Good Evening Yamon Ki Yesepar;

II Samuel 6:14:”And David danced before the Lord with all his might.”

So what was this dance. Was it jumping around in frenzy?  Was this a choreographed

dance or was it spontaneous?   Poor David has sure taken a lot of heat over this from many Christians.   However, we tend to miss something very important in this verse.

David danced “before” the Lord. The Hebrew word used for “before” is “lipeni.”  This is often used as a preposition but it can also be used as an adjective. As a preposition it would simply mean that David danced before God. But as an adjective it would mean that David danced in God’s presence.  Actually it would be more correct to say that  David danced with God.

I mentioned in an earlier study how the sages teach there is a difference between walking before God and walking with God.  Abraham walked before God but Enoch walked with God. Guess who got the bigger prize?   The Talmud teaches that  it is like a father teaching his infant son to walk.  He will set the child up, take a few steps away from the child and the child will totter toward his father’s outstretched arms. Reaching his father he is rewarded with a big hug.  The child is walking before his father.  Eventually, the child gains enough confidence to walk with out the enticement of his father’s hugs.  He will then take his father’s hand and walk with him enjoying his father’s constant presences as they go to the market, or take walks together and experience new adventures together.

Thus, the sages would teach that David danced with God, not before God.  He wasn’t dancing to get his Father’s hugs, that he already had.  He was dancing with his Heavenly Father in climbing to a new height or a new level in his relationship with Him. How ironic?

For what is this dance?  The Hebrew word is karar.  The word for dance in Hebrew is mawkhole, that is not used here.  In fact karar is used only two times in the Hebrew Bible, both in this passage.  In extra Biblical sources karar does not mean to dance at all, it means to spin around  like top.   Spinning in a circle was a form of worship mostly practiced by children in ancient times.

You go to Great America and you will find dozens of ways it’s creators have thought of to spin you around in circle.  Why?  There is something very pleasurable about spinning around in a circle.  Indeed, even today in the Middle East the Meveleviye of the Surfi order of Islam perform a sema  by spinning around in a circle. They are known as Whirling Dervishes (a Dervish is an initiate of the Suri Path).   They believe that spinning around in a circle is symbolic of  throwing off your ego.

That is just a little history on spinning.  Actually David did this spin,  becal ‘oz.  In full power.  The pronoun “his” is not there in the Hebrew.  And looking closer at the word for “spin’ you find it is spelled  Kap – vav – resh.  Karar in it’s primal state means literally a person filled with the Holy Spirit.

So what does this teach us?  The key is in verse 20, all you pastors and Christian leaders.  Michal was not upset with David because he danced naked.  The word “naked or uncovered”  is “nigelah.”  Naked is only one rather rare use of this word.  It can also mean to uncover, open up, reveal a secret. But in it’s prime state it means to return to a beginning.  David was supposed to be the spiritual head honcho of Israel, a king, a pastor? a Christian leader?  and there he was spinning around like a little child, returning to his beginning as a child.  How could people have confidence in a spiritual leader who acts like a child?  What was David’s reply?  It was with God…therefore I  “sichaketi” with God. Some translations translate sichaketi as dance.  But it really means to play.

Do you and God ever play together.  I wonder what Jesus really meant when he gathered children around Him and said that unless you become like little children you can not enter the kingdom of God.  In II Samuel 6, David and God played together.

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