Shabbat 56b (נו:) — the Talmud in English

“For your servant said: I will saddle the donkey for myself, ride upon it, and go to the king, for your servant is lame”

your servant.”

Because I am lame, I cannot walk. And while I was saddling my donkey, Ziba went alone to the king. I was unable to go by myself.

Mephibosheth continued and said:

“He slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is like an angel of God; do what is good in your eyes.”

Ziba informed you that I was rebelling against the king, and because of this you gave him my inheritance. But you, the king, are like an angel of God, able to know what the truth is. Therefore, do as is good in your eyes, for surely you will not deviate from the truth.

“And the king said to him: Why should you speak further of your matters,

for I have already

said

that

you and Ziba shall divide the field”?!

For I have already given him your field, and I cannot retract my decision entirely. Therefore, divide the field between yourselves.

“And Mephibosheth said to the king: Let him take even all of it, since my lord the king has come in peace to his house”!

He said to him

Mephibosheth said to David:

I said

throughout the entire time of your flight,

When will you return in peace,

and yet

you are doing this to me

and confiscating my property?

“I have no grievance against you, but against the one who brought you back in peace!”

[The plain meaning of the verse is that I rejoice over the king’s return in peace more than over my inheritance.]

And this is what is written

concerning Mephibosheth:

“The son of Jonathan, son of a man of strife.”

Was “son of a man of strife” his name?

But surely his name was Mephibosheth. Rather, because he quarreled with his Master,

with the Almighty,

a Divine voice went forth and said: Let the son of strife go forth, the son of one who goes forth! The Maharsha

explains that Mephibosheth was called “son of a man of strife” because he should have asked David to believe his words and demonstrated that they were true, but instead he immediately came with grievance and complaint and did not attempt to prove his claim.

And the Gemara explains:

“Let him go forth”

they called Mephibosheth this because

that which we said

that he expressed a grievance toward Heaven over David’s return in peace. And

“son of one who goes forth,”

because he was the grandson of Saul,

as it is written

concerning him:

“And Saul came to the city of Amalek and quarreled in the valley.”

Rabbi Mani said:

What is the meaning of “and he quarreled in the valley”? He quarreled with Samuel

over matters concerning the valley.

When Samuel commanded him to strike Amalek, Saul derived a kal va-homer from the law of the heifer whose neck is broken in a valley. He said: If, for a single person who was killed, the Torah says to bring a heifer whose neck is broken in the valley, then regarding all these people of Amalek, all the more so one must have pity on them. And if the adults of Amalek sinned, what sin did the children commit?

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: When David said to Mephibosheth, “You and Ziba shall divide the field,” a Divine voice went forth and said to him: Rehoboam and Jeroboam shall divide the kingdom!

Just as you improperly took half of Mephibosheth’s field from him and gave it to Ziba, his servant, so shall the kingdom be torn from your descendants and divided between Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, son of David, and Jeroboam, son of Nebat.

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: Had David not accepted slander

from Ziba concerning Mephibosheth and confiscated his inheritance,

the kingdom of David would not have been divided, the Jewish people would not have practiced idolatry, and we would not have been exiled from our land.

For as a result of the division of the Davidic kingdom, Jeroboam, king of Israel, set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan, so that the Israelites would worship them and would not go up to Jerusalem, which was in Rehoboam’s kingdom. The idolatry that they practiced caused us to be exiled from our land.

Rav Shmuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Anyone who says that Solomon sinned

with idolatry

is merely mistaken.

As it is stated

concerning Solomon:

“And his heart was not complete with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”

This implies:

It was only not as the heart of David his father.

But

as for sinning, he did not sin either.

The Gemara raises a difficulty:

Rather, how do I understand

the beginning of the verse

“And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart

to follow other gods”?! And we answer:

That—

as

explained by

Rabbi Natan.

For Rabbi Natan posed a contradiction

between the verses:

It is written: “And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart

to follow other gods.” This indicates that Solomon sinned.

But it is written

later in the verses: “And his heart was not complete with the Lord his God,

as was the heart of David his father.”

This implies:

It was only not as the heart of David his father; as for sinning, he did not sin either.

Rabbi Natan answered: In truth, he did not sin.

And this is what the verse says

:

“And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart to follow other gods,”

but he did not

heed their counsel, and he did not

go

and worship them.

The Gemara objects:

But it is written: “Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab,

on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.” This indicates that he built high places for idolatry. How, then, can you say that he did not sin?

And we answer: The meaning of the verse is:

At that time Solomon

wanted

to build

these high places,

but he did not build them.

The Gemara questions:

But from now—

should the verse

“Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord”

also be interpreted as

“He wanted to build it but did not build it”?!

That is certainly not so.

Rather, he built

it literally. And

here too

with regard to Solomon, it should be interpreted that

he built

the high places literally. How, then, can you say that he did not sin?

And we answer:

Rather, as it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Yosei says:

It is written concerning Josiah, king of Judah:

“And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the Mount of Destruction,

which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians,

and for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.”

Is it possible that Asa came

and reigned over Judah

but did not destroy them

the places of these idolatries, and

Jehoshaphat

reigned

but did not destroy them, and they remained in existence

and they remained existing

until Josiah came and destroyed them?

But surely all the idolatries in the Land of Israel had already been destroyed by Asa and Jehoshaphat

and had already

been destroyed.

Rather, he compares the earlier ones—

Solomon—

to the later ones—

Josiah:

Just as the later ones

did not perform the destruction attributed to them, for it was not Josiah who destroyed them but his ancestors,

and

nevertheless, since Josiah destroyed other idolatries that had been established after the deaths of Asa and Jehoshaphat,

the verse attributed to them

the destruction, and it was considered

to the credit

of Josiah.

The earlier ones as well—

Solomon—

did not make

“Chemosh,” “Ashtoreth,” and “Milcom”; his wives did.

But the verse attributed to him

the making of them

as a disgrace!

The reason for this will be explained shortly.

The Gemara objects:

But it is written: “And Solomon did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord,

and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father did.” How, then, can you say that he did not sin?

And we answer:

Rather, because he should have protested against his wives

who practiced idolatry,

but he did not protest

against them,

the verse considers it as though he himself had sinned

.

Rabbi Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: It would have been preferable for that righteous man

Solomon

to be a servant to something else

to idolatry—for example, to chop wood or draw water for idolatry for payment—

rather than for it to be written of him, “And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: When Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter,

she

brought him a thousand types of musical instruments, and said to him: This is how they act

and sing

before

a particular

idolatry, and this is how they act before

a particular

idolatry.

And he did not protest against her

Solomon.

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel: When

Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter, Gabriel descended

the angel

and drove a reed into the sea, and a sandbank rose around it

[around the reed]

and adhered to it.

Sand and mud continued to accumulate around it until it became dry land.

And upon it was eventually built

a

great city of Rome.

It was taught in a baraita: On the same day that Jeroboam son of Nebat brought in two golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan, a single hut was built

on that sandbank. From then on, houses were added upon houses

. And this was Italy of Greece.

Italy was a city in the country of Greece. When Rome conquered the kingdom of Greece, Italy also became theirs.

Rav Shmuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Anyone who says that Josiah sinned is merely mistaken.

Although it is said concerning him, “who returned to the Lord,” implying that he had initially sinned, this is not so.

For

it is

stated: “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father,

and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”

Rather, how do I understand

the verse stated concerning him,

“And like him there was no king before him, who returned

to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses, nor did any arise like him after him,” which implies that he sinned and then repented?—

For

Josiah began to reign when he was eight years old. And

every judge

[in a case]

who judged from the age of eight

years

until eighteen

years

returned to them

the money of the litigants who had lost it in judgment before him.

When Josiah was eighteen years old, Hilkiah the High Priest found the Torah scroll in the Temple. He gave it to Shaphan the scribe, who read it before Josiah. Josiah then examined and scrutinized the Torah and its written and Oral Laws, and realized that perhaps he had erred in the cases he had judged previously.

Lest you say: He took from this one

who had won the case

and gave to that one

who had lost the case?—That is not so. For

the verse states: “Who returned to the Lord

with all his might.”

And “might” refers to money [as we expound, “with all your might,” with all your money]. From here

“Wealth” means money [as we expound, “with all your wealth”—with all your money]. From here

we learn that he gave them

money

from his own.

And this disagrees with

Rabbi Yonatan, who says

on the contrary.

For Rav said: You have no one greater among the penitents than Josiah in his generation, and

greater than a penitent

in our generation.

The Gemara asks:

And who

was that penitent in Rav’s generation?

And we answer:

Abba,

who was

the father of Rav Yirmeya bar Abba.

And some say, Aḥa,

who was

Abba’s brother,

who was

the father of Rav Yirmeya bar Abba.

For the master said: Rabbi Abba and Aḥa were brothers.

Rav Yosef said: And furthermore,

there is another penitent

one

in

our generation,

and there is no penitent greater than he.

And who is he?—

Uqban bar Nehemiah,

who was

the head of the exile.

And this is the meaning of “Natan of the sparks,”

because fiery sparks were seen upon him, through the angel who extended his hand toward him and accepted his repentance.

Rav Yosef said: I was sitting in

the lecture

at the public discourse. And I was

[I was]

dozing. And I saw in a dream that

the angel

extended his hands and received

the repentance of Uqban bar Nehemiah!

We shall return to you, chapter “With What May an Animal Go Out”