Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Og?

How big was Og? (I know it’s Andre in the picture above…)

Maybe we start with: Who was Og?

The Torah (Bamidbar 21) describes Og as the Amorite King of Bashan, who is killed along with his nation in their battle against the Israelites in the desert.

According to the Midrash, Og first appears in the flood story. He survives by hanging on to the outside of Noah’s ark. Og later makes an appearance as the Midrashic messenger telling Avraham that Lot was being held captive and needed rescuing. Secretly, he hoped Avraham would die in battle, and he would marry Sarah. Another legend has Og trying to steal Sarah once again by telling her about the Binding of Isaac in the hopes that she’ll leave Avraham and marry him instead. It doesn’t go well as Sarah dies from the shock of the news.

Og’s staying power is just one aspect of his oversize persona. His giant size is alluded to in the text.

“Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remaining Rephaim. His bedstead, an iron bedstead, is now in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it is nine cubits long and four cubits wide, by the standard cubit.” (Devarim 3:11)

Og’s bed measured around 14 feet by 7 feet. That’s a pretty big bed. The fact it was made from iron informs us that he was too heavy for an ordinary wooden bed due to his giant size. Rabbinic statements describe Og in even more gigantic terms.

Even Moshe seemed to be afraid of him. When the Jews encountered Og and the Amorites in battle, God promises they will be victorious. Og, though, left Moshe feeling disconcerted.

“Then God said to Moses, ‘Do not fear him, for I will deliver him - and all his people and his land - into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sichon, king of the Amorites who lives in Cheshbon.’” (Numbers 21:33-35.)

Why did Hashem have to tell Moshe “Do not fear Og?” It is a strange expression which does not appear elsewhere. God had promised that the enemy would be defeated. Why was Moshe still afraid of Og?

Og, through his various iterations, appearances, and larger-than-life dimensions, embodies the fear we feel when encountering an enemy, adversity, or a setback.

It is OK to be afraid. At the same time, we need to also maintain the composure and confidence that we can overcome.

At times, when we encounter a challenge or are afraid, we magnify the fear – sometimes into mythic proportions. For example, if it’s raining lightly outside, we may exaggerate just how hard it is raining to explain why we don’t go somewhere. (I didn’t say Shul; you just thought it…) Sometimes, fear may paralyze us – especially if it comes in the form of a thousand year-old giant. Even Moshe feels fear, and he had a promise from God.

We can move forward.

There are challenges. Some of them are huge. Sometimes, we fail. At the same time, we should try to maintain perspective and hope despite the fear or even the failure. Moshe was afraid, but he overcame that fear. So can we.

Rabbi Avi Weiss once invited Ariel Sharon to speak in his shul in the years before he became Prime Minister of Israel. Sharon was regarded as a fierce and fearless soldier, who led his troops to daring victories and was a storied military leader. Rabbi Weiss introduced him to the shul as “The Fearless General.”

When Sharon came up to the bimah, the first thing he said was, “K’vod ha’Rav, do you think that when I was on the front in the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Suez Canal that I wasn’t afraid? Only a fool wouldn’t be afraid!”

These days, there is much that generates fear. We’ve had ten months of war in Gaza, rockets fired daily from Lebanon, the pain of those killed and held hostage. In Israel, people are literally holding their breath waiting for an Iranian response or a Hezbollah attack. (There’s also plenty of disturbing behavior by anti-Israel voices and Jew haters in America.) I know there is fear. Yet life also goes on.

FDR famously said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Maybe. I think it’s OK to be afraid. What we must fear, however, is giving in to our fear. The Jewish nation has a long history of overcoming challenges small, large, and horrific. On Tisha B’Av, we do not shy away from recounting all the pain and suffering. We recognize that our painful history is part of the promise of Jewish survival. That’s how it was when the Jews faced Og and our enemies throughout history. That is how it will ultimately be, please God, today.