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?

Parashat Naso - Limmud Dvar Torah (with bonus material!)

I have a dvar torah up on Limmud on One Leg's blog today for parashat Naso - check it out here and then come back for some exclusive extra bonus material.

Finished? Don't worry, I'll wait.