1. שמואל א The childhood of שמואל the prophet By Edee Polyakovsky

2. Chana, Penina and Elkana  שמואל ‘s father Elkana had two wives, Chana and Penina  Penina bullied Chana because Chana had no children and she had many  Penina always found something that she could taunt or tease Chana about  She made Chana feel miserable when ever she could  Chana really wanted a child  Elkana favored Chana even though she had no children  He always gave her the best portion of the sacrifices

3. Chana’s Tefila  Every year Elkana took his household to Shiloh where the Mishkan was  They ate and drank with Eli the כהן  Chana got up and started praying to Hashem for a child  She said that if she had a son she would give him back into Hashem’s service  She only moved her lips and didn’t make any noise This was not how people used to pray and Eli accused her of being drunk When Chana told him that she was praying, he apologized and gave her his blessing

4. שמואל ‘s Childhood  Soon after Chana got Eli’s blessing she had a son  His name was שמואל  When he was four year old and done nursing, Chana fulfilled her promise to Hashem  She brought שמואל to Eli in Shiloh and gave him to Eli so he could serve Hashem  Eli raised שמואל like his own son  שמואל only saw his parents once a year when Elkana brought his sacrifice Every time Chana came to see him she brought him a special robe

5. שמואל ‘s Brothers חפני and פנחס  Eli had two real sons named חפני and פנחס  חפני and פנחס were bad examples for שמואל because they did not serve Hashem  They stole from the people’s sacrifices with a big wooden fork  חפני and פנחס abused the power they had as כהנים  They went out of their way to make it hard for the people to give their sacrifices  The people couldn’t do anything about it

6. Eli’s Curse  Eli knew that his sons were abusing their power but he didn’t do anything  Because of this Hashem cursed Eli that one day his family would be stripped of it’s title of כהן and they would be forced to beg for food  The prophesy would start when Eli found out that both of his sons died on the same day  The prophesy was delivered to Eli by his friend Elkana, שמואל ‘s father  Like father like son, Elkana was a prophet

7. שמואל ‘s First Prophecy  Even through all of חפני and פנחס ‘s evil שמואל still “walked with Hashem”  One night Hashem called שמואל in a dream  He thought Eli was calling him and rushed to Eli  It was not Eli and after three times Eli told שמואל that it was Hashem  Hashem told שמואל the prophecy to Eli Every night שמואל slept by the menorah. He kept it lit at all times and cleaned it.

8. The War with the Plishtim  The בני ישראל went to war with the Plishtim  The Plishtim crushed the בני ישראל killing 4,000 men  After their defeat they went to Shiloh and got the ארון to bring with them to war  חפני and פנחס went with the ארון into battle  When the Plishtim heard the בני ישראל blowing the shofar they were scared but they still went to fight  The Plishtim beat the בני ישראל again, killing a total of 30,000 men  The Plishtim also captured the ארון and brought it back with them to their city אשדוד

9. חפני, פנחס and Eli’s Deaths  חפני and פנחס died in battle  In the prophecy Elkana gave to Eli it said that חפני and פנחס ‘s death would start the curse  If they died on the same day it ment that the prophecy would actually happen  פנחס ‘s wife had just had a baby and when she heard the bad news she named her son אי כבוד which means with out honor When a messenger brought back the news that the ארון had been captured and חפני and פנחס died to Eli he was so surprised and sad that he fell out of his chair and died

10. The Capture of the ארון  When the Plishtim beat the בני ישראל they captured the ארון and brought it back to their city אשדוד  The Plishtim put the ארון next to a statue of their god Dagon  The next morning the priest found that Dagon’s statue had fallen down in front of the ארון like it was bowing  The Plishtim still didn’t get the message and they just set Dagon on his pedestal again They just set Dagon up again but the next morning Dagon was on the floor and his hands had fallen off. They still didn’t give the ארון back! The next morning all of the Plishtim in אשדוד had a blistery rash all over their skin

11. The Plague  After a couple of days of this rash, the Plishtim decided to move the ארון to a different city hoping that it would be safer there  They moved the ארון to Gath  The people in Gath also got the plague but this time it was worse  They moved the ארון again, this time to Ekron but the Plishtim of Ekron started dying from the plague  Finally the leaders of the Plishtim realized that they needed to give the ארון back

12. Bringing the ארון Back  The ארון stayed in the “Field of the Plishtim” for seven months  They didn’t know how to return the ארון to the בני ישראל and be cured by Hashem  The Plishtim’s priests said they should send the ארון back with a guilt offering of five gold hemorrhoids and five golden mice so Hashem would cure them  The Plishtim made a test to see if the plague was really from Hashem  They hitched two cows that had never been yoked to a cart  If the cart went to בית שמש then they knew it was Hashem who sent the plague, if not the plague was just an accident

13. The ארון ‘s Return  The cows went strait to בית שמש  When they got there the people stopped what they were doing and rejoiced to see the ארון  They put the ארון on a big rock in the field of Joshua  The people made sacrifices to Hashem in front of the ארון  Hashem killed all of the people in בית שמש because they looked at the ארון  They sent a message to Kiriath-jearim saying that the ארון had been returned

14. Another War with the Plishtim  The ארון remained in Kiriath-jearim for 20 years  שמואל told the בני ישראל that if they went got rid of any foreign gods in their midst, Hashem would protect them from the Plishtim  The בני ישראל fasted and prayed to Hashem at Mitzpah  When the lords of the Plishtim heard about this, they attacked the בני ישראל  They prayed to Hashem and שמואל sacrificed a lamb to in hope that Hashem would save them from the Plishtim  The בני ישראל beat the Plishtim  The Plishtim did not attack again in all of the days of שמואל the prophet

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