This week’s Haftara is from the Book of Judges. The Haftara is about the Angel meeting with Samson’s parents-Manoah and his wife and informing the woman about the birth of a son. The Angel also informs the mother to be that she cannot  drink any wine from pregnancy. Also the son who will be born cannot neither drink any sort of wine nor have his hair cut.

The son who was to be born and named Samson later, was to be a “Nazir”. The parents reaction to the news of a son being born to them is very passive. The parents in the first place did not have any initiative, they were calm and accepted the fact that they did not have any children. The Haftara does not tell us that Manoah and his wife were praying to Hashem in order to have a child. This fact is in complete contradiction when compared to the situation of other characters in the Tanach.We know many stories where the husband and wife play an active role in acting against barrenness. Abraham approaches Hashem and points out to his promise which he promised to him. Isaac and Rivka make every effort and pray to Hashem for their situation, Rachel’s confrontation with Jacob and of Hannah and the Shunamit woman. All these above characters prayed with begged of Hashem to have children.

We may also want to note that both Samson and Samuel, who was born later, were “Nazirim”. But we may note here that Samson had more physical strength but did not do much spiritually. On the other hand, Samuel was at a spiritually higher level and could lead the people in a systematic way. Samuel was the one to anoint Saul as the first King of Israel and later also anoint David as Saul’s replacement.