Sanhedrin 101b (קא:) — the Talmud in English

And it is written:

“These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied.”

And this means that Hezekiah’s students wrote the Book of Proverbs. It is thus proven that Hezekiah taught all of them.

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

He certainly did teach Torah to his son Manasseh!

Rather: Despite all the trouble he took for him and all the toil he expended

to teach him Torah,

he could not bring him to mend his ways—

except through afflictions.

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

but they would not listen. And the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, and bound him with bronze chains, and brought him to Babylon.”

And it is written: “And when he was in distress

when Manasseh was in distress,

he entreated the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him, and He was entreated by him, and heard 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 he suffered did Manasseh repent.

The Sages taught: Three came with a claim.

That is, they did not come to ask the Lord through prayer; rather, they came before the Holy One, blessed be He, with a claim and an argument. They uttered victorious arguments to which there was seemingly no answer .

Who are they? Cain, Esau, and Manasseh.

Cain—

as it is written: “My sin is too great to bear.” He said before Him

before the Holy One, blessed be He:

“Master of the Universe! Is my sin truly greater

than

the six hundred thousand

Israelites

who will eventually sin before You

571, and

nevertheless

You forgive them?”

Esau—

as it is written: “Have you but one blessing, my father?”

That is: Have you no blessing left with which to bless me? And they gave him a victorious answer, and his claim was accepted .

Manasseh—

who

at first invoked many deities, and

only

at the end,

when he saw that none of all those deities had helped him,

invoked the God of his fathers

which is what is stated: “And he humbled himself before the Lord, the God of his fathers.” This implies that until then he had humbled himself before other deities. And this is why he came with a claim. He said to the Holy One, blessed be He: If You do not save me, what benefit have I gained by invoking You rather than the other deities?

We learned in our Mishna:

Abba Shaul says: Also one who pronounces the Name according to its letters, and so on.

The tanna taught: And

this that we learned, that one who pronounces the Name according to its letters has no share in the World-to-Come, applies

in the provinces.

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

And in the language of ordinary speech

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

We learned in our Mishna:

Three kings and four commoners, and so on.

The Sages taught: Jeroboam—

because he caused strife among the people.

That is, he cast Israel down to the ground and humiliated them .

Alternatively: Jeroboam—

because he caused strife among the people

through idolatry. One worshipped this, while another protested against him, and they came to dispute.

Alternatively: Jeroboam—

because he caused strife between Israel and their Father in Heaven.

The son of Nebat—

the son who saw

something in a dream and thought that he had seen clearly and understood what he saw.

But

in truth

he did not see

clearly; rather, he was mistaken, as we will say below.

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

He was called

Nebat—

because

he saw but did not see clearly,

as we said above.

He was called

Micah—

because

he was crushed in the building

of Egypt, where they placed him in the building in place of a brick. As we find in the aggada, Moses said to the Holy One, blessed be He: “Why have You done evil to this people?” For now, if they do not have bricks, they place the children of Israel in the building! The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: The Egyptians are destroying thorns! It is revealed and known before Me that if these children live, they will become utterly wicked.

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

Moses went and took out Micah, who ultimately harmed Israel .

And what was

his true name?

His name was Sheba son of Bichri.

The Sages taught: Three saw but did not see clearly

that is, they foresaw from afar what would happen in the future, but they were mistaken.

And these are

those three:

Nebat, Ahithophel, and Pharaoh’s astrologers.

Nebat—

what did he foresee and misunderstand?

He saw fire emerging from his organ

. He thought

that this was a sign that

he would reign

that he himself would become king. Therefore Sheba son of Bichri, who was Nebat, as stated above, exerted himself, gathered all Israel to himself, and wished to reign, as recounted in II Samuel, chapter 20.

But

in truth

that was not so;

what he saw was

Jeroboam who emerged from him

and became king.

Ahithophel—

what did he foresee and misunderstand?

He saw leprosy that blossomed upon his organ. He thought

that this was a sign that

he would be king

that he would reign. Therefore he became an adviser to Absalom, so that the monarchy would pass from David to Absalom; and in either event, the kingship would then pass to him, as recounted in II Samuel, chapter 15.

But

in truth

that was not so;

rather, what he saw was

his daughter Bathsheba, from whom Solomon would emerge

Solomon the king emerged from her.

Pharaoh’s astrologers—

what did they foresee and misunderstand?

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

They—

those waters, they are the ones

that Pharaoh’s astrologers saw—

and misunderstood

the matter, and did not understand it correctly.

They saw

the astrologers

that the savior of Israel—

would be stricken through water. Pharaoh said

on the basis of their advice:

“Every son that is born, you shall cast into the Nile,”

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

But they did not know that it was because of the matter of the waters of Meribah

that he

would be stricken.

Because of the sin at the waters of Meribah, 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 Jeroboam will not come

Jeroboam

to the World-to-Come

and how do we know that Jeroboam will not come to the World-to-Come?

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

And the verse is interpreted as follows:

“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 reproved Solomon,

as is related below.

And for what reason was he punished

Jeroboam?

Because

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

reproved him publicly—

and humiliated him .

As it is stated: “Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had been a servant of Solomon, raised his hand against the king.”

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

”

Jeroboam

said to King Solomon:

Your father David breached openings in the wall so that Israel could make pilgrimage

and enter with ease.

But you have closed

those

openings

, in order to impose forced labor

so that, when everyone enters through the gates, it will be known who the entrants are, and a tax can be collected from all of them

for

the sake of your wife,

Pharaoh’s daughter!”

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

And what

is the meaning of that which 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 the king’s presence.

He should have turned aside and removed them there, because of the fear inspired by the monarchy . By doing this, Jeroboam began his rebellion, demonstrating that he did not conduct himself respectfully toward the king.

Rav Nahman said: The arrogance that Jeroboam possessed—

drove 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 return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.”

He said

Jeroboam in his heart:

It is an established tradition

that this is a halakha given to Moses at Sinai:

that

sitting is not

permitted in the Temple courtyard—

except for the kings of the House of Judah.

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

And

when the people see Rehoboam sitting while I am standing,

they will say:

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 deemed a rebel against the monarchy, they will kill me, and they will follow him

if I sit in the Temple courtyard, I will be deemed a rebel against the monarchy, 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! Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. And he set one in Bethel, and the other he placed 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 way

that he seated a wicked person beside

each

righteous person.

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

will you agree to everything that I do?

They said to him: Yes

yes.

He said to them: I wish to be king

I wish to be king.

They said to him: Yes.

We agree to this.

He said to them:

Will you do everything that I tell you

will you do everything that I tell you?

They said to him: Yes.

He said to them:

Even

if I tell you

to worship

to worship

idolatry?

The righteous man said to him: Heaven forbid!

The wicked man said to the righteous man: Can you imagine that a man like Jeroboam would worship idolatry

Could you imagine that a distinguished man like Jeroboam would worship idolatry ?!

Rather, he merely wishes to test them, whether you will accept his word

Surely he only intends to test us, to see whether we will accept everything he says.

And so the wicked misled the righteous, until they all signed the agreement. They could no longer retract their commitment .