It's Even on TV!

Hello, it's Zahava. As some of you shall recall, at the beginning of the year we talked about Shlomo and the splendor of the kingdom before they started on a downward spiral to sin and worshipping avoda zara.

About a half hour ago, I was flipping through tv channels when i stopped at WKNO/PBS. Sometimes they have interesting documentaries, and tonight, I got lucky. They are doing a whole documentary on archeologists digging and using radiology to prove how certain sites are old enough to have been the sites of Shlomos kingdom. Then they showed other sites in different parts of Israel with the same structure- a structure described in navi, and in the same places. They proved how these places are the same places in the navi, and indeed these things have happened.

A moment ago they spoke of how they found ruins and reconstructed an animated version of Jersusalem as Assyria destroyed and exiled Samaria- Shomron.

Then they talked about how they found- and showed us people digging up mini idols- that although the Jews were serving Hashem they also worshipped idols.

The coolest part is that they are, as I type, talking about exactly what we are doing in class right now! What we started on Monday! They talked about how Josiah wanted to stop the people from idol worshipping and had the Beit Hamikdash cleaned. There he found a scroll and begain to weep because he realized the people had been breaking the rules. Then they talked about how Assyria was replaced by a new superpower, Babylonia, who came in and exiled the Jews, while killing the kings family in front of him, and then blinding him. They've really summarized what we did in the beginning of the year and have gone through the exile of the Jews. It's very interesting because they are showing us sights that they drew plans for and reconstructed digitally, and then compare it to places described in Tanach, which they confirm is all true.

Now they are talking about the theme of exile and return. Which is something we have been focusing on as well.

Now some of this might not all be completely accurate, as it is not a Jewish production but a christian one. but for the most part, this has been very interesting. I will post the link to a transcript of the documentary, as well as a link that will allow anyone who is interested to watch it. It is actually really cool, especially if you like connecting different events from different classes etc. I HIGHLY suggest watching this.
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/bibles-buried-secrets.html

Well i want to finish watching and focusing on this so I hope the rest of you watch it!

Time Line of Chizkiyahu

Well, this isn't going to be very creative, so please excuse me. But perhaps it will be useful if you weren't here or didn't take notes today.

Chizkiyahu

• Year 0 of reign: peleh yoetz: He will have the potential to be Mashiach, for there to be a religious revival both ben adam lemakom and ben adam lechavero, or social justice. 
• Year 1 of reign: Religious revival
• Took away bamot and the nachash (that was used for avodah zarah)
• There was a big (fake) Pesach  celebration
• All of these Mitzvot are ben adam lemakom
• This was at a time when Yishayahu was very influential in Chizkiyahu's life and the decisions he makes
• Year 6 of reign: 
• Shomron was exiled
• (*not sure exactly the year) Ashdod was attacked by Ashur
• (*)Chizkiyahu abandoned the policy of his father by the alliance with Assyria
• Attacked Plishtim and made alliance with Mitzrayim
• Year 14 of reign: (slowly Yishayahu has been becoming less influential in Chizkiyahu's life)
• He forfeits the city
• He changed the water supply so that it went underground and then into Yirushalayim
• This is seen as a bad thing because he didn't  consult with Yishayahu about whether it was okay, and although it is a good thing strategically, the water-plan also shows a lack of faith in Hashem. (With Yishayahu's okay, though, it would have been fine)
• He sent money to Ashur
• Perakim 36 and 37 happen in the 14th year of his reign for sure, 38 talks about the salvation of the city and most probably also takes place in the same time period
• 36- RavShakeh comes
• 37- Miraculous salvation of the city
• For these political miracles, there is no shira (praise) from Yishayahu, though clearly the situation called for it.
• 38- He was sick, and davened and got healed and promised 15 more years
• On this personal matter, we see that now he does praise Hashem

I would like to proclaim Chizkiyahu as two-faced, but obviously that's a little judgmental, and too harsh because he really wasn't a bad guy. But- there was some two-faceness, nonetheless, as some people have previously mentioned without outright saying that. Oh, well. He tried and was so close. But Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades... 

Going Back

Ok. So Zahava recently posted information about Perek Lamed Tes and suggested that someone do Lamed Ches. So I will to the best of my ability.

At the very beginning of Perek Lamed Ches, Chizkiyahu is so sick that he is going to die. Yeshayahu HaNavi came to see him. Yeshayahu does not try to give Chizkiyahu hope that he would recover or even try to pray for his health to return. Instead, Yeshayahu truned to Chizkiyahu and said that he should put his affairs in order and make sure everything was taken care of because he would surely die. In response to what Yeshayahu tells him, Chizkiyahu "turns his face to the wall" and davened to HaShem, though he does not beg forgiveness from HaShem for his sins. We will see that this is the right response to make, because HaShem will add fifteen years to his life.

HaShem comes to Yeshayahu and tells him to tell Chizkiyahu that He heard the tefilla of Chizkiyahu and will add 15 years to his life and that He will deliver him and his city out of the hands of Ashur and He will defend the city. This seems to show us that the story is out of order in the Navi because we already learned that HaShem made it so that Sancherev left the Jews and was killed when he went back home.

HaShem will give Chizkiyahu a sign: He will turn the shadow on the sundial back ten degrees (metaphorically turning back time). This is a strange sign for HaShem to give, because all the signs that we ahve learned about so far have been natural. This sign is blatantly unnatural.

Yeshayahu gets better but he is still unsatisfied. He complains that everything is taken away from him: his land is destroyed so he no longer has that. The harder he tries to protect everything, the more it hurts him. He is davening to HaShem. He then begins to praise HaShem saying that he did many sins and everything, but HaShem, out of love and pity for his soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption.

I am a little confused here and I might not have gotten all of it right, but I wanted to get it down to get other opinions and corrections if I messed something up.

A Deeper Look at חזקיהו

Last Thursday our navi class began to examine חזקיהו in a deeper manner. We asked if he was a good king/person, or a bad one. How does one decide such a thing?

ספר ישעיהו stresses the lack of צדק ומשפט, and how the people had a problem with hubris. A religious revival would include the restoration of צדק ומשפט and the self removal of hubris. However, when we read about the religious revival in חזקיהו's time, we do not see that. We see that he got rid of the במות so that people would go to the בית ימקדש. We said that perhaps חזקיהו has a bit of arrogance in his personality, and is a double sided personality. He has a religious side and then an everything else side, and he only goes to ישעיהו for religious help. Then later when Hashem saves them from אשור, he does not thank Hashem.

We split into two groups; each would read a perek that would show a different bad aspect of חזקיהו. My group consisted of Racheli, Orly, and Myself. We had to do Perek לט. In this perek we saw that after the sick king,  חזקיהו , was saved by Hashem [who added 15 years to his life, perhaps someone in the group who did perek לח wants to write about that/ the perek in general?], the king of Babylonia heard that he had recovered and sent him a gift. And then  חזקיהו showed them every single treasure of his house- his silver, gold, spices, oil, and treasures. That doesn't seem like something a modest guy would do. Somebody comes to give you a "yay you're alive present", and you show off how wealthy you are. It's not the best thing to do.

ישעיהו asks חזקיהו what he showed the Babylonian messengers, and he tells him that he showed them everything. Then ישעיהו tells him that Hashem said: One day all of your riches will go to Babylonia, and your sons will work in his palace. And in response חזקיהו says, "Good is what Hashem has said, because there will be peace and truth in my days." We didn't get up to discussing this perek yet, but we wonder what this means. There is a punishment, so obviously what he did was worse than it seems at face value, which is still pretty obnoxious. And his response is odd too.

So what trait does this show? We haven't gone over it in class, but I guess that from here we can kind of see that he liked to show off his things [whether or not it was in a bragging, I have more than you way, I can't say] and was proud of how rich he was in all aspects.

--Also, I know someone might write about the previous perek, but I just thought this was interesting so I wanted to add it on. Why did חזקיהו get sick in the first place? There are some opinions that say it was because he refused to have children. Why? There was a prophecy that said he would have an evil child who would cause the destruction of the בית המקדש. Therefore he was afraid and didn't have children because he didn't want that to happen. I understand- as did the class- this feeling. If i knew my child were evil I would not have a child. However, Mrs. Perl pointed out that it was like he was defying G-d and saying he could decide whether or not this would happen. if Gd wants him to have an evil child then he will. But we all said that we wouldn't have children too. So it's difficult to think that he was punished for not having children, because we understand where he is coming from. And why does Hashem thinks it's bad for him to not want an evil child who will destroy the בית המקדש? It shows his dedication and love of Hashem.... any thoughts?

Just a Review

I just wanted to go over basically what we learned in class a few days ago.

Okay, so we learned about the 1st few years of the reign of Chizkiyahu, with the religious revival and everything, and then we began to learn about the time around the 6th year of the reign of Chizkiyahu when Shomron is exiled and Yehuda stops being a vassal state to Assyria.

We recently learned about Ravshakeh being sent by the king of Assyria to Yerushalayim to engage in psychological warfare with the people of B'nai Yisrael there. He gathered three officers in the Jewish area and told them to tell his message to Chizkiyahu. His goal was to make the Jews doubt their political and religious security and to convince them to surrender to Assyria. He tries to make them doubt their political security when he says in Perek Lamed Vav, Pasuk Daled that the King of Assyria is the greatest king in the world- no other king is nearly as good. He also tries to make them believe that when he says that whoever trusts in Egypt will be let down, and hurt by the trust. The king of Egypt is like a broken reed that is falling apart. Ravshakeh also says that the B'nai Yisrael can't trust in Chizkiyahu because he will not be able to save them.

Ravshakeh wants to make the B'na Yisrael doubt their religious security, and he shows this by telling the messengers to say to Chizkiyahu and the people that a: if Chizkiyahu will tell the people that HaShem will save Yerushalayim, why did He not save Shomron? Also, no other gods were able to save their nations from the might of Assyria, including that of Shomron. He is saying that Chas V'Shlaom, Assyria is stronger and greater than HaShem. He also tells the messenger s to tell the B'nai Yisrael that if they expect HaShem to help them anyway, they are wrong to think that He will because He is angry at the B'nai Yisrael because Chizkiyahu took away the bamot that were being used to serve HaShem. It could be seen as a sort of betrayal. Ravshakeh also says that HaShem told him to destroy them. That would be something pretty scary for the B'nai Yisrael to hear.

Ravshakeh also tries to convince the Jews to surrender to Assyria. He said that if they surrendered, everything would be provided for them and everything would be good.

I added some of my own ideas and thoughts into here. If you disagree, I would love to hear what you have to say.

פרקים ט-י

Perek ט- This Perek talks about the destruction of Shomron. Why? Isn't Yeshayahu talking to the people of Yehuda? Yeshayahu is describing the destruction of Shomron so that the people of Yehuda can see that sins get you destroyed. The people of Shomron also had pride and arrogance stemming from their hubris, and as punishment the nations surrounding Shomron will attack.

First there was a warning, the people didn't listen, so now the leaders will be attacked- the leaders and false prophets, who cause the people to sin. But everyone will be subject to G-d's anger, everyone is doing wrong. They will be treated as a nation,  and no one will be spared- there is no running away.
Yeshayahu emphasizes tzedek and mishpat to show the people of Yehuda that Shomron lacked tzedek and mishpat, and they were destroyed, and you (yehuda) lack tzedek and mishpat, so you will be destroyed as well. there is potential punishment.

Perek י-  This perek is addressed to the people of Ashur, but the audience is the Jews. To Ashur the message is: Yes, Ashur, you're powerful, but through G-d. You are His rod of anger. His tool. After Shomron, Yehuda is next... This Perek shows that Hashem is in control, a message for both Ashur and Yehuda.

After that we zoomed through to perek Lamed Vav! The other prakim were messages for nations of the world, and as the year is kind of almost over we must stay with out story!

Well, if anyone wants to add something I missed or comment on how the people of yehuda seem not to get the message.... other than Chezkiyahu! 

Back on Track- Yeshayahu, Achaz- Making Connections

There were four kings who lived during the time that Yeshayahu prophesized: 1] Ooziyahu 2] Yotam 3] Achaz 4] Chezkiyahu. Now, whenever we had a king ruling there were different ways to judge his success. For instance, with Ooziyahu we saw economic prosperity, political control with expanded borders, and religiously the people were giving korbanot all of the time. Personally, the king became haughty and tried to burn incense, and in return he was punished with tzaraat. Yotam had lessened economic activity, politically Retzin melech Aram and Pekech formed an alliance against him, and Yotam was very religious and tried to refurbish the Beit Hamikdash. Achaz, when he became king, saw how good his father was, and also saw that things weren't so favorable for him. So he decided that Hashem and Judaism was ridiculous- he did moolech, built an alter based on an Assyrian one, and makes an alliance with Assyria against Pekach and Retzin, indicating he had more faith in man than in G-d. [Refresher- he makes this alliance because he does not want Pekach and Retzin to destroy him.] In Prakim Zein-Tet, we see events that take place during Achaz's time.

Retzin and Pekach are trying to attack Yehuda, and the people of Yehuda become scared. Meanwhile, Yeshayahu is a prophet in the kings court, living with his wife and children. Yeshayahu goes to Achaz and gives him advice- don't panic, they can't destroy you, remain neutral! Do not form an alliance. Then Hashem sends a message through Yeshayahu to Achaz, telling him that he can recieve a sign. Achaz mockingly replies that he does not need a sign, because he has such immense faith in G-d. So Yeshayahu says, "Well I am giving you a sign! My wife will have a son named Emmanuel, which means G-d is with us. And everytime his name is called you will hear."

That is what we have done so far. We are in the midst of going over these very shady Perakim, trying to understand the importance of the names of some children that appear, and whether or not eating butter and honey is a good thing, or bad thing for young Emmanuel. When we have covered the Perakim all the way, I hope to post something that makes more sense not only to you readers, but to the whole navi class.

Stay tuned for more on the meaning of the names, and the fate of Achaz the Terrible.....