The Downfall of Dan

On Tuesday (8/18/15), I read Judges 18:1-31, a story I did not remember, which tells of the “tribe of Danites” who sought an inheritance in the land like the other sons of Jacob.  The Danites secured an inheritance with the assistance of a Levite name Micah, who was a priest, but also a person who possessed, “household idols and the molten image,” (Jud 18:17).  This week’s (8/8/15) Parashah reading specifically addresses this issue.

“If your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as you own soul, entice  you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other god’s’…you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him…So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.  Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.” (Deut 13: 6-11)

Rather than destroy all these idols and the people in accordance with this week’s Parashah reading, the “sons of Dan” instead robbed and then “set up for themselves the graven image,” (Jud 18:30).

These events seemed to be the beginning of the apostasy and downfall of the tribe of Dan.  With apparently little resistance, Jeroboam later set up “the golden calves…at Dan,” (2 Kings 10:29).  Ultimately, the tribe of Dan failed to make the list of tribes among the 144,000 in Revelation 7:4-8, possibly because of their apostasy. 

All this happened because the tribe of Dan did not follow the commandments of the Lord.  Yet, even in this condition, there remains a pathway back to God called “repentance.”  As Rabbi Heshy Kleinman encourages the reader in his book The Power of Teshuvah (Repentance,

“While other mitzvos must be performed in their entirety to accomplish their particular spiritual function, teshuvah is different.  That is because it is, at its core, a healing process…each improvement is valuable…In fact, incremental progress in teshuvah is an important source of motivation for further advances.  Once we begin to feel an increased sense of God’s closeness, our desire to sin becomes commensurately weaker.”

Please remember to devote some time each day to repentance leading up to the “Days of Awe” and Yom Kippur.  All the best, Scott