Episode #30  A Study of Two Kings

In this episode, Rabbi Reinman contrasts Rehavam, the first king of Judah, and Yeravam, the first king of Israel, after the partition.

Chapter Thirty

A Study of Two Kings

Solomon passed away in 797 b.c.e., and his son Rehavam ascended to the throne. Rehavam did not possess a fraction of his father’s wisdom, and his rash actions immediately set into motion the fulfillment of the prophecy that the kingdom would be torn asunder.

For many years, there was an underlying tension between the ten northern tribes and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The northern tribes were led by the tribe of Ephraim, which was descended from Joseph and had its own royal aspirations. The dominant position of the tribe of Judah did not sit well with them, but they accepted it with reluctance.

After Saul was killed in battle, it took seven years of strife before they accepted the brilliant and charismatic David as the national king, but in the end, they embraced him. They also embraced his son Solomon, the fabulously wise king who delivered wealth and status to his entire kingdom. But Rehavam did not have any particularly extraordinary qualities. At most, he would be a caretaker king tasked with preserving the accomplishments of his predecessors, and the northern tribes were not confident that he would rise to even this challenge, let alone lead them to new heights. Nonetheless, with some reluctance, they agreed to accept Rehavam as their king, but they insisted that the coronation take place in Shechem, the principal city of the tribe of Ephraim.

Even before the coronation, they demanded that Rehavam ease the burden of taxes Solomon had imposed on them. The counselors who had served Solomon advised Rehavam to be prudent and conciliatory, but his hotheaded young friends urged him to assert his authority. Rehavam followed the advice of his friends and lost his kingdom. The ten northern tribes revolted, and after a narrow escape, Rehavam returned to Jerusalem. The scheduled coronation never took place.

Israel was now split into two separate entities, the Kingdom of Judah in the south, comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with its capital at Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Israel in the north, with its capital at Shechem. Rehavam was crowned as king of Judah in Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Israel chose Yeravam ben Nevat of the tribe of Ephraim as its first monarch.

Yeravam ben Nevat, a brilliant scholar and a capable manager, was eminently suited for the responsibilities that come along with a royal crown. He was the foremost Torah sage of his time,[1] and he had also served under Solomon as royal administrator of the tribes of Ephraim and Menasheh.[2] After the debacle of Solomon’s pagan wives, the prophet Achiah of Shiloh had informed Yeravam that he would become the nagid[3] of the northern tribes, and now, the prophecy had come true.

Once again, we encounter the term nagid, as we did with regard to Saul, indicating that Yeravam’s mission was also essentially political rather than religious. This would seem to  indicate that the split was in the political realm. Whereas David and Solomon were the political kings as well as the spiritual kings of all Israel, as explained in Chapter 28, the political king of the northern kingdom would now be Yeravam. Rehavam would remain the spiritual leader of both kingdoms and the political king of the southern kingdom. Although he would not have the political power to support his spiritual leadership over the northern kingdom, he would still have enough royal stature to influence the spiritual lives of its people.

The newly crowned Yeravam set about securing his realm and extending his royal power to all the tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. He transformed the provincial city of Shechem into a national capital. He built a royal palace, expanded the municipal boundaries and strengthened the fortifications. He undoubtedly looked forward to establishing a great royal dynasty, the House of Yeravam to rival the House of David, but he was faced with a problem.

When the Jewish people entered Canaan five centuries years earlier, the Mishkan, the transportable tabernacle, stood in Gilgal just across the Jordan River for the fourteen years of conquest and apportionment. During this time, the people were allowed to sacrifice on private altars throughout the land to satisfy their need for a tangible ritual connection to God.

After this period, they built a stone temple in Shiloh in the tribal land of Ephraim, and the use of private altars was discontinued. Three hundred and fifty years later, the Philistines destroyed the Shiloh temple. The transportable Mishkan was removed to the city of Nov and then to Giveon, and private altars were permitted once again to accommodate the needs of the people. But the Torah declared that private altars would be banned forever when the massive and magnificent Holy Temple in Jerusalem would be built.[4] Henceforth, people who wanted to offer sacrifices as a means to connect with God, despite the inconvenience, had to travel to Jerusalem.

The inconvenience, in fact, was probably a central element in the role of the Temple in Jewish life. The Rambam writes that the very elaborate rules of tumah and taharah, ritual purification, were established for the sole purpose of inspiring awe in the minds of the people. They could not simply drop into the Temple while in the neighborhood. Entry to the Temple required days of preparation, so that when they finally were allowed to step onto the hallowed ground in the presence of God they find the experience overwhelming and inspiring. The inconvenience and the effort required to travel to Jerusalem only made the experience more meaningful.

Being that the Jewish people craved connection to God through the ritual sacrifice service, and being that the only place permitted for that service was the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the people of the newly formed northern kingdom would have to travel to the capital city of the southern kingdom to bring their sacrifices.

During the reign of Solomon, they came to Jerusalem from even the farther reaches of the land, but now that the kingdom was divided, Yeravam discerned a threat. By rule, only kings of the Davidic dynasty might sit in the Temple sanctuary; perhaps because they were spiritual exemplars and not just political functionaries. Therefore, when people from the north made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the annual Festivals, they would see King Yeravam standing while Rehavam was allowed to sit. Yeravam found this situation intolerable.

Why couldn’t Yeravam tolerate the requirement for him to remain standing even as Rehavam was allowed to be seated? It was because he saw the situation in the Temple sanctuary as a threat to his throne and to the continued independence of the northern kingdom. Perhaps the people would have second thoughts about their mutiny. Perhaps they would regret the decision made in anger and yearn to be reconciled with the glorious House of David.[5] Before long, the northern kingdom might disintegrate, and that would be the end of Yeravam’s royal pretensions, if not his very life.

But the prophet Achiah had told him that God had ordained the division of Solomon’s kingdom. Surely, it was now his responsibility to ensure that the kingdom remained divided.

And so he did. He closed the border between Israel and Judah, and he erected two substitute temples, one in Bethel, the other in Dan. In each temple he placed a golden calf and declared, “This is the Lord who brought you forth from the land of Egypt!” He then appointed a priestly caste not of Levite descent, and he established new dates for the Festivals.

The golden calves were not intended as idols to be worshipped. They were symbols of the presence of God among the people. Aharon had made a golden calf in the wilderness when the people had grown impatient waiting for Moses, who had served as their symbol for God’s presence. This was a great sin, since they should have waited. But now that God had decreed the separation of the northern tribes from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Yeravam claimed, it had become acceptable for golden calves to serve as symbols for the unseen presence of God.[6] It was also henceforth permitted, he further claimed, to sacrifice on private altars.

Regardless of his intentions, he had committed a terrible sin by turning to golden calves, the abominations of Jewish history, and violating numerous Torah commandments to safeguard the integrity of his kingdom. Furthermore, by facilitating the proliferation of private altars throughout the northern kingdom, he opened the door to subsequent idolatry. He also caused the cancer of private altars to spread to the southern kingdom as well; the efforts of the Davidic kings to eradicate the private altars would remain fruitless for centuries. In all, he corrupted the entire Jewish people and brought about the eventual disintegration of both kingdoms and the exile of the Jewish people from their land. The Talmud declares that, because of his grievous sins, Yeravam forfeited his share in the next world.

Inevitably, Yeravam’s egregious violation of the Torah’s laws undermined whatever stature he might have achieved during his earlier years. The demonic arrogance in the dark caverns of his soul emerged and swallowed up the whole man.[7] He realized he had sinned, but he refused to repent. When God promised him full salvation if he repented, he asked if he would take precedence over the Davidic king. Otherwise, he refused.[8] Moreover, although his rationale for his actions had been the preservation of the prophecy of a divided kingdom, he initiated a war against Judah and tried to reunite the country under his rule.

Perhaps we can detect early signs of Yeravam’s flawed character. The Talmud mentions that he alone had the courage to raise his voice in protest against Solomon.[9] Yet even then, he did not protest the idolatrous practices of Solomon’s wives. Rather, he protested that in building palaces for the foreign princesses Solomon had blocked off some of the access routes to Jerusalem that David had opened for Jewish pilgrims. He found an angle of injustice that could be exploited to arouse popular opposition to Solomon. Ironically, he himself would ultimately do far greater injustice to the pilgrims than Solomon had ever done.

As a result of Yeravam’s actions, the people of the northern tribes were deprived of fearsome encounters with the transcendent God in the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. Instead, they tried to connect with Him at the private altars upon which ersatz priests officiated in ceremonies that was not altogether different from those in the pagan temples.

In the fullness of time, their conception of God would deteriorate. They revered His Torah and obeyed His laws, but they did not know Him. They came to see Him as a grand Supreme Being, an entity with contours and definition like a superangel, rather than the Infinite, the essence of all being, all existence. They thought of Him as something He is not, something infinitely inferior to what He really is. In this frame of mind, the practice of Judaism was not so distant from idolatry, and eventually it would succumb. The great Yeravam ben Nevat had launched the Kingdom of Israel by setting his subjects on the path to idolatry.

Meanwhile, things were also going less than splendidly in the Kingdom of Judah. Rehavam’s first impulse had been to attempt to suppress the rebellion by force, but he desisted when the prophet Shemaiah told him that God wanted the kingdom divided; a protracted civil war did break out, however, between the two sister kingdoms when Rehavam’s son Aviam came of age.[10] Rehavam then embarked on a major campaign to consolidate his power in the remainder of his realm. He built fortress cities surrounded by moats[11] and stocked them with provisions of food and drink and arsenals of weapons. At the same time, the best elements from the northern kingdom were streaming into Judah to escape the sacrilegious decrees of Yeravam, further strengthening the southern kingdom.[12]

For three years, this state of affairs continued, until Rehavam felt that his power base was secure. Then, “he abandoned the Torah, together with the rest of Israel,”[13] and he transgressed by “not conditioning himself to seek God.”[14] The people of Judah also “angered God” exceedingly by the erection of private altars and monuments and the spread of promiscuous behavior throughout the land.[15] Once again, we must try to penetrate the opaque prose of the Prophets, as we did with the account of Solomon, and distinguish actual events from hyperbole for the purpose of sharp rebuke.

Fate had thrust Rehavam onto the throne of Judah, but he was inadequately equipped for the role. In his veins flowed the blood of David and Solomon, but also the blood of Naamah, his mother, an Ammonite princess.

The Book of Kings makes a point of repeating that Rehavam’s mother was Naamah, the Ammonite, which indicates that she had a strong influence on her son.[16] Some commentators assume that she was among the pagan princesses that reverted to idolatry and that she turned her son in that direction as well, causing him to “abandon the Torah, together with the rest of Israel.” But all indications are to the contrary.

The Book of Kings tells us that Rehavam was succeeded by Aviam who “repeated all the sins his father had done before him, and he was not as loyal to God his Lord as was his ancestor David.”[17] If Rehavam were indeed an idol worshipper, this would mean that Aviam was one as well. Yet in the next few words, the prophet tells us that he was not “as loyal to God as David,” the exact words, letter for letter, used in reference to Solomon.[18] As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Talmud infers from these words that Solomon was certainly loyal and free of sin, but not with the perfect loyalty of David.[19] It follows, then, that whatever the prophet’s complaint might have been against him, Aviam was nonetheless innocent of actual sin.

Furthermore, the account of Aviam in Chronicles is unreservedly complimentary, and the battlefield speech he delivers is a passionate declaration of loyalty to God; there is absolutely no hint at idolatry or any other sinfulness.[20] It would seem, therefore, that Aviam was a loyal servant of God, albeit with some shortcomings, and if he “repeated all his father’s sins,” his father Rehavam must have been an equally loyal servant of God. And if his mother was responsible for his upbringing, then she, too, must have been a righteous woman.

Elsewhere, the Talmud relates that God’s solicitude for the safety of Ammon and Moab during the Conquest[21] was because of the two “fine fledglings” that would issue from these nations − Ruth of Moab and Naamah of Ammon.[22] If Naamah had relapsed into paganism and dragged down along with her her son, the king of Judah, she would surely not be considered a “fine fledgling.” Once again, the indication is that Naamah was a righteous woman.[23]

Finally, the Midrash explicitly confirms this interpretation. Addressing the verse, “The flowers have appeared in the land, the time of song has arrived,”[24] the Midrash comments, “These flowers are the kings David, Solomon, Rehavam, Aviam and Asa.”[25] Clearly, they were all good, all comparable to blossoming flowers, all worthy of song.

Clearly as well, Naamah was a good and loyal woman, one of the few of Solomon’s wives who remained true to her adopted faith. It had taken great courage and determination for her to resist the frenzy of recidivist paganism around her without the support of her distracted husband, and she applied this same courage and determination to the upbringing of her son Rehavam. Unfortunately, however, she could not give Rehavam more than she herself possessed, and her own conceptions of Judaism were deficient in some respects.

Naamah was a child of her times. Raised in the pagan society of the Kingdom of Ammon, she grew up with a conception of divinity based on the prevalent notions of the god race. When she married Solomon, she willingly accepted her husband’s religion, as princesses given in marriage customarily did, and she converted to Judaism. But we can safely assume that, in her mind, all Judaism did was narrow the field of the god race, so that there was only one member instead of many. She did not comprehend the concept of a transcendent God who is not a spiritual Being but being itself, who is the Infinite without contours or form, who is the beginning and end of all existence, that nothing exists external to Him. People, therefore, have no existence independent of Him, and their entire lives have to be focused on Him; this is called dveikus, absolute attachment. As David writes in his psalms, “I keep God before me always.”[26] These fundamental concepts of Judaism are difficult to grasp for people raised Jewish, even more so for a formerly pagan woman.

Furthermore, according to the Rambam, the common people cannot be expected to have the level of sophistication needed to have this conception of God. It is acceptable for them to think of Him as a supremely powerful Being as long as they realize that there is no other god;[27] it is to be hoped that as their education progresses their level of sophistication will rise. Naamah entered Judaism on this level, and considering the paucity of continuing education for the formerly pagan wives, she did not progress very far beyond it.

She understood that the Jews owed God their loyalty and obedience, but once they had fulfilled their obligations, she believed they were free to pursue their independent lives. She could not fathom that the entire life of the Jew is absorbed in his striving to achieve perfect union with God, that the Torah is his very lifeblood. She never learned the concept of dveikus.

Naamah meant well, and considering her situation, she probably achieved much more than could be expected. In the final analysis, however, her view of Judaism was constricted by her residual pagan attitudes. She did not understand that the Torah is more than a code of law, that a Jew must “seek God” in every aspect of his life. Naamah shielded her son from the rampant paganism in the royal palaces and thereby preserved the integrity of the royal House of David. She was truly God’s “fine fledgling” whose merit was so great that it could save her nation of origin. But she could not impart to her son more than she had learned herself.

Rehavam, as the son of Solomon, undoubtedly received a good Torah education, but inevitably, he was also influenced by the attitudes of his virtuous mother. His loyalty to God and the Torah must surely have been reinforced by Naamah’s participation in his upbringing, but at the same time, his conception of God and the Torah were weakened by it.

Therefore, as long as Rehavam was building defenses for Judah to protect the Torah life that flourished within it, his mind was filled with thoughts of the Torah and its importance to the Jewish people. He lived in a state of artificial dveikus with virtually all his thoughts occupied with the defense of God’s holy Torah and His holy Abode.

Once the fortifications were complete and the land secured, however, the role of God and the Torah in his life receded somewhat. He could now give some thought to his own independent life. And thus, in the angry words of the Prophet, he “abandoned the Torah” and did not “condition himself to seek God.” As Rehavam’s primary interests shifted from the Torah to other pursuits, there was a ripple effect throughout society. Cracks in the spiritual fabric of the kingdom appeared as the people became more self-absorbed, and there was a relaxation of moral strictures.

During the Period of the Judges, laxity in observance among the weaker elements of society occurred only with the periodic lapses into paganism. The glue of Jewish society during that time had been adherence to the Torah, and therefore, serious transgression had social as well as spiritual consequences. A Jew could not flaunt the Torah in public and still be considered a stalwart member of society.

Once society was reorganized along more conventional lines, however, a person could maintain a Jewish identity merely by national citizenship, regardless of his level of observance. Therefore, the national level of observance depended on the tone set by the government. Saul, David and Solomon had been in the forefront of the national drive for spiritual growth. The people knew that Torah was the air their kings breathed and that the resources of government were all directed towards the furtherance of Torah among the people. In such circumstances, one could clearly not separate observance from citizenship. But under Rehavam, the fire of Torah was lacking in the government, because it was lacking in the king. The people sensed this and no longer felt that their Jewish identity would suffer from a little laxity in observance. Meticulous observance became a matter of personal preference.

The decline in the spiritual condition of Judah under Rehavam was further exacerbated by the example of neighboring Israel, resulting in the widespread desecration of the sacrificial service. The people of Judah saw the great convenience their cousins in Israel enjoyed by the widespread availability of private altars, and a significant number of them sought this same convenience for themselves. Although the Torah expressly forbade this, they rationalized that if the learned Yeravam ben Nevat had discovered legal justification for the practice in the northern kingdom it surely applied to the southern kingdom as well.[28] Regardless of the number of righteous people, and there were undoubtedly many, the spiritual fabric of the Kingdom of Judah was beginning to disintegrate.

For the remainder of Rehavam’s reign and the entire reign of his son Aviam, there was basically no change in the situation in Judah. But in 777 b.c.e., Aviam’s son Asa ascended to the throne, and for a brief while, it seemed as if the downward trend would be arrested and reversed.

[1] Sanhedrin 102a

[2] Redak, I Kings 11:26

[3] I Kings 14:7

[4] Zevachim 112b.

[5] I Kings 12:27, Sanhedrin 101b.

[6] Radak, I Kings 12:28.

[7] Sanhedrin 101b

[8] Sanhedrin 102a.

[9] Sanhedrin 101b, I Kings 11:27.

[10] Metzudas David, I Kings 15:6

[11] Rashi, II Chronicles 11:5

[12] II Chronicles 11:16

[13] II Chronicles 12:1

[14] II Chronicles 12:14

[15] I Kings 14-22-23

[16] I Kings 14:21, 14:31

[17] I Kings 15:3

[18] I Kings 11:4

[19] Shabbos 56b

[20] II Chronicles 13:3-20

[21] Deuteronomy 2:5-9

[22] Bava Kama 38b

[23] Nemukei Yosef, Bava Kama 38b

[24] Shir Hashirim 2:12

[25] Shemos Rabbah Bo 15

[26] Tehillim 18:8

[27] Moreh Nevuchim Part I, Chapter 26.

[28] Rashi, I Kings 14:23