אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
ב׳ כִּסְלֵו תשפ״ז
The sugya is Sanhedrin 103b. Tape: Perek Chelek 27. Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l. On 103a: The hanging ayin.
Neither post nor transcript has been reviewed by Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l nor the Toras Avigdor organization.
Innocent blood
Ve-gam dam naki shafach Menashe harbeh me'od ad asher milei es Yerushalayim peh le-peh: he also shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Yerushalayim from end to end.
Dam naki: innocent blood. What filled the city from end to end?
Be-Bavel they said she-harag Yeshaya. One tzaddik is keneged kol ha-olam kulo (R Yehudah bar Barachah): equal in weight to the entire world. The extreme lashon of the Navi is how HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees it. A Gentile king slays people he dislikes and it is ordinary. A Jewish king slays one tzaddik for nothing and the Navi says he filled the city with innocent blood from end to end. Heaven sees the weight of one tzaddik.
Be-ma'arava they said he made a masui the weight of a thousand men and every day killed them all. Aguzme: exaggeration, for the slave labor of Gentile monuments. Egypt, Babylon, Central America, the Chinese wall: all raised by lives that meant nothing to the builders. Israel has no such buildings. Menashe copied the goyim. The army of Yisrael did not. Lives were lost for an image that had to compete in size. The "thousand killed every day" is the language for that cost.
Four faces
Amar R Yochanan: ba-techilah asah lo partzuf echad, u-ve-sof asah lo arba'ah partzufim kedei she-tireh Shechinah mi-kol ha-tzadim ve-tich'as: at first he made one face, and at the end four, so the Shechinah would see the insult from every side and be vexed.
Pesel is singular. Selim is plural. First one face, later four, so that whichever way one entered, the insult faced the Shechinah.
Menashe believed in HaKadosh Baruch Hu and also that the nations have gods. Named after one of the Aseres HaShevatim, he burned with a grudge that Hashem allowed Ashur to carry them off. He did it le-hach'is: to vex. The four faces stare whichever way one enters.
How far each went
Achaz placed the image be-aliyas gag: an upper chamber, still some boshes. Menashe he'emid ba-heichal: he stood it in the hall of the shulchan ha-zahav and the mizbeach ha-zahav, not lifnei ve-lifnim, the Holy of Holies. Amon put it inside the Kodesh ha-Kodashim.
Menashe left the innermost place for the Shechinah. He believed. Amon went further. Each step removed another measure of restraint. Yeshaya saw what would happen under Amon even though he was slain in the days of Menashe.
The narrow bed
Ki kotzer ha-maso me-histare'a ve-ha-masakh tzarah ke-hitkanes: the narrow bed and the narrow blanket.
Amar R Shmuel bar Nachmani amar R Yonasan: zeh she-ein shnei re'im sholetin bo ke-echad: two friends cannot rule as one. Shituf is impossible. The Shechinah departs entirely.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu cannot share the world with anyone. R Yonasan wept every time he reached the pasuk. He read it in order to feel it. The One who piles the sea like a wall finds the blanket too narrow once the leaders do wickedness. The chidush of ve-asu li mikdash ve-shachanti be-tocham is that the One who fills the universe dwells in a small place, until quarrel enters.
The roof corner
Tov lasheves al pinas gag mi-bayis maleh zivchei riv: better to sit on the corner of a roof than in a house full of quarrel.
When there is peace even a corner of a roof is spacious. When there is quarrel even a wealthy house is too narrow. The Shechinah stayed while Am Yisrael were on Hashem. When the leaders turned, the place became too narrow and the Presence left. That is why they wept.
He sealed it
Achaz bitel es ha-avodah ve-chasam es ha-Torah: Achaz stopped the service and sealed the Torah.
He stopped public study. Tzor te'udah chatom torah be-limudai has two meanings. The usual one: in danger of galus, compile the Torah tightly, Mishnah and Talmud, so it is not lost. Packing it is a disadvantage forced by danger. Under the Commonwealth the Torah could flourish without being systematized. In galus one must pack it to carry it. Achaz used the same words to mean: bind it so it does not spread. Im ein gedayim ein teyashim: no kids, no goats. Stop the children and there will be no sages. He closed the places where they learned.
Cut and burned
Menashe karas es shem Hashem mi-kol sefer Torah: he cut the Name of Hashem from every Torah scroll. Amon saraf es ha-Torah: he burned the Torah, and he'elah alav semamin al ha-mizbeach: cobwebs rose over the altar. The altar his father had rebuilt stood unused.
Today some print a Tanakh without Shem Shamayim. Menashe cut the names from scrolls that already existed. Amon burned the Torah in public and left the altar so unused that spiders covered it.
Only to vex
Achaz hitir arayos. Menashe ba al achoso. Amon ba al imo: Achaz permitted forbidden relations. Menashe came upon his sister. Amon came upon his mother.
The nations practiced close-kin relations as avodah zarah, not only for license. The closer the relation, the more the ruach ha-tum'ah was thought to rest on them. Pharaohs married their sisters. Amon went to the most extreme.
Amar Amon: ein li hana'ah ela le-hach'is et Bor'i: I have no pleasure. I do it only to vex my Creator.
He believed in HaKadosh Baruch Hu and was angry that He did not help when Ashur came. He also believed in the national gods. His mother asked how he could take pleasure from the place he came from. He answered that he has none. He does it only to anger his Creator. Belief in Hashem and anger at Hashem stood together with belief in the other gods.
Already given
Yehoyakim amar: ha-rishonim lo yad'u le-hach'is. Anu ein tzerichim lo ela la-chayim. Yesh lanu zehavim me-murgaz: the earlier ones did not know how to vex. We need Him only for life. We have gold lamps.
We need Hashem only for life. We have gold lamps. The people said the silver and gold are Hashem's. He said Hashem already gave them. Once given, they are ours. The Rishonim explained: He created the universe, and from then on is not in full control, only from time to time.
Original avodah zarah, as the Rambam describes it, honored the subordinates to whom Hashem had delegated powers: sun, moon, the gods of agriculture. They were the King's officers. Later one thought the subordinates alone suffice. The kings were not fools. The words stand for a real argument that is not spelled out in the open. After the beginning, the thinking went, one deals with the forces that were set in place, and no longer needs the King.
Found on him
Ve-to'avos asher asah ve-nimtza alav: and the abominations that he did, and that were found on him.
Why is Yehoyakim not among those who have no chelek le-olam ha-ba?
Nimtza alav: it was found on him. One reading: he tattooed the name of an idol on his flesh, ancient sorcery with ov and yid'oni. Another: he engraved Shem Shamayim, to show scorn. After Yoshiyahu cleared the idols, the people opposed avodah zarah, so the next king did it in secret. It was discovered only when the body was prepared for burial. His son buried him without royal honor and dragged him on a rope bed.
The roots of evil remained in the royal house even after Yoshiyahu. Abaye (or the one who answered) said among kings he did not hear why some are omitted. Among hedyotim he heard about Micha.
His bread
Why is Micha not listed among those who have no chelek?
Mipnei she-pito matzuyah le-ovrei derachim: because his bread was available to wayfarers.
The line that looks like a verse is not in the text, nor in Yankev. The whole line is a puzzle and is to be erased. The Gemara simply says he was hospitable.
Micha left Mitzrayim as a youth, crossed the Yam Suf, stood at Har Sinai, and in old age entered Eretz Yisrael. Why he did not die in the Midbar is open. He made an image in honor of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, "Hashem will do good to me," not to turn his back and not to add another god. Still forbidden. A descendant of Moshe served it. Dan took it, and it stood for hundreds of years while the people settled the land and did not make war.
Hospitality contradicts avodah zarah because HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the Host of the world and the world is His hostel. Giving food reinforces what He stands for. Making an image of Hashem is a toldah of avodah zarah. The kindness was still great enough that He allowed Micha to keep his chelek.
The smoke that mixed
Avar ba-yam zarah ve-hikah ba-yam galim: a rival passed in the sea, and waves struck in the sea.
Zarah here means a rival. While the waters stood as walls, disturbances appeared because Micha was passing with an image in his pocket. Even an image of Hashem was forbidden. On this reading the image already existed when he left Mitzrayim.
From Golov, where the pesel stood, to Shilo is three mil. The smoke of the image met the smoke of the altar. The malach would have pushed Micha away. HaKadosh Baruch Hu said leave him: pito matzuyah le-ovrei derachim. His bread is there for those who pass. The mixing of the smokes is a great insult. Hospitality outweighed it for Micha himself.
For My honor you were silent
The war against Givah was a milchemet mitzvah. Why did thousands of the attackers fall first?
Be-chavodi lo michitem. Al kevod basar va-dam michitem: for My honor you did not protest. For the honor of flesh and blood you did.
For Hashem's honor they had not protested the pesel Micha for hundreds of years. For a wrong done to a woman they rose. Had they not risen against Binyamin, one could say they were not people who fight. Once they showed they could make war for a human wrong, the question was why they had not defended His honor. That is why they were punished at that moment.
One sip
Gedolah gemimah: how great is even one sip of food.
It made Ammon and Moav, the near ones, far, because they did not come out with bread and water. It brought Midian, the far one, near, because Yisro said kir'en lo ve-yochal lechem: call him, and let him eat bread. His descendants sat in the Lishkas ha-Gazis. Tir'asim, Shim'asim, Suchasim: the Keni, the family of Yisro, who sat before Yavetz, Osniel ben Kenaz.
Ammon and Moav were relatives, children of Lot, and close on the map. They should have come out. The women are not blamed. The men should have. A nation with no connection is accepted. These males are not. Their men stay outside. Yisro's invitation brought his children's children among the judges. One sip decides distance.
Gemimah covers the eyes from resha'im, as with Micha. It causes the Shechinah to rest even on a false prophet who feeds people. To miss the moment, even without intending it, is counted as meizid.
How can Ammon and Moav be called kerovim when they descend from Lot, while Midian, who descends from Avraham, is called rechokim? Rashi offers the geographic reading. One answer is that they were closer on the map. Is that the full terutz, or is there more in the kinship itself? The transcript stops mid-sentence on this point.
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