אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
כ״ט חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
The sugya is Sanhedrin 102a. On 101b: A new garment.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
The second stick
It is written vayada, and it is read vayadach: he drove Yisrael away from after Hashem.
V'hechetiom chato gedolo: and he caused them to sin a great sin. Kishtel maklois ha-martizois: two sticks that strike one another. The second stick lengthens the arm and drives the first farther. He forced them against their will.
The Aseres HaShevatim: the ten tribes, were unwilling, and that is their credit.
Too much gold
Di Zahav: enough gold.
In the opening of Devarim, Moshe already asked for leniency. Silver and gold were showered on them until they said enough. Na: please. HaKadosh Baruch Hu asked a favor of Moshe, and Moshe had to ask a favor of the people, that they take the gold and silver of Mitzrayim. Both knew wealth is a peril. Inability to afford is a fence.
When the request came for the egel: the calf, the gold was already in hand.
They had a way out. They could have crossed into Yehudah. Some did, later, under Asa, and again later. They stayed because they had it too good. Excellent wine, hot springs, fertile fields, wealth. The force held because they refused the escape.
Rav Miller zt"l: a lion fed only straw does not roar and does not attack. Give him meat and he becomes cocky. People who are full and still eating are the ones to watch. The surplus that made the gold easy to yield is the surplus that kept them from the crossing.
One twenty-fourth
Rav Yitzchak said there is no puranus that comes upon the world without one twenty-fourth of a hechra litra of the first egel.
Yonki me-egel echat: still suckling from one calf. Until Yeravam, the generations were still on that one calf. From the two calves on, they were suckling from three: the two calves and the first egel.
Hechra litra: the small overweight that tips a balanced pound. A very small amount. It is in the famine of Achav, in the census of David, and in the famine of Ruth. Moshe's entreaty postponed the full measure and spread it. After twenty-four generations it was collected at the churban: the destruction.
If so, I do not want
Lo shav Yeravam mi-darko ha-ra'ah: Yeravam did not turn back from his evil way.
After the mishap that the navi: the prophet, had foretold, he did not turn. HaKadosh Baruch Hu seized him by the garment. Return, and you and ben Yishai: the son of Yishai, will spend time together in Gan Eden. Yeravam asked who would be first. Ben Yishai. "If so, I do not want."
The seizure was the chance that came with the mishap. Ambition could not accept second place to the house of David.
R. Abahu regularly spoke on the three kings who have no chelek: no portion, Yeravam, Achav, and Menashe. He became ill and vowed to stop. It is not kavod: honor, to dwell on their downfall. When he recovered he resumed. Did they retract? Why should he?
Half a very good Jew
Achav shakul haya: Achav was balanced.
Rav Nachman said it. The yetzer of avodah zarah was strong in those generations. Menashe appeared to Rav Ashi and asked from which side one begins the matzah. Rav Ashi did not know. The well-crusted side. Rav Ashi promised to say it in Menashe's name the next day. Had you been there, Menashe said, you would have seized the end of my garment and run after me. It began as deference to the forces HaKadosh Baruch Hu created, and only later forgot HaKadosh Baruch Hu. After the churban the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah: the Men of the Great Assembly, prayed, and that yetzer was abolished.
The name Achav is a brother and a father. Ach la-shamayim: a brother to heaven. Av: a father to avodah zarah.
He added the Baal. He did not replace the Torah. The law of the land remained the Torah. Yeravam's calves were a forbidden symbol. Achav's sin was avodah zarah itself. Tanach still hangs the sins on Yeravam, because he was the beginning. Once the Aseres HaShevatim were torn from the Beis Hamikdash: the Temple, the later step could happen.
He reigned twenty-two years mipnei she-kibed et ha-Torah she-nitnah be-esrim u-shtayim otiyot: because he honored the Torah that was given in twenty-two letters.
Ben-Hadad demanded the silver and the gold, the better wives and the children. Achav consented. The next demand added the precious things of the eyes and a search of the houses. Achav refused. All the people refused with him. The Baal was not what all the people wanted. That refusal was the Sefer Torah: a Torah scroll. He was ready to lose his life and the life of the kingdom rather than hand over a Sefer Torah. The twenty-two letters earned the twenty-two years.
Half a very good Jew.
The Gemara goes on to ask for someone to persuade Achav to go up to battle and fall. How the half that was good is to be weighed against the half that introduced the Baal, when that puranus arrives, is left open.
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