"The spirit of Hashem departed from Shaul and he was afflicted with a spirit of melancholy [ובעתתו רוח רעה] from Hashem" [Shmuel Aleph 16/14].
Dovid was successful in battle and the women sang his praises and "Shaul became very angry"[18/8].
Dovid plays the harp to soothe Shaul and because of this spirit of melancholy Shaul hurls a spear at him and tries to kill him! [18/11, 19/10]
He hurls a spear at his own son Yonatan [20/33].
He had Doeg massacre Nov the city of Kohanim, men, women, children and animals.
Something is very wrong here. What exactly was his illness? I don't know. People have tried long and hard to come up with a diagnosis.
I skip to today. The story of Shaul is about a man in power who [apparently] became mentally imbalanced [if it is permitted to say such a thing and assuming there are no traditional sources that say otherwise].
Today you have bosses, politicians, parents etc. etc. who are in positions of authority and quite frankly are sickos. Society just doesn't have the ability to put these people where they belong - locked up, or at least on medication. So they do a WHOOOOLE lot of damage and unfortunately more often than not get away with it until they do something so egregious, so whacked out, that they are removed from their positions. The worst is when such people are educators and the victims are the most defenseless members of our society - children. So children suffer sexual abuse, physical abuse, and most often, verbal and emotional abuse but in the latter case especially nobody does anything about it because people just say things like "He's a tough teacher", "He demands a lot from his students and when they don't do a good job he can be a tough disciplinarian". No, he is not just a tough disciplinarian - he is abusive. He is scarring children's souls for life! I have some stories from my own childhood experiences but alas it is probably too late.
When I was a college basketball fan there was a coach who was consistently verbally and even physically abusive [at times] for years. Everybody knew he had a very serious anger problem, poor kids suffered from his brutality and nothing was done. Somehow until people cross a certain line they are allowed to get away with virtual murder.
So sweetest friends!! BE VIGILANT. Check out your children's teachers, Rabbeim [a black hat doesn't guarantee emotional health, if Shaul were alive today he would wear a black hat..] their little league coaches, their camp division heads etc. etc. As we speak there are very harmful people around who are getting away with a lot of bad stuff. If your boss acts crazy, remember - he may well be.
Check this out. Especially the line that "Fewer than one-third of adults and one-half of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive mental health services in a given year."
Love and blessings and good mental and physical health to all!
