Sanhedrin 103b — the Talmud in English

“For he has desired Me, and I shall deliver him; I shall elevate him, for he has known My Name. He shall call upon Me, and I shall answer him; I am with him in distress, I shall deliver him and honor him. With length of days I shall satisfy him, and I shall show him My salvation.”

And this verse applies only to the Holy One, blessed be He, who says: Whoever desires Me—I shall deliver him and save him.

Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “He withholds their light from the wicked, and the uplifted arm is broken”?

For what reason

the letter

ayin of

the word

“wicked” is suspended,

and is not written upright with the rest of the line, so that it appears as though “poor” is written, without the letter ayin?

Once a person becomes poor below,

in that he has enemies, and people are not pleased with him—

he becomes poor

also

above .

For it is known that they hate him also above. And therefore “poor” is written, implying two authorities. That is, he is poor both below and above .

And we object: If so, why was the letter ayin written

? And let it not be written

the letter ayin

at all,

and let “poor” be written explicitly in the verse!

And we say:

Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Elazar

explained the matter.

One

of them

said:

The matter was not written explicitly

because of David’s honor.

For David had many enemies, and they would say that they hated him also above!

But in truth this is not so, for this rule does not apply to the righteous.

And one

of them

said: Because of the honor of Nehemiah son of Hachaliah.

For he too had many enemies .

The Sages taught: Manasseh would expound fifty-five aspects in Torat Kohanim

in the Book of Leviticus, for he would renew it every year and expound it through his dialectical analysis,

corresponding to the years of his reign

for he reigned fifty-five years.

Ahab—

would expound

eighty-five

aspects in Torat Kohanim.

Jeroboam—

would expound

one hundred and three

aspects in Torat Kohanim.

It was taught: Rabbi Meir would say: Absalom—

has no share in the World to Come

. As it is stated: “And they struck

Absalom and killed him.” And they expound the verse as follows:

“And they struck him”—

in this world .

“And they killed him”—

in the World to Come.

It was taught: Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Meir:

The kings

Ahaz and Ahaziah, and

so

all the kings of Israel

about whom it is written: “And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord,” do not live

in the World to Come with the righteous—

and

they also

are not judged

in Gehinnom with the wicked .

It is written:

“And Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth, besides his sin with which he caused Judah to sin, to do what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

Here they explained:

What is written in the verse, that Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, does not mean that he killed many people. Rather, it means

that he killed

the

prophet Isaiah,

who is equal to many people, as follows.

In the West they say: That he made an idol

which was extremely heavy,

the burden of one thousand people, and each and every day

that idol

would kill

the

entire group

all its bearers, for they were split open by the weight of the burden.

According to whom does that which Rabbah bar bar Hannah said go: The soul of one righteous person is equal—

to the entire world?

According to the one who says: He killed Isaiah.

And this is what is stated: “Until he filled Jerusalem from mouth to mouth” , for the soul of one righteous person is equal to one who filled Jerusalem with corpses upon corpses.

It is written

concerning Manasseh: “And he placed the

graven image

of the symbol that he had made in the House of God.” Thus, he made one graven image.

And

on the other hand

it is written: “And he erected the Asherot and the

idols and the

graven images,”

thus, he made many graven images!

Rabbi Yohanan said: At first he made for it

the graven image

one face. And in the end he made for it four faces, so that the

Shekhina

would see it

from whichever direction she entered the Temple court —

and become angry.

Ahaz placed it

the graven image

in the upper chamber. As it is stated: “And the altars that were upon the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz,” and so on.

Manasseh placed it in the Sanctuary. As it is stated: “And he placed the image of the Asherah that he had made in the House of which the Lord said

to David and to Solomon his son: In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I shall place My Name forever.”

Amon brought it

the graven image

into the Holy of Holies. As it is stated: “For the bed is too short to stretch out, and the covering too narrow to gather.”

What is the meaning of “For the bed is too short to stretch out”?

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: For this bed

—

—the

Temple—

is too short for two companions to stretch out upon it together.

That is: the Shekhina and the image.

What is the meaning of “And the covering is too narrow,” and so on?

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said: When Rabbi Yonatan would reach this verse—

he would cry. He who wrote of Him: “He gathers the waters of the sea like a mound,”

would you make a narrow covering for Him?

That is, would it be for Him like a wife who becomes a rival to her fellow wife?

Ahaz annulled the Temple service and sealed the Torah. As it is stated: “Bind up the testimony, seal the Torah among My disciples” .

Manasseh erased the Divine Names and destroyed the altar .

Amon burned the Torah and placed a lizard upon the altar.

That is, he entirely annulled the Temple service, until spiders spun their webs upon the altar .

Ahaz permitted forbidden sexual relations.

Manasseh had intercourse with his sister.

Amon had intercourse with his mother. As it is stated: “For Amon multiplied guilt.”

Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Elazar

disagreed about this: What is the meaning of the verse “multiplied guilt”?

One said: That he burned the Torah.

And one said: That he had intercourse with his mother.

His mother said to him: Do you derive any pleasure from the place from which you emerged?

He said to her:

Indeed, I do not derive pleasure from it. Rather,

am I doing this—

except to anger my Creator!

When Jehoiakim came, he said: Those before me did not know how to anger

the Omnipresent—the earlier kings before us did not know how to anger the Omnipresent.

We shall anger Him

! What need do we have

for the Holy One, blessed be He?—

except for His light ,

which is what we need the sun for, to illuminate for us—but

we have Parvaim gold,

which shines exceedingly,

and we use it.

Let the Holy One, blessed be He, come and

take away His light! They said to him

his contemporaries: How can you say that you do not need the Holy One, blessed be He?

Is it not the silver and gold

that you say you will use to illuminate

His? As it is stated: “The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of Hosts”! He said to them

Jehoiakim:

He has already given them to us.

The Holy One, blessed be He.

As it is stated: “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the children of man.” Rava said to Rabbah bar Mari: For what reason did they not count Jehoiakim

among those who have no share in the World to Come? Is it because

it is written concerning him

such wicked words:

“And the other matters of Jehoiakim, and his abominations that he did, and that which was found upon him”—

did they not count him?! And since the Gemara mentioned this verse, the Gemara brings that the Sages disagreed in its interpretation.

What is the meaning of “that which was found upon him”?

They disagreed in explaining the matter:

Rabbi Yohanan and Rabbi Elazar. One

of them

said: That he engraved the name of idolatry upon his organ ,

because he was devoted to it .

And one

of them

said: That he engraved the Name of Heaven upon his organ,

in order to disgrace it .

And now the Gemara returns to Rava’s question: For what reason did they not count Jehoiakim?

He said to him

Rabbah bar Mari to Rava:

Regarding

the

kings

who have no share in the World to Come,

I have not heard

why Jehoiakim was not mentioned.

But

regarding

the

ordinary people

who have no share,

I have heard

why Micah was not mentioned among them—who made an idol for idolatry:

For what reason did they not count Micah?

Because his bread was available to wayfarers,

who would all lodge with him .

As it is stated: “Every passerby and returner to the Levites” .

“And he passed through the sea of distress and struck waves in the sea”

. Rabbi Yohanan said: This is Micah’s idol.

That is, when Israel went out of Egypt, Moses wished to take with him the coffin of Joseph, which lay in the depths of the Nile. He wrote the Name and cast it into the Nile, and then the coffin floated up. Micah saw this and secretly took the Name.

And this is what is stated: “And he passed through the sea of distress,” for when the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Israel across, Micah crossed with them, with the Name in his hand, in order to make the calf .

It was taught: Rabbi Natan says:

The place of Micah and his idol was at a place called Grab.

From Grab to Shiloh,

where the Tabernacle of the Lord was, was a distance of

three mil. And the smoke of the pyre,

which rose from Shiloh,

and the smoke of Micah’s idol,

which rose from Grab,

would mingle with one another.

The ministering angels wished to push him

Micah .

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Leave him,

because

his bread is available to wayfarers.

And on account of this matter,

that Israel did not protest against Micah,

the people of the Concubine at Gibeah were punished.

Forty thousand of Israel were killed in that incident.

For

the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them

to Israel:

For My honor

that is, for the desecration of My honor when Micah made his idol—

you did not protest.

And now,

for the honor of flesh and blood—

you protested?!

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Kisma: Great is a meal

food with which guests are fed,

which distanced two families,

Ammon and Moab,

from Israel.

As it is stated:

“An Ammonite and a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord, and so on,

because they did not greet you with bread and water

on the way when you went out from Egypt” .

Rabbi Yohanan said this matter in the name of Rabbi Yose ben Kisma.

And Rabbi Yohanan himself

himself

said:

The meal—

distances those who are near, brings near those who are far,

and conceals the eyes from the wicked

causing it to be as though the Holy One, blessed be He, does not see the deeds of the wicked and does not repay him according to the fruit of his deeds,

and causes the Shekhina to rest upon the prophets of Baal,

and his inadvertence becomes intentional sin.

That is, even if he did not feed him inadvertently, it is nevertheless considered for him as intentional sin, and he is punished for it.