What makes a good leader? What happens when power, faith, ambition, and human weakness collide?
Hosted by Pardes faculty member Rabbi Michael Hattin, Crises & Kings is an in-depth journey through the Book of Samuel, one of Tanakh’s most dramatic explorations of leadership and political power. Moving closely through the biblical text, the series follows Israel’s transformation from a loose confederation of tribes into a monarchy—and the complicated people who shape that transformation.
At the center are Saul and David, Israel’s first kings. Saul arrives as a figure of enormous promise, but his reign is gradually undone by fear, misjudgment, and conflict. David emerges as his successor: warrior, poet, strategist, and founder of a dynasty, but also a profoundly complicated human being capable of extraordinary achievement and serious moral failure.
Rabbi Hattin delves into these stories with the close textual attention characteristic of the Pardes beit midrash, exploring not only what happens but what the narrative asks us to notice. How much of history is shaped by divine destiny, and how much by human choice? What makes authority legitimate? How should leaders respond to failure? And what happens when religious devotion itself becomes misplaced?
Listeners are invited to prepare the biblical passages independently or with a havruta, although no advance study is required. Crises & Kings offers the chance to encounter Sefer Shmuel as both an ancient story and an enduring exploration of leadership, responsibility, faith, and power.
