Author Topic: He dragged the body of wicked king Achaz(Ahaz), his father, on a bed of ropes  (Read 2259 times)

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Offline edu

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Brachot 10b as translated by Soncino
 
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Our Rabbis taught:10 King Hezekiah did six things; of three of them they [the Rabbis] approved
and of three they did not approve. Of three they approved: he hid away the Book of Cures; and they
approved of it; he broke into pieces the brazen serpent,11 and they approved of it; and he dragged the
bones of his father [to the grave] on a bed of ropes,12 and they approved of it.13
Footnotes
(10) V. Pes. 56a.
(11) V. II Kings XVIII, 4.
(12) Instead of giving him a royal burial.
(13) Because Ahaz was a wicked man.

Offline edu

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 Be'ur Halacha to Siman 1 beginning with the words V'lo Yitbayesh of the Mishna Brura, written by the Chafetz Chaim:
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"But if he is standing in a place that has Apikorsim (heretics) that rise up against the Torah and wish to enact some regulations in the matters of the city, and by means of this they will bring the people to transgress the will of G-d; and he opened in peace, and his words were not obeyed. In such a situation the Beit Yosef did not speak of at all. And it is a mitzvah to hate them and quarrel with them and nullify their plotting with all that he has the ability to do. And King David, peace be unto him said, '' Do I not hate, Hashem, those that hate you and with those that rise up against you , I shall quarrel ! I hate them with an utmost hatred: I count them as my enemies''. (Psalms 139:21,22)

Offline edu

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It is appropriate to prepare ourselves at least in our mindset for the next stages in the redemption.
The Talmud in tractate Megilla 17b explains that the stages of redemption are patterned after at least part (some say all) of the Shmoneh Esrei prayer.
Soncino Translation of Megilla 17b
What was their reason for mentioning the gathering of the exiles after the blessing of the years? —
Because it is written, But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches and yield
your fruit to thy people Israel, for they are at hand to come.24 And when the exiles are assembled,
judgment will be visited on the wicked, as it says, And I will turn my hand upon thee and purge
away thy dross as with lye,25 and it is written further, And I will restore thy judges as at the first.26
And when judgment is visited on the wicked, transgressors cease,27 and presumptuous sinners28 are
included with them, as it is written, But the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall
be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.29 And when the transgressors have
disappeared, the horn of the righteous is exalted,30 as it is written, All the horns of the wicked also
will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.31 And ‘proselytes of righteousness’32
are included with the righteous, as it says, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the
face of the old man,33 and the text goes on, And if a stranger sojourn with thee.
Footnotes
(24) Ezek. XXXVI, 8.
(25) Isa. I, 25.
(26) Ibid. 26. The next blessing proceeds, ‘Restore our judges’. etc.
(27) MS. M. minim (plur. of min v. Glos.).
(28) Mentioned in the next blessing. This, however, was not one of the original eighteen, v. Ber. 28b.
(29) Ibid. 28.
(30) The next blessing concludes, ‘the support and trust of the righteous’.
(31) Ps. LXXV, II.
(32) Mentioned in the same blessing. ‘Proselytes of Righteousness’ are converts who completely accept the Jewish creed
and life.
(33) Lev. XIX, 32