Commentaire de citation sur Les Juges 16:29

And [he] turned about. וַיִּלָּפֵת =] and he was seized, as in, “And Shimshon grasped וַיִּלְפֹּת.”⁷Shoftim 16:29. Alternatively, “his skin Hardened [like a turnip= לפת] from fright.” (Maseches Sanhedrin 19b)

יהי דן, “Dan will be, etc.” There are several reasons why Yaakov in his blessing compares Dan to a serpent, a snake. The first one is that Samson, unlike others before or after him, did not command armies in his battles against the enemy of his people. He acted totally alone, just like a snake which attacks from an ambush, coming out of its lair. Secondly, just like a snake receives some mysterious whisper which causes it to act aggressively, so Samson would respond to the whisperings of Delilah. This is the deeper meaning of Judges 16, 16-17: “Finally, after she had nagged him and pressed him constantly, he was wearied to death and he confided everything to her. He said to her: ‘no razor has ever touched my head; for I have been a Nazirite to G’d since I was in my mother’s womb. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me and I should become as an ordinary man.’” Furthermore, just as a snake is also known as שרף due to its venom which burns, so Samson burned down the fields of the Philistines when the corn in them was close to being harvested. (Compare Judges 15,5). Also, just as the snake attacks man in his heel, at is lowest point, seeing the first serpent had been condemned to crawl on its belly, and G’d had told it that the way it would attack man would be by biting man’s heel (Genesis 3,14), so Samson is described as נוקב עקבי סוס “attacking the heel of a horse,” i.e. bringing down the pillars of the temple of the Philistines (compare Judges 16,29). He killed 3,000 Philistines who were sitting on the roof of that temple (Judges 16,27). The reason Samson’s exploits are described here as causing “the rider to fall backwards,” is that when a snake bites the heel of a horse, the horse rears upwards with its front legs throwing its rider backwards. Just as the snake kills without the use of a sword, so Samson killed without conventional arms as mentioned in Judges 16, 30: “those who were slain by him (when he made the pillars of their temple collapse) outnumbered those whom he had killed while he was alive.”
Bereshit Rabbah 99,11 relates that just as a serpent is vengeful so Samson was vengeful. This is based on Judges 16,28: “O, Lord give me strength once more to take revenge of the Philistines, if only for one of my two eyes.” Thus far the Midrash.

הנשך עקבי סוס THAT BITETH THE HORSE’S HEELS — this is the manner of the serpent. Scripture compares him to a serpent that bites the horse’s heels ויפל רכבו אחור THAT HIS RIDER FALLETH BACKWARD without it (the serpent) having touched him at all. We find the analogy to this in the case of Samson with reference to whom this prophecy was made (Judges 16:29): “And Samson took fast hold of the two middle pillars etc.” — and those on the roof died though not directly attacked. Onkelos translates נחש by כחיוי חורמן, like the serpent “Churman”, which is the name of a kind of serpent the bite of which is incurable. It is the serpent which in Hebrew is called צפעוני. It is called a חורמן because it destroys (חרם) everything. The word וכפיתנא in the Targum means “and like a פתן” (like an asp). יכמון in the Targum means יארוב “he lies in wait”.

and he named the right one Jachin although the moon is smaller than the sun, i.e., that it shou ld help him like an established moon, but not like a diminishing moon. Said Solomon, “If the Holy One, blessed be He, compares my kingdom to the sun and the moon, I too shall make an established and enduring thing, namely, large copper pillars.” Another explanation: Huram, who was one of the sons of Dan, made the pillars. He called one Jachin after his father Samson, about whom Scripture states (Jud. 16:29): “And Samson grasped the two pillars of the center, etc.” And Solomon called the second one Boaz after his grandfather, Boaz. A similar instance is (Gen. 31:47): “And Laban called it Yegar Sahadutha.”

are held Heb. ילפתו. They hold the paths of their way, as in (Jud. 16:29), “And Samson grasped (וילפת),” and similarly (Ruth 3:8), “and the man quaked and was taken around (וילפת),” for the woman embraced him.

גרב is a kind of lichen and so too is ילפת. The word ילפת is connected in meaning with (Judges 16:29) “And Samson took hold (וילפת) [of the two middle pillars]”. The blemish is so called because it keeps its grasp on him (the sick person) until the day of his death, since there is no cure for it (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 21:20).