Q&A: Covered Property in Fire
Covered Property in Fire
Question
Hello Rabbi!
The Talmud in tractate Bava Kamma 60b brings verses from the book of II Samuel in which David asks his warriors for water from Bethlehem. They bring it to him, and he refuses to drink. The Talmud explains that he had sent them to ask the Sanhedrin a question about covered property in a fire. Since I start from the assumption that the Sages were wise, I’m asking: what was their deal {sorry for the colloquial style} with connecting a halakhic discussion to some story in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)?
Answer
The homiletic genre really isn’t clear to me either. It’s obvious that they too understood that this was not what was factually happening there, but for some reason they had an interest in tying halakhic discussions to biblical passages.