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The Kenites Who Traded Jericho's Gold for a Seat in the Study House

Jethro's children walked away from the richest land in Canaan to sit in the dust at Jabez, and from that seat a nation of wandering sages was born.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Richest Square in the Promised Land
  2. The Day Benjamin Came to Collect
  3. The Vow They Would Not Break
  4. The Scholars Who Rode the White Donkeys
  5. The Backwater That Made Heaven Answer
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The Richest Square in the Promised Land

When Israel carved up the conquered land, one plot was too valuable to hand out with the rest. They measured off the heart of Jericho, five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits, the city of palm trees, its soil so rich a man grew fat on its air. No tribe claimed it. They swore a vow over the square and left it standing empty, a prize with no owner. "Whoever has the Chosen House built in his portion," they said, "shall take the rich land of Jericho." Until the Temple found its ground, it would belong to no one and to everyone.

Into that unclaimed wealth walked the family of Jethro, the Midianite priest who had once counseled Moses in the wilderness. His children, the Kenites, were handed the produce of Jericho to enjoy while the generations waited for the House to rise. And enjoy it they did, for four hundred and forty years, dates and balsam and fat harvests all flowing to the children of a convert.

The Day Benjamin Came to Collect

Then the House rose. The Divine Presence came down and settled in the portion of Benjamin, and the old vow came due. The sons of Benjamin walked into Jericho and cleared the Kenites out. Four hundred and forty years of possession, ended by a single line in an ancient promise.

They could have fought for it. Instead they packed what they could carry and turned their backs on the richest ground in the world. They went up to Arad, to the academy of a man named Jabez, whose prayer God had already answered, and they sat down in the dust to learn beside him.

The Vow They Would Not Break

These were the Rechabites, sworn men. Generations back their father Jonadab son of Rechab had bound them by an oath. No wine, no vineyards, no houses of stone. Only tents, and the open road. They kept it. When a prophet later set pitchers of wine before them to test them, none would touch a drop. And they had a stranger reason for their wandering than obedience. "Since this House is one day to be pulled down," they said of the Temple itself, "we hold it pulled down already, and we will not build in stone what stone cannot keep." They slept in booths because they had already mourned a ruin no one else could yet see.

For that they earned names that were really scars. Tirathites, because they had shaved their heads in grief and sat at the gates of Jerusalem, and because when they cried out heaven answered them. Shimeathites, because their fathers had stood at the mountain and heard the ram's horn sound at Sinai. Suchathites, because they never rubbed oil into their skin and slept under branches.

Rabbi Nathan weighed their covenant against the one made with kings and found it heavier. God's promise to David carried a condition. Keep My covenant, or feel the rod. The promise sworn to the house of Rechab carried none. "Jonadab son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me all the days." Converts, someone objected, do not enter the Sanctuary. True, came the answer. Neither do most of Israel. But these men sat in the Sanhedrin (the high rabbinic court in Jerusalem) and taught Torah, their daughters married into the priesthood, and their grandchildren laid offerings on the altar.

The Scholars Who Rode the White Donkeys

From that seat in the dust at Jabez a whole roving nation of learning was born. The families who settled beside him became the scribes, and their sons took the road their fathers had never left. Long after, Deborah sang her victory over Sisera and called out to them by their mounts. "You who ride on white donkeys," she sang, and the school of Rav Anan knew exactly whom she meant. The disciples of the sages, who go from city to city and province to province with Torah in their saddlebags, and wherever they stop to teach they make the place blaze like noon.

White, because their hands were clean of robbery. The masters of Scripture walked the road, the masters of Mishnah walked it beside them, and the masters of the Gemara opened their mouths, and even their idle talk turned out to be Torah. In their courts they set the matter squarely on the law, and the world leaned its whole weight on them and did not fall.

The Backwater That Made Heaven Answer

There was a small town in Israel, a nothing place, a place no victory song remembers. Its people rose one morning and built a synagogue. Then they built a house of study. They hired a cantor to carry the prayers and teachers to sit the children in rows, and out of that one poor town more houses of study opened across the land than anyone could count.

A promise waited inside the smallest of those acts. Any man who opened his mouth and drew out a word of Torah that had never been spoken quite that way before, from his own lips, in his own poverty, was counted as though the words had been proclaimed to him from heaven. A voice came down to such a man, and it carried the weight of the Throne. "Thus said the Holy One, blessed be He," it told him, "build Me a house, for its reward is great." Jethro's children had walked away from the richest square in the world, and heaven had answered by making every dusty study house the one possession no army could ever come to collect.

KenitesRechabitesJethroTorah StudyJabezScribesJudges
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 38:3Yalkut Shimoni on Nach

Translation of the source text.Yalkut Shimoni on Nach (Sefaria) · CC-BY-NC

Another interpretation: [Putiel] because he separated himself from idolatry, as it is said, "They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is no-god" (Deuteronomy 32:21), and it says, "where was the seat of the image of jealousy" (Ezekiel 8:3). "They went up from the city of palm trees" (Judges 1:16): they left behind the rich land of Jericho and came before Jabez at Arad to study Torah, as it is said, "And Jabez called, etc., and God granted that which he asked" (1 Chronicles 4:10) -- pious ones came to study beside a pious one. For when they apportioned the land, they set aside the rich land of Jericho, five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits. They said: whoever has the Chosen House [the Temple] built in his portion shall take the rich land of Jericho. They gave it to the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab, who ate from it for four hundred and forty years until the House was built. And once the Divine Presence rested in the portion of Benjamin, the descendants of Benjamin came and cleared them out. "And he went and dwelt with the people" (Judges 1:16) -- "people" here means wisdom, as it is said, "Truly you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you" (Job 12:2). They went and settled beside Jabez, as it is said, "and the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez" (1 Chronicles 2:55). "Tirathites": because they shaved [their hair in mourning]. "Tirathites": because they sat at the gates of Jerusalem. "Tirathites": because they cried out [hetriu] and were answered. "Shimeathites": because they heard [shameu] the sound of the trumpet-blast at Sinai. "Suchathites": because they did not anoint themselves [sachu] with oil. "Suchathites": because they dwelt in booths [sukkot]. They said: since this House is destined to be destroyed, we regard it as though it were already destroyed from now on, as it is said, "And we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us" (Jeremiah 35:10). Rabbi Nathan says: greater is the covenant cut with Jonadab son of Rechab than the covenant cut with David. For the covenant cut with David was made only on condition, as it is said, "If your children keep My covenant" (Psalms 132:12) -- and if not, "I will visit their transgression with the rod" (Psalms 89:33). But the covenant cut with Jonadab son of Rechab was not made on condition, as it is said, "Therefore thus says the LORD: Jonadab son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me all the days" (Jeremiah 35:19). Rabbi Jonathan says: do converts then enter the Sanctuary? Why, even Israelites do not enter the Sanctuary, but rather they sit in the Sanhedrin and teach words of Torah. And some say: their daughters were married to priests, and their grandchildren offered sacrifices upon the altar. And how do we know that the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab were descendants of Jethro? As it is said, "These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab" (1 Chronicles 2:55). Now if these, who drew themselves near, were so drawn near by the Holy One, blessed be He, then Israel, who do the will of the Omnipresent, how much more so!

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Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 49:3Yalkut Shimoni on Nach

Translation of the source text.Yalkut Shimoni on Nach (Sefaria) · CC-BY-NC

"You who ride on white donkeys" (Judges 5:10). The school of Rav Anan taught: these are the disciples of the sages who travel from city to city and from province to province, occupying themselves with Torah, and they make those places shine like noon. "You who sit in judgment" (Judges 5:10) refers to those who sit and render a true judgment in accordance with its truth. "And you who walk" (Judges 5:10) refers to the masters of Scripture; "on the way" refers to the masters of Mishnah; "give voice" refers to the masters of Gemara, whose every conversation is words of Torah.

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Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 49:4Yalkut Shimoni on Nach

Translation of the source text.Yalkut Shimoni on Nach (Sefaria) · CC-BY-NC

"You who ride on white donkeys" (Judges 5:10): "white" means nothing other than clean of robbery. "You who sit in judgment" means they establish the matter upon the law. "And you who walk on the way, give voice" refers to the Sanhedrin, upon whom the world leans, and who never have idle talk, as it is said, "Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes" (Judges 5:3). "From the sound of those who divide" (Judges 5:11) refers to those who declare of the impure "impure" and of the pure "pure": the laws of Shabbat, of the festival offerings, of the laws of misappropriation, and the laws concerning what divides a person. "Between the watering places" means those who study and draw out words of Torah. "There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of His leadership in Israel" (Judges 5:11). There was a small town in Israel: they arose and built themselves a synagogue and a house of study and hired themselves a cantor and teachers of children, and many houses of study were found in Israel. And whoever renews words of Torah from his own mouth is regarded as one to whom they are proclaimed from heaven, and they say to him: thus said the Holy One, blessed be He, build Me a house, for its reward is great, as it is said, "They chose new gods" (Judges 5:8).

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