On Mount Zion, close to the site known as Kever David, or King David’s Tomb, the still-disputed site of David’s burial, a mystical incident occurred on Shavuot nine years ago.
Picture the scene.
A park-like area of grass, trees, and dried brush is inundated with tents and sheets spread out on the ground, chairs, mattresses, and anything available to simulate a reserved spot. A large crowd of young and old is gathered in celebration of King David’s birthday and yahrzeit, both having taken place on Shavuot millennia ago. Groups of traditional all-night learners commemorating Matan Torah, the receiving of the Torah at Sinai, are abundant. They assemble with song, dance, and delicious food. The energetic atmosphere is particularly high, even as the hour has grown well into the night, minutes away from the breaking of dawn.
Suddenly, seemingly from a distance, a slow, strange, otherworldly rumble begins to sound. Is it a storm, ominously approaching, or the rocks of a rattling avalanche?
The crowd quiets down. Curiosity turns to fear. The ground shakes, opening up a rift in the ground, extending a short distance. Gasps and screams are blurted out. People run from where the ground is cracking. Then, as suddenly as it began, the rip in the ground stops – right by an ancient stone wall dividing the park from a church garden beyond.
Police arrive soon after. A metal barricade is set up as a protective measure, and the stunned crowd moves back. The following day, experts go to explore the area.
While the rift was filled in and covered up after inspection by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the whispered story still circulates that the gaping pit that opened up that Shavuot had revealed a tunnel leading to the entrance of King David’s actual burial place.
Who was King David?
Who was this man, David, who has compelled folks to flock to his grave site for thousands of years?
There are many facts about David that we learn from the Bible and the commentaries of learned scholars over the centuries.
We see in the Book of Samuel I that rumor and gossip were rampant in biblical times, too. At one point, the gossip concerned the legitimacy of David’s birth. So, when the prophet Samuel, on a command from God, was sent to the house of Jesse to anoint one of his eight sons as king, no one imagined that it could possibly be David. However, one by one, the prophet dismissed Jesse’s older sons as candidates for anointing. Addressing Jesse, Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen these.”
Another of Jesse’s sons was tending the family’s flock of sheep. Samuel insisted on meeting the one who had been missing from the group.
On seeing David, the prophet pronounced Jesse’s youngest son the rightful successor to the royal throne of Israel.
The people’s shepherd
Midrash Rabbah tells us that David would hold back the sheep to first allow the young lambs to eat the tender grass. Then he let the older sheep eat the medium grass; finally, the strong, youthful sheep were let loose to eat the tough grass.
That type of behavior would eventually earn David the status of the “shepherd” of the Jewish people: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘He who knows how to tend the sheep, each one according to his strength, shall come and tend My people.’” (Midrash Tanhuma, quoted by Medieval Spanish scholar Don Isaac Abarbanel and in Yalkut Shimoni).
Consider David’s situation from a modern psychological framework. When we think of David experiencing a life full of difficult circumstances, we see that from the very start, he endured childhood bullying; and as an adult, he survived great loss, as well as lies, betrayal, attempted assassination, and a coup d’état, even from some of his own children.
Throughout it all, King David was a devout lover of God.
And it was through all the hardship that David son of Jesse evolved into the quintessential Renaissance Man. He was a gentle shepherd and the hero who defeated Goliath, a talented musician and warrior, and the author-poet of psalms, touching humanity, yet dubbed by his detractors “a crazy man clutching a Torah scroll.”
To add to his list of accomplishments, David was a successful diplomat.
Emerging as a leader
When the people of Israel complained that they lacked a king, unlike other nations God instructed His prophet Samuel to appoint Saul as their first ruler.
The Hebrew text recounts that it was two years into his reign when Saul disobeyed the Almighty’s command to kill all the Amalekites and destroy all their possessions. As punishment, God ordered Samuel to step in and anoint David as king. At that instant, the divine spirit, which later inspired David to write the psalms, came over him: “A spirit of the Lord passed over David from that day forth” (Rashi), and he was bestowed “a spirit of valiance” (Redak). “Valiance” describes exceptional courage, especially in the face of danger.
Upon his anointment, David became endowed with unusual strength and bravery. When a lion and a bear molested his flock of sheep, he slayed them both.
According to Abarbanel, “There can be only one anointed of the Lord, who is endowed with supernatural powers.” As the divine spirit entered David, which had been previously granted to Saul, melancholia and a strong sense of impending doom overcame King Saul.
Frightened that the king was losing his mind, Saul’s servants recommended that a young musician whose talent could soothe nerves be called. It was David, whose music and verse were effective in cheering the king’s spirit. But when one of the servants who had King Saul’s ear enumerated David’s abundant attributes, it aroused Saul’s fierce jealousy.
David and Goliath
Battles and bloodshed raged during those years of 1000 to 962 BCE, as the Israelites were plagued by violent attacks from the Philistines.
Jesse’s three oldest sons served in King Saul’s army. David brought his brothers food on the battlefield every day, which is how he came to hear Goliath, the Philistine’s champion, taunting and belittling the One God.
Fear beat in the hearts of the men surrounding him, but David stepped up, saying, “I will fight the giant.” He thoroughly believed that the same God who had saved him from the paws of the lion and the bear would continue protecting him now.
Saul told David, “Go, and may the Lord be with you.”
The king dressed David in his royal garments, armor, and helmet. Although Saul was much taller than David, the clothes miraculously adapted to David’s size. When Saul saw that, his jealousy flared again.
David noticed and understood. He quickly said he was unaccustomed to wearing such heavy garb and carrying weapons. He dressed in his own clothes and picked up five smooth stones from a nearby brook to use with his slingshot.
Goliath expected to meet a weather-beaten, war-scarred veteran of many battles. Instead, there was this ruddy youth. This provoked his ire. David was virtually unarmed. The Philistine attempted to belittle David by calling out, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”
Goliath then cursed David by his god, declaring, “I shall give your flesh up to the fowl of the air,” and as he looked skyward, the visor of his helmet fell back, exposing his forehead. Goliath went on to say that he would “feed David’s dead carcass to the cattle of the field.”
David, hearing these ravings, knew that cattle do not eat human flesh. He recognized that Goliath’s mind was deranged, like that of a man already close to death. He answered Goliath, saying that the very “name of the God of Israel” would be his weapon.
David took a stone from his bag and slung it, hitting the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into the giant’s forehead, causing him to fall face-first onto the ground. David had overpowered the giant and smote him with a slingshot. Without a sword of his own, David ran to where the giant lay, withdrew Goliath’s weapon from its sheath, and slew him, severing his head.
David was a hero now and was promised King Saul’s daughter Michal as a wife.
Tragically, King Saul came to fear and hate his son-in-law, and he schemed against him. For years, David had to flee from Saul’s hostility and attempts at murder. David’s only respite was to hide in the wilderness of the deserts and the forests.
Saul’s is a sad narrative of a strong, once vigorous and righteous king making grievous choices, one after another. His worst sins were later encapsulated in a line from Proverbs 11:17 as a warning: “When you show mercy to the cruel, you will become cruel to the merciful.” Against God’s orders, he took pity on Agag, king of the Amalekites, letting him live to father future enemies of the Jewish people. Eventually, he sent Doeg the Edomite to massacre the priests of the Israelite city of Nob (near Jerusalem) for supplying David with five loaves of bread – in what Saul regarded as an act of treason.
Peace and righteousness
During the exhausting episodes of David’s being hunted, two incidents stand out as examples of his demeanor, keen intellect, and righteousness of purpose.
Once, King Saul pursued David to Ein Gedi, between the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert. Answering the call of nature, Saul sought privacy in a cave.
Serendipitously, David and his men were hiding in that cave. As this golden opportunity to kill his rival presented itself, David recalled a prophecy that the Lord had said to him: “Behold, I shall deliver your enemy into your hand; and you shall do to him as it will seem good in your eyes.” David was not convinced that God was referring to Saul on this day, “when you can easily kill him” (Redak). Instead, David quietly cut off a piece of the bottom of Saul’s robe without his knowledge.
When Saul exited the cave, David followed behind, bowing and showing respect for the king. To prove that he meant no malice, David held up the cut piece of cloth for Saul to understand the scenario that could have occurred.
“And Saul wept and said to David, ‘You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me with goodness, while I have repaid you with evil. You have shown today how you have dealt with me, how the Lord delivered me into your hand, and you did not kill me.’”
King Saul then recognized David as his successor.
Unfortunately, their reconciliation did not last because Saul continued to find reasons to be jealous of his son-in-law.
Another incident transpired in the Judean mountains on the hill of Hachilah, where it was known that David was hiding. Saul gathered 3,000 men and went after David. David sent spies to find his adversary, and then infiltrated Saul’s camp.
David again faced an opportunity to kill Saul and put an end to the ceaseless hounding by his nemesis. But again, he refused to “stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed.”
That night, while Saul slept, David removed the king’s spear and water jug from his side.
When morning rose, David once again demonstrated to Saul that he did not intend to harm him, by returning the king’s spear and jug. Saul confessed that he had been wrong to continue to chase David, and then blessed him.
David was a diplomat, striving for peace. He realized that it would be extremely difficult for Saul to sustain a state of stability, as the spirit of God had left him when David was anointed. He therefore reasoned that he would be safer in the Philistine city of Garth, away from the vengeful hand of Saul.
Struggles and tests
David committed two major sins – murder and adultery – both in regard to Batsheva. He sent her husband to the front, where he was killed in battle, so that he could take Uriah the Hittite’s wife for himself.
How is it that David, guilty of those sins, retained his kingdom, whereas Saul did not? Unlike Saul, who showed no remorse for his sins, David did teshuva, feeling sincere regret. Historically, he opened wide the door of repentance, which was to become the refuah (“healing”) for Klal Yisrael for all time.
Was it just coincidence that in 1967, on Mount Zion, adjacent to Kever David, Rabbi Mordecai Goldstein opened the Diaspora Yeshiva, the first baal teshuva yeshiva?
Is it King David’s tomb?
While people have paid their respects and prayed at what they believe to be the location of David’s burial, many voices from academic and other circles have disputed it. Some authorities believe that David was buried in the City of David or possibly in Bethlehem.
To clarify the issue, several years ago the Diaspora Yeshiva’s rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein, hired a company to survey portions of Mount Zion.
“We have conclusive evidence that Kings David, King Solomon, and King Hezkiyahu are all buried on Har Zion,” the rabbi told The Jerusalem Post.
He explained that “with the use of ground-penetrating radar, a network of winding tunnels and caves was detected deep in the earth. At about 24 feet [7.3 meters] below, the GPR mapped 67 meters of tunnels that are approximately 20 meters wide.” The subsurface images rendered from GPR essentially “see” beneath the ground. The Mount Zion survey revealed the presence of artifacts connected to King David and his tomb.
Many years earlier, there had also been confirmation from revered Jerusalem tzaddik and Kabbalist Rabbi Asher (“Usher”) Freund z’l, known for his wisdom and work with the needy. For years, until his passing in 2007, he assured his hundreds of followers that “Kever David on Har Zion” was indeed the final resting place of Israel’s great king.
Whether David’s remains are interred under the dome that signposts indicate as his tomb, or whether Kever David is merely a cenotaph, a monument to someone buried elsewhere, we can recall the words of Diaspora Yeshiva founder and first rosh yeshiva Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein z’l: “Putting aside the issue of whether David is buried here or not, by virtue of all the millions of tehillim recited, and the millions of prayers cried on this spot, you can be confident that this space is eternally holy.”
Perhaps the debate will be settled only when David’s progeny, and Israel’s perfect leader, Mashiach ben David, shows up, as they say, bimheira b’yameinu – “soon in our days.”
Rebbetzin Gold is a writer and the director of the Non-profit Oct7KIDS www.oct7kids.org.■