You know you have something good when the entire cast and crew are in tears during a rehearsal. Not tears of frustration (though there can be plenty of those in a production of any scale!), but emotion pouring out on faces as two cast members, Rivka Deray and Michal Lourenco (pictured), playing Shaul and Yonatan, rehearse a haunting song of regret and prayer, on the cusp of their final battle with the Philistines.

(To find out how the story ends, see Shmuel I, chapter 31 – or better yet, ladies, come and see David The Servant King in early 2026!)

That scene, and David’s heartrending eulogy that follows, led another cast member, Malkah Fleisher, who plays Yishai, to comment to me on the degree of tragedy present in the narrative, which follows David from his birth until his ascent to the throne. She seemed surprised to notice this, since the show is well-balanced with many moments of strength and humor that act as a counterweight to the pain experienced by so many of the characters, especially the protagonist, David.

And yet, in learning Tanach in general and Navi (Prophets) in particular, I have always been acutely aware of the pain and tragedy that accompany so much of our history.

Many Tanach teachers remind us that ‘Torah isn’t a fairy tale’; most, if not all, are not written with ‘happy endings’. The stories that form our history and our mandate were recorded by G-d and our prophets with a particular purpose in mind — to help us understand what we are supposed to do and why, as individuals and as a nation, and to allow us to learn from our ancestors’ mistakes.

The last few months have been busy with rehearsals for the show, but as it so beautifully combines my passions for music and Tanach, I felt compelled to take the opportunity to ‘deep dive’* into the Biblical text that inspired

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)