, that predates the Bible includes a really interesting description of how the gods relate to sacrifices, in an image that is both resonant and dissonant with this week's parasha.

Bulls - Ki Tissa - Mythic Torah

Bulls.

They get a bit of a bad rap these days, known mainly for being an exclamation that something is not true, or for the name of some kind of sports team (I'm not a native in this country but I'm trying).

But back in the day Bulls were the height of prestige - symbols of wealth, strength and most importantly masculine virility.

Small wonder then that many gods of the ancient world were closely associated with calves and bulls. In Mesopotamian myth, there was Gugalanna, the Great Bull of Heaven slain by the hero Gilgamesh. While in the Ugarit (an area close to ancient Israel), the chief god El was worshiped as the Bull-El, and Baal, the storm god, was also associated with this masculine image.

In our Bible too we can see relics of this bull worship - Jacob is called 'bechor shor', firstborn of the ox in Deut 33:17, or Hosea 8, which reads as a critique of this worship of bulls.

But the most striking polemic against bull worship is in this week's parasha of Ki Tisa. Moses has gone up the mountain to receive the two tablets but the people get nervous, and turn to Aaron to make them a substitute: