Introduction: The Chapter in Which the Ark Was Taken
Chapter 4 of Shmuel A is one of the most difficult chapters in Tanach: a terrible military defeat, thirty thousand slain in a single day, the death of Eli's two sons, the death of Eli the Kohen, and above all - the Ark of the covenant of Hashem taken captive by the Philistines. The great question the chapter raises is how it could be that the Holy of Holies, the Ark that holds the Tablets and upon which the Shechinah dwells between the Keruvim, falls into Philistine hands. The Abarbanel lists several reasons for this, and the Malbim says: in my view all those reasons are hinted at in the verses themselves. Let us therefore proceed through the verses in order and see how Scripture itself exposes the roots of the sin.
Camp and Battlefield: Two Fundamental Concepts
וַיְהִי דְבַר־שְׁמוּאֵל לְכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֵּצֵא יִשְׂרָאֵל לִקְרַאת פְּלִשְׁתִּים לַמִּלְחָמָה וַיַּחֲנוּ עַל־הָאֶבֶן הָעֵזֶר וּפְלִשְׁתִּים חָנוּ בַאֲפֵק׃ - And the word of Shmuel came to all Israel, and Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and they camped at Even HaEzer, and the Philistines camped at Afek.
"The word of Shmuel came to all Israel" - the word was to go out to war, to go out to meet the Philistines.
וַיַּעַרְכוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים לִקְרַאת יִשְׂרָאֵל וַתִּטֹּשׁ הַמִּלְחָמָה וַיִּנָּגֶף יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיַּכּוּ בַמַּעֲרָכָה בַּשָּׂדֶה כְּאַרְבַּעַת אֲלָפִים אִישׁ׃ - And the Philistines drew up in array to meet Israel, and the battle spread, and Israel was defeated before the Philistines, and they struck down in the battle line in the field about four thousand men.
Here we must acquire two terms that will recur before us many times later in the sefer: "camp" (machaneh) and "battle line" (maarachah). On one side the camp of Israel is encamped, on the other the camp of the Philistines, and in between - the field of battle, the place where the two sides meet and fight. When the battle ends each side returns to its own camp. "And the battle spread" - the fighting spreads across the field of battle, "and they struck down in the battle line in the field" - in the battlefield itself, about four thousand men.
וַיָּבֹא הָעָם אֶל־הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיֹּאמְרוּ זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לָמָּה נְגָפָנוּ יְהֹוָה הַיּוֹם לִפְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים נִקְחָה אֵלֵינוּ מִשִּׁלֹה אֶת־אֲרוֹן בְּרִית יְהֹוָה וְיָבֹא בְקִרְבֵּנוּ וְיֹשִׁעֵנוּ מִכַּף אֹיְבֵינוּ׃ - And the people came to the camp, and the elders of Israel said: Why did Hashem defeat us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the Ark of the covenant of Hashem, and let it come among us and save us from the hand of our enemies.
Note the precision: despite the defeat, this was not a total rout. When there is an utter rout it says "and they fled, each man to his tent," whereas here it says "and the people came to the camp" - they returned to the camp in order to reorganize their forces and go out to another battle.
Four Sins That Led to the Loss of the Ark
The first sin lies in the verse itself: "Why did Hashem defeat us today before the Philistines?" The people of Israel of that generation were wicked and sinful before Hashem, they served idolatry, the idol of Michah was found among them. And worst of all - they still ask "why." "Behold, I will enter into judgment with you for your saying, I have not sinned." When a person sins and is at least aware that he is not acting rightly, that is half the trouble. When a person sins and is certain he is in the right, and moreover has complaints and grievances toward the Creator of the world - "Master of the world, why does this happen to me?" - that is the most difficult situation, because there is nothing left to do with him. You give him a slap and he does not understand why. So what more is there to say to him?
The second sin: "Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the Ark of the covenant of Hashem." They did not come to pray, they did not repent, they did not hold a fast or an assembly. They came, as it were, to force the Holy One, blessed be He, to help them: we will take the Ark, we will bring it with us, and then He must save us. In this, says the Malbim, lies a crooked thought that contradicts the holy Torah: to think that the Ark has the power to save without your keeping what is written in the Ark, that the Torah will protect you even when you do the opposite of what is written in it. This was their error.
וַיִּשְׁלַח הָעָם שִׁלֹה וַיִּשְׂאוּ מִשָּׁם אֵת אֲרוֹן בְּרִית־יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת יֹשֵׁב הַכְּרֻבִים וְשָׁם שְׁנֵי בְנֵי־עֵלִי עִם־אֲרוֹן בְּרִית הָאֱלֹהִים חָפְנִי וּפִינְחָס׃ - So the people sent to Shiloh, and they carried from there the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem of Hosts who is enthroned upon the keruvim, and the two sons of Eli, Chofni and Pinchas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.
The third sin, says the Malbim, is that they did not come to inquire of a prophet. Shmuel, a faithful prophet of Hashem, was present here. You take the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem out of its place - a most serious matter - and for what? For a private success on the battlefield. Did you inquire of a prophet before doing such a thing? Did you inquire through the Urim veTumim? Did you try to check? "So the people sent to Shiloh, and they carried from there" - they take it, and they do not inquire. We will see later on what happened to Uzza, who only steadied the Ark a little so it would not fall, out of genuine concern for the wholeness of the Ark, and erred; while these people take the Ark like an axe to dig with, in order to save themselves on the battlefield.
The fourth sin is hinted at in the continuation of the verse: "and the two sons of Eli, Chofni and Pinchas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God." These two carried a heavy file on their backs, and a prophecy had already been delivered concerning them, the attribute of justice was stretched taut over them, and both were destined to die on a single day. These four causes are what brought about the defeat on the battlefield.
The Shout That Was a Sin
וַיְהִי כְּבוֹא אֲרוֹן בְּרִית־יְהֹוָה אֶל־הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיָּרִעוּ כָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל תְּרוּעָה גְדוֹלָה וַתֵּהֹם הָאָרֶץ׃ - And it was, when the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem came into the camp, that all Israel raised a great shout, so that the earth resounded.
The Malbim reveals here yet another sin. Where did we ever see that the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem went before the people and they were victorious in its merit? At Yericho, in the days of Yehoshua, when the priests circled the walls with the Ark. For this reason they were confident: just as we were victorious then, so shall we be victorious now. But there at Yericho there was an explicit warning: they were not to shout nor make their voice heard until the wall fell. Until then they were to be silent and turn to Hashem to receive the salvation from Him, blessed be He. For the shout expresses, as it were, "our victory, we did it," while the silence shows that the salvation is Hashem's and not ours. And here they did not act so, but rather came and shouted and cried out, as if to show that this comes about in our merit.
The Philistines: Faith, Fear, and Reckoning
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים אֶת־קוֹל הַתְּרוּעָה וַיֹּאמְרוּ מֶה קוֹל הַתְּרוּעָה הַגְּדוֹלָה הַזֹּאת בְּמַחֲנֵה הָעִבְרִים וַיֵּדְעוּ כִּי אֲרוֹן יְהֹוָה בָּא אֶל־הַמַּחֲנֶה׃ - And the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, and they said: What is this sound of the great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they knew that the Ark of Hashem had come into the camp.
וַיִּרְאוּ הַפְּלִשְׁתִּים כִּי אָמְרוּ בָּא אֱלֹהִים אֶל־הַמַּחֲנֶה וַיֹּאמְרוּ אוֹי לָנוּ כִּי לֹא הָיְתָה כָּזֹאת אֶתְמוֹל שִׁלְשֹׁם׃ - And the Philistines were afraid, for they said: God has come into the camp; and they said: Woe to us, for there was nothing like this yesterday or the day before.
The Philistines hear the shout and receive the message: the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem has come into the camp. Note that the Philistines too were people of faith: "God has come into the camp" - the Ark upon which the Divine Presence rests between the keruvim, and if so, the Holy One, blessed be He, has come into the camp as well. "There was nothing like this yesterday or the day before" - until now we always defeated Israel, for we fought against flesh and blood; now we must fight against the God who has come into the camp.
אוֹי לָנוּ מִי יַצִּילֵנוּ מִיַּד הָאֱלֹהִים הָאַדִּירִים הָאֵלֶּה אֵלֶּה הֵם הָאֱלֹהִים הַמַּכִּים אֶת־מִצְרַיִם בְּכָל־מַכָּה בַּמִּדְבָּר׃ - Woe to us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote Egypt with every plague in the wilderness.
Here there is not merely the loss of hope for victory, but the fear of being utterly wiped out: "Who will save us." And what is meant by "these mighty gods"? That the power of the Creator of the world is unlimited: He struck with every plague, in Egypt, in the wilderness, and at the sea, and He rules over all the forces of nature. And this stands in contrast to the accepted conception of their time, that there are many deities - a god of the sea, a god of war, a god of love - whereas here the Holy One, blessed be He, rules over all the forces together.
The Radak brings an additional explanation in the name of his father, since the verse is difficult: what is the connection between the wilderness and Egypt? He explains: "bamidbar" is related to "umidbareich naveh," meaning speech. The intent is that with His speech alone He struck Egypt with every plague, by the power of speech alone.
Our Sages say that there is a mixture of statements here, that the verse speaks of several types of people. The righteous among them are the ones who said, "Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods," but the wicked said: "These are the gods who struck Egypt with every plague in the wilderness" - meaning, He has already finished all the plagues at His disposal; He brought them all upon Egypt, and the rest He exhausted on His own people in the wilderness, and He has no more plagues left to bring. Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to them: You think this is the last weapon left in My arsenal? I will bring upon you a plague such as never was.
"Be strong and be men" - three levels
הִתְחַזְּקוּ וִהְיוּ לַאֲנָשִׁים פְּלִשְׁתִּים פֶּן תַּעַבְדוּ לָעִבְרִים כַּאֲשֶׁר עָבְדוּ לָכֶם וִהְיִיתֶם לַאֲנָשִׁים וְנִלְחַמְתֶּם׃ - Be strong and be men, O Philistines, lest you serve the Hebrews as they have served you; be men and fight.
Notice that they did not say "this mighty god" but "these mighty gods," in the plural. The Malbim explains: the nations in the past believed that there is a supreme power, which they defined as the "First Cause," only they claimed - and this was the conception of the philosophers, and so it is brought at the beginning of Sefer HaKuzari - that the supreme god has no dealings with those who dwell in houses of clay. He is exalted and spiritual and does not occupy Himself with the earthly, physical world. So what is there here? All sorts of deities, powers that emanate from Him and act, as it were, independently. Therefore they thought that Israel possesses a gathering of many exalted powers, more than our deities: like an army that has ordinary soldiers compared to an army that has elite units and special reconnaissance forces.
And in their conception - and so too in the Greek and Roman pantheon - strong men are sometimes able to defeat the sons of the gods; not the gods themselves, but their sons, and so the legends of the nations are full of tales of heroes who defeated the sons of gods. Therefore they said: do not be like beasts, "be strong and be men" - that by the power of their humanity, if they are very strong, they can defeat even the sons of the gods.
From here the Malbim explains the repetition in the verse, and sets it out in three levels. The first level: "Be strong and be men" - perhaps we will win. The second level: "lest you serve the Hebrews as they served you" - and if we do not win, at least let us not fall into such a defeat that we become slaves to them. The third level: "be men and fight" - and if we do not achieve even that, at least let us not be killed like beasts, like sheep to the slaughter, but let us fall in the midst of battle. There is a terrible disgrace to an army that they come to, press a pistol to its temple and take it captive; and part of the national honor, according to the conception of warriors, is that even if a man dies on the battlefield, he dies in the midst of battle, killed at his post and not taken like sheep to the slaughter. These three levels are contained in a single verse, and from them it emerges that going out to battle is necessary in every situation, more than that we should come and bare our necks and say to them: take us.
The defeat: when they are pressed to the wall
וַיִּלָּחֲמוּ פְלִשְׁתִּים וַיִּנָּגֶף יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיָּנֻסוּ אִישׁ לְאֹהָלָיו וַתְּהִי הַמַּכָּה גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד וַיִּפֹּל מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל שְׁלֹשִׁים אֶלֶף רַגְלִי׃ - And the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled each man to his tents, and the blow was very great, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.
Now this is already a complete defeat: "and they fled each man to his tents" - not a return to the camp in order to organize for another attack, but flight home. The previous time four thousand fell, and here thirty thousand - more than all the fallen of Israel's wars and terror attacks that have occurred until today combined, may Hashem have mercy.
And from here a further lesson: by bringing the Ark, Israel caused more harm than good. When you press someone to the wall, you create a spring effect: you leave him no choice, and he releases himself with very great force. So writes the Rambam, that when one besieges a city one does not besiege it from all its sides but leaves an open place - for a man who feels imprisoned and has nowhere to flee says "I have nothing to lose, I will fight to my last drop of blood." Spiritually the Ark did not help them, for all the reasons we have counted; and physically it even harmed, because the Philistines understood that here they were fighting for the whole pot, for if not, they would lose their lives and everything. And for this reason the defeat was so terrible.
וַאֲרוֹן אֱלֹהִים נִלְקָח וּשְׁנֵי בְנֵי־עֵלִי מֵתוּ חָפְנִי וּפִינְחָס׃ - And the Ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Pinchas, died.
The Ark of God was also captured, and the bearers of the Ark died as well: Chofni and Pinchas.
The man of Binyamin and the Tablets
וַיָּרָץ אִישׁ־בִּנְיָמִן מֵהַמַּעֲרָכָה וַיָּבֹא שִׁלֹה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וּמַדָּיו קְרֻעִים וַאֲדָמָה עַל־רֹאשׁוֹ׃ - And a man of Binyamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh that day, with his clothes torn and earth upon his head.
Who was this man of Binyamin who ran from the battle line? Chazal say: Shaul son of Kish. Goliath had taken out the Tablets from within the Ark and began to raise them and wave them about, as if to show that they had conquered the God of Israel. Shaul son of Kish came, ran after him, snatched the Tablets from him, and fled with them back to the camp.
Why the messenger brought the news to the city before Eli
וַיָּבוֹא וְהִנֵּה עֵלִי יֹשֵׁב עַל־הַכִּסֵּא יַד דֶּרֶךְ מְצַפֶּה כִּי־הָיָה לִבּוֹ חָרֵד עַל אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וְהָאִישׁ בָּא לְהַגִּיד בָּעִיר וַתִּזְעַק כָּל־הָעִיר׃ - And he came, and behold, Eli was sitting on the seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And the man came to tell it in the city, and all the city cried out.
At first glance there is something astonishing here. Eli is sitting and watching, and to whom does the man bring the news first? To the city. Here is the leader of the generation, a man of ninety eight, sitting and waiting for tidings, and you bring the news first to the city? A second question: how can you come and deliver such devastating news so suddenly? Chazal said, "He who spreads a report is a fool," and they expounded this concerning one who informs a person of another's passing. It is written in the sacred books that one does not tell a person that his relative has died, but rather lets him come to understand it. There are several indirect ways to do this: one tells him that so and so was very ill, or that you heard so and so had a very serious road accident and the doctors said from the outset such and such, and little by little one lets him understand. One does not simply come and say to him: so and so has died. Yet here, seemingly, the man comes and informs Eli at once, and it appears this had destructive consequences.
But the verse itself resolves this. Eli was sitting "on the seat by the wayside watching," not at the city gate, but on the other side, at the place near the road, from which he could see whoever came from the battlefield, for his heart trembled for the Ark. But "the man came to tell it in the city": he entered from the city's entrance, from the other side. Therefore the first ones to hear the news were the people of the city, and not Eli.
וַיִּשְׁמַע עֵלִי אֶת־קוֹל הַצְּעָקָה וַיֹּאמֶר מֶה קוֹל הֶהָמוֹן הַזֶּה וְהָאִישׁ מִהַר וַיָּבֹא וַיַּגֵּד לְעֵלִי׃ - And Eli heard the sound of the crying out and said, What is this sound of the multitude? And the man hurried and came and told Eli.
Eli hears the sound of crying out in the city and understands that some news has arrived. And when the man is summoned to come to Eli, what did the man think? That Eli had already heard the news, and that all he wanted now was to hear the details: after all, I was on the battlefield and I must tell him exactly how everything unfolded. For this reason he was not careful or cautious to say the matter in an indirect way, but told him everything just as it was. Furthermore: "the man hurried," out of panic, not with composure and not in calm, and therefore he said the words all at once, without thinking and moderating them so that Eli could receive them in stages.
וְעֵלִי בֶּן־תִּשְׁעִים וּשְׁמֹנֶה שָׁנָה וְעֵינָיו קָמָה וְלֹא יָכוֹל לִרְאוֹת׃ - And Eli was ninety eight years old, and his eyes were set so that he could not see.
And this is a third addition to the explanation: why the news struck Eli so hard. "His eyes were set": his eyes stood fixed in place. A sighted person moves his eyes to the right and the left, while a blind person does not move his eyes, but looks upward, since he gains nothing from moving his eyes. And the expression "his eyes was set," in the singular, means that each and every eye was set and stood fixed in its place. For had Eli seen the man approaching, his clothes torn and earth upon his head, he would have understood on his own, and understanding in advance would have eased the news for him. But since he did not see, and suddenly a man came to him and in a panic told him the terrible words, this dreadful calamity came about.
The Order of the Report and the Death of Eli
וַיֹּאמֶר הָאִישׁ אֶל־עֵלִי אָנֹכִי הַבָּא מִן־הַמַּעֲרָכָה וַאֲנִי מִן־הַמַּעֲרָכָה נַסְתִּי הַיּוֹם וַיֹּאמֶר מֶה־הָיָה הַדָּבָר בְּנִי׃ - And the man said to Eli: I am the one who has come from the battlefront, and I fled today from the battlefront. And he said: What happened, my son?
וַיַּעַן הַמְבַשֵּׂר וַיֹּאמֶר נָס יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי פְלִשְׁתִּים וְגַם מַגֵּפָה גְדוֹלָה הָיְתָה בָעָם וְגַם־שְׁנֵי בָנֶיךָ מֵתוּ חָפְנִי וּפִינְחָס וַאֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים נִלְקָחָה׃ - And the messenger answered and said: Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there was also a great slaughter among the people, and also your two sons Chofni and Pinchas are dead, and the Ark of God has been taken.
Chazal say that the sequence of the report followed the sequence of the events. "Israel has fled before the Philistines" - with this it began, for the fleeing was the start of the downfall. As a result of the fleeing, "there was also a great slaughter among the people," for the enemy began to pursue them and cut them down from behind. As a result of that, "and also your two sons are dead," for they were the guardians of the Ark. And afterward, "and the Ark of God has been taken." But for Eli it was all one sudden report, for within five seconds the messenger told him everything.
וַיְהִי כְּהַזְכִּירוֹ אֶת־אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וַיִּפֹּל מֵעַל־הַכִּסֵּא אֲחֹרַנִּית בְּעַד יַד הַשַּׁעַר וַתִּשָּׁבֵר מַפְרַקְתּוֹ וַיָּמֹת כִּי־זָקֵן הָאִישׁ וְכָבֵד וְהוּא שָׁפַט אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה׃ - And it happened, when he mentioned the Ark of God, that he fell from the chair backward, beside the gate, and his neck broke and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.
The moment he mentioned the Ark of God - which was more precious to him than anything - he fell and died. The verse explains why his neck broke: he fell from the chair, from a high place; the fall was backward, and that lands on the neck; and he fell "beside the gate," which is itself an elevated place, a place from which one can look out, in addition to the height of the chair. And why did he die at once? "For the man was old" in years, "and heavy," his body having already grown heavy. And a third reason, says the Malbim: "and he had judged Israel forty years" - his strength had given out, he was already an utterly weary man, and therefore his death was immediate.
The Wife of Pinchas: The Fulfillment of the Prophecy
וְכַלָּתוֹ אֵשֶׁת־פִּינְחָס הָרָה לָלַת וַתִּשְׁמַע אֶת־הַשְּׁמוּעָה אֶל־הִלָּקַח אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וּמֵת חָמִיהָ וְאִישָׁהּ וַתִּכְרַע וַתֵּלֶד כִּי־נֶהֶפְכוּ עָלֶיהָ צִרֶיהָ׃ - And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Pinchas, was pregnant, about to give birth, and she heard the report that the Ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died. And she bowed down and gave birth, for her pangs had turned upon her.
On a single day her husband and her father-in-law died. The verse comes to show how the entire harsh prophecy that had been delivered through Shmuel is fulfilled in its entirety on this day: Chofni died, Eli died, and now the daughter-in-law too. "Her pangs had turned upon her" - the way of birth pangs is to push the child outward, and here they turned, as it were, to draw inward; and if they did not draw inward, at least they did not bring the child out, and this is what caused her death.
And what is the meaning of "הָרָה לָלַת"? Some explain that it is like "לָלֶדֶת," "to give birth," with the letter dalet missing. The Radak explains that it is from the language of wailing (yelalah) - like what the Moroccans do at weddings, the "hallah" - that there was a wailing there. And the Ralbag explains that it is from the root nun-lamed-heh, as in "כִּי נָלֹתָךְ לִבְגֹּד," which denotes ending and completing, and if so "הָרָה לָלַת" means pregnant and about to complete her giving birth. And apparently this word includes all three meanings together: to give birth, wailing, and completion.
וּכְעֵת מוּתָהּ וַתְּדַבֵּרְנָה הַנִּצָּבוֹת עָלֶיהָ אַל־תִּירְאִי כִּי בֵן יָלָדְתְּ וְלֹא עָנְתָה וְלֹא־שָׁתָה לִבָּהּ׃ - And at the time of her dying, the women standing over her spoke: Do not fear, for you have borne a son. But she did not answer, nor did she set her heart to it.
When the time of her death came because of the sudden birth, they said to her, "Do not fear." They thought she was afraid that she too would die on account of the misfortune that had struck the family - that her father-in-law and her husband had died - as Chazal say, that when one member of a family dies, the whole family should worry. And with what did they comfort her? "For you have borne a son," for the continuation of Chazal's words is: a son was born, the whole family was healed. But she felt that her condition was terminal, "but she did not answer, nor did she set her heart to it" - she paid no attention to their words, for she knew that she was reaching her end.
Ichabod: The Two Torahs That Were Taken
וַתִּקְרָא לַנַּעַר אִיכָבוֹד לֵאמֹר גָּלָה כָבוֹד מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־הִלָּקַח אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶל־חָמִיהָ וְאִישָׁהּ׃ - And she named the child Ichabod, saying: The glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God was captured, and because of her father in law and her husband.
Notice the order: the most terrible calamity is "because the Ark of God was captured." Second, "because of her father in law," who was a prophet, a High Priest, a great man in his own right, and a judge of Israel. And after him, "her husband," who was fit to serve in the High Priesthood afterward and who himself was a man of stature in terms of the potential embedded within him. The Malbim explains that "Ichabod" derives from "where is the glory," meaning there is no longer any glory for Israel.
The Malbim adds a great principle. We have two Torahs: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The dwelling place of the Written Torah is in the Ark, and the dwelling place of the Oral Torah is in the hearts of the sages of Israel. This is the very meaning of the Oral Torah: it is passed from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation.
This is also the reason the Oral Torah was not written down until the time of Rebbi, and even Rebbi himself feared doing so and did it only under the principle of "It is a time to act for Hashem, they have violated Your Torah" - since it was a time to act for Hashem, it was permitted to violate the Torah and write it down. And why did the Torah not want the Oral Torah to be written? Two reasons. The first reason: a Torah that is written down might become like a dead letter, sitting in a library as a book, with no one engaging with it, learning it, or delving into it. The Torah wanted the Oral Torah to be dynamic, living, and active: if I want to learn, I need you to come and teach me. In this way we ensure that the Torah is not stored away in archives but is a living, breathing thing within the nation. One must give classes to teach the nation Torah, and the nation then teaches its children, and thus the learning itself makes the Torah like a flowing spring that adds life to the life of the nation. In the end they wrote it down, when they saw that the Torah was beginning to be forgotten and significant parts of it were being lost, and they said: there is no choice, we must write it.
Even though they wrote it down, the Torah still remained a Torah of life, for Chazal say that in any case a person must learn from a teacher, and this is called "serving" him, and serving him is greater than learning from him. Why? Because one who does not learn from a teacher is liable to learn in a distorted way. This is why we learn in a yeshiva: in the yeshiva they teach how to learn straight, how to learn logically, how to straighten out the mind. There were great sages of Israel who gave classes and would say: what do I teach in my class? I teach how not to learn, how not to err. You could understand it this way, but that is a mistake; you could understand it that way, and that too is a mistake; and when you remove all the mistakes, you understand the correct and straight path in understanding the topic. Learning from a teacher itself gives life and straightens out the person; and one who does not learn from a teacher learns crooked and becomes crooked, and distorts the Torah, and has no ethics and no proper conduct - because he did not receive it from a teacher. Only through receiving it from a teacher can the Torah be transmitted onward.
The second reason it was forbidden to write down the Oral Torah: writing it would have made it accessible to the gentiles as well. And as is known, the part that connects us to the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Oral Torah. The Written Torah was translated into seventy languages, and whoever wishes may take it and learn it, and even gentiles may learn the Written Torah with no impediment. But the soul of the Written Torah is the Oral Torah, and with it a gentile is forbidden to engage; the seven Noahide commandments are permitted to him, but the rest is forbidden to him, for this is between us and Hashem, may He be blessed, only between the nation of Israel and its Creator.
The Malbim says: and here two things happened together. Both the Written Torah, whose dwelling place is in the Ark, was captured; and the Oral Torah, whose dwelling place is in the hearts of the sages of Israel, was taken. Had one of them remained to us, it would be fine: if the Written Torah were missing, through the power of the Oral Torah we could reconstruct and relearn it anew; and if the Oral Torah were missing, through the power of the Written Torah and the principles through which the Torah is expounded we could reconstruct it anew. For in the Written Torah we have a backup mechanism for the entire Oral Torah: any law that is forgotten can be restored through analysis, like Otniel ben Kenaz who restored through his reasoning the three hundred laws that had been forgotten. How? Through the methods by which the Torah is expounded - kal vachomer, gezeirah shavah, a binyan av from one verse, a binyan av from two verses, klal ufrat, prat uchlal, and so on - all of which are ways to derive matters anew from the Written Torah. It turns out that each of them backs up the other; but if both were captured - it is as if the glory has departed from Israel. And this is what happened here: on the one hand the Ark was taken from us, and it symbolizes the Written Torah, and on the other hand the Oral Torah too was taken, for Eli the judge died as well. And therefore "the glory has departed from Israel" - for with this, as it were, the glory of Israel departed completely.
וַתֹּאמֶר גָּלָה כָבוֹד מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל כִּי נִלְקַח אֲרוֹן הָאֱלֹהִים׃ - And she said: The glory has departed from Israel, because the Ark of God was captured.
Therefore she repeats and says, so that you should not think these are two separate matters. Know this: there are not two things here but one, "the glory has departed from Israel because the Ark of God was captured" - for within the Written Torah the Oral Torah too is engraved, and everything is contained within, and if so it is the Ark of God that departed. And Eli, who passed away, is also in the category of the Ark of God, as the Gemara says regarding the unlearned: "These foolish Babylonians, who rise before a Torah scroll but do not rise before a great man" - the Babylonians are foolish, for they rise before the Torah but do not rise before a great man. You rise before a Torah scroll, and before whom do you rise? Before the Torah that Hashem gave; and the great man is a living Torah scroll, so how do you not rise before him? One must also rise before the great man, and such is the halacha, for he is a living Torah scroll. And therefore "the glory has departed from Israel" here is "because the Ark of God was captured" - for both Eli and the Ark, both are in the category of the Ark of God, and over both of them she expresses the terrible and immense grief that she felt.
In summary:
Chapter 4 teaches us that the Ark is not an amulet. The nation of Israel sinned, and not only did they fail to understand their sin, but they even complained "Why did Hashem strike us?"; they did not pray and did not repent but sought to force salvation through the power of the Ark; they did not consult a prophet before such a grave act; and they sent the Ark in the hands of Chofni and Pinchas, whose fate was already sealed. And even the shout, which at Yericho was forbidden until the time of salvation, was here turned into a cry of "my strength and the might of my hand." The result: thirty thousand fallen, the Ark in captivity, the death of Eli's sons, the death of Eli upon hearing about the Ark, and the death of Pinchas's wife in childbirth - the entire prophecy fulfilled in a single day. And the naming "Ichabod" sums it all up: when the Written Torah whose dwelling place is in the Ark was taken, and together with it the Oral Torah whose dwelling place is in the hearts of the sages of Israel, so that there is no longer anyone to back up the other - the glory has departed from Israel.