Kavanot: That Way Madness Lies

This is a very odd story; what is David trying to accomplish by feigning madness? Some say it was to convince the Philistines that he wasn’t really the David of ודוד ברבבתו, but why would that help? What does it mean וישם דוד את הדברים האלה בלבבו? Their words weren’t subtle—they were going to kill him! And why is David specifically afraid of Achish—it was Achish’s people that were threatening him? The Midrash expands on this story and makes it even less clear:

Of all possible complaints, why should David complain about mental illness? What does he have to do with madness? No one seems to answer this, but as I think about it, it becomes clear that he does have a concern about mental illness; not a general concern but a specific one. His question is not a theoretical one about G-d’s providence; it is a plaint about how mental illness has affected one of the most important people in his life—Saul. Saul, his father-in-law and father figure, is so warped by his paranoia that David is left homeless and on the run. This perspective turns this Midrash into a poignant look at David’s mindset.

And ה׳ answers that there will come a time that David will not only understand what happened to Saul, but will feel the same way.

The implication from the Midrash is that ה׳ actually granted David the insanity he sought, not that he was faking it. What is going on?

I think we need to look at what is happening to David, and how this is different from the other dangers he faced. What made this so dangerous was that Achish was not going to kill him. He was going to hire him! We know that because that is exactly what happens in another 6 perakim:

Imagine David’s state of mind. He is standing before the king of the Philistines, being sized up to become a king of one of their cities himself (remember the political organization of Philistia; each city had its own סרן; Achish was just first among equals). He has the sword of Goliath in his hands; the Goliath that he had killed with the declaration לא בחרב ובחנית יהושיע ה׳. As we said when we looked at Goliath’s family, חז״ל saw Goliath as a descendant of Orpah, who they saw as the sister of Ruth. That makes Goliath and David cousins. Goliath was one of the רפאים, not a native Philistine but a mercenary. And now David would become one as well.

I think David “took their words to heart” and saw Achish defending him and looked down at himself and couldn’t deal with what he saw. He, who was the משיח ה׳, anointed with the שמן המשחה, who had dedicated himself to building the בית המקדש, who declared אחת שאלתי מאת ה׳…שבתי בבית ה׳, is about to turn into Goliath.

Saul, faced with a similar unbearable reality of going from משיח ה׳ to וימאסך ממלך, broke. And David now realizes that “insanity” is a defense mechanism, a way of protecting oneself from facing that which cannot be faced.

But David is stronger than that. He does not break. But what can he do? He is standing there, Goliath’s sword in his hand, looking at a situation in which he will be forced to attack his own people and destroy everything he believes in and everything he believes he is. His only option to preserve his self-identity is to do what Saul will do when faced with defeat at the hands of the Philistines, what Achitophel will do when faced with the failure of the rebellion that he supported—he will fall on his own sword. So he prays to ה׳ to help, to give him another way out. And ה׳ answers him by granting him that insanity, that regression that will keep him from looking in the face of his own doom.

And the miracle is that ה׳ does save him. Achish looks at the gibbering David and sends him away unscathed, not because he was fooled, but because David is useless. And the realization that he is saved allows David to pull himself back and go on to the next perek, where he finally becomes a leader of men, the first step toward becoming דוד המלך.