We begin today’s page, 101b, with the words: “Rabbi Nahman said: The arrogance that Jeroboam son of Nebat possessed was what removed him from this world.”
Jeroboam was afraid that the Davidic dynasty would reclaim the kingdom. At that time, the kingdom had been divided: on one side was the dynasty of David, and on the other were the kings of Israel. Jeroboam was concerned that the Davidic dynasty would take over his kingdom. Why was he so worried?
He reasoned that when all the Jewish people went up to Jerusalem to bring offerings, they would become loyal to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. They would kill him and return their allegiance to Rehoboam. He asked himself what would happen when they went up to Jerusalem. There was a tradition that in the courtyard of the Temple, only kings from Judah, from the House of David, were permitted to sit. “When I go up to Jerusalem, I will have to stand, while Rehoboam will be sitting. The people will say, ‘Rehoboam is the king and I am the servant.’ But if I sit, I am not permitted to do so, because only Davidic kings are allowed to sit. They will kill me, and Rehoboam will remain in power.” No matter what he did—whether he stood or sat—he would lose.
Therefore, he immediately decided that he had to prevent the people from going to Jerusalem. He made two golden calves, one in the north and one in the south, so that the Jewish people would no longer have to go to Jerusalem. In this way, he diverted them to worship the calves.
He sought advice. What advice did he seek? He devised a scheme in which he placed a wicked person next to a righteous person. He approached the leaders and said, “The king of the generation is speaking to you. I need you to sign whatever I tell you.” They replied, “Of course. You are the king; whatever you tell us, we will sign.” He then said, “I want to become king.” They answered, “Of course. Why not?” He asked, “Will you sign anything I tell you to do?” They said yes. “Even to worship idolatry?” he asked. “If I tell you to do that, will you sign the document?”
The righteous person objected: “How can we sign such a document?” The wicked person standing next to him then said, “Do you really think that a great man like Jeroboam son of Nebat is going to worship idolatry? He is testing you. If you simply accept his words, perhaps he is only testing your loyalty. Surely he does not mean it; he is exaggerating.” As a result, they signed. The wicked person persuaded the righteous person to sign, and now there was a document legalizing Jeroboam’s idolatry.
Even the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite made this mistake and signed. He, too, thought that Jeroboam was merely testing them. “Surely he is bluffing. What does he mean when he says that he will worship idolatry? He wants to see how loyal they are.”
There was another king named Jehu, who was considered a great righteous man. God said of him, “Because you did what was right in My eyes,” referring to the fact that he destroyed the family of Ahab. Ahab’s family worshipped idolatry, and Jehu killed them. God therefore said that four generations of kings would descend from him. Yet it is also written that Jehu did not wholeheartedly follow the ways of God. Even though Jehu was a righteous man and had done great things, he continued to follow idolatry.
What caused him to do so? Abaye says that it was because he had opened his mouth. There is a principle that a person’s words can bring something about. A person must be very careful about what he says, even when he does not intend his words literally.
When Jehu killed the people of Ahab, how did he gather them together? He told them, “Do you think that I, too, worship Ahab? Come here, and we will worship Ahab together.” His intention was to draw them in so that he could kill them, as he ultimately did. But because he said that he worshipped Ahab, it came about that he was drawn toward idolatry. He said, in effect, “You worship the Baal a little; who will worship the Baal a great deal?” That was not his intention at the time, but since he expressed it, it affected him.
There is another reason that Jehu became attached to idolatry, and this is relevant to us. He saw the signature of the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite on the document. He thought, “If Ahijah the Shilonite is a righteous man and he signed the document, it must be permissible.” The fact that Ahijah had signed seemed to prove to him that the matter was acceptable.
The verse says that the nation was led astray from the ways of God and went deeply into its wickedness. They did not merely follow the decree of Jeroboam; they went even further. Jeroboam said, “Three times a year you must go up to Jerusalem.” His decree was that whoever did not go up to Jerusalem would transgress a positive commandment. They, however, said, “Whoever goes up to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals will be killed by the sword.” They were even stricter than Jeroboam, but in the opposite direction. Jeroboam said that if people did not go up to Jerusalem, they would be committing idolatry; they said that if people did go up to Jerusalem, they would be killed by the sword. They did this because they wanted the people to go to the calves and worship idolatry, bringing offerings there. In this way, they led the people even further away from God.
It says that at that time Jeroboam left Jerusalem and was wearing a new garment. Ahijah took Jeroboam’s garment and tore it into twelve pieces. He told Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself,” because God had decreed that Solomon’s kingdom would be divided. Originally, there had been one kingdom, ruled first by David, then by Solomon, and then by Solomon’s son. As a result of the sins of the people, God divided the kingdom. When Ahijah tore the garment, he indicated that ten tribes would belong to Jeroboam, while the other two tribes would remain under Judah.
The verse says, “At that time.” The Gemara explains that whenever the Torah uses this expression, it can refer either to a time destined for good or to a time destined for calamity. The Gemara brings examples of both.
“At the time of their visitation, they will perish” refers to the destruction of the First Temple. The time of God’s remembering them was destined for destruction. By contrast, the verse says, “At a favorable time I will answer you.” That refers to a time destined from the beginning for good, when God will answer the people and the Messiah will come. The Gemara also says that when God remembers the sin of the Golden Calf, He will punish the people for it. The day on which God punishes them was destined for calamity from the beginning.
The verse does not explicitly say that this would happen on that day, but the Sages say that the day referred to was the day on which all the calamities that were to befall the Jewish people occurred. On that day, the righteous woman who was the daughter of the father died; this, too, was the day referred to as being destined for calamity.
It was also a time of calamity for Judah. After the brothers sold Joseph, Judah was demoted by his brothers and went down from his position. His two sons died, and his daughter-in-law was accused of immorality and sentenced to be burned. That, too, was a time destined for calamity for Judah.
The Gemara then returns to the division of the kingdom. When the kingdom split, Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel came to Shechem to make him king. The son of Solomon went there to be crowned. The Gemara, in the name of Rabbi Yosef, says that Shechem had historically been a place destined for trouble. Dinah was violated there; Joseph’s brothers encountered Joseph there; and there, the kingdom of David was divided into the kingdoms of Israel as well.
We then return to the story of Jeroboam son of Nebat. The verse says that he left Jerusalem. This means that he left Jerusalem as a resident and went elsewhere. Jeroboam was destined to become king. He was wearing a new garment, and he met the prophet while they were both alone in the field.
What does it mean that he was wearing a new garment? Just as a new garment has no blemishes or defects, so too Jeroboam’s Torah had no defects. His Torah was perfect and clear, without doubts. Both of them were great scholars, and the novel insights that they expressed were like a new garment—ideas that no ear had ever heard before.
What does it mean that the two of them were alone in the field? They met alone in the field. All the Torah scholars of the generation, compared with Ahijah, were like grass in the field. Alternatively, it means that all the secrets of the Torah and all the reasons for the Torah were revealed to them. Just as a field is open and exposed, everything was open to them; they knew all the reasons for the entire Torah.
The Gemara now explains how the Jewish people were punished for following Jeroboam. Even though God had decreed that Jeroboam would become king, the people did not know this. They therefore retained their free choice, and they were punished for choosing to follow Jeroboam and abandon the Davidic dynasty.
The verse says that they rejected the one who had killed the Philistine. David had killed Goliath and saved the Jewish people. As a result of David’s victory, the people overcame the Philistines and received the city of Gath. The meaning is: “You owe David. He saved you and gave you Gath. Yet now you reject the family of David and turn to someone else. You are sending away the descendants of the one who saved you.”
The Gemara asks what punishment was imposed on the House of the ten tribes, since they acted deceitfully toward the House of David. It says that the houses of deceit would be handed over. These were the ten tribes, who would be given over to destruction.
The Gemara then turns to the subject of blessings. Anyone who benefits from this world without reciting a blessing is considered to have stolen from the Holy One, blessed be He, and from the Jewish people. When a person benefits from something in this world without making a blessing, he takes from the world without acknowledging that it belongs to God. Since God owns the entire world, he is considered to have stolen from the Holy One, blessed be He.
He also steals from the Jewish people, because failing to recite a blessing causes the produce to become cursed, and he thereby removes the blessing that was supposed to come to the entire Jewish people.
Moreover, the person who does not recite a blessing becomes a companion of the destructive one. He becomes a companion of Jeroboam, who destroyed the Jewish people and caused them to rebel against God. Why is this so? Just as Jeroboam, by causing the Jewish people to worship idolatry, diverted the flow of blessing that was meant to descend upon the Jewish people, so too, when a person does not make a blessing, he removes the flow of blessing that was supposed to come to them. In this respect, he resembles Jeroboam son of Nebat: Jeroboam diverted the Jewish people elsewhere and moved the flow of blessing away, and the person who does not recite a blessing does something similar.
The Gemara then asks how great Jeroboam’s influence was. To what extent did he cause the people to turn against God and commit this great sin? It compares him to two sticks. In those days, a person would take one stick and throw it into the air, then strike another stick with a second stick and send it away against its will. Similarly, Jeroboam forced the Jewish people. Perhaps they did not want to worship idolatry, but he placed them under such pressure that they were compelled to do so.
The Gemara now returns to the original Golden Calf, the one made in the wilderness. What criticism could be directed against the Jewish people before Moses died concerning their worship of the Golden Calf?
In Devarim, one of the places where Moses rebuked the Jewish people is called Di-Zahav. There was no place called Di-Zahav on the map. What did Moses mean by those words?
Rabbi Yannai said that Moses was pleading before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Master of the Universe, it was because of the silver and gold that You gave the Jewish people when they left Egypt—so much gold and silver—that they said, ‘Enough.’” The name Di-Zahav can be understood as meaning “enough gold.” Because of the abundance and overabundance of gold, they were led to make the Golden Calf. If God had not told them to take so much gold when they left Egypt, perhaps they would not have worshipped it. Moses was therefore asking God to have mercy on them, since their wealth contributed to the sin.
The Gemara gives a parable. A lion does not roar when it is in a cage filled with straw. When does it roar? When there is meat in its cage. The meat gives the lion a sense of power, and it roars. If one puts straw in its cage instead, it does not become excited. Similarly, before the Jewish people had wealth, they had no desire for idolatry. Once they were given all that gold and silver, they became arrogant and went to worship the calf. This was Moses’ attempt to advocate for the Jewish people and ask for mercy.
Before Jeroboam, the Jewish people had only one calf, and all the sins came from that one calf. After Jeroboam, there were three calves: the original one and the two that Jeroboam made. He doubled the problem.
Rabbi Yitzchak said that every calamity that comes into the world contains a small measure of punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf. The verse says that when God remembers the sin, He will collect one twenty-fourth of the punishment. This means that over the twenty-four generations from the Golden Calf until the destruction of the First Temple, each generation received one twenty-fourth of the punishment.
After twenty-four generations, the punishment for the Golden Calf had been completed. This was after the destruction of the First Temple, when the time approached for God to say, “I will remember.” One must therefore say that from the time of the Golden Calf until the destruction of the First Temple there were twenty-four generations.
Rashi lists the twenty-four generations in his commentary. Beginning with Nahshon son of Amminadab, who lived at the time of the Exodus, the generations continue through Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, and Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim did not complete his reign; he was sent to Babylon, and in that same generation his uncle Zedekiah was placed in charge. Zedekiah was king in the twenty-fourth generation, when the Temple was destroyed. That was when the punishment of the Golden Calf was erased.
The Gemara then returns to Jeroboam. Even after all this, Jeroboam did not repent. The Gemara says that God took hold of him by his garment and said, “Repent. You, I, and the son of Jesse—David—will stroll together in the Garden of Eden.” Jeroboam asked, “Who will go first on the tour?” God replied, “The son of Jesse will go first.” Jeroboam said, “If that is the order, I am not interested.” His arrogance had consumed him so completely that even after God offered him the opportunity to repent and promised him a place in the Garden of Eden, he still refused because David would precede him.
One could explain that Jeroboam was really supposed to go first, as indicated by the wording, “You, I, and the son of Jesse.” Perhaps he was asking God to clarify the order. But God had already indicated the order, and Jeroboam wanted to hear it explicitly. His arrogance was so great that when he heard that David would go first, he rejected the offer. Thus, even after God did all this for him, he still could not repent, and he had become completely corrupted by idolatry.
The Gemara now discusses how the Sages used to expound upon the three kings who have no share in the World to Come. Rabbi Abba would give lectures about these three kings and speak about them in a derogatory manner. It is permitted to speak critically about the wicked after they have died.
On one occasion, Rabbi Abba became very weak and was close to death. He thought, “Perhaps this is happening because I speak critically about these kings. Perhaps they are taking offense at me.” He decided that if he recovered, he would no longer give lectures about them. He did recover—but as soon as he became well, he returned to giving his lectures against the three kings.
His students said to him, “You accepted upon yourself that you would no longer expound upon them. What happened to that resolution?” He replied, “Did they repent, so that I should repent? They are still the same wicked people. Why should I stop? They had opportunities to repent, as we just saw with Jeroboam, but they did not repent. Therefore, it remains permissible to speak about them.”
When he reached the stories of the three kings in his teaching, he told the students, sarcastically, “Tomorrow we will speak about our friends.” Manasseh, one of the kings, was present in an upper room and heard Rabbi Abba refer to him as a friend. He appeared to Rabbi Abba in a dream and said, “I am not your friend. I am not even your father’s friend; I lived one generation before you. How can you refer to me as though I were your colleague?”
Manasseh then asked him, “When you recite the blessing over bread, from which part of the loaf do you take the piece?” Rabbi Abba replied, “I do not know.” Manasseh said, “You do not know something so basic—where to take the piece of bread for the blessing—and you call me your friend? What kind of friend is that?”
Rabbi Abba said, “Teach me, and tomorrow in the class I will teach the students in your name that this is the law.” Manasseh replied that one should take the piece from the place where the fire baked the bread most thoroughly, the part that was most well done. Rabbi Abba said, “You are so knowledgeable that you even know such a detail—where to cut the bread. If you know so much, why did you worship idolatry? What happened to you?”
Manasseh answered, “If you had lived in my generation, you would have lifted the hem of your garment so that you could run faster in order to worship idolatry.” The inclination toward idolatry was so powerful in those days that a person today cannot appreciate the nature of that test. Today, we do not have that same inclination, and therefore we cannot truly relate to it.
The next day, when Rabbi Abba came to teach, he began by saying, “Let us open with our rabbis,” rather than referring to the three kings as his friends. He gave them the honor due to rabbis, even though they had committed great sins, because they possessed great Torah knowledge.
The Gemara now returns to one of the three kings, Ahab, and asks how his name is derived. The word “Ah” expresses grief and distress—woe to the heavens, because he troubled the heavens. The word “Av,” father, indicates that he was like a father to idolatry. Just as a father is compassionate, Ahab showed compassion toward idolatry and treated it with mercy.
Rabbi Hanina said that the minor sins committed by Ahab were equivalent to the severe sins committed by Jeroboam. In addition to the calves that Jeroboam made, Ahab brought Baalim, Asherot, and other forms of idolatry. He added to the idolatry that Jeroboam had introduced.
In the Book of Kings, it is written concerning the kings who followed Jeroboam that they did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam. Why is Jeroboam blamed rather than Ahab, who also expanded idolatry? The answer is that Jeroboam began it. Since he was the first to corrupt the people in this way, the sin continued to be attributed to him.
The verse says that the Jewish people worshipped on every furrow, every mountain, and every mound in the fields of the Land of Israel. Ahab placed an idol on every mound in the Land of Israel and bowed to it. This is the meaning of the verse referring to the furrows of the field and the mounds of the land: everywhere, Ahab established idolatry.
We learned in the Mishnah that Ahab has no share in the World to Come. How do we know this? The prophecy says that from the house of Ahab there would no longer be one who urinates against a wall. This refers to Torah scholars who place themselves deeply into wisdom and draw it from the depths of their hearts. No Torah scholars would emerge from Ahab’s family.
The verse also speaks of one who is confined and abandoned in Israel. This is understood as referring to someone who is confined in this world and abandoned in the World to Come.
Rabbi Yohanan said that the merit of Omri, Ahab’s father, is that he established a kingdom for four generations. Why did Omri merit becoming king? He added one city to the Land of Israel. He purchased the mountain of Samaria from a man named Shemer, and he named the area Samaria after him. For annexing a small additional area to the Land of Israel, Omri merited kingship.
Rabbi Yohanan also said that Omri ruled for twenty-two years because he honored the Torah, which has twenty-two lines. Since he respected the Torah, he was rewarded with twenty-two years of kingship.
The Gemara then discusses Ahab’s war with Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, who surrounded the area of Samaria. Ben-Hadad sent messengers to Ahab and said, “Your money now belongs to me, as do your children and your wife; they are my captives.” Ahab replied, “Everything you say is acceptable. I will send it to you.”
Ben-Hadad then said, “I will send my servants to you tomorrow. They will search your houses and the houses of your servants. I want the most precious thing in your eyes.” Ahab responded through the messengers, “The first thing you ask for, I will give you. If you want my wife, my children, or anything else, I will give it to you. But what is most precious to me, I cannot give you.”
What is the “precious thing” in Ahab’s eyes? It must refer to the Torah. Even though Ahab was as wicked as he was, he did not want to hand the Torah over to the king of Aram. He was willing to give over his children, but not the Torah. Because he respected the Torah, which is associated with twenty-two letters, God rewarded him with twenty-two years of kingship.
The Gemara challenges this explanation. Who says that Ahab’s precious possession was the Torah? Perhaps the most precious thing in his eyes was his idolatry, and he did not want to hand it over. Ahab consulted the elders, and the elders told him not to agree. But perhaps these elders were not Torah scholars. Perhaps they were simply elders of low character, elders of shame. The term “elders” does not always refer to Torah scholars. When Absalom rebelled against David, he also consulted the elders, yet those elders may have been elders of shame rather than scholars.
How, then, do we know that Ahab’s precious possession was the Torah? In the case of Absalom, the verse does not say that he consulted everyone. In Ahab’s case, however, he consulted all the people. It is impossible that there were no righteous people among the entire nation. Even though the nation as a whole was corrupt, there were certainly righteous people among them. The fact that the righteous people told Ahab not to surrender the precious object indicates that it was something of religious significance. Therefore, it must have been the Torah.
We can also prove that there were righteous people in Ahab’s time: there were at least seven thousand people in Israel who had not worshipped the Baal. These seven thousand were certainly not going to advise Ahab to surrender the Torah. Thus, the precious object that Ahab refused to hand over was the Torah.