1. Why did Dovid Hamelech only investigate one aveira each year of the famine? If they were suffering through a famine, once he verified it was not one aveira, why not investigate the next possible aveira straight away?
2. Why did Dovid Hamelech wait to consult with the Urim Vetumin for three years? Klal Yisroel needed a solution to the famine. Isn't this sufficient reason for the king to consult with the Urim VeTumin?
3. Why was Shaul only criticized for 'killing' the Givonim and not for actually killing the Kohanim of Nov?
4. The Givonim were not actually killed. Their livelihood was taken away. Why did Dovid allow the Givonim to dictate that Shaul's descendants be killed? This sin was not deserving of death?
5. These causes of the famine- not being maspid Shaul properly and Shaul having killed the Givonim - had happened about 30 years previously. Why was the famine brought as a punishment so long after the aveiros had been done?
6. The Gemora is mashma that Dovid HaMelech was worried that the Goyim should say the Jewish People is a nation worth joining. Klal Yisroel generally does not encourage geirim. Why the great concern to attract geirim? As the Gemora says 150,000 geirim were attracted to join Klal Yisroel.
7. Why were thye mekabel these geirim? Geirim were not accepted in the times of Dovid Hemelech?
Yisroel Alter Pacanowski, Australia
Sholom Rav.
Quite a Handful!
I will try to answer the questions one by one as briefly as possible.
1. Why do you assume that it took less than a year to thoroughly investigate each sin?
2. David waited with consulting the Urim ve'Tumim until he had exhausted all other possibilities, presumably because one does not consult the Urim ve'Tumim unless there is no other way of finding a solution.
3. King Shaul was also criticized for murdering the Kohanim of Nov - and actually died in battle on account of it. It is not hard to understand why Hash-m dealt the two punishments the way He did.
4. In reply to a similar question "Lo Yumsu Avos al Banim" the Gemara itself explains that it was due to the Chilul Hash-m. According to the Ritva, Hash-m agreed to have them killed because they were anyway Chayav Misah for reasons that only He knew - which explains why the Urim ve'Tumim picked them.
5. Hash-m is called "Erech Apayim" because He is In no hurry to punish and is able to do so at any time that He chooses, Only He knows why He punishes (and rewards) when He does. Incidentally, we find the same thing with regard to the Yiden in Shushan, who, according to one opinion, were threatened with annihilation because they, or rather their ancestors, bowed down to the image of Nevuchadnetzar - many generations earlier!
6. The Gemara does not say that they actually encouraged the Goyim to convert. What it says is that the Goyim should not say that the Jewish people are not worth joining - a terrible Chilul Hash-m (Incidentally, there is a similar Gemara in Chulin, 86a, which describes people who create a Kidush Hash-m or a Chilul Hash-m). The fact that many Goyim converted was the result of the Kidush Hash-m that it created, and was not what David Hamelech planned.
7. Tosfos asked the same question on 24b and answered that they converted of their own accord and not through Beis-Din - in which case their conversion was not valid. According to the Ritvo, the prohibition did not apply, since they for genuine reasons and not out of love or fear. Wishing you a good Shabbos and a Chag Same'ach.
Be'Virchas Kol Tuv
Eliezer Chrysler.