Doeg

[edu]

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_05293.html

DOEG (Heb. דּוֹיֵג, דּוֹאֵג, דֹּאֵג), the Edomite, one of Saul's court officials and his trusted adviser (I Sam. 22:9). The epithet הָאֲדֹמִי (the Edomite; Ps. 52:2) points up Doeg's foreign origin. He was probably responsible for the king's property and his herds, as can be deduced from his title, "Saul's chief herdsman" (I Sam. 21:8; cf. I Chron. 27:28–31). Some read רצים (raẓim, "runners, guards") instead of רעים (roʿim, "herdsmen"), and believe that he headed a regiment of runners, i.e., the bodyguard of the king, who ran before his carriage and executed his orders (cf. II Sam. 15:1). It seems that Doeg attained his important position in the court of Saul after having held a senior appointmentin Edom before his arrival in Israel. It could also be that his title ʾabbir (Heb. "chief") was the title of his Edomite office. This was in accordance with the policy of Saul and of David, both of whom chose experienced men from neighboring countries to conduct their administrative affairs. He doubtless adopted his master's religion (I Sam. 21:.

His being an Edomite and a stranger among the servants of Saul explains his unswerving loyalty to the king. In contrast to the servants of the king who betrayed him and were ready to side with David in exchange for some benefits which they could gain, as Saul himself complained, and who refused to submit information on David's whereabouts, Doeg was the only one to inform the king of the assistance which had been extended by *Ahimelech, one of the priests of Nob, to David when he fled from Saul (I Sam. 22:7–10). He was also the only one of the royal runners who was ready to kill on the king's orders. He thus put to death 85 of the priests of Nob and destroyed the city to its foundations so that only Abiathar the son of Ahimelech succeeded in escaping the massacre and finding his way to David (I Sam. 22:17–20).

[Josef Segal]

In the Aggadah

Doeg was a man of great learning who, however, perverted his knowledge for base and selfish ends (Sanh. 106b). He was called "Adomi" (Edomite) because he made those who disputed with him blush (adom, "red") with shame at their ignorance (Mid. Ps. to 52:4). He suited the law to his own purposes when persuading Saul not to kill Agag (ibid.); when maintaining that Ahimelech's consultation of the *Urim and Thummim on David's behalf (I Sam. 22:11–19) was illegal (ibid., 52:5); by convincing Saul that David's marriage to Michal had lost validity from the day David was declared a rebel (Gen. R. 32:1); and by attempting to refute David's legitimacy because of his descent from Ruth the Moabitess (Yev. 76b–77a). Doeg is rebuked, "Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak right" (Ps. 52:5), and God says to him, "Are you not a mighty man in Torah? Why than boastest thyself in mischief?" (Sanh. 106b). The variant spellings of Doeg's name in I Samuel 21:8 and 22:22 are explained: "At first God sits and is anxious (דּוֹאֵג, do'eg) lest one go out on an evil course. But once he does so, He exclaims, 'Woe (דוֹיֵג, doyeg) that he has entered on an evil path'" (Sanh. 106b). Eventually, Doeg's knowledge was taken from him. When he was 34 years old, he was confronted by three destroying angels, one of whom caused him to forget his learning, one burnt his soul, and the third scattered his ashes in the synagogues and schoolhouses (ibid.). According to another tradition, he was slain by his students when they saw that his wisdom had departed from him (Yalk. Sam. 131). His enmity toward David sprang from the fact that David chose a site for the Temple in preference to his own (Zev. 54b). Doeg deliberately praised David lavishly in Saul's presence (I Sam. 16:18) in order to arouse Saul's wrath against him (Sanh. 93b). As a result of his calumny Ahimelech, Abner, Saul, and Doeg himself lost their lives (TJ, Pe'ah 1:1). Doeg is one of the four commoners who have no place in the olam ha-ba, world to come (Sanh. 10:2), and one of those who set their eyes upon that which was not proper for them; what they sought was not granted to them, and what they possessed was taken from them (Sot. 9b).

[muman613]

http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/review/archives/kedoshim63.htm

FAITH IN THE SAGES (continued)
by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov
with commentary

Doeg's learning came from those non-essentials, or waste.

Doeg was the general who betrayed David. Interestingly enough, Doeg means literally "to worry." A state of worry and anxiety is definitely not in consonance with resonating to a tzaddik's clear apprehension of reality.

"And over there was one of the servants of Shaul ... remaining before Hashem, whose name was Doeg..." (Shmuel I 12:8). Rashi explains that the word "remaining" indicates that "he held himself back to engage in Torah learning." [In post-Talmudic Hebrew, this word for "remain," "hold back," means "constipation."] Doeg's Torah learning was in the realm of this kind of "holding back"–i.e., of waste. And as a result, he came to the conclusion that David is unfit to be a member of the community of Israel (cf. Yevamot 66b). All of this was due to the fact that his learning came from this "waste matter."

Previous discussion of "malodorous vapors rising to the brain" is now developed into shocking scatological imagery. Torah knowledge in itself does not guarantee that one has acquired "daat Torah"–a Torah consciousness. To the contrary, one's base consciousness can subsume one's Torah learning to itself. And the nadir is reached when a purported Torah scholar persecutes and rejects the greatest tzaddik and leader. Obviously, these are fighting words, continuing the denigration of unenlightened Torah scholars that began in the early teachings of Hasidism and bringing them up to date so as to refer (presumably) to R. Nachman's own opponents. If these allusions aren't specific enough, R. Nachman goes on to explicate.

There are some leaders who are called "rabbi" [or "rebbe"–specifically, a Hasidic leader] whose learning comes from those non-essentials, or waste. Not only can they not guide themselves, they certainly cannot guide anyone else. Yet they claim the right to be universal guides. It is important not to ordain such people, not to give them any authority, so that they will not be called "rabbi" [or "rebbe"]. These people themselves aren't so much to blame, because they have a strong unfortunate drive to lead other people. But it is important to be extremely careful not to give them any authority. Those who do give them authority and ordain them so that they will be called "rabbi" ["rebbe"] will have to give an accounting of themselves in the future.

And when an incompetent person is deemed "rabbi" [or "rebbe"], our handwriting is weakened, and it has no strength, and the power is given over into the hands [of non-Jews'] writings.

When the flow of divine energy is misdirected into people who will use it in a way contrary to God's intent, then this dynamic spreads into other areas of spirituality, and the energy that should enter holy writings is diverted and enters unfit documents, giving them power.

As a result, [the gentiles] issue decrees taking away the force of our documents, and leaving it only with their writings, and the people of Israel are forced to learn their writing.

I don't know the specific historical circumstances that R. Nachman is referring to (this lesson was taught in 1807), but that was apparently when the anti-Semitic governments of Eastern Europe began to impose "enlightenment" on their Jewish populations, which included forcing Jews to learn secular texts.