re – narratore / king – narrator

Dal programma “Uomini e Profeti” del 20/3/2011, “Saul: tragedia del primo re”, col rabbino Haim Baharier.

Haim Baharier, a rabbi in Italy, was the guest on the March 20th program of Uomini e Profeti discussing I Samuel 9-15, entitled “Saul: tragedy of the first king”.  In the course of the discussion he made a remark that caught my attention.

Noi parliamo del re d’Israel, Shaul, mentre il testo parla di ‘naghid’, e non parla di un re. ‘Naghid’, che sarebbe poi una guida, è di nuovo etimologicamente una parola che ha a che vedere con ‘narrazione’. Quindi è come se venisse offerto a questo popolo che chiede una guida, un re, gli venisse offerto un narratore.

We speak of Israel’s king, Saul, while the text speaks of a ‘naghid’, not a king.  A ‘naghid’, that is, a guide, is in turn a word that etymologically has to do with ‘narration’.  Thus, to this people who asks for a guide, a king, it is as though a narrator is offered.

I find this a fascinating comment on the role of a sovereign—a king, a president, a prime minister, perhaps even a legislature—as one who, in the process of making decisions toward specific ends which he or she determines, authors and narrates the group’s formative myths in the process.