א שמואלThe childhood of שמואל the prophet

By Edee Polyakovsky

Chana, Penina and Elkana s father Elkana had two wives, Chana and Penina‘שמואל Penina bullied Chana because Chana had no children

and she had many Penina always found something that she could taunt or

tease Chana about She made Chana feel miserable when ever she could Chana really wanted a child Elkana favored Chana even though she had no children He always gave her the best portion of the sacrifices

Chana’s Tefila Every year Elkana took his

household to Shiloh where the Mishkan was

They ate and drank with Eli the כהן

Chana got up and started praying to Hashem for a child

She said that if she had a son she would give him back into Hashem’s service

She only moved her lips and didn’t make any noise

This was not how people used to pray and Eli accused her of being drunk

When Chana told him that she was praying, he apologized and gave her his blessing

s Childhood‘שמואל Soon after Chana got Eli’s

blessing she had a son His name was שמואל When he was four year old and

done nursing, Chana fulfilled her promise to Hashem

She brought שמואל to Eli in Shiloh and gave him to Eli so he could serve Hashem

Eli raised שמואל like his own son

only saw his parents שמואלonce a year when Elkana brought his sacrifice

Every time Chana came to see him she brought him a special robe

פנחס and חפני s Brothers‘שמואל Eli had two real sons named חפני and פנחס because שמואל were bad examples for פנחס and חפני

they did not serve Hashem They stole from the people’s sacrifices with a big

wooden fork כהנים abused the power they had as פנחס and חפני They went out of their way to make it hard for the

people to give their sacrifices The people couldn’t do anything about it

Eli’s Curse Eli knew that his sons were abusing their power but

he didn’t do anything Because of this Hashem cursed Eli that one day his

family would be stripped of it’s title of כהן and they would be forced to beg for food

The prophesy would start when Eli found out that both of his sons died on the same day

The prophesy was delivered to Eli by his friend Elkana, שמואל‘s father

Like father like son, Elkana was a prophet

s First Prophecy‘שמואל Even through all of חפני

and פנחס‘s evil שמואל still “walked with Hashem”

One night Hashem called in a dream שמואל

He thought Eli was calling him and rushed to Eli

It was not Eli and after three times Eli told שמואל that it was Hashem

Hashem told שמואל the prophecy to Eli

Every night שמואל slept by the menorah. He kept it lit at all times and cleaned it.

The War with the Plishtim The ישראל went to war with the Plishtim בני The Plishtim crushed the ישראל killing 4,000 men בני After their defeat they went to Shiloh and got the

to bring with them to war ארון into battle ארון went with the פנחס and חפני When the Plishtim heard the ישראל blowing the בני

shofar they were scared but they still went to fight The Plishtim beat the ישראל again, killing a total בני

of 30,000 men The Plishtim also captured the ארון and brought it

back with them to their city אשדוד

פנחס, חפני and Eli’s Deaths died in פנחס and חפני

battle In the prophecy Elkana

gave to Eli it said that חפני and פנחס‘s death would start the curse

If they died on the same day it ment that the prophecy would actually happen

s wife had just had a‘פנחסbaby and when she heard the bad news she named her son כבוד which איmeans with out honor

When a messenger brought back the news that the ארון had been captured and חפני and פנחס died to Eli he was so surprised and sad that he fell out of his chair and died

The Capture of the ארון When the Plishtim beat

the ישראל they captured בניthe ארון and brought it back to their city אשדוד

The Plishtim put the ארון next to a statue of their god Dagon

The next morning the priest found that Dagon’s statue had fallen down in front of the ארון like it was bowing

The Plishtim still didn’t get the message and they just set Dagon on his pedestal again

They just set Dagon up again but the next morning Dagon was on the floor and his hands had fallen off. They still didn’t give the ארון back!

The next morning all of the Plishtim in אשדוד had a blistery rash all over their skin

The Plague After a couple of days of this rash, the Plishtim

decided to move the ארון to a different city hoping that it would be safer there

They moved the ארון to Gath The people in Gath also got the plague but this time

it was worse They moved the ארון again, this time to Ekron but

the Plishtim of Ekron started dying from the plague Finally the leaders of the Plishtim realized that they

needed to give the ארון back

Bringing the ארון Back The ארון stayed in the “Field of the Plishtim” for seven

months They didn’t know how to return the ארון to the ישראל בני

and be cured by Hashem The Plishtim’s priests said they should send the ארון

back with a guilt offering of five gold hemorrhoids and five golden mice so Hashem would cure them

The Plishtim made a test to see if the plague was really from Hashem

They hitched two cows that had never been yoked to a cart

If the cart went to שמש then they knew it was ביתHashem who sent the plague, if not the plague was just an accident

The ארון‘s Return The cows went strait to שמש בית When they got there the people

stopped what they were doing and rejoiced to see the ארון

They put the ארון on a big rock in the field of Joshua

The people made sacrifices to Hashem in front of the ארון

Hashem killed all of the people in שמש because they looked at בית

the ארון They sent a message to Kiriath-

jearim saying that the ארון had been returned

Another War with the Plishtim The ארון remained in Kiriath-jearim for 20 years ישראל told the שמואל that if they went got rid of בני

any foreign gods in their midst, Hashem would protect them from the Plishtim

The ישראל fasted and prayed to Hashem at בניMitzpah

When the lords of the Plishtim heard about this, they attacked the ישראל בני

They prayed to Hashem and שמואל sacrificed a lamb to in hope that Hashem would save them from the Plishtim

The ישראל beat the Plishtim בני The Plishtim did not attack again in all of the days of

the prophet שמואל

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