Sanhedrin 142

Today's Shiur is dedicated by Andrew Hoffman in memory of his father, Reuven ben Yaacov, Ronald C. Hoffman, whose Yahrzeit falls today.

1:
The aggadic nature of this second mishnah of the chapter (and the next one as well) serves to highlight for us the didactic purpose of the contents if the previous mishnah. The threat of deprivation of one's share in the world to come (however that term is understood) is intended to reinforce belief in items of creed that the sages wanted to ensure: the concept of resurrection and the divine origin of Torah. That the punishment of losing one's share in the world to come is for the most serious lapses in matters of belief is highlighted in our present mishnah by examples. Three kings of ancient Israel are deemed to have been so wicked that they forfeited their share in the world to come. Let us deal with them severally.

2:
Jeroboam is the anglicization of the Hebrew Yerov'am. There were two kings of that name, and our mishnah is referencing the first of the two. Ancient Israel was by no means a united people: there were, in fact, almost two nations. One section of the people traced their descent from the matriarch Raĥel (and her handmaid) while the other traced its descent from the matriarch Le'ah (and her handmaid). The main bastion of the former group was the tribe of Ephraim, settled in the hill country of central Eretz-Israel and centering on the town of Shekhem (modern Nablus). The main bastion of the latter group was the tribe of Judah, settled in the hill country of the more southern part of Eretz-Israel and centering, originally, on the town of Hebron. There was constant rivalry between these two sections of the people. Samuel's attempt to bridge the gap between them by appointing a king (Saul) from the smallest of the tribes (i.e. neither Ephraim nor Judah) was a dismal failure, and with the collapse of Saul's rule power was taken up by the tribe of Judah under the aegis of King David. By the sheer force of his personality, cunning and arms, David was able to keep the kingdom united and his son Solomon, using different tactics, was also able to maintain himself in power. However, the northern tribes were only biding their time, and when Solomon was succeeded by a much weaker king they took the opportunity to secede from the united kingdom. Thus two monarchies were established: the kingdom of Judah, centered on Jerusalem and faithful to the dynasty of David, and the kingdom of Israel, centered on Shekhem (and later on Samaria). Yerov'am was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. It was essential that he break all ties with the rival kingdom of Judah, and this could be thwarted by the magnetic pull of the ritual of the Bet Mikdash centered on Jerusalem, the capital of the rival kingdom of Judah. He realized that he would not last long in power if three times a year a large part of the population of his kingdom made pilgrimage to the capital of Judah three times a year! His solution was to establish two temples of his own: one at the southern extremity of his kingdom, in Bethel, and the other at the northern extremity of his kingdom, in Dan (modern Banias). In each of these temples he placed a winged calf made of gold. These artifacts were doubtless meant to represent the divine throne upon which the Deity invisibly sat – much the same as the cherubs whose wings adorned the Ark of the Covenant in the Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem. However, these golden calves were anathema to the scriptural authors, who saw in them an unforgivable defection from a central item of Israel's beliefs: that God cannot be plastically represented. (Two more of his innovations probably only added fuel to the flames: the appointment of priests in these temples from tribes other than Levi and the postponement of the festival of Sukkot by one month.) The golden calves in Dan and Bethel (which continued their successful functioning for two hundred years until the very end of the kingdom of Israel) cost Yerov'am his share in the world to come.

3:
Ahab is the anglicization of the Hebrew Aĥ'av. Aĥ'av reigned in Israel about fifty years after Yerov'am. In order to bolster his power against neighbouring Aram (modern Syria) he made an alliance with the Canaanite king of Tyre (in modern Lebanon), and in order to cement this alliance by blood ties he married the daughter of the king of Tyre. Her name was Izevel – which was anglicized into Jezebel. Jezebel was a very determined woman with a strong will of her own. She brought with her her own religion which she began practicing in public and which proved very popular. (The chief Canaanite deity was Ba'al.) Ahab made no attempt to stop this incursion of Ba'al worship into Israel, thus creating a venomous enmity between himself and the prophet Elijah. (The fantastic pull that Ba'al worship had on the population of Israel can be judged from the fact that even the massacre of the priests of Ba'al perpetrated at the instigation of Elijah after his spectacular confrontation with them on mount Carmel did nothing to stem the tide in the direction of Ba'al worship. His failure to uproot Ba'al worship from Israel cost Aĥ'av his share in the world to come.

4:
Menasheh was king of Judah during the seventh century BCE. His desperate attempts to maintain Judah's survival by abject capitulation to the Assyrian war machine included the importation of foreign deities (when all the chips are down it seems that it's best not to hedge your bets but to ask for help wherever you can get it). But Menasheh was not content with the mere introduction of the worship of these deities into Judah: he established their statues in the very courtyard of the Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem! The author of the book of Kings tells us that Menasheh also did some other naughty things such as shedding "much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from end to end" with blood [2Kings 21:16]. But his real offence was the religious one! As far as we can tell Menasheh had the longest reign of all the kings of Judah: "Menasheh was twelve years old when he began to reign and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem" [2Kings 21:1]. (In those days 67 was a ripe old age.) To the author of the book of Chronicles it was unfair that so wicked a king live so long. He introduces into his account of the reign of Menasheh an anecdote not recorded by the author of Kings. According to the book of Chronicles the Assyrians captured Menasheh and took him in chains to Babylon, where "in his distress he besought his God, who answered his prayer and heard his plea and restored him to his kingdom in Jerusalem" [2Chronicles 33:12]. In our mishnah Rabbi Yehudah bar-Ilai accepts this as a sign of Divine forgiveness, but the rest of the sages will have none of it: "he was restored to his kingdom but not to the life of the world to come". Thus the introduction of idols into the Bet Mikdash cost Menasheh his share in the world to come.

5:
We can dispose of the four commoners with greater dispatch, since their dire fate is based only upon hermeneutics. Bil'am was the sorcerer hired by Balak of Moab to curse the Israelites encamped in the desert. (Bil'am was the one whose ass remonstrated with him!) However, God turned his intentions to curse into blessing. One of his blessings reads "my soul shall die the death of the upright and my end shall be as theirs" [Numbers 23:10]. Just a few verses later on he says "I go to my people" [Numbers 24:14]. The Gemara [Sanhedrin 105a] interprets: "If I die an upright man I shall enjoy the same end as they will (the world to come), but if not then I shall join my (wicked) people."

6:
According to ISamuel 22:9-20 Do'eg the Edomite told Saul, whose was hunting David, that David had taken refuge in the priestly village of Nov. In his efforts to kill David Saul accepted the advice of Do'eg and massacred the whole population of the village. David, of course, had already escaped.

7:
Aĥitofel advised Absolom to rebel against his (Absolom's) father, David. When the rebellion finally collapsed Aĥitofel committed suicide [2Samuel 17:23].

8:
Geĥazi was the servant of the prophet Elisha. The Gemara [Sanhedrin 107b] teaches that he betrayed the trust of his master and held the sages in low repute and encouraged people to sin.