Are you a Rabbi? Well, if so, you should have a big picture of David Hamelech hanging in your office.
When you find a person sitting in front of you, whom, in your opinion, has no yichus (illustrious lineage), raise your eyes, look at the picture and see the picture of the person who is possibly the most important figure in Judaism – David Hamelech.
His great-grandmother was called Ruth. She was a convert, who, once she told Naomi, her mother-in-law, “Your nation is my nation and your G-d is my G-d, wherever you die I shall die, and there I will be buried”, started on a long and difficult journey.
Ruth’s husband, Boaz, was descended from Peretz, the son of Yehudah, who was born with his brother Zerach as a result of an unpleasant extra-marital affair that took place between Yehudah and Tamar, his former daughter-in-law.
So look again at the person in front of you and think: is there a good chance that this person will be a king? Maybe, if we give him a real chance.
And if the person sitting in front of you looks strange and alien; perhaps there are even bad, unpleasant rumors about him, look again at the picture and remember that the “illustrious” lineage of David Hamelech was only the introduction. “I was strange to my brothers, and alien to the sons of my mother,” said David Hamelech about himself, and he knew what he was talking about. His father, Yishai, despised him, thinking that he was a mamzer – illegitimate. His family rejected him and sent him to shepherd the sheep, far away from home. He was so much disregarded, that when the prophet Shmuel came with the anointing oil to anoint one of the Yishai’s sons as king, Yishai presented only seven out of his eight children – those whom he considered worthy of kingship. David wasn’t even an option, in his father’s mind.
“Yishai passed his seven sons before Shmuel. And Shmuel said to Yishai: Hashem has not chosen these.” And then Shmuel asks Yishai: “Are these all the boys?” And Yishai answers, almost against his will, “there is one more little one, and he shepherds the sheep.” I have another young son, but he is out of the question. He is a shepherd. By the way, this “little son” was twenty-nine years old already. Yishai sent for David, “and he was ruddy, with fair eyes and a pleasing appearance.” Immediately, Hashem said to Shmuel: “Arise and anoint him, for this is he!”
The Gemara in mashechet Pesachim, 119, discusses the psukim of Hallel that we sing so beautifully on festivals, but perhaps don’t always know or think about their meaning:
Rav Shmuel bar Nachmani says there that these verses contain a fascinating, moving and even painful discussion between David, Yishai and the other brothers.
David thanks Hashem for all the suffering he went through until he was appointed king and says: “I thank you, Hashem, for answering me and becoming my salvation.”
Yishai, his father, admits having despised David, and responds, perhaps with shame, maybe in surprise, but certainly with joy: “The stone the builders despised has become the cornerstone.”
David’s brothers, still in complete shock from the wonder they have witnessed, say: “This emanated from Hashem; it is wondrous in our eyes.”
And the prophet Shmuel said, “This is the day Hashem has made; let us rejoice and be glad on it.”
The holiday of Shavuot is the also the day of David Hamelech’s death. Perhaps this is the time for each and every one of us to remember: it doesn’t matter what people think and say about you; Hashem knows exactly who you are. And if He knows to appreciate you, what more do you need?
Shabbat Shalom, and Happy Shavuot,
Rabbi Zalmen Wishedski