[2]Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky (1880–1940) was a Russian-born Zionist leader whose novel Samson the Nazarite was serialised in the Russian Zionist journal Razsvet in 1926, published in book form in 1927, and translated into English in 1930. It served as the basis for Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah.
[3]Babylonian Talmud (BT), Tractate Berachot 61a.
[4]Professor Yair Zakovitch of the Hebrew University, in his book The Life of Samson, points out that Manoah here calls his wife 'the woman', implying alienation, stemming perhaps from suspicion; and that Adam, who becomes estranged from his wife Eve after she seduces him into eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, says to God: 'The woman You put at my side–she gave me of the tree, and I ate.' Zakovitch, Hayei Shimshon ('The Life of Samson' [Hebrew: Jerusalem, 1982]), p. 49. In this connection, let us note that the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus Flavius, in his monumental work Jewish Antiquities (V:276), asserts that Manoah was 'madly enamoured of his wife and hence inordinately jealous'. Translated by H. St. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus (Cambridge and London, 1958), Vol. V, p. 125.
[5]Zakovitch (p. 70) points out that the biblical text does not provide the derivation of Samson's name, a rarity among major biblical figures. He contends that the biblical narrator wished to avoid any association of Samson and the sun, a linkage with strong pagan connotations.
[6]BT Sotah 10a.
[7] Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities V:285. Trans. Thackeray and Marcus, Vol. V, p.129.
[8] BT Sotah 10a.
[9]Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 7b.
[10] Zohar I:194a.
[11] One finds in Jewish sources an ambivalence toward the phenomenon of the Nazirite. There are those who saw it as a state of great spiritual elevation, which not everyone is capable of achieving. Thus, the prophet Amos: 'And I raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men' (Amos 2:11); and in the Talmud, Rabbi Eleazer. But there were also those who regarded extreme asceticism and isolation as sinful–for example, the rabbis Eleazar HaKappar and Samuel (see BT Ta'anit 11a.).
[12]I Samuel 13:19.
[13] It is interesting to mention, in this context, the hypothesis of the archaeologist Yigael Yadin, who raised the possibility that the tribe of Dan was closely related to the sea people known as the Danai, so much so as to complicate Dan's inclusion as one of the tribes of Israel. See Isaac Avishur, 'Dan', Encyclopaedia Judaica 5: 1255–9; also Yigael Yadin, 'And Dan, why did he remain in ships?', Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology,1 (1968): 9–23.
[14]Genesis 49:16, 18.
[15] I Kings 10:27.
[16]In his commentary on the Book of Judges, the nineteenth-century rabbinical scholar Malbim wrote that 'apparently this was the time of the grape harvest, and as they reached the path through the vineyards Samson changed course, in accordance with [the ancient dictum] "Go around, we say to a Nazirite, do not go near a vineyard."'
[17] Bees, of course, have a highly developed sense of smell, and thus it is unlikely that they would settle in a rotting carcass, but would do so only later, after the stench had dissipated and only a skeleton remained. This observation supports the conjecture that a year had passed between Samson's battle with the lion and his return to Timnah. See Haim Shmueli, Hidat Shimshon ('Samson's Riddle' [Hebrew: Tel Aviv, 1964]), p. 58.
[18] The Anglo-Jewish writer Linda Grant, in an article entitled 'Jews behaving badly', connects Samson with the Golem of Prague. The Golem, according to Jewish legend, was created by Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, known as the Maharal, in the sixteenth century. The Maharal fashioned the Golem out of clay in order to fight off the enemies of the Jews. When the Maharal would shove into the creature's mouth a slip of paper on which was written the ineffable name of God, the Golem would come to life and do the rabbi's bidding. In keeping with this parallelism, one can read the paper with God's name on it as a concrete expression of the 'spirit of the Lord' that animated Samson. See Linda Grant, 'Jews behaving badly: Samson, Sharon, and other "tough Jews"', Jewish Quarterly 49, 2 (Summer 2002): 48–52.
[19]Genesis 2:24.
[20] The idea of Samson's compulsive need to be betrayed by women was raised and explored in depth by the Israeli psychiatrist Ilan Kutz in his article, 'Samson's complex', in which he analyses the 'behavioural disturbance'–as he put it–of the biblical Samson. According to Kutz, the essence of this disturbance is 'the compulsion to re-enact the experience of betrayal by women, followed by destructive acts of rage against others, and ultimately against their own tormented selves'. Kutz emphasises the problematic behaviour of the mother as the source of Samson's psychological disorder: 'Whether or not this nameless stranger is accepted as a messenger of God, it is possible to infer that there were rumours and whispers surrounding the circumstances of Samson's birth. Perhaps…Samson's childhood was enveloped by a deep sense of shame, related to his mother's questionable behaviour or his father's uncertain paternity.' Ilan Kutz, 'Samson's complex: The compulsion to re-enact betrayal and rage', British Journal of Medical Psychology, 62 (1989): 123–34.
[21]Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, translated by Stephen Mitchell (New York, 1986), p. 40.
[22] See II Chronicles 11:6.
[23] Though there is, in Gaza City itself, a hill known to this day as 'Samson's Grave'.
[24] A comprehensive survey of the representations of Samson in world art and culture may be found in David Fishelov, Mahlafot Shimshon ('Samson's Locks' [Hebrew: Jerusalem, 2000]).
[25] See Kutz, 'Samson's complex', n. 20.
[26]Ilan Kutz, focusing on Samson's death-wish, interprets this scene as an unspoken suicide pact: 'Both Samson and Delila [sic] take part in this death dance. If Delila is leading Samson consciously on the deadly floor of betrayal, Samson is unconsciously manipulating Delila in the dance of his suicide. It may even be surmised that Samson meticulously and repeatedly auditioned his female partner before giving her the role of the loving-betraying executioner, and that the three early betrayals by Delila were but trial runs before she could be entrusted with the real thing.' (Kutz, 'Samson's complex', p. 130)
[27]BT Sotah 9b.
[28] Lea Goldberg, 'Samson's love', in the collection Barak Ba-Boker ('Lightning in the Morning' [Hebrew: Merhavia, Israel, 1957]), p. 112. Goldberg (1911–1970) was an important Hebrew modernist poet.
[29] BT Sotah 9b.
[30] Job 31:10
[31] BT Sotah 10a.
[32] For one example, we have Potiphar's wife accusing Joseph: 'She called out to her servants and said to them, "Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us!"'–letzahek banu. 'This one came to lie with me…' (Genesis 39:14).
[33] Rabbi Saadiah Gaon, the tenth-century leader of Babylonian Jewry, commented in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions on the damaging effect of the lust for revenge upon the soul of the avenger as well as his victims. Saadiah brings Samson's final act as an example of an especially extreme and destructive case of revenge. In other rabbinic literature, we generally find no condemnation of Samson's final revenge, although his aggressive behaviour is sometimes censured. Saadiah Gaon, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Treatise 10, Chapter 13. Translated by Samuel Rosenblatt (New Haven, 1948), pp. 390–2.
[34] BT Sotah 9b.
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