Why the Lord Doesn’t Allow David to Build the Temple

This week’s haftarah (reading from the prophets), taken from the second book of Samuel (6:1-7:17), is set toward the beginning of King David’s reign. By now David has won the civil war against loyalists of his predecessor, King Saul, conquered the city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, set about making the city his capital, and achieved a decisive victory over the Philistines. In the aftermath of that last battle, he assembles a triumphant procession to lead the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem from its temporary location in Gibeah:

And they attached the ark of God to a new wagon
And bore it from the house of Avinadav which is in Gibeah. . . .
And Uzzah and his brothers, sons of Avinadav, drove the new wagon . . .
And David and all the house of Israel were playing before the Lord
With all their might, with lyres and harps and drums and percussion and cymbals.
And they got to Goren alright, but Uzzah reached to the Lord’s ark and held it
Because the cattle had thrown it.
But the Lord raged at Uzzah and God struck him there
Over the reaching
And he died there with the Lord’s ark.

The text doesn’t really say “reaching”; it says “for the shal,” which is obscure. The medieval commentator Rashi speculates that a final letter ḥet was omitted by scribal error, and that what Uzzah was punished for was the shalaḥ, the reaching-out or overreaching. Since that appears to be the nub of this haftarah, I gratefully adopt Rashi’s solution—because the issue at hand is what David can and cannot do, what are his limitations of personal status and personal capabilities. In the narrative we see him constantly blurring boundaries of royal and priestly authority in his drive to serve the Lord, perhaps, but also certainly to expand his office. That’s where his recourse to the Lord’s ark comes in.