Shoftim 12: Not so Great Expectations

One of the unique characteristics of Charles Dickens was his creative use of character names gave life and character traits for his characters. Names like Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) as someone who is stingy, Thomas Murdstone (David Copperfield) who is harsh and strict, and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, a woman who’s life is frozen in time, Perhaps Dickens got the idea from the story of Yiftach. The name Yiftach means open up, and Yiftach’s story is about taboos that he broke or opened up for the first time. In chapter 11, according to some opinions, Yiftach followed through with his promise to sacrifice his daughter. This decision broke an extreme taboo in Israel against human sacrifice. The idea that a leader of the people would want his daughter killed shook the foundations of society such that the people mourned the date for years after. In chapter 12 Yiftach breaks another taboo. The people of Ephraim had blustered before about not being included in the battles of the Judge. Under Gideon they were quite upset. He mollified them by claiming they were helpful by acting as closers working to diffuse the situation instead of inflaming it. Even Devora took umbrage with the lack of assistance from certain tribes with the battle of Sisera, but besides a rebuke in Shirat Devorah, she does not take any further action against them. At the end of Joshua, Pinchas leads an army to confront the outer tribes for building an altar. However, the show of force may have been a negotiating tactic as not a single arrow is shot. Instead, the tribes reach a peaceful understanding. In chapter 12, Yiftach has no patience for the people of Ephrayim. Instead, he opens up the taboo of inter-tribal conflict gong so far as setting up checkpoints to block and kill members of a brother tribe testing fellow Israelites based on their dialect. Once broken, this taboo will be taken to the extreme later on in the book. A Judge is supposed to be someone who leads by example. Yiftach, despite his battlefield expertise, ends up hurting the Israelites by opening them up to further downfall.