Chapter 12 of Melachim A is the chapter in which the kingdom is torn in two. This lesson focuses on the second part of the chapter: from the moment Yeravam ben Nevat is made king over the ten tribes, through the prevention of war by the prophet Shemayah, and up to the building of the cities, the making of the two golden calves, the appointment of the priests of the high places, and the invented festival in the eighth month. We will proceed through the order of the pesukim and explain according to the Malbim, together with the words of the Radak, the Abarbanel, and the words of Chazal.
וַיְהִי כִּשְׁמֹעַ כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי־שָׁב יָרׇבְעָם וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֹתוֹ אֶל־הָעֵדָה וַיַּמְלִיכוּ אֹתוֹ עַל־כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא הָיָה אַחֲרֵי בֵית־דָּוִד זוּלָתִי שֵׁבֶט־יְהוּדָה לְבַדּוֹ׃ - And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Yeravam had returned, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None followed the house of David except the tribe of Yehudah alone.
Yeravam was summoned here twice. The first time they called him to return from Egypt, and this came from his friends and admirers. The second time they called him so that he would be king over them. At first they said to him: there is a struggle here against Rechavam, you are a mighty man, you have strength and daring, for you raised your hand against King Shlomo, you will be our spokesman against Rechavam. And after he led the struggle and was crowned with success, they came and said to him: you shall be our king.
And at the end of the pasuk: "None followed the house of David except the tribe of Yehudah alone." At first glance this is difficult, for Binyamin too remained with the house of David, as we will see in the following pasuk. Rather, there is a fine hint here: it is a principle in our hands that a limitation following a limitation comes to include. "None" is a limitation. "Except" is a further limitation, for "except" means only. And a limitation following a limitation comes to include: it was not only the tribe of Yehudah alone that followed the house of David, but there was someone else with them, the tribe of Binyamin.
וַיָּבֹא רְחַבְעָם יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וַיַּקְהֵל אֶת־כׇּל־בֵּית יְהוּדָה וְאֶת־שֵׁבֶט בִּנְיָמִן מֵאָה וּשְׁמֹנִים אֶלֶף בָּחוּר עֹשֵׂה מִלְחָמָה לְהִלָּחֵם עִם־בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל לְהָשִׁיב אֶת־הַמְּלוּכָה לִרְחַבְעָם בֶּן־שְׁלֹמֹה׃ - And Rechavam came to Yerushalayim and gathered all the house of Yehudah and the tribe of Binyamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rechavam ben Shlomo.
וַיְהִי דְּבַר הָאֱלֹהִים אֶל־שְׁמַעְיָה אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים לֵאמֹר׃ אֱמֹר אֶל־רְחַבְעָם בֶּן־שְׁלֹמֹה מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה וְאֶל־כׇּל־בֵּית יְהוּדָה וּבִנְיָמִין וְיֶתֶר הָעָם לֵאמֹר׃ - And the word of God came to Shemayah the man of God, saying: Speak to Rechavam ben Shlomo, king of Yehudah, and to all the house of Yehudah and Binyamin, and to the rest of the people, saying.
"And the rest of the people" refers to the remaining tribes who dwelt in the territory of Yehudah and Binyamin.
כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה לֹא־תַעֲלוּ וְלֹא־תִלָּחֲמוּן עִם־אֲחֵיכֶם בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל שׁוּבוּ אִישׁ לְבֵיתוֹ כִּי מֵאִתִּי נִהְיָה הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶת־דְּבַר יְהֹוָה וַיָּשֻׁבוּ לָלֶכֶת כִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה׃ - So says Hashem: You shall not go up and you shall not fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Return every man to his house, for this thing is from Me. And they heeded the word of Hashem and turned back to go, according to the word of Hashem.
Hashem sends a messenger to tell them to return every man to his house: I am not interested in this war, "for this thing is from Me." This entire division was brought about by the particular providence of Hashem.
The Malbim notes a change of wording between the verse here and the verse in Divrei HaYamim. Here it says: "וַיָּשֻׁבוּ לָלֶכֶת כִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה", and in Divrei HaYamim: "וישובו מלכת אל ירבעם". Why does it say "to go" (ללכת) in one place and "from going" (מלכת) in the other? The Malbim explains: two commands were stated here. "לֹא־תַעֲלוּ" - do not go up to fight against them in their own cities. "וְלֹא־תִלָּחֲמוּן" - do not invite them to fight at your place, the way a man challenges his fellow to a face to face battle. "שׁוּבוּ אִישׁ לְבֵיתוֹ" - do not stand armed and guarding your homes, you have nothing to worry about, for this is how I have divided the kingdom and this is what I intend to do. According to this, here it says "and they returned to go" - they returned to go each man to his house, and in Divrei HaYamim "and they returned from going" - from going and fighting there. Both matters are true: do not invite him to war at your home, and do not go to fight with him at his home.
וַיִּבֶן יָרׇבְעָם אֶת־שְׁכֶם בְּהַר אֶפְרַיִם וַיֵּשֶׁב בָּהּ וַיֵּצֵא מִשָּׁם וַיִּבֶן אֶת־פְּנוּאֵל׃ - And Yeravam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and dwelt in it, and he went out from there and built Penuel.
The Malbim explains: Yeravam did not need to build fortified cities the way Rechavam did, because he trusted in the great multitude that was with him - he had ten tribes, and Rechavam had only two tribes. Therefore he built for himself a royal city, and Penuel. The Malbim adds that in his commentary to Sefer Hoshea it is explained what his intention was in building specifically these cities.
And so it says in Hoshea chapter 12: "Ephraim surrounds Me with lies and the house of Israel with deceit, but Yehudah still rules with God and is faithful with the holy ones. Ephraim shepherds the wind and pursues the east wind, all day he multiplies lies and destruction, and they make a covenant with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt. And the Lord has a quarrel with Yehudah, and He will punish Yaakov according to his ways, according to his deeds He will requite him. In the womb he grasped his brother's heel, and in his strength he strove with God. He strove with an angel and prevailed, he wept and made supplication to him, at Beit El He found him and there He spoke with us." The prophet is thereby informing them of riddles from days of old, that is, he comes to explain to them matters that they saw in their history.
Let us count the places: Yeravam builds Shechem and Penuel, and makes two golden calves, one in Beit El and one in Dan. Four places. The making of the calf in Dan is not surprising, says the Malbim, since in Dan there was the idol of Michah, and they regarded that place as suited for receiving spiritual influence, for many had strayed after the idol of Michah there. But why specifically Beit El? And Beit El, as we shall see later on, was his principal calf. And why specifically Shechem and Penuel?
The Malbim explains: the tribes traced themselves to Yaakov Avinu and sought to resemble him. When Yeravam came to consecrate places that would be holy in the eyes of Israel like Yerushalayim, which was holy in their eyes from time immemorial, he went and searched out the route of Yaakov Avinu. Where did Yaakov wrestle with the angel? At Penuel - "and he called the name of the place Peniel." And where did he go afterward? To Shechem, and there he dwelt, and there was the affliction of Dinah, and there he built an altar. And from Shechem he traveled to Beit El, and there God appeared to him. These three places were foundational stations in the life of Yaakov, and therefore Yeravam built specifically in them.
And in the Midrash, an ancient tradition, it is stated that when the angel asked Yaakov to send him off, Yaakov said to him: I am prepared to send you off on condition that you give your consent to the blessings with which my father Yitzchak blessed me. According to this Yeravam said: at Beit El was that same angel and there he revealed himself to the prophets of the Baal. And this is the prophet's intent. They acted according to their reasoning like the deed of Yaakov: in that they quarreled with their brother Yehudah - for Yaakov too quarreled with Esav, and we walk in the ways of the fathers and preserve the tradition. "And in his strength he strove with God," "he strove with an angel and prevailed," as in the verse concerning Yaakov, "you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed." "He wept and made supplication to him, at Beit El He found him and there He spoke with us" - there at Beit El the angel agreed to the blessings, and there the Lord appeared to Yaakov, and therefore they said: there we will make the calves, for there the Lord will speak with us and will once again reveal Himself to us as it was with Yaakov.
Those very places where Yaakov met the angel and wrestled with him, those very places where he built an altar, those very places where the Lord appeared to him - these were in their eyes the places fit and prepared for spiritual abundance. In Kabbalah there is a concept of "reshimu": after the abundance departs, an impression remains. They said: in these places a reshimu of holiness remained, and there we will build our calves in order to receive that ancient abundance from the days of Yaakov. And so they went and made their abominations in those very places in which they saw a remnant of holiness.
וַיֹּאמֶר יָרׇבְעָם בְּלִבּוֹ עַתָּה תָּשׁוּב הַמַּמְלָכָה לְבֵית דָּוִד׃ - And Yeravam said in his heart: Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
אִם־יַעֲלֶה הָעָם הַזֶּה לַעֲשׂוֹת זְבָחִים בְּבֵית־יְהֹוָה בִּירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וְשָׁב לֵב הָעָם הַזֶּה אֶל־אֲדֹנֵיהֶם אֶל־רְחַבְעָם מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה וַהֲרָגֻנִי וְשָׁבוּ אֶל־רְחַבְעָם מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָה׃ - If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the House of the Lord in Yerushalayim, then the heart of this people will return to their master, to Rechavam king of Yehudah, and they will kill me and return to Rechavam king of Yehudah.
Yeravam celebrated until the festival season arrived, and then he stopped celebrating. For there is only one Temple, the place where the Shechinah dwells is one, and the place we were commanded to ascend to three times a year, where "they shall not appear before Me empty handed" - there is only one such place. This was his first test as king.
What was his concern? A genuine and reasonable one. The festival arrives, the people go up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. First, Rechavam would conduct propaganda there to draw the people to himself. Second, and this is the main point: in the Temple none of the people are permitted to sit, everyone stands, and there is no sitting in the courtyard except for the kings of the house of David alone. If I come up with them, they will see all the people standing and Yeravam their king standing like one of the common folk, and who is seated? Rechavam. And immediately they will say: apparently there is one king here, the proper and true king is Rechavam, and Yeravam is nothing but a puppet, someone who tried to seize the kingship by force like a servant rebelling against his master. Let us return to Rechavam, he is the true king. And if you say, let him too sit down - one who sits in the courtyard and is not of the kings of the house of David is liable to death, "and they would kill me," and I would lose the entire kingdom.
And furthermore: Chazal say that Yeravam's reign began at the conclusion of the Sabbatical year, and then comes the mitzvah of Hakhel - "at the end of seven years, at the appointed time" - when the king brings out a Torah scroll and reads from it before the people. If I wish to read, they will say to me: my lord, the honor of the Temple's King, the King of this place takes precedence over you, and He shall read. If I read second, it is a disgrace to me. If I do not read at all, it is an embarrassment to me. If I read first, they will not let me. A very serious problem. What is to be done?
וַיִּוָּעַץ הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיַּעַשׂ שְׁנֵי עֶגְלֵי זָהָב וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם רַב־לָכֶם מֵעֲלוֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הֶעֱלוּךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם׃ - The king took counsel and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
"The king took counsel" - he went and consulted about what to do. And the matter is puzzling from several angles. First, why set up golden calves? Build yourself your own Temple! Second, how is it possible that the people would go after golden calves, when the incident of the calf at the exodus from Egypt had occurred not three thousand years earlier but about four hundred and eighty years before, and if we add the years of Shlomo - he built the Temple at about the age of twenty and lived some fifty two years - we have about five hundred and ten years. About five hundred years earlier they made a calf, and everyone knows this, and they have the Torah, and they read what a terrible punishment was decreed upon them - "and on the day of My reckoning I will call them to account." How do they now come and make calves anew and accept this idolatry as something self evident?
The Malbim explains the course of Yeravam's thinking: if I build a Temple, do I have the capacity to build it after the pattern of Shlomo's Temple? We read whole chapters about the splendor, the majesty and the beauty, about the gold and silver whose quantity was beyond counting. And I, a king who only began reigning today, with an empty treasury, am I to start building something like that? I have no chance. And if I try to imitate it, they will say: a cheap imitation. Beyond that, where were all the miracles? There. "No fly was seen in the slaughterhouse," the pillar of smoke from the altar rose straight up like a rod and spiraled, fire descended from heaven. The people will come to me, they will see the showbread that after two hours is already cold, whereas there - after a week it is still warm. Where is the cloud of the altar here? The wind blows the smoke away. Everyone will say: this is an imitation, this is not real, Hashem does not rest His Shechinah here. Who will keep coming to such a Temple? I have no choice, I must create something as a substitute.
And this is indeed a common outlook among people. We see it with children: there is one very successful child, and they demand that the second be like him. The second knows he does not have the talents to be like him, but he too wants attention. What does he do? He becomes a troublemaker, in order to receive that same attention by a different route. He does not compete with the successful one, because he knows he cannot, and so he chooses a new path for himself.
Exactly so here. Yeravam understood that he had no ability to build a Temple that could compete even slightly with the true and perfect Temple in Jerusalem, and therefore he went and made golden calves.
And what was the meaning of those calves? The Abarbanel did not wish to accept the view of the commentators that their intention was for idolatry, for if so it is inconceivable that the people would be so foolish as to accept such a thing; they remember the plague, they remember how much they suffered. The Abarbanel explains: Yeravam was from the tribe of Yosef, and Yosef's symbol is "a firstborn ox, majesty is his," and he had two sons, Menashe and Efraim, and corresponding to them he made two calves. But the Malbim raises a difficulty with this, that it is not the plain meaning of the verses, for it says "to sacrifice to the calves that he had made," and it says "the golden calves that Yeravam made for you as gods." The plain meaning of the verses indicates that they came to sacrifice to the calves themselves, and the calves themselves were in their eyes in the category of gods.
Therefore the Malbim explains that his making of two calves and his holding of the festival in the eighth month were an imitation of what he had seen in Egypt. One who investigates the antiquities of Egypt finds that this is what the Egyptians did: they had two bulls which they worshiped, one in the royal city of Memphis which is Mof, and the other in the city of Heliopolis called Beit Shemesh. And in the eighth month they had a festival for the calf. And where had Yeravam spent his recent years? In Egypt. There he saw the accepted worship, and from there he learned it. The man for whose sake and worship the calf was made was called Serapis or Osiris, and he was killed in the eighth month, and therefore the Egyptians made a festival to that idol in that month. And the calf in the city of Mof they honored especially and lavished great wealth upon it, and so too Yeravam made the calf in Beit El the primary one. Here you have a correspondence between the practice of the Egyptians and the practice of Yeravam.
But Yerovam was clever enough to dance at every wedding and to walk between the raindrops without getting wet. Those who feared Hashem and were horrified when they saw the calves - calves? Idolatry? Woe and alas! - he won over with his smooth tongue. He told them: from where does the form of an ox come? From the Merkava, "the face of the one was the face of an ox." And from where are the keruvim taken? Also from the Merkava, "one had the face of a keruv." Behold, upon the Aron there are keruvim, a likeness of the images of the Merkava, and we too shall make calves that are a likeness of those who serve before Him on high. And to whom? Heaven forbid, not to idolatry, but to Hashem alone. When we served in the Beit HaMikdash and bowed toward the Heichal, toward what did we pray? Toward the Aron upon which are the keruvim, and there Hashem was revealed - from between the keruvim. So too here, why speak of idolatry, how can you even imagine such a thing? We make both of these so that through them we may draw near to Hashem, corresponding to the images of the Merkava, and that the Holy One, blessed be He, may rest His Shechina among us just as He rested it between the keruvim. And the calf comes to allude to abundance, to abundant produce, as it says "and much produce comes by the strength of the ox" - the ox alludes to produce, to livelihood and to plenty.
The Malbim notes: pay attention that at first he did not make priests for the high places; those came only at a second stage. For Yerovam thought that this nation does not seek a yoke, does not seek trouble, burden and effort. He said: I will not place priests over them, for if I appoint priests they will be required to bring sacrifices and to spend money, and the people do not want this. He also pictured to himself that it is hard for the people to go up three times a year to Yerushalayim, and in those days not everyone had cars. He said: I will make it easy for them, I will not demand demands of them and will not impose stringencies upon them. Therefore he also did not require sacrifices of them, for a sacrifice requires taking money out of one's pocket. The calves are very agreeable, they make no demands. He created a light, pleasant and comfortable religion - to go along and to feel nothing. Not three times a year with an ascent bearing a sacrifice, slaughter, offering, tithes, terumot, challah, foreleg and cheeks, but something far more liberal, far easier and more pleasant. And that is why at first he did not build high places at all.
וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־הָאֶחָד בְּבֵית־אֵל וְאֶת־הָאֶחָד נָתַן בְּדָן׃ וַיְהִי הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְחַטָּאת וַיֵּלְכוּ הָעָם לִפְנֵי הָאֶחָד עַד־דָּן׃ - And he set the one in Beit El, and the other he placed in Dan. And this thing became a sin, and the people went before the one, as far as Dan.
The Radak says: at first they were not made for the sake of idolatry, but afterward they already accepted them as a deity, and once they accepted them as a deity the matter became formal idolatry.
And the Malbim explains "וַיְהִי הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְחַטָּאת" in a very interesting way: Yerovam erred in understanding the direction of the people's thinking. He supposed that just as they wished to lighten their taxes, so they wished to lighten the burden of the pilgrimage, the bringing of sacrifices and all the trouble bound up with the service of the Mikdash. And in this he erred, for it is human nature to obligate oneself in some service to Hashem, and the more the religion loads upon a person difficult labors and many mitzvot, the more he will incline after it and do so willingly. Exactly the opposite: when you want people to become attached to a certain thing, give them tasks and roles, and the person will do them and, on the contrary, will become more attached. And this is reality: the more a person takes upon himself additional mitzvot, the more he aspires to take on still more, and the more he seeks to cast off, the more he comes to loathe even what he does do.
And when Yerovam saw at the second stage that, on the contrary, the people sought to connect, sought to bring a sacrifice, wished to feel that they were giving something of their own and appeasing those calves - he understood that things were not as he had thought. And by the way, there with the calf they did not ask for records or accountings or numbers, whereas at the Mishkan they asked for a detailed record, Parashat "Ki Tisa" - a full accounting of how much you spent and where the money went.
And regarding this Rav Zalman Sorotzkin offered a fine defense of the people of Israel: when a person gives to the calf, he gives with a heavy heart and says, come on, let it be, let it go, it does not matter, and even if there was a thief along the way - he does not care, better it did not reach the calf. But when a person gives to something holy, he wants to see where every single shekel went. You bought a nail for the synagogue? Fine. But let it not slip into your own pocket, for he knows that every shekel here is for the sake of Heaven. To the theater or a play or to soccer players and actors - it does not matter where it went, an atonement for sins. But when they give to yeshivot - wait, where is this going? I want it to reach the yeshiva, and there are seven checks so that every penny reaches its destination. Here you have a defense of the people of Israel.
And here we see how much those people sought to obligate themselves in service. "וַיֵּלְכוּ הָעָם לִפְנֵי הָאֶחָד עַד־דָּן" - Yerovam made two calves, and they went as far as Dan at the far end. Why? Says the Malbim: in order to receive reward for the steps. What "righteousness": they are not looking to get off easy, but to perform the mitzva as it should be done, to reach all the way there and to bring sacrifices. Yerovam said: so that is how it works? Fine, I will supply that too. And from here on we shall see how he tries to please them and to give them what they want.
וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת־בֵּית בָּמוֹת וַיַּעַשׂ כֹּהֲנִים מִקְצוֹת הָעָם אֲשֶׁר לֹא־הָיוּ מִבְּנֵי לֵוִי׃ - And he made a house of high places, and made priests from the extremes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
Since he saw that the people demanded actual service, something tangible, that they wished to offer, to spend and to pay - he built a house of high places, a place that would have a platform upon which to offer sacrifices. "מִקְצוֹת הָעָם" - like "and from the extreme of his brothers," meaning either from the great ones or from the lowly ones, for the "extreme" is either at this end or at that. And Chazal expounded "from the extremes (miktzot) of the people" from the word for thorns (kotzim), from the thorns among the people, from the wicked among them, who were willing to serve as priests in a house of idolatry.
"אֲשֶׁר לֹא־הָיוּ מִבְּנֵי לֵוִי" - Why not from the sons of Levi? Because the sons of Levi are not prepared to serve idols. We saw that the only ones who did not sin with the golden calf were the sons of Levi. And in Divrei HaYamim it is written: "For the Levites left their open lands and their holdings and went to Yehudah and to Yerushalayim, for Yeravam and his sons had cast them out from serving as kohanim to Hashem," and further: "For Yeravam said, they will take their tithes and their holdings from my kingdom, and they will go and pass over to Yerushalayim." That is, Yeravam dispossessed them, and once he dispossessed them they left for Yerushalayim.
And why did he dispossess them? First, out of fear that their loyalty would not be to him. Since they are true servants of Hashem, they might have said to the people: why should you serve these imitations, come let us return to the God of gods, and draw them to the Beit HaMikdash. Second, he did not want to support them. He said, let them offer sacrifices, but I do not want them to continue giving first tithe and second tithe and the great terumah and the terumah of the tithe and the foreleg and the cheeks and the stomach - he did not want all the gifts of the priesthood, for this people does not want to spend money. And beyond this, there was a certain resentment among the tribes, as we saw in the portion of Korach: "And why do you raise yourselves above the congregation of Hashem" - why do the Levites have a superior status, and why do the kohanim have a superior status? And the sons of Reuven also came to protest, we were the firstborn and why was it taken from us. Therefore Yeravam said: with me everyone is equal, there is no discrimination, everyone can be a kohen and everyone can be a Levite. And with this he sought to win the heart of the people, so that they would see that he gives them what they want.
וַיַּעַשׂ יָרׇבְעָם חָג בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁמִינִי בַּחֲמִשָּׁה־עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ כֶּחָג אֲשֶׁר בִּיהוּדָה וַיַּעַל עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כֵּן עָשָׂה בְּבֵית־אֵל לְזַבֵּחַ לָעֲגָלִים אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהֶעֱמִיד בְּבֵית אֵל אֶת־כֹּהֲנֵי הַבָּמוֹת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה׃ - And Yeravam made a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that is in Yehudah, and he went up on the altar; so he did in Beit El, to sacrifice to the calves that he had made; and he stationed in Beit El the priests of the high places that he had made.
When is the original festival? In the seventh month. Wherever the Sages say "the festival" without qualification, they mean Sukkot. And he moves the festival of Sukkot to the eighth month. That is, he wanted a festival that would resemble that festival but be different. This recalls Christianity and Islam, who also wanted a sabbath, but either before or after, so that it would not be said that we did the same thing; we have our own festival.
And the Radak adds a reason: there were still people who continued going up to Yerushalayim, this was before he set up guards to prevent the ascent, people who did not follow after the calves and remained sane. Yeravam wanted to allow them too to take part in his celebration. He said: whoever wants to go up to Yerushalayim may go up, and afterward he will return, for there is a festival here. And the people of Israel love festivals, and the grill is always on standby: say "festival" and they are immediately ready. And so those who went up to Yerushalayim would hear that there is another festival here, another happening, and would come. Therefore he did not want the festival to clash with that festival, but rather that whoever wanted could go there and afterward return and celebrate here, and with this he would draw them close until they stopped going up entirely. And in the second stage he already completely prevented the ascent to Yerushalayim and stationed guards, a kind of Great Wall of China or Berlin Wall, so that it would be impossible to go up.
"לְזַבֵּחַ לָעֲגָלִים אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה" - but in Beit El there was only one calf. Rather, he said: one who offers before the calf in Beit El is as if he offered to both calves. Two for the price of one was not invented today, it already existed then. He wanted there to be one place that would be the center of worship, and the center was in Beit El. And on the other hand he tried to resemble the festival of Sukkot: Sukkot is on the fifteenth of the month, and he too made it on the fifteenth, except that instead of the seventh - in the eighth. "וַיַּעַל עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ" - they sacrificed and brought up burnt offerings in the manner that burnt offerings are brought up on the festival of Sukkot, so that there would be the feeling: we too offer sacrifices, we too bring up burnt offerings, we too have a festival.
And how in fact did he draw them? It is told in the Sages that when Achiyah HaShiloni came to him to make him king, Yeravam asked - while he was still righteous - will everything I say be accepted? He said to him: yes. He said to him: and if I instruct to serve idols, will that too be accepted, will you agree with me on that too? He said to him: yes. He said to him: sign for me on this. And he signed for him. And he went and displayed this authorization, a kind of Badatz kosher certification from Achiyah HaShiloni, that here he signed that even if he instructs to serve idols one must heed the voice of Yeravam, because Hashem made him king.
And why in truth did he sign for him? The Sages say: he saw Yeravam so righteous, he said it is inconceivable that Yeravam would go and serve idols. And what did Yeravam intend by his question? "To serve avodah zarah" - to perform labor that is foreign (zarah) to them, such as clearing sewers and harsh forced labor, work that is foreign to a person. Achiyah said to him: even if you tell them this, you are king, and what you say they must heed. On this he signed. But he did not understand that Yeravam meant idol worship in its plain sense. And this is what they said, that he displayed the diyotagma, the letter that Achiyah HaShiloni wrote for him, and he showed it to everyone, and with this he enticed them to believe that Achiyah HaShiloni agreed to all his deeds.
וַיַּעַל עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה בְּבֵית־אֵל בַּחֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשְּׁמִינִי בַּחֹדֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־בָּדָא מִלִּבּוֹ וַיַּעַשׂ חָג לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיַּעַל עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְהַקְטִיר׃ - And he went up on the altar that he had made in Beit El, on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he devised in his own heart; and he made a festival for the children of Israel, and he went up on the altar to burn incense.
"וַיַּעַל עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה בְּבֵית־אֵל" - Yeravam decided to serve personally in his own "Beit HaMikdash," in quotation marks, in that place of impurity. The offerings were brought by the priests of the high places, but the burning of the incense was done by Yeravam himself, who made himself like a Kohen Gadol. Who would bring the incense in the Beit HaMikdash? The Kohen Gadol. The rest of the services he gave to them, but the central service, the burning of the incense which is done only by the Kohen Gadol, he took for himself.
"בַּחֹדֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־בָּדָא מִלִּבּוֹ" - which he invented and devised from his own heart. Chazal expound on the written form: it is written "מלבד" and read "מלבו". What is the meaning of "מלבד"? There is a pasuk in the Torah, "מלבד שבתות ה'" (apart from the Shabbatot of Hashem). Not only did he invent a festival from his heart, but he also invented "apart from" (mileved): he devised Shabbatot for them as well, and made them Shabbatot of their own, not according to the Shabbatot that the holy Torah established.
The chapter unfolds the splitting of the kingdom through Divine providence: Hashem prevents Rechavam from waging a civil war and hands the ten tribes over to Yeravam. Yeravam, who understood that he could not compete with the true Mikdash in Yerushalayim, chose the path of a substitute: he built Shechem and Penuel and chose Beit El and Dan, places in which he saw a trace of the holiness of Yaakov Avinu; he made two golden calves modeled after what he had seen in Egypt, and coated the matter with claims about the figures of the Merkavah; and he appointed priests from among the common people who were not of the sons of Levi, and invented a festival in the eighth month and even Shabbatot from his own heart. His great error, teaches the Malbim, was in his assessment of the soul of the people: he thought that the people sought an easy and comfortable religion, whereas human nature is actually to commit to service, and the more a religion imposes upon a person a yoke and mitzvot, the more he will be drawn after it willingly. From here comes a lesson for the generations: one who seeks to hold fast to the truth will not be drawn by leniencies, but by the yoke of the mitzvot and the service of the heart.