In the Book of Samuel 28, readers encounter a séance. By way of backdrop, our lead verse tells of the prophet Samuel’s death. While alive, King Saul systematically sought Samuel’s steadfast support. With Samuel gone, the king sorely lamented, as did all the Hebrews.
”Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah…And Saul had put away those that divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit out of the land.”
Not everyone mourned Samuel’s passing. Assuming advantage, Philistines pounced. “The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa.” The specter of the Philistine military camp disquieted Saul’s soul, distressing him to no end. “And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.” Shaken and distraught, Saul sought divine deliverance – to no avail. “And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.” A cheerless King Saul reached wits end.
In a state of disequilibrium, the desperate king did the unthinkable. He enlisted illicit instruction from an unlikely corner – a witch. “Then said Saul unto his servants: Seek me a woman that divines by a ghost, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him: Behold, there is a woman that divines by a ghost at En-dor.” Here, then, is the story leading up to Saul and the witch, featuring a séance. “Then said the woman: Whom shall I bring up unto you? And he said: Bring me up Samuel.”
Abravanel is mortified at the prospect whereby a no-good witch converses with the good and honorable Samuel, freshly interred. He peppers readers with hardball questions, as per below.
- How in the world did a witch, a spiritually defiled one at that, exert power over and beckon saintly Samuel? The prophet’s soul had immediately been ushered into the Maker’s inner sanctum. The prospect of a witch interrupting Samuel’s repose led some writers to suppose the preposterous: maybe the prophet’s soul had not been bound up with other pious souls.
- The witch’s words conveyed prophecy. That is crazy, considering that prophecy is, well, the domain of righteous prophets. And witches don’t fit that bill. As such, they are not privy to the Creator’s communiqués.
- If we suppose that really Samuel received the prophecy and shared it with the witch, then another issue arises. Is there prophecy from the grave? Many commentators are on record saying that prophecy belongs to the living – only.
- Lastly, even if Samuel did manage to receive prophecy, by which means could he have communicated with the witch? He lacked an ability to speak, let alone an ability to employ other creative or imaginative faculties.
Abravanel’s answers are quite lengthy, owing to his thorough, prefatory critiques of other Bible commentators. Following is a synopsis of his three key premises.
- When a man dies, his physical casing returns to dust, to earth, from whence it derived. In contrast to man’s body, upon death, his eternal soul returns to Heaven, from whence it came. Here’s a caveat. Men, of course, conduct themselves in myriads of ways. Hence, while all bodies return to earth, not all souls receive the same blessed spiritual afterlife. The main thing is how they lived in terms of piety and propriety. When we speak of Samuel, we do not equivocate; his saintly soul received spiritual reward accorded to the very purest human beings.
- Witchcraft, at least in Biblical times, was a force to be reckoned with. To a certain degree, witches and their sidekick ghosts could eke out a sketchy view of future events.
- Witches, as stated, carried out their dirty work via ghostly agents. Ghosts, for their part, displayed a perverse propensity or proclivity to enter man’s bodies, meaning they sought a connection or intimacy with them. When a witch/ghost duo engage with a deceased man’s body, ghosts become energized, vitalized. These ghostly actors invaded corpses, acting as its spirit and soulmate. At that juncture, and with the manipulation of witches plying their trade, witches could elevate or levitate the dead from the grave. Note: levitation should not be taken literally, as no physical movement took place. Rather, it is as if the body came up from the bowels of the earth. On topic, Abravanel continues, at this stage in a séance, a witch could foresee some future events.
With these key fundamentals in place, we can proceed and tie up loose ends. Witches/ghosts do not interact with man’s soul, thus in our chapter, we put forward that the witch had not dislodged Samuel’s holy soul from the heavens. This is certainly true, for no person (especially a defiled one) holds sway over deceased prophets. Instead, our chapter relates to the witch and Samuel’s lifeless body. Therefore, as posited above, it is in the realm of likelihood that the witch communicated with the pious man’s physical casing, no differently than she could converse with any other corpse. With the witch’s mobilization of her ghostly lackey, a window of opportunity opened, affording an ability to espy the future.
The witch, in our chapter, was hired by King Saul. She presaged Saul’s imminent battle with and defeat by the Philistines. From Samuel’s body’s perspective, it – as it were – fumed at being disturbed. For Abravanel, the prophet’s body really hadn’t been exhumed. Rather, heaven beamed a message feigning perturbance, suggesting that Samuel resented an intrusion to his body, a once holy vessel likened to a holy temple.
To recap our verses, “And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night.” The imminent séance, we see, required the petitioner (Saul) to name his deceased respondent (Samuel). “And he said: Divine unto me, I pray you, by a ghost, and bring me up whomsoever I shall name unto you.” Though the witch protested, for she feared for her life, owing to Saul’s national ban on witchcraft, Saul promised indemnification. “And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying: As the LORD lives, there shall no punishment…” Assured, “Then said the woman: Whom shall I bring up unto you? And he said: Bring me up Samuel.”
For Abravanel, each element proved pivotal if the witch was to successfully answer Saul’s question regarding the upcoming war with the Philistines. Thus, when the king asked the witch to beckon Samuel, she could patch together a workable peek – and fair prediction – into the war’s outcome.