Sanhedrin 102b — the Talmud in English

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he recovered

[was healed] —

he returned and expounded

[he returned to expound] concerning the three kings.

They said

his students to him:

Did you not accept upon yourself not to expound concerning them

[did you not accept upon yourself not to expound concerning them]?!

Rabbi Abbahu said

to them:

Did they repent, that I should repent

[did they repent of their evil deeds, that I should retract and not expound concerning them]?

Rav Ashi reached the subject of the three kings

[in his study].

He said: Tomorrow we shall begin with our colleagues

[tomorrow we shall begin studying the matter of our colleagues, who were Torah scholars like us], who have no share in the World to Come.

Manasseh came and appeared to him in his dream

[Manasseh came and was revealed to him in a dream].

He said

to Rav Ashi:

You call us your colleagues and your father’s colleagues

[you call us your colleagues and your father’s colleagues]?

From which place would you begin the breaking of the bread

[do you know at which place in the loaf one must cut when reciting the blessing over bread]?

Rav Ashi said to him

Rav Ashi:

I do not know

[I do not know].

Manasseh said to him

Manasseh:

You did not learn from which place one begins the breaking of the bread

[you did not learn],

and you call us your colleagues

[and you call us your colleagues]?!

Rav Ashi said to him

Rav Ashi:

Teach it to me

[teach me this matter],

and tomorrow I shall expound it in your name in the lecture

[and tomorrow I shall expound this matter in your name].

Manasseh said to him

Manasseh:

From the place where it is browned

by the baking

[from the place where the surface of the bread is browned in the oven]. That is, at the hardest place in it, whether above, below, or on the sides. But not at its middle, where it is soft .

Rav Ashi said to him

Rav Ashi to Manasseh:

Since you are so wise

[since you are so wise],

for what reason did you worship

[why did you serve]

idolatry?

He said to him: If you had been there

[if you had been there then, at that time],

you would have grasped the hem of your cloak —

and run after me

[you would have lifted the hem of your cloak so that you could run quickly, and you would have run after me to worship idolatry], because at that time the evil inclination of idolatry exercised overwhelming control.

The next day

he no longer said to the Sages, “We shall begin with our colleagues,” but

he said to the Rabbis

in an expression of honor:

“We shall begin with the great masters”

[we shall begin to expound concerning our masters].

What is the meaning of the name

“Ahab”—

A brother

[evil ]

to Heaven ,

And

a father to idolatry.

A brother to Heaven, as it is written: “A brother is born for distress.”

And the meaning of the verse is: Woe to distress. Thus “brother” is an expression of evil.

A father to idolatry, as it is written: “As a father has mercy upon children.”

Thus a father has exceedingly great mercy upon his sons. So too Ahab loved idolatry exceedingly.

It is written concerning Ahab:

“And it was a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.” Rabbi Yohanan said: The minor sins that Ahab committed —

were like the grave sins that Jeroboam committed.

That is, the grave sins that Jeroboam committed were minor in Ahab’s eyes, for he added and sinned much more, as follows.

And for what reason did Scripture attribute

the sins

to Jeroboam,

as we find several times in Scripture, “He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam,” although in truth Ahab sinned more than he did—

Because he

[Jeroboam]

was first to corruption

[he began the corruption through sin]. “

In Gilgal they sacrifice oxen,

their altars also are like heaps upon the furrows of the field.” Rabbi Yohanan said: There is not a single furrow in the Land of Israel upon which Ahab did not establish idolatry and bow down to it.

And from where do we know that Ahab does not come

Ahab

to the World to Come?

As it is written: “And I shall cut off from Ahab one who urinates

against the wall, and one who is restrained and one who is forsaken in Israel.”

And thus the verse is expounded:

“The restrained” —

in this world.

“And the forsaken” —

in the World to Come.

Rabbi Yohanan said: For what reason did Omri merit kingship—

Because he added one city in the Land of Israel.

As it is stated: “And he bought the mountain of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built upon the mountain, and he called the name of the city that he built after the name of Shemer, the owner of the mountain: Samaria.”

Rabbi Yohanan said: For what reason did Ahab merit twenty-two years of kingship —

Because he honored the Torah, which was given in twenty-two letters.

As it is stated: “And Ben-hadad king of Aram sent

[Ben-hadad king of Aram]

messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and he said to him: So said Ben-hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine, and your wives and your best sons are mine.”

And the king of Israel agreed to this, and said: “According to your word, my lord the king. I am yours, and all that is mine.”

Ben-hadad added and sent to the king of Israel:

“For at this time tomorrow I shall send my servants to you, and they shall search your house and the houses of your servants; and whatever is the delight of your eyes, they shall place in their hands and take it” . And then the king consulted the elders of the people, and they said to him: “Do not listen and do not consent.”

The king then consulted with the elders of the people, and they said to him: “Do not listen and do not agree.”

“And he said to Ben-hadad’s messengers: Say to my lord the king: Everything that you sent to your servant at first I shall do. But this matter—

I cannot do

etc.”

What is ‘the delight of your eyes,’

which Ben-hadad wished to take and Ahab refused to give,

is it not a Torah scroll?

Thus Ahab honored the Torah!

And we raise an objection: From where do we know that it was a Torah scroll,

perhaps it was idolatry

which was indeed Ahab’s delight of his eyes, since he cherished it exceedingly?

And we say:

This cannot enter your mind

to say so.

For it is written: “And all the elders and all the people said to him: Do not listen and do not consent.”

And if it referred to idolatry, they would not have said this to him!

And we raise an objection:

But perhaps

those elders

were lowly elders

of disgrace

[they were lowly and wicked elders ]?

Is it not written: “And the matter was right in the eyes of Absalom and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel,” and Rav Yosef said

those elders of Israel

were lowly elders

of disgrace? Thus even wicked elders are called “elders of Israel”!

And we say:

There,

concerning Absalom,

it is not written “

elders of Israel

and all the people.”

But

here,

it

is written “

the elders

and all the people,” for it is impossible that there were no righteous people among them

[that it is impossible that there were not righteous people among all the people]. And all of them said as one: “Do not listen and do not consent!” Perforce, the reference is to a Torah scroll. For if it referred to idolatry, it would not have mattered to the righteous that Ben-hadad take it.

And it is written: “And I shall leave in Israel seven thousand, every knee that has not bent to the Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Rav Nahman said: Ahab was evenly balanced.

For he had half sins and half merits.

As it is stated: “And the Lord said: Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said this way, and another said that way.”

This implies that Ahab was punished only with great difficulty, through enticement .

Rabbi Yosef challenged this: Concerning one about whom it is written, “Only there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife incited,” and we learned: Every day she would weigh shekels of gold for idolatry; and you say that he was evenly balanced?

Rather, Ahab was generous with his money. And because he provided Torah scholars with benefit from his possessions—

half

of his sins was atoned for .

When Ahab, king of Israel, wished to go out to wage war against the king of Aram, in order to take Ramoth-gilead from him, and wished to join Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to himself, Jehoshaphat said to him that the prophets should be asked whether the matter would succeed in their hands.

The king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and they said to him: Go up, and the Lord will give it into the hand of the king!

Jehoshaphat asked: “Is there no prophet of the Lord here still, and shall we inquire of him?”

Ahab said to him that there was still one prophet, whose name was Micaiah son of Imlah. But he did not prophesy good concerning him, only evil.

Nevertheless Jehoshaphat wished to hear the words of Micaiah.

They brought him before them, and he said to them: “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains like sheep, etc.” That is, they would not succeed in their war.

Ahab said to Jehoshaphat: “Did I not say to you: He will not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

Micaiah said: “Therefore hear the word of the Lord! I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him, etc. And the Lord said: Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead, etc.?”

“And the spirit went out and stood before the Lord, and said: I shall entice him. And the Lord said to him: With what? And he said: I shall go out, and I shall be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said: You shall entice him, and you shall prevail; go out and do so.”

What spirit?

What spirit was this that stood before the Lord?

Rabbi Yohanan said: The spirit of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Since Ahab had killed Naboth, his spirit was seeking to entice him and bring about his downfall.

What is

“go out and do so”? It would have been sufficient to say to the spirit: “Do so”!

Ravina said:

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to it:

Go out from My presence. For it is written: “He who speaks lies shall not be established before My eyes,”

and Naboth’s spirit was a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets! Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said to it to leave His presence.

Rav Pappa said: This is what people say: He who avenges his jealousy—

destroys his house.

One who exacts his jealousy and anger, and takes revenge, causes his house to be destroyed. Like Naboth’s spirit: although it took its revenge, because of this it left the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He.

“And Ahab made the Asherah, and Ahab continued to act to anger the Lord, God of Israel, more than all the kings of Israel who were before him.”

Rabbi Yohanan said: He wrote upon the doors of Samaria

Ahab denied the God of Israel; therefore he has no share in the God of Israel.

“And he sought Ahaziah and captured him, while he was hiding in Samaria.” Rabbi Levi said: He was

Ahaziah

scraping

[erasing by gouging and scratching]

the sacred Names

[Names] in the Torah,

and writing

there

idolatry in their place

[in their place].

And therefore he was hiding. For if he had done this publicly, they would not have allowed him to do so.

Manasseh—

he was called this because of

“he forgot Yah”

[he forgot the Holy One, blessed be He].

Alternatively: Manasseh—

after

“he made forget”

[he caused to forget ]

Israel their Father in Heaven.

And from where do we know that Manasseh does not come

Manasseh

to the World to Come?

As it is written: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem,” “and he made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had made.”

And from the implication of the verse, that Manasseh did as Ahab had done, we learn:

Just as Ahab has no share in the World to Come,

as we learned above from the verse “the forsaken,”

so Manasseh—

has no share in the World to Come.

Rabbi Judah says: Manasseh has a share in the World to Come. As it is stated: “And he prayed

[Manasseh]

to Him, and He was entreated by him, etc.”

Rabbi Yohanan said: And both of them,

Rabbi Judah, who said that he has a share, and the Rabbis, who said that he has no share,

expounded one verse. As it is stated: “And I shall appoint them for terror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah.”

One master

Rabbi Judah

held: “Because of Manasseh”—

because he repented, whereas they did not act

[and they did not repent, and therefore I shall appoint them for terror].