Tanach Thoughts

I thought of an interpretation for Bat Sheva's name ages ago, but only remembered it this last Shabbat during a discussion around the table about unusual Hebrew names. Bat Sheva is usually spelled בת שבע which literally means "daughter of seven", although it might have some connection to the word shvuah שבועה - vow. These are more classic understandings. There are two instances in which her name is spelled Bat Shua בת שוע, both in Chronicles ( Chronicles 1:2:3 ; 1:3:5 ). This variant of the name connects her to Yehudah's wife Bat Shua ( Beresheet 38:12 ) who was evidently named after her father Shua ( ibid. 2 ). Bat Sheva is known to be the granddaughter of Achitophel the Gilonite through her father Eliam; Giloh being a city in the territory of the tribe of Yehudah, so the naming makes sense. The name itself means something like "daughter of salvation/redemption". It could be argued that Bat Sheva is simply a variant of Bat Shua or vice-versa, but I would...

 Sometimes I wonder why we read through David's sins in smooth fashion, accepting and moving on, while when certain rabbis - or even non-rabbis - nowadays sin in similar ways, their lives are basically over. Is it because the media causes great hype? Is it because of (somewhat radical) movements such as MeToo? Many believe there was hype over the David and Bat Sheva story way back when it happened, too. But it seemed that people managed to move past that. And there were other sins as well - but ultimately, David came out alright, for the most part. By the way, I'm reminded of a story I heard from one of the rabbis in my yeshiva: One of his sons once went out on a date with a girl from a certain " kavnik " midrasha  and somehow they got to talking about this particular story. The girl announced that of course there was no way that David sinned. That's a very popular view that appears in the gemara, but it's actually the minority view in the gemara. The guy poin...