102b. דאיתפח הדר קא דריש אמרי לא קבילת עלך דלא דרשת בהו אמר אינהו מי הדרו בהו דאנא אהדר בי,רב אשי אוקי אשלשה מלכים אמר למחר נפתח בחברין אתא מנשה איתחזי ליה בחלמיה אמר חברך וחבירי דאבוך קרית לן,מהיכא בעית למישרא המוציא אמר ליה לא ידענא א"ל מהיכא דבעית למישרא המוציא לא גמירת וחברך קרית לן א"ל אגמריה לי ולמחר דרישנא ליה משמך בפירקא א"ל מהיכא דקרים בישולא,א"ל מאחר דחכימתו כולי האי מאי טעמא קא פלחיתו לעבודת כוכבים א"ל אי הות התם הות נקיטנא בשיפולי גלימא ורהטת אבתראי למחר אמר להו לרבנן נפתח ברבוותא,אחאב אח לשמים אב לעבודת כוכבים אח לשמים דכתיב (משלי יז, יז) אח לצרה יולד אב לעבודת כוכבים דכתיב (תהלים קג, יג) כרחם אב על בנים,(מלכים א טז, לא) ויהי הנקל לכתו בחטאת ירבעם בן נבט אמר ר' יוחנן קלות שעשה אחאב כחמורות שעשה ירבעם ומפני מה תלה הכתוב בירבעם מפני שהוא היה תחילה לקלקלה (הושע יב, יב) גם מזבחותם כגלים על תלמי שדי א"ר יוחנן אין לך כל תלם ותלם בא"י שלא העמיד עליו אחאב עבודת כוכבים והשתחוה לו,ומנא לן דלא אתי לעלמא דאתי דכתיב (מלכים א כא, כא) והכרתי לאחאב משתין בקיר ועצור ועזוב בישראל עצור בעוה"ז ועזוב לעוה"ב,א"ר יוחנן מפני מה זכה עמרי למלכות מפני שהוסיף כרך אחד בארץ ישראל שנאמר (מלכים א טז, כד) ויקן את ההר שמרון מאת שמר בככרים כסף ויבן את ההר ויקרא [את] שם העיר אשר בנה על שם שמר אדני ההר שמרון,א"ר יוחנן מפני מה זכה אחאב למלכות כ"ב שנה,מפני שכיבד את התורה שניתנה בכ"ב אותיות שנאמר (מלכים א כ, ב) וישלח מלאכים אל אחאב מלך ישראל העירה ויאמר לו כה אמר בן הדד כספך וזהבך לי הוא ונשיך ובניך הטובים לי הם כי אם כעת מחר אשלח את עבדי אליך וחפשו את ביתך ואת בתי עבדיך והיה כל מחמד עיניך ישימו בידם ולקחו ויאמר למלאכי בן הדד אמרו לאדוני המלך כל אשר שלחת (לעבדך) [אל עבדך] בראשונה אעשה והדבר הזה לא אוכל לעשות,מאי מחמד עיניך לאו ס"ת,דילמא עבודת כוכבים לא ס"ד דכתיב (מלכים א כ, ח) ויאמרו אליו כל הזקנים וכל העם (לא תאבה ולא תשמע) ודילמא סבי דבהתא הוו מי לא כתיב (שמואל ב יז, ד) ויישר הדבר בעיני אבשלום (והזקנים) [ובעיני כל זקני ישראל] ואמר רב יוסף סבי דבהתא,התם לא כתיב וכל העם הכא כתיב וכל העם דאי אפשר דלא הוו בהון צדיקי וכתיב (מלכים א יט, יח) והשארתי בישראל שבעת אלפים כל הברכים אשר לא כרעו לבעל וכל הפה אשר לא נשק לו,אמר ר"נ אחאב שקול היה שנאמר (מלכים א כב, כ) ויאמר ה' מי יפתה את אחאב ויעל ויפול ברמות גלעד ויאמר זה בכה וזה אומר בכה מתקיף לה רב יוסף מאן דכתב ביה (מלכים א כא, כה) רק לא היה כאחאב אשר התמכר לעשות הרע בעיני ה' אשר הסתה אותו איזבל אשתו ותנינא בכל יום היתה שוקלת שקלי זהב לעבודת כוכבים ואת אמרת שקול היה אלא אחאב וותרן בממונו היה ומתוך שההנה תלמידי חכמים מנכסיו כיפרו לו מחצה,(מלכים א כב, כא) ויצא הרוח ויעמד לפני ה' ויאמר אני אפתנו ויאמר ה' אליו במה ויאמר אצא והייתי רוח שקר בפי כל נביאיו ויאמר תפתה וגם תוכל צא ועשה כן מאי רוח א"ר יוחנן רוחו של נבות היזרעאלי,מאי צא אמר רבינא צא ממחיצתי שכן כתיב (תהלים קא, ז) דובר שקרים לא יכון לנגד עיני אמר רב פפא היינו דאמרי אינשי דפרע קיניה מחריב ביתיה,(מלכים א טז, לג) ויעש אחאב את האשרה ויוסף אחאב לעשות להכעיס את ה' אלהי ישראל מכל מלכי ישראל אשר היו לפניו א"ר יוחנן שכתב על דלתות שמרון אחאב כפר באלהי ישראל לפיכך אין לו חלק באלהי ישראל,(דברי הימים ב כב, ט) ויבקש את אחזיהו וילכדהו והוא מתחבא בשמרון א"ר לוי שהיה קודר אזכרות וכותב עבודת כוכבים תחתיהן,מנשה שנשה יה ד"א מנשה שהנשי את ישראל לאביהם שבשמים ומנלן דלא אתי לעלמא דאתי דכתיב (דברי הימים ב לג, א) בן שתים עשרה שנה מנשה במלכו וחמשים וחמש שנה מלך בירושלים (מלכים ב כא, ג) ויעש (הרע) [אשרה] (בעיני ה') כאשר עשה אחאב מלך ישראל מה אחאב אין לו חלק לעוה"ב אף מנשה אין לו חלק לעוה"ב:,רבי יהודה אומר מנשה יש לו חלק לעוה"ב שנאמר (דברי הימים ב לג, יג) ויתפלל מנשה אל ה' ויעתר לו וכו': א"ר יוחנן ושניהם מקרא אחד דרשו שנאמר (ירמיהו טו, ד) ונתתים לזעוה לכל ממלכות הארץ בגלל מנשה בן יחזקיהו מר סבר בגלל מנשה שעשה תשובה ואינהו לא עבוד ומר סבר | 102b. bhe recovered, he then lecturedon that topic. His students bsaid to him: Did you not undertake that you will not lecture about them?Rabbi Abbahu bsaid: Did they repent, that I will reconsiderand refrain from condemning them?,One day bRav Ashi endedhis lecture just before reaching the matter bof the three kings. He saidto his students: bTomorrow we will beginthe lecture bwith our colleaguesthe three kings, who, although they were sinners, were Torah scholars like us. bManasseh,king of Judea, bcame and appeared to him in his dream.Manasseh bsaidto him angrily: bYou called us your colleague and the colleagues of your father?How dare you characterize yourself as our equal?,Manasseh said to him: I will ask you, bfrom where are you required to begincutting a loaf of bread when reciting the blessing: bWho brings forthbread from the earth? Rav Ashi bsaid to him: I do not know.Manasseh bsaid to him:Even this, bfrom where you are required to begincutting a loaf of bread when reciting the blessing: bWho brings forthbread from the earth, byou did not learn, andyet byou call us your colleague?Rav Ashi bsaid toManasseh: bTeach methis ihalakha band tomorrow I will lectureand cite bit in your name duringmy public blecturedelivered on the Festival. Manasseh bsaid to him:One cuts the loaf bfrom where it crustsas a result of bbaking. /b,Rav Ashi bsaid to him: Since you were so wise, what is the reason you engaged in idol worship?Manasseh bsaid to him: Had you been thereat that time, byou would have takenand lifted bthe hem of your cloak and run after medue to the fierce desire to engage in idol worship and due to the fact that it was a common faith. bThe next dayRav Ashi bsaid to the Sagesas a prelude to his lecture: bWe will begin withthe treatment of bour teachers,those kings who were greater than us in Torah knowledge but whose sins caused them to lose their share in the World-to-Come.,§ The Gemara proceeds to discuss the second king enumerated in the mishna, Ahab. bAhab [ iAḥav /i],although he was ba brother [ iaḥ /i] to Heaven,he was ba father [ iav /i] for idol worship.He was ba brother to Heaven, as it is written: “And a brother is born for adversity”(Proverbs 17:17), and in desperate times, he turned to Heaven. He was ba father for idolatry.This is the highest level of attachment, bas it is written: “As a father has compassion for his children”(Psalms 103:13).,With regard to Ahab, it is written: b“And it came to pass, the most minor of his transgressions was his walking in the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat”(I Kings 16:31). bRabbi Yoḥa says: The minorsins bthat Ahab performedwere bon par with the majorsins bthat Jeroboam performed,as the transgressions committed by Ahab were much more serious than those committed by Jeroboam. bAnd for whatreason bdid the verse attributethe sins of all the kings of Israel bto Jeroboam,even though the sins of Ahab were more substantial? It is bdue tothe fact bthat he was first toengage in biniquity.With regard to the verse: b“Their altars shall also be like droppings in the furrows of the field”(Hosea 12:12), bRabbi Yoḥa says: You do not have even one furrow in Eretz Yisrael upon which Ahab did not placean object of bidol worship and bow to it. /b,The Gemara asks: bAnd from where do wederive bthatAhab bdoes not enter into the World-to-Come?The Gemara answers: It is derived bas it is written: “And I will excise from Ahab every man, and him that is shut up and him that is abandoned in Israel”(I Kings 21:21). b“Him that is shut up”indicates he will be excised bin this world,while b“and him that is abandoned”indicates he will be excised bin the World-to-Come. /b, bRabbi Yoḥa says: For whatvirtue bwas Omri,king of Israel, who was Ahab’s father, bprivilegedto ascend btothe bmonarchy?It is bdue tothe fact bthat he added one city in Eretz Yisrael, as it is stated: “And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city that he built after Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria”(I Kings 16:24)., bRabbi Yoḥa says: For whatvirtue bwas Ahab privilegedto ascend btothe bmonarchyand rule for btwenty-two years? /b,It is bdue tothe fact bthat he respected the Torah, which was given with twenty-two letters, as it is stated: “And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city, and said to him: So says Ben-Hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine; your wives and also your good children, are mine.And the king of Israel answered and said: It is according to your saying, my lord, O king: I am yours, and all that I have. And the messengers came again, and said: So speaks Ben-Hadad, saying: I sent to you, saying: You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children. bYet I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants, and it shall be, that they shall put in their hand all the delight of your eyes and take it…And he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, tell my lord the king: All that you did send for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do”(I Kings 20:2–6, 9).,The Gemara asks: bWhatis b“the delight of your eyes”that Ahab refused to give Ben-Hadad after agreeing to give him his wives and his gold? bIs it not a Torah scroll?Ahab treated the Torah with deference.,The Gemara suggests: bPerhapsthe delight of his eyes was an object of bidol worship.The Gemara answers: That could bnot enter your mind, as it is writtenthat Ahab consulted the Sages with regard to this matter: b“And all the elders and all the people said to him: Do not consent and heed not”(I Kings 20:8). The elders in this verse are presumably the Sages. The Gemara continues: bBut perhaps they were wicked elders,who worshipped idols. bIsn’t it written: “And the saying pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel”(II Samuel 17:4), band Rav Yosef says:The elders of Israel mentioned in that verse were bwicked elders.Perhaps the elders of Israel with whom Ahab consulted were also wicked.,The Gemara rejects this: bThere,with regard to Absalom bit is not written: “And all the people,”whereas bhere,with regard to Ahab, bit is written: “And all the people.” As it is impossible that there were not among them righteouspeople, if the righteous people agreed, apparently, “the delight of your eyes” was sacred. bAnd it is written: “And I will leave seven thousand in Israel; all the knees that have not bent to the Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed it”(I Kings 19:18), indicating that there were righteous people among them., bRav Naḥman says: Ahab was balancedin terms of the mitzvot and transgressions that he performed, bas it is stated: “And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab that he may ascend and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And this one said in this manner, and that one said in that manner”(I Kings 22:20), indicating that it is unclear whether or not he was a full-fledged transgressor. bRav Yosef objects to thisstatement: This is the person babout whomthe prophet bwrote: “But there was none like Ahab who devoted himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife had incited”(I Kings 21:25). bAnd we learnin a ibaraita /i: bEvery day she would weigh gold shekelsequal to Ahab’s weight bfor idol worship. And you say he was balanced? Rather, Ahab was generous with his moneyand did not scrimp, band since healso bbenefited Torah scholars with his property,the heavenly court bexpiated halfhis sins bfor him.The result was a balance between mitzvot and transgressions.,With regard to God’s search for a volunteer to entice Ahab, it is written: b“And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said: I will entice him. And the Lord said to him: With what? And he said: I will go out, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said: You shall entice him, and also prevail; go out, and do so”(I Kings 22:21–22). The Gemara asks: bWhat spiritwas that? bRabbi Yoḥa says:It was bthe spirit of Naboth the Jezreelite,who sought to take revenge against Ahab.,The Gemara asks: bWhatis the meaning of the term b“go out”that God instructed the spirit? bRavina saysthat it means: bGo out fromwithin bmy partitionand do not return, bas so it is written: “He that speaks falsehoods shall not be established before My eyes”(Psalms 101:7). The spirit that volunteered to lie may no longer be before God. bRav Pappa saysthat bthisis in accordance with the adage bthat people say: One who avengesdue to bhis zealotry destroys hisown bhouse.The spirit of Naboth that sought revenge was expelled from before God.,With regard to the verse: b“And Ahab made the iashera /i; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him”(I Kings 16:33), bRabbi Yoḥa says:It means bthat he wrote on the doors of Samaria: Ahab denies theexistence of the bGod of Israel, therefore he has no share in the God of Israel. /b,With regard to the verse: b“And he sought Ahaziah, and they apprehended him, for he was hiding in Samaria”(II Chronicles 22:9), bRabbi Levi says:What would he do in hiding? bHe would excise mentionsof God’s name in Torah scrolls band writethe name of an object of bidol worship in their stead. /b,The Gemara proceeds to discuss the third king enumerated in the mishna. He was called bManasseh [ iMenashe /i] because he forgot God [ inasha yah /i]. Alternatively,he was called bManasseh since he caused thekingdom of bIsrael to forget [ ihinshi /i] their Father Who is in Heaven. And from where do wederive bthatManasseh bdoes not enter into the World-to-Come?The Gemara answers: It is derived bas it is written: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem… /bAnd he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord… bAnd he made an iashera /i, as did Ahab king of Israel”(II Kings 21:1–3). bJust as Ahab has no share in the World-to-Come, so too, Manasseh has no share in the World-to-Come. /b,§ The mishna teaches that bRabbi Yehuda says: Manasseh has a share in the World-to-Come, as it is stated: “And he prayed to him and He was entreated of him,and heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem unto his kingdom” (II Chronicles 33:13). bRabbi Yoḥa says: And both of them,Rabbi Yehuda and the Rabbis, who disagree with regard to whether Manasseh has a share in the World-to-Come, binterpreted oneand the same bverse, as it is stated: “And I will make them into a horror for all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah”(Jeremiah 15:4). One bSage,Rabbi Yehuda, bholdsthat b“on account of Manasseh”means that the Jewish people will be judged harshly, basultimately, one as wicked as Manasseh brepented, and they did not doso. bAndone bSage,the Rabbis, bholdsthat |