The Causes of the Destruction of the First Temple - Part 1
Translated by
Why was the
An examination of the relevant scriptural passages and rabbinic statements reveals additional reasons for the destruction, aside from the three mentioned above. In this shiur, we will explore the first half of
I. THE DAYS OF SHELOMO
The prophet Yirmiyahu says:
For this has been to Me as a provocation of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it and to this day; that I should remove it from before My face. (Yirmiyahu 32:31)
"From the day that they built it" implies that the sinfulness began in the days of Shelomo.
Chazal and the Rishonim pinpoint two main sins of Shelomo. The Gemara in Nidda understands that Shelomo's marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh was the major cause of God's anger against the city:
One verse says: "For the Lord has chosen
The Radak adopts a similar approach in his commentary to this verse in Yirmiyahu, only that he emphasizes the idolatry practiced by Shelomo's wives:
For it was during the days of Shelomo who built the city and the
In this context, it is interesting to note the Radak's argument (in his commentary to Divrei Ha-yamim 35:3) that Shelomo himself already prepared a place to conceal the ark, since he knew that the
Chazal's understanding (alluded to by the Radak in the aforementioned passage) that Shelomo's marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh took place on the day of the Temple's dedication (Vayikra Rabba 12, 5) illustrates Shelomo's blurring of the boundaries between his own kingdom and the kingdom of God, a phenomenon that would find expression in various ways over the course of the entire First Temple period. This blurring, which was based upon, among other things, Shelomo's arrogance and his understanding that his wisdom was greater than the wisdom of the Torah itself (see Sanhedrin 21b), found expression in various areas: the unmediated closeness between the house of the king and the house of God (to the point that Yechezkel [43:6-9] conditions the building of the future Temple and the everlasting resting of God's Shekhina therein on a distancing between the two); the dimensions of the royal house, which were greater than the dimensions of the house of God; Shelomo's taking foreign women as his wives, which, even if his intention was to draw them in under the wings of the Shekhina, led in the end to the establishment of bamot in honor of idols in Jerusalem – on the mountain to the right of the Mountain of Corruption – which stood from the days of Shelomo until they were removed in the days of Yoshiyahu, that is to say, almost until the end of the First Temple period.
Shelomo's multiplying of wives, horses, silver and gold also stemmed from his inflated view of his own greatness and that of his kingdom. Similarly, his idea that the Temple was meant to serve the entire world and that it would stand forever, never to be destroyed, was based on exaggerated self-confidence and seeing his own greatness as a central component of this eternity.
Already in the next generation, Shelomo's sins led to the division of the kingdom, a division which in and of itself was calamitous during the entire
II. THE KILLING OF ZEKHARYA THE SON OF YEHOYDA THE PRIEST
II Divrei Ha-yamim 22-23 describes the great kindness performed by Yehoyada the High Priest and his wife Yehoshavat for Yoash the son of Achazyahu and the House of David. Following the death of her son King Achazyahu, Atalyahu killed all of Achazyahu's sons and assumed the throne herself. However, one son, Yoash, survived surreptitiously. Yehoshavat hid Yoash in the House of God for six years, after which Yehoyada arranged a coup to depose the evil Queen Atalyahu and restore the rightful heir Yoash to the throne. As part of the coup, Yehoyada also restored the worship of God to its rightful place:
And Yehoyada made a covenant between him, and between all the people and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. Then all the people went to the house of the Ba'al, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of the Ba'al in front of the altars. And Yehoyada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had given charge over the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the Torah of Moshe, with rejoicing and with singing, as ordained by David. And he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord, so that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in… And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet, after they had slain Atalyahu with the sword. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 23:16-21)
Yehoyada's action and the spiritual revolution that he brought about with the coronation of Yoash endured until the end of his life, and the kingdom expressed great appreciation of his efforts:
Yoash was seven years old when he began to reign… And Yoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Yehoyada the priest… But Yehoyada grew old, and was full of days, and he died; a hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the City of
Following the death of Yehoyada, however, the situation utterly changed:
Now after the death of Yehoyada the princes of Yehuda came, and prostrated themselves before the king. Then the king hearkened to them. And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and worshipped asherim and idols. And anger came upon Yehuda and
Chazal understood that the prostration of the officers before Yoash was not merely a display of honor before the king, but rather prostration as part of a religious ritual:
From where do we know that Yoash made himself into a god? For it is written: "Now after the death of Yehoyada the princes of Yehuda came, and prostrated themselves before the king. Then the king hearkened to them." What is meant by, "And they prostrated themselves before the king"? They made him a god. They said to him: Were it not that you are a god, you would not have come out after seven years in the Holy of Holies. He said to them: Thus it is, and he accepted upon himself to become a god. (Tanchuma, Vaera)
This Midrash is based on another Midrash, according to which the "bedchamber" in which Yoash hid for six years was in the Holy of Holies (see Shir Ha-shirim Rabba 1:2; Rashi, II Melakhim 11:2; and the commentary attributed to Rashi, II Divrei Ha-yamim 22:11). Yoash's extended stay in the sanctified quarters brought his officers to attribute to him Divine qualities, and in his arrogance, Yoash accepted what they said and allowed them to worship him.
Zekharya, the son of Yehoyada the priest, arose to admonish the people about their sudden spiritual deterioration:
And the spirit of God came upon Zekharya the son of Yehoyada the priest, and the he stood above the people, and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, though you cannot succeed? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 24:20)
Yoash then repays Yehoyada's kindness with evil and gives the order that his son be killed:
And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Yoash the King did not remember the faithful love which Yehoyada his father had shown him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, May the Lord see and revenge. (ibid. 21-22)
According to the Midrash, Zekharya was put to death because he had tried to keep idol worship out of the
Yoash was about to bring an idol into the sanctuary. Zekharya stood at the entrance to the sanctuary and said to him: You will not bring it in, unless you kill me. He stood up and killed him. (Midrash Shir Ha-shirim 3, 2 [ed. Gruenhut])
Neither Chazal nor the Rishonim relate directly to the connection between the killing of Zekharya the son of Yehoyada the priest and the destruction of the
Now, while there is no direct reference to a connection between the killing of Zekharya and the destruction of the
Midrash about the boiling of Zekharya's blood two hundred and fifty two years before the destruction.
You find that when Nevuzaradan went up to destroy
When Nevuzaradan went up and saw it, he said to them: What is this blood that it should bubble so? They said to him: It is the blood of bullocks, rams and sheep that they would slaughter and offer as sacrifices. He brought bullocks, sheep and rams, and slaughtered [them], but [the blood] did not quiet down, rest or stand. He immediately ordered them to be brought and hung on the gallows. He said to them: What is the nature of this blood? If you do not tell me, I will comb your flesh with iron combs. They said to him: Since the Holy One, blessed be He, demands his blood from us, we will tell you. They said to him: A priest and a prophet and a judge would prophesy concerning us about all these things that you are doing to us, but we did not believe him, and we stood up against him and killed him for having reprimanded us.
Immediately, he brought eighty thousand young priests, and slaughtered them, but it did not rest. And the blood would issue forth until it reached the grave of Zekharya. He then brought a great Sanhedrin, as well as a minor Sanhedrin, and slaughtered them, but it did not rest. At that very hour, that wicked man came and cried out about the blood and said to him: What good are you, and how is your blood better than all these bloods? Do you want me to destroy your entire nation on its account? At that very moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, became filled with mercy and said: Now, if this wicked man the son of a wicked and cruel man, who has come to destroy My house, has became filled with mercy, I… all the more so. At that moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to the blood and it was swallowed up in its place. (Kohelet Rabba 3, 16; see also parallel in Gittin 56b)
Another Midrash that draws a connection between the killing of Zekharya and the destruction of the
Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their cherished babes? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? (Eikha 2:20)
The Midrash relates:
It once happened that Doeg the son of Yosef died and left a young child to his mother, and every year she would measure him with handbreadths and donate his weight in gold to Heaven. When
III. UZIYAHU
One of the most important historical events in the second half of the
Therefore She'ol has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure. And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that is joyful, shall go down into it. (Yishayahu 5:14)
We learn about the importance of the event from the way it was used to date the prophecy of Amos:
The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Teko'a which he saw concerning
In the continuation of his prophecy, Amos makes several allusions to the earthquake (see Amos 3:14-15; 6:1; 9:1). So great was the impression left by the earthquake that its memory was still alive in the period of the return to
Then shall the Lord go out, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before
The author of the Seder Olam Rabba draws a connection between the earthquake and the vision with which Yishayahu was consecrated for prophecy, in which he foresees the removal of the Shekhina from the
In the year that King Uziyahu died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the
In Amos it says: "Two years before the earthquake," and in Yishayahu it says: "In the year that King Uziyahu died, etc." That was the day of the earthquake, as it is written: "And the posts of the door moved, etc." (Seder Olam Rabba 20)
Rashi, in his commentary to this prophecy (Yishayahu 6:6), connects it and the earthquake to King Uziya's entry into the sanctuary in order to burn incense:
"At the voice of him that cried" – at the voice of the angels who were crying out. Now this occurred on the day of the earthquake, about which it is stated: "And you shall flee, just as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uziya" (Zekharya 14:5). On that very day Uziya stood up to burn incense in the sanctuary. The heavens thundered to burn him, that is to say, he was liable to death by burning… The earth thundered to swallow him; it thought that he was liable to be swallowed up like Korach who challenged the priesthood. A heavenly voice issued forth and said: "To be a memorial to the children of
(The Midrash cited by Rashi appears in a very similar formulation in Tanchuma [Tzav 70], and with changes in Yalkut Shimoni.)
What led to the earthquake and to the removal of the Shekhina from the
Sixteen years old was Uziyahu when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty two years in
But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the
Then Uziyahu was angry, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, the tzara'at broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. And Azaryahu the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and behold, he was diseased in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; and he himself hastened to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uziyahu the King was afflicted with tzra'at to the day of his death, and dwelt in the house of separation, being diseased; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 26:1-21)
Uziyahu's enormous military and political strength (alluded to by his name), his mighty army, his victories, his grand construction projects, and the international esteem which he had earned – all these planted pride and arrogance in his heart "to his destruction," which reached their climax when he entered the sanctuary to burn incense. The Midrash recounts:
Regarding Uziyah it is written: "For he loved the soil" (II Divrei Ha-yamim 26:10) – he was king and he abandoned himself to the soil, having no connection to Torah. One day he came to the bet midrash, and said to them: In what are you occupied?
They said to him: Regarding "And the stranger that comes near shall be put to death" (Bamidbar 1:51).
Uziya said to them: The Holy One, blessed be He, is King, and I am king. It is appropriate for a king to serve a King and burn incense before Him. Immediately, "he went into the
This Midrash once again emphasizes the sin appearing among various kings of Yehuda - the blurring of the difference between the kingdom of flesh and blood and the
Yishayahu's prophecy thus opens with great wrath and with the beginning of the Shekhina's departure in the wake of Uziyahu's pride, his confidence in his own strength and greatness, and his comparing himself to God. All of these factors brought Uziyahu to try to take control of the priestly service and enter the sanctuary in order to burn incense.
A connection exists, then, between the sins of Shelomo, Yoash and Uziyahu. All of them failing to limit their monarchy to its original objectives, blurring the difference between their kingdom and the
IV. ACHAZ
Chazal and the Rishonim do not directly connect the actions of Achaz to the destruction of the
Achaz was the first king to serve the Molekh (II Melakhim 16:3). Thus, without a doubt, Achaz served as poor example for the entire people, who also began to serve the Molekh. This abominable rite, which combines elements of idol worship, incest, and bloodshed, we find again in Yehuda in the days of Menasheh and Yehoyakim, and it is not by chance that the prophet Yirmiyahu sees it as inevitably leading to the destruction of the city (Yirmiyahu 19).
Achaz also rejected the word of God as found in the Torah and in the mouth of His prophets. He refused to ask God for a sign (Yishayahu 7:10-12); and it is about his days that the prophet said: "Bind up the testimony, seal the Torah among My disciples" (Yishayahu 8:15).
Achaz's absolute political subjugation to the King of Assyria ("I am your servant and your son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of
How did Achaz come to this terrible state? Perhaps he understood that with the removal of the Shekhina from the
V. CHIZKIYAHU
Despite his righteousness, it was in the days of Chizkiyahu that the first explicit prophecy concerning the destruction of the
Despite the impressive beginning of Chizkiyahu's reign, which found expression in the renewal of the Temple service and the king's close connection to the prophet and the Torah, Chizkiyahu decided – apparently, already at an early point in his life – to fight against the Assyrian superpower, and for this purpose he entered into an alliance with Egypt (Yishayahu 30-31). The spiritual meaning of this act is the negation of the Exodus from
With Sancheriv's invasion of Yehuda and his conquest of its fortified cities, Chizkiyahu begged forgiveness from the King of Assyria and paid them tribute from Temple funds, from the doors of the sanctuary and from the pilasters that he himself had overlaid with gold (II Melakhim 18:14-15).
Moreover, by focusing on this international activity, Chizkiyahu abandoned his primary mission, an internal spiritual, moral and social mission – to establish the kingdom upon justice (Yishayahu 9:6) – and in large measure he left the internal arena in the hands of his officers, Shevna the scribe standing out as the most evil among them. As a result, moral corruption spread through all the institutions of the regime – the priests, the prophets, and the officers – and it stands to reason that in their wake also through a large part of the nation. It was this corruption that brought about the first prophecy concerning the destruction of the city (Mikha 3; we find similar criticism about the corruption of the city, but without a prophecy concerning its destruction, in Yishayahu 1).
Chizkiyahu was also guilty of arrogance: "But Yechizkiyahu did not pay back according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was proud: therefore wrath came upon him, and upon Yehuda and
The blurring of the boundaries between human kingdom and the
VI. THE ABSENCE OF THE JUSTICE IN THE CITY OF
As we saw above, two harsh prophecies were delivered during the days of Chizkiyahu regarding the consequences of the cessation of justice in
And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterwards you shall be called the city of justice, a faithful city.
It is not by chance that Scripture sets
The name of the kings of the city even became identified with the name of the city itself (as we see from the parallel between Yirmiyahu 23:5-6 and 33:14-15). It includes the word tzedek, justice – as in the names Malkitzedek (Bereishit 14:18), Adonitzedek (Yehoshua 10:1) and Tzidkiyahu (II Melakhim 24:17 – and it constitutes an adjective for the king of
The idea that the
Since the
SUMMARY
The common denominator of the actions of all the kings discussed above – which constitute, in my opinion, the background for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple – is arrogance and inflated self-importance, which impair the relationship between the king and God, and thus pervert also the standing of the king in his own eyes and in the eyes of his subjects.
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