Groundhogs, King David, and the Midrash

The hibernation of the groundhog holds an important place in American folklore; much less well-known is its possible appearance in rabbinic folklore. According to one major midrashic work, “There are three types of slumber: that of sleep, that of prophecy, and that of marmita.” The Midrash goes on to cite a story in Samuel I in which David sneaks into the camp of his rival, King Saul, while Saul and his men are asleep. David then steals the king’s spear and water jug and sneaks out. According to the Midrash, Saul and his comrades were lost in the “slumber of the marmita.” Natan Slifkin explains:

The slumber of the mysterious marmita is the deepest type of sleep—but what is a marmita?

Opinions vary. But several opinions . . . argue that it is the animal known in Europe as the marmot, which is known to North Americans as the groundhog. Marmots enter a deep hibernation during the cold winter; their heartbeat slows to around five beats a minute, while they take only one to three breaths a minute. The Midrash says that such a deep sleep was placed upon Saul’s camp by God, so that David was able to steal in and out undetected. Nobody in Saul’s camp woke up; it was as though time itself was frozen.

Read more at Rationalist Judaism

More about: Bible, King David, King Saul, Midrash, Religion & Holidays

 

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF