Commentary for Shabbat 112:20

<br><br><big><strong>הדרן עלך במה בהמה</strong></big><br><br>

Now, is it possible that Assa came and did not destroy them, then Jehoshaphat, and he did not destroy them, until Josiah came and destroyed them! But surely Assa and Jehoshaphat destroyed all the idolatrous cults in Palestine? Hence [the explanation is that] the earlier are assimilated to the later: just as the later did not do, yet it was ascribed to them, to their glory, so the earlier ones too did not do, yet it was ascribed to them, to their shame.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Josiah merely removed the idols that were reintroduced after the deaths of the former two kings, but not all idols, since they had already been destroyed, yet it is all attributed to him. So Solomon too was not responsible for the building of the idolatrous high places; nevertheless, since he did not veto them, they are ascribed to him. ');">²⁰</span> But it is written, And Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I Kings XI, 6. ');">²¹</span> — But because he should have restrained his wives, but did not, the Writ regards him as though he sinned. Rab Judah said in Samuel's name: Better had it been for that righteous man to be an acolyte to the unmentionable,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'something else' — i.e., to an idol, receiving pay for drawing water and hewing wood in its service, etc., though not believing in it. ');">²²</span> only that it should not be written of him, 'and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord'. Rab Judah said in Samuel's name: When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, she brought him a thousand musical instruments and said to him, Thus we play<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'do'. ');">²³</span> in honour of that idol, thus in honour of that idol, yet he did not forbid her. Rab Judah said in Samuel's name: When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, Gabriel descended and planted a reed in the sea, and it gathered a bank around it, on which the great city of Rome was built.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This, of course, is an allegory. Solomon's unfaithfulness laid the seeds for the dissolution of the Jewish State. ');">²⁴</span> In a Baraitha it was taught: On the day that Jeroboam brought the two golden calves, one into Bethel and the other into Dan, a hut was built,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' On the site of Rome. ');">²⁵</span> and this developed into Greek Italy.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' This term was particularly applied to the southern portion of Italy, called Magna Graecia, Cf. Meg. 6b in the ed. Ven. (omitted in later ed.): Greek Italy, that means the great city of Rome, v. Meg., Sonc. ed., p. 31, nn. 5-6. ');">²⁶</span> R. Samuel b. Nahmani said in R. Jonathan's name: Whoever maintains that Josiah sinned is merely making an error, for it is said, And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' II Kings XXII. 2. ');">²⁷</span> Then how do I interpret, and like unto him there was no king before him, that returned [shab] to the Lord with all his heart etc.?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. XXIII, 25. Shab really means that he repented, and thus implies that he first sinned. ');">²⁸</span> [This teaches] that he revised every judgment which he had pronounced between the ages of eight and eighteen.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., from his accession until the finding of the Book of the Law, i.e., the Torah (v. XXII, 1-8). He revised his judgments in the light of the Torah, and shab is translated accordingly. ');">²⁹</span> You might say that he took from one and gave to another:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In the course of this revision. ');">³⁰</span> therefore it is taught, 'with all me'odo [his might]', [teaching] that he gave of his own.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Me'odo ');">³¹</span> Now, he disagrees with Rab. For Rab said: There was no greater penitent than Josiah in his generation and a certain person in ours; and who is that? Abba the father of R. Jeremiah b. Abba, and some say Aha the brother of Abba the father of Jeremiah b. Abba. (For a Master said: R. Abba and Aha were brothers). R. Joseph said: And there is yet another in our generation. And who is he? 'Ukban b. Nehemiah the Resh Galutha.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. p. 217, n. 7. ');">³²</span> And he is 'Nathan with the ray of light.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jast.: a repentant sinner with a halo; others: whom an angel seized by his forelock (accepting his repentance and bringing him to God). ');">³³</span> R. Joseph said: I was sitting at the session and dozing, and saw in a dream how one [an angel] stretched out his hand and received him.

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