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Primary Sources
for Lectures #28-30 ויקרא
רבה יט:ו דבר אחר: אמרו כיון שעלה נבוכדנצר
להחריב את ירושלים, עלה וישב לו בדפנו של אנטוכיא, ירדה סנהדרי גדולה
לקראתו. באו אצלו ואמרו לו ליהויקים:
נבוכדנצר בעי לך! הוא שהנביא מקנתר עליו,
ואומר (מלכים ב כד :(ויתר דברי יהויקים וכל אשר
עשה. כיון שהרגו נבוכדנצר המליך
את יכניה בנו תחתיו וירד לו לבבל. יצאו כל בני בבל לקלסו. מה עשה נבוכדנצר? גלה יהויכין וגלתה סנהדרי
גדולה עמו, הדא הוא דכתיב (ירמיה כב):
העצב נבזה
נפוץ. כיון שבא נבוכדנצר להזקק לה
א"ל: את מלך ויכניה אינו מלך?! Vayikra Rabba
19:6 AND IF A WOMAN HAVE AN
ISSUE OF HER BLOOD MANY DAYS... ALL THE DAYS OF THE ISSUE OF HER
UNCLEANNESS SHE SHALL BE AS IN THE
DAYS OF HER IMPURITY: SHE IS UNCLEAN (Lev. 15:25). Who observed the precept
relating to menstruation? Yechonya, the son of
Yehoyakim. They say that when
Nebuchadnezzar went up to destroy and came up and took up
his abode in Daphne of Antioch, the Great Sanhedrin went
down to meet him, and said to him: 'Has the time come for
this House to be destroyed?’ Said he to them:
'No. It is only that
Yehoyakim has rebelled against me; deliver him up to me, and I shall go
away.’ They approached
Yehoyakim, and said to him: 'Nebuchadnezzar demands
you.’ Said he: ‘Is this the
right thing to do, namely to disregard one human life in favor of another;
to disregard my life so
as to preserve your lives? Why, it is written,
“You shall not deliver a
slave unto his master”, etc. (Deut. 23:16). ’ Said they to him:
‘Did not your
grandfather do so to Sheva the son of Bichri?’ Seeing that he did not
hearken to them, they arose and seized him and bound him. Now, how did they let
him down? R. Eliezer and
R. Eliezer b. R. Natan
said they bound him alive, as it is said, “And they put him in a
cage with hooks (ba-chachim) and brought him to the king of it [viz. the word for ’with hooks] is
written ba-hayyim, i.e. ‘alive’. They bound him dead, as
it is said, “So that his voice
should no more be heard” (ib.). R. Yehoshua b.
Levi said: I confirm the words of
both of them: they bound him alive, but being delicate he died under their
hands. What did Nebuchadnezzar
do to him? R. Judah and R. Nechemya
differed in their accounts. R. Judah said:
He took him and carried
him round through all the cities of he also tore open an ass
and placed him [i.e. Jehoiakim] within it [i.e. the
carcass of the ass], as it is said,
“He shall be buried the
burial of an ass” (Jer. 22:19). R. Nechemya said:
They took him around all
the cities of which is indicated in
what is written, “He shall be buried the
burial of an ass.” (ibid) Where is the burial of
an ass, if not in the belly of a dog? “Now the rest of the
acts of Yehoyakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found
in him, behold they are written in the book of the Kings of Three Amoraim [differ as
to ‘the abomination which was found on him’]. One said it was that he
wore the prohibited mixture of wool and linen; another said that he had
disguised his circumcision; another said an
etched-in inscription was found engraved on his flesh. R. Yochanan
said: it was that he had had
incestuous intercourse with his mother, and with his daughter-in-law, and with
his father's wife. R. Yochanan further
said: In a word, he entered
the very ‘gateway’ whence he had come out. R. Joshua b. Levi said:
[Scripture censured
Yehoyakim] because he made baraniyot in What is the meaning of
baraniyot? ’He rendered women
husbandless and violated them,’ for he used to kill
their husbands, outrage them, and impound their wealth for his treasury.
This is [indicated in]
what is written: “And he knew their
widows” (Ezek. 19:7). When Nebuchadnezzar put
him to death, he appointed Yechonya king in his place, and went down to
All the Babylonians came
out to praise him, and said to him: ‘What have you
accomplished?’ Said he to them:
' Yehoyakim rebelled
against me and I put him to death, and set up his son Yechonya as king in his
place.’ Said they to him:
'A proverb says: Do not
rear a gentle cub of a vicious dog, much less a vicious cub of a vicious
dog.’ He hearkened to them at
once and went up to Daphne Antiochena. The Great Sanhedrin went
down to meet him, and said to him:
‘Has then the time
arrived for the House [i.e. He said to them:
'No, but hand over to me
him whom I have set up as king, and I shall depart.’ They went and said to
Yechonya: 'Nebuchadnezzar demands
you.’ What did he [Yechonya]
do? -He collected all the
keys of the and
said: ‘Lord of the Universe!
Seeing that we have hitherto not proved worthy stewards, faithful custodians for
You, from now and henceforth, behold Your keys are Yours.’ Two Amoraim [differ as
to what followed]. One said:
A kind of a fiery hand
descended and took them from him; the other said:
As he threw them upward
they did not come down any more. What did the young men
of They ascended the
house-tops and threw themselves down and were killed. This is [alluded to in]
what is written: “The burden concerning
the What did Nebuchadnezzar
do? He seized him [i.e.
Yechonya] and confined him to
prison, and whoever, in his days, was imprisoned, never came out,
in accordance with the
text, “He opened not the house
of his prisoners” (ib. 14:17). Yehoyachin was exiled
and the Great Sanhedrin went into exile with him, as it is written,
“Is this man Conyahu a
despised broken image (etzev)? Is he a vessel wherein
is no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast
out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not....
Thus says the Lord:
Write you this man childless” (Jer. 22:28 ff.), which R. Abba b. Kahana
interpreted: like unto a marrow bone
(etzem) which when broken open (and emptied of its marrow) is fit for
nothing, [“Is he a vessel wherein
is no pleasure?” R. Chamma b. R. Channina
said, Like a urine
pot. R. Shmuel b. Nachman
said, Like a
bloodletter’s
vessel. R. Zeira said,
I heard something with
regard to this which R. Shemuel b. R. Yitzchak expounded,but I forgot what it
was. R. Acha Aricha said to
him, Perhaps this is (the
verse he expounded) “Thus saith the Lord:
Write you this man childless, A man who shall not
succeed in his days.” (R. Zeira) said, yes
(that is the verse he said) “in his days” he shall not succeed,
in the days of his son
he shall succeed. R. Acha and R. Avin b.
Binyamin in the name of R. Abba: Great is the power of
repentance, for it cancels out both the (evil) decree and the
oath. The oath, as it
says, “As I live- declares the
Lord - if you O Conyahu, son of Yehoyakim of Judah were a signet ring on my
right hand, I would tear you off even there. (Jer 22:24) And cancels the
decree: “Thus says the Lord:
Write you this man childless. Yet latter it is
written:And the sons of Yechonya, Asir his son, She’altiel his son (I Chron
3:17) ‘Asir his
son’ because he was in prison
(beit ha-asurim) ‘She’altiel his
son’ Because from him the
Davidic line was replanted. R. Tanchum b. R.
Yirmiyah said, ‘Asir’
– This is the Holy One
Blessed Be He, Who bound (asar)
himself with an oath.] ‘She’altiel’- That He asked
(sh’aal) the court in Heaven (to release Him of) His
oath. At that very hour the
Great Sanhedrin sat and said: ‘Shall, in our days, the
royal house of David cease, of whom it is written, His seed shall endure
for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me (Ps. 89, 37)? What shall we do?
Let us win the favor of
the [queen's] governess, so that the governess
will persuade the queen, and the queen the king.’
They went and obtained
the goodwill of the [queen's] governess, who sought the favor of
the queen, and the queen that of
the king. What was the name of the
wife of Nebuchadnezzar? R. Huna said her name
was Shemirah; R. Abin said Shemiramot
was her name; the Rabbis said her name
was Shemira'am, because she was born
during thunder (ra'am). When Nebuchadnezzar came
to have marital intercourse with her, she said to him:
‘You are king. Is not
Yechonya, too, a king? You desire your sexual
satisfaction. Does not Yechonya, too,
desire his sexual satisfaction?’ Nebuchadnezzar thereupon
ordered that Yechonya be given his wife. And how did they lower
her [into the dungeon] to him? R. Shabbetai said:
They lowered her down to
him over the bars, while the Rabbis said:
They opened the ceiling
and let her down to him. When he was about to
have marital intercourse with her, she said to him:
‘I have seen a discharge
the color of a red lily,’ and he then separated
from her, and she went away and
counted [the seven days of separation] and observed the ritual
of purification and of immersion. The Holy One, blessed be
He, then said: 'In as it is said,
“As for thee also,
because of the blood of thy covenant I send forth thy
prisoners out of the pit” (Zech. 9:11) [which means], You have
remembered the blood at Sinai, and for this do ’I send
forth thy prisoners‘. R. Shabbetai said:
He [Yechonya] did not
move thence before the Holy One, blessed be He, pardoned him all his
sins. Referring to this
occasion Scripture has said: “You are all fair, my
love, and there is no blemish in thee“ (S.S. 4:7). A Heavenly Voice went
forth and said to them: “Return, you backsliding
children, I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22).
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