Hizkiyahu's Pessah

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1. The Korban Pesach - Sacrifice or Feast?

   Prof. Jonathan Grossman

   The Pessach God commands the nation to bring in Egypt includes various sacrificial elements - but one of the essential elements of a sacrifice - an altar - is absent. This essay posits that the homes of Bnei Yisrael were made into an altar for the purpose of sacrificing the Pessach. This supposition sheds light on the function of the Pessach sacrifice in this parasha and throughout Tanach.

2. The Fall and Exile of Shomron

   Rabbi Alex Israel

   Hoshea ben Ella rises to power as an apparent appointment of the Assyrian King, but soon after he joins an anti-Assyrian coalition. While Hoshea does not follow in the footsteps of the kings of Israel and residents of the northern kingdom participate in the Pessah Korban with Hizkiyahu in Jerusalem, this change is too late to stop the destruction and exile of the northern kingdom.

   The Assyrian policy of population transfer is aimed at crushing hostile populations. By dispersing the exiles to far-flung locations, Ashur succeeds in destabilizing and disorienting the defeated. This technique absolutely destroys the internal cohesion of the exiled community and strangles its political opposition. For Israel this policy is a death knell. Domestically, as alien populations are transferred to Shomron, along with a foreign governor, it essentially becomes impossible for Israel to reinstate itself as an independent entity and leads to the disappearance of the ten tribes.

   The people - not only the kings - of Israel chose to go in the ways of the surrounding nations and, just as the Torah warned, God and the land of Israel rejected them.

3. The Rise of King Hizkiyahu

   Rabbi Alex Israel

   King Hizkiyahu heralds an exciting period in the kingdom of Yehuda. He is devoted to God and responsive to His prophet. During his reign, Hizkiyahu leads Israel in a religious renaissance and seeks to heal the rift between the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Yehuda in the south in the observation of a national Pessah. He repudiates idolatry and dishonors his father Ahaz at his burial to send a strong message to the nation. He dedicates and purifies the Beit Hamikdash and makes learning Torah a national priority.

4. The Tragedy of Yoshiyahu

   Rabbi Alex Israel

   Yoshiyahu's dramatic religious revolution led him to two erroneous conclusions, giving him the confidence to confront Pharaoh Nekho who lead his army through Israel in order to confront the emerging Babylonian empire. Firstly, he believed that the religious level that was achieved was one that would make God support him against an idolatrous king. Secondly, he believed that the revolution was sincere and accepted among the people, when in fact in the short amount of time since the major change it was imposiible to uproot norms and beliefs that had set in over such a long period. This folly decision led to his death by the archers' arrows ending abruptly the reign of a righteous king. The lack of real change among the people means that wheels of Hurban that were set in motion by Menashe were not stopped - though they might have had the chage been sincere.

   Modern Biblical scholars claim that Devarim was the Sefer Torah that Yoshiyahu discovered and it was written in his time and not by Moshe. The claim of the 7th century authorship is refuted by a series of simple proofs.

5. He Who Answered Hizkiyahu

   HaTanakh.com Staff

6. Introduction to Sefer Tehillim

   Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom | Hour and 10 minutes

   What is Tehillim? What is the purpose of the book? How does one properly study the book of Tehillim? This lecture discusses the various options as to the purpose of the book, and outlines a methodology for the proper study and approach to mizmorei Tehillim through a close examination of chapter 23. 

7. Hizkiyahu's Pesach and Yeshayahu's Prophecies

   Rabbi Menachem Leibtag | 51 minutes

   Amid the looming threat of Assyria, Hizkiyahu prepares to commemorate  a national Pesach sacrifice and festival on a grand scale, inviting those from the other Israelite tribes, as well. We analyze the chapters and background of this monumental event, and look at Hazal's praise and criticism of various aspects of Hizkiyahu's choices. Was Hizkiyahu's unusual (and belated) Pesach a good thing? And where does Yeshayahu fit in? It was a fine thing for Hizkiyahu to inspire the people to greater religious involvement and revival. But ritual alone is not enough. It is Yeshayahu's task to remind the people that the religious involvement at Pesach needs to be taken to the next step - implementing the social commandments to build an ethical society. 

8. The Pessah Sacrifice

   Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky

   The Jews restart the construction of the Beit HaMikdash, but are met with opposition by the locals, who turn to Darius to complain. However, Darius locates Cyrus’ letter, and support the Jews’ right to continue building. The Mikdash is finally completed more than four years later, during the month of Adar, during the sixth year of Darius’ reign. The Jews celebrate the dedication by offering hundreds of sacrifices and appointing the Kohanim and Leviim. Shortly afterwards, after purifying themselves, they offer the Pessah sacrifice on the 14^th of Nissan.

   The remarkable resemblances between this Pessah sacrifice and Hizkiyahu’s, as described in Divrei HaYamim, indicates the religious potential of even the most sinful and uneducated of communities. The Jews of Hizkiyahu’s time were largely recalcitrant, to the point that many refused to participate in the sacrifice and celebration. At the time of Ezra, the Jews were similarly unobservant. Yet both communities were swayed, even transformed, under the influence of extraordinary events and historic leadership. Our narratives are testaments to the deep religious recesses of the Jews’ soul, and the capacity of inspired leaders to spark that passion.