Sanhedrin 101b — the Talmud in English

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“And these too are the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied.”

That is, the students of Hezekiah wrote the Book of Proverbs. It is proved that Hezekiah taught all of them.

But did Hezekiah, king of Judah, teach Torah to the entire world, and did he not teach Torah to Manasseh, his son?

Certainly, he indeed also taught Torah to Manasseh, his son!

Rather: from all the trouble that he took with him, and from all the toil that he labored with him

to teach him Torah,

he did not bring him to improvement—

but afflictions.

As it is stated: “And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people—

but they did not listen; and the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army who belonged to the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, and bound him with bronze fetters, and brought him to Babylon.”

And it is written: “And when distress came upon him [

when distress came upon him, upon Manasseh]

he entreated the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him, and He granted his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom,

and Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.”

You learn from this—

that afflictions are beloved.

For only through the afflictions with which he was afflicted did Manasseh repent.

The Sages taught: Three came with a pretext.

That is, they did not come to ask of the Lord through prayer, but they came against the Holy One, blessed is He, with a pretext and an argument. For they said victorious words to which there is no answer .

These are: Cain, Esau, and Manasseh.

Cain—

as it is written: “My iniquity is greater than can be borne.” He said before Him [

before the Holy One, blessed is He]:

“Master of the Universe! Is my iniquity in any way greater

than

the six hundred thousand

of Israel

who are destined to sin before You

571, and

nevertheless

You forgive them?”

Esau—

as it is written: “Is this one blessing that you have, my father?”

That is, have you no blessing remaining with which to bless me? And he gave him a victorious answer, and his argument succeeded .

Manasseh—

who

at first called upon many deities, and

only

in the end,

when he saw that all those deities had not helped him,

called upon the God of his fathers [

and this is what is stated: “And he humbled himself before the Lord, the God of his fathers.” It follows that until now he had humbled himself before other deities]. And this is how he came with a pretext. He said to the Holy One, blessed is He: If You do not save me, what benefit was there for me in calling upon You more than upon the other deities?

We learned in our Mishna:

Abba Shaul says: Also one who pronounces the Name by its letters, etc.

The tanna taught: And

this that we learned, that one who pronounces the Name by its letters has no portion in the World-to-Come, is

in the provinces.

But in the Temple, no, for they would bless with the Explicit Name.

And in the language of vulgar speech [

in a foreign language], even in the Temple it is forbidden to pronounce it .

We learned in our Mishna:

Three kings and four commoners, etc.

The Sages taught: Jeroboam—

who caused the people to lie down.

That is, he spread Israel upon the ground—and humbled them .

Alternatively: Jeroboam—

who made strife among the people

through idolatry. This one worshipped, and that one protested against him, and they came to dispute.

Alternatively: Jeroboam—

who made strife between Israel and their Father in Heaven.

Son of Nebat—

the son who gazed [

who saw something in a dream, and thought that he was looking well and understanding what he saw].

And

in truth

he did not see

well, but erred. As we say below.

The tanna taught: He is Nebat, he is Micah, he is Sheba son of Bichri .

He was called

Nebat—

because of

“he gazed and did not see,”

as we said above.

He was called

Micah—

because of

“he became crushed in the building”

of Egypt, for they placed him in the building in place of a brick. As we find in the aggada, that Moses said to the Holy One, blessed is He: “You have done evil to this people,” for now, if they have no bricks, they place the children of Israel in the building! The Holy One, blessed is He, said to him: They are [the Egyptians] destroying thorns! For it is revealed and known before Me that if those children live, they will be completely wicked.

And if you do not believe, take one of them out, and you will see what his deeds will be in the end.

Moses went and took out Micah, who in the end did evil to Israel .

And what was his name

in truth—

his name was Sheba son of Bichri.

The Sages taught: Three gazed but did not see [

that is, they looked from afar at what was destined to be in the future, and erred].

And these are

those three:

Nebat, Ahithophel, and Pharaoh’s astrologers.

Nebat—

what did he foresee and err about?

He saw fire issuing from his organ

. He thought

that this was a sign that

he would be king [

that he himself would reign], and therefore Sheba son of Bichri [who was Nebat, as brought above] exerted himself, gathered all Israel to himself, and wanted to reign [as recounted in II Samuel, chapter 20].

And

in truth

it was not so,

the matter was not as he thought. Rather, what he saw was—

Jeroboam is the one who issued from him [

he issued from him], and became king.

Ahithophel—

what did he foresee and err about?

He saw leprosy that shone upon his organ. He thought

that this was a sign that

he would be king [

that he would reign], and therefore he became counselor to Absalom, so that the kingship would pass from David to Absalom. And in either event, the kingship would pass to him [as recounted in II Samuel, chapter 15].

And

in truth

it was not so,

rather, what he saw was—

his daughter Bathsheba, from whom Solomon issued [

from whom Solomon issued], the king.

Pharaoh’s astrologers—

what did they foresee and err about?

For Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “They are the waters of strife”?

They—

those waters, they are the ones

that Pharaoh’s astrologers saw—

and erred

in the matter, and did not understand it correctly.

They saw

the astrologers

that the savior of Israel—

would be stricken through water. He said

Pharaoh, following their counsel:

“Every son who is born, you shall cast into the river,”

for they thought that through this he would be stricken through water.

But they did not know that it was on account of the matter of the waters of strife

that he

would be stricken.

For because of the sin of the waters of strife, when Moses said to the children of Israel as he brought water out for them from the rock: “Hear now, you rebels”—he would not enter the Land.

And from where do we know that he does not come

Jeroboam

to the World-to-Come [

and from where do we know that Jeroboam will not come to the World-to-Come]?

As it is written: “And this matter was for the sin of the house of Jeroboam, to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.”

And thus the verse is expounded:

“To cut it off”—

in this world.

“And to destroy it”—

in the World-to-Come.

Rabbi Yohanan said: For what reason did Jeroboam merit kingship?

Because he rebuked Solomon,

as is recounted below.

And for what reason was he punished

Jeroboam?

Because

he should have rebuked Solomon privately, between himself and him. But he did not do so; rather, he

rebuked him publicly—

and shamed him .

As it is stated: “And Jeroboam son of Nebat, etc., was a servant of Solomon and raised his hand against the king.”

“And this was the matter for which he raised his hand against King Solomon: he built the Millo, and closed the breach of the city of David his father.”

And this was the matter for which he raised his hand against King Solomon: he built the Millo, and closed the breach of the city of David his father.”

He said to

King Solomon:

David your father made breaches in the wall so that Israel could make pilgrimage

and enter with ease.

But you enclosed

those

breaches

, in order to impose forced labor [

so that by having everyone enter through the gates, they would know who the entrants were and could collect a tax from everyone]

for

the sake of your wife

, Pharaoh’s daughter!

And this is what is written: “He built the Millo, and closed the breach of the city of David his father,” for he rebuked Solomon for building and filling the wall of the fortification, and closing the breaches that David had made in the wall.

And what

is this that is written:

“And this was the matter for which he raised his hand against the king”?

Rav Nahman said: He removed

Jeroboam

his phylacteries in his presence

of the king. He should have turned aside and removed them there because of awe of the kingship . And through this Jeroboam began the rebellion, to show that he did not conduct himself with honor toward the king.

Rav Nahman said: The arrogance that Jeroboam possessed—

it removed him from the world.

As it is stated: “And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their master, to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me, and they will return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.”

He said

Jeroboam in his heart:

It is an established tradition [

it is a halakha given to Moses at Sinai],

that there is no

permission for

sitting in the courtyard—

except for the kings of the House of Judah.

But all the rest of the people, and even other kings, are not permitted to sit there.

And

when they see Rehoboam sitting, and me standing [

when the people see that Rehoboam is sitting and I am standing],

they will think: This is the king, and this is the servant [

they will think: The one who is sitting is the king, and the one who is standing is the servant].

And if I sit—

I will be a rebel against the kingship, and they will kill me, and follow him [

and if I sit in the courtyard, I will be considered a rebel against the kingship, and they will kill me, and the people will follow Rehoboam] .

Immediately: “And the king took counsel, and made two golden calves, and said to them: You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he placed one in Bethel, and the other he set in Dan.”

What is the meaning of “took counsel,”

with whom and how did Jeroboam take counsel?

Rabbi Judah said:

He seated the people in such a manner

that he seated a wicked person beside

each

righteous person.

He said to them: Will you sign onto everything that I do [

will you sign onto everything that I do]?

They said to him: Yes [

yes].

He said to them: I want to become king [

I want to be king].

They said to him: Yes.

We agree to this matter.

He said to them:

Will you do everything that I say to you [

everything that I say to you, do]?

They said to him: Yes.

He said to them: And

even

if I say to you

to worship [

to serve]

idolatry?

The righteous man said to him: Heaven forbid!

The wicked man said to the righteous man: Does it enter your mind that a man like Jeroboam would worship idolatry [

does it enter your mind that an honorable man like Jeroboam would worship idolatry]?!

Rather, he only wants to test them, whether you will accept his word [

rather, certainly he intends only to test us, whether we will accept all his words].

And thus the wicked would mislead the righteous, until they all signed onto the matter. And afterward they were no longer able to retract .