Chapter 15 of Melachim A is a transitional chapter: it briefly reviews the reign of Aviyam son of Rechavam in Yehuda, the long and righteous reign of his son Asa, and in parallel the end of the house of Yaravam in Yisrael and the rise of Baasha. We will proceed according to the order of the pesukim, mainly following the explanations of the Malbim, and we will fill in from Divrei HaYamim B chapter 13 the details of the great war between Aviyam and Yaravam.
וּבִשְׁנַת שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַמֶּלֶךְ יָרָבְעָם בֶּן־נְבָט מָלַךְ אֲבִיָּם עַל־יְהוּדָה׃ - And in the eighteenth year of King Yaravam son of Nevat, Aviyam began to reign over Yehuda.
In the eighteenth year of Yaravam's reign over Yisrael, Aviyam began to reign over Yehuda, one year after the death of his father Rechavam. Notice his name: in Divrei HaYamim he is called "Aviya", and here "Aviyam". The Malbim explains: we mentioned in the previous chapter that Yaravam's son was also called Aviya. From this we learn that even in their time names were a matter of a "trend" - a name that was popular, and everyone used it. We see this many times further on in the book, that there were kings with the same names in Yisrael and in Yehuda. The popular name in that period was "Aviya". And since Yisrael had "their Aviya", the son of Yaravam, they wanted to distinguish between him and the Aviya of Yehuda, so they called the one of Yehuda "Aviyam" - with the mem of "shelahem" (theirs): there is our Aviya, and there is their Aviya. But his true name was Aviya.
שָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים מָלַךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם וְשֵׁם אִמּוֹ מַעֲכָה בַּת־אֲבִישָׁלוֹם׃ - Three years he reigned in Yerushalayim, and his mother's name was Maacha daughter of Avishalom.
His reign lasted three years. And the mention of the mother's name is a wonder, for it is not the way of the text to add the mother's name, but only the father's name: so-and-so son of so-and-so. Rather, the Radak says: the text wished to inform us that she was wicked, and to tell us that the son followed in her ways. He had a "good educator" in double quotation marks, and he learned from her wickedness. That is: do you know where this calf came from? "And his mother's name was Maacha daughter of Avishalom." From this mother came such a son, and do not be surprised.
וַיֵּלֶךְ בְּכָל־חַטֹּאות אָבִיו אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְפָנָיו וְלֹא־הָיָה לְבָבוֹ שָׁלֵם עִם־יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו כִּלְבַב דָּוִד אָבִיו׃ - And he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him, and his heart was not whole with Hashem his God like the heart of David his forefather.
He walked in all the ways of Yaravam son of Nevat. The Malbim says: he did not sin on his own initiative, but since the sins had already begun before him, he simply did not abolish his father's sins. Yaravam was the initiator: he initiated the calves, he initiated the sins. Aviyam, by contrast, was not an initiator but was dragged along, and therefore it says "and he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him".
This also resolves the expression "and his heart was not whole with Hashem his God like the heart of David his forefather". Such phrasing is fitting for a righteous man who is not complete - as was said about Shlomo. But of a man who walked in all the sins of Yaravam, would you say of him merely that his heart was not whole like David's? After all, he was entirely wicked, what kind of description is that? Therefore the Malbim explains that in himself he was not so wicked. Indeed he was not whole like David, but the main part of his wickedness stemmed from the fact that he continued the way of his father Rechavam, and therefore continued in the evil path. In himself, if he had been given leadership from the start, it is quite possible that he would not have based his kingdom on sin.
כִּי לְמַעַן דָּוִד נָתַן יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו לוֹ נִיר בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם לְהָקִים אֶת־בְּנוֹ אַחֲרָיו וּלְהַעֲמִיד אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלָיִם׃ - For David's sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem.
By strict justice he should already have fallen in the war he had with Yeravam (as we see shortly in Divrei HaYamim, where the war is described in greater detail than here). He was victorious there thanks to a miracle, but in whose merit? After all, he walked in the ways of his father Rechavam and provoked God just as he had. The verse tells you: not in his own merit, but in the merit of David his father, to whom the Holy One blessed be He promised a "nir," and in the merit of Jerusalem.
And what is the definition of "nir"? One explanation: it is like "ner," a lamp, as in "I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one." A lamp means kingship, for kingship is like a lamp, something that burns and gives light before the camp. The Holy One blessed be He promised David that he would have a lamp in Jerusalem, and therefore He preserved and raised up his kingship. A second explanation, according to the Ralbag: "Break up for yourselves the fallow ground and do not sow among thorns" - a "nir" is a furrow, and worked land is called a nir. God gave him a nir, meaning a place of sowing from which the kingdom of the house of David could continue to sprout.
אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה דָוִד אֶת־הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה וְלֹא־סָר מִכֹּל אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּהוּ כֹּל יְמֵי חַיָּיו רַק בִּדְבַר אוּרִיָּה הַחִתִּי׃ - For David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything He commanded him all the days of his life, only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
And why must it stress "only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite"? Two reasons. The first: when one says of a person that he did what was right in the eyes of God, that is a general statement. But when one says that he did what was right in the eyes of God except for one small thing, it implies that apart from that he was completely righteous. On the contrary, this is stated in his praise: only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite was there some flaw, and beyond that he was completely righteous in everything.
And the second reason: so that you not think that David had the sin of Bat Sheva. The sin of Bat Sheva is truly not counted against David, for we have seen that everyone who went out to war in the house of David wrote a bill of divorce for his wife (and whoever wishes may look into what we said there at length, to prove that there was no sin in David's deed). True, something unseemly and not upright took place here, as the prophet rebukes him, but a sin of a married woman certainly did not occur here. David's sin was in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, "him you slew with the sword of the children of Ammon." Uriah the Hittite was indeed liable to death, but you should have had him executed through a court of law and not delivered him to the sword of the children of Ammon, for the children of Ammon had a serpent engraved on their sword, and whoever died by their hand is like one who died through the power of the sitra achra. That you should not have done.
וּמִלְחָמָה הָיְתָה בֵין־רְחַבְעָם וּבֵין יָרָבְעָם כָּל־יְמֵי חַיָּיו׃ - And there was war between Rechavam and Yeravam all the days of his life.
The verse already mentioned earlier that there was war between them all the days of their lives, so why does it repeat this? One explanation: it comes to say that in the present war Aviyam was the main figure who engaged in the fighting. And why? Because Rechavam himself was faint of heart, pampered, raised in the royal palace, in the house of Shlomo HaMelech, and was not a man of war. But his son Aviyam had already seen his father's wars and was trained in warfare, so when he inherited the kingdom he grew strong and mighty in the wars against the house of Yeravam.
וְיֶתֶר דִּבְרֵי אֲבִיָּם וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה הֲלוֹא־הֵם כְּתוּבִים עַל־סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים לְמַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה וּמִלְחָמָה הָיְתָה בֵּין אֲבִיָּם וּבֵין יָרָבְעָם׃ - And the rest of the acts of Aviyam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehudah? And there was war between Aviyam and Yeravam.
A second explanation of the Malbim: to understand the repetition, read the following verse. This verse is a continuation of the previous one: it comes to say that the war between Rechavam and Yeravam is written in the book of the chronicles. Even though he mentioned it in the previous chapter, he mentions it again here, for here he teaches us what is recorded in Divrei HaYamim: there the events of the kings are recorded, both the war of Rechavam and Yeravam and the war of Aviyam and Yeravam, both of them recorded there at length. And indeed in Divrei HaYamim II chapter 13 there is a lengthy account of the war between Aviyam and Yeravam, more than here.
There it says: "In the eighteenth year of King Yerovam, Aviyah reigned over Yehudah. He reigned three years in Yerushalayim, and his mother's name was Michayahu the daughter of Uriel of Giva." The commentators explain: Michayahu the daughter of Uriel is Maacha the daughter of Avishalom. Frequently a particular name is mentioned in several variations, because all those names were the names of the same person, like one man whom people call Reuven, and some call Ruvi, and some Ruv, and some Albert. And who is he? He is Reuven. So too the verse mentions him by several names by which he was customarily called.
"Aviyah began the war with an army of mighty warriors, four hundred thousand chosen men, and Yerovam arrayed battle against him with eight hundred thousand chosen mighty warriors." One million two hundred thousand men going out to war: four hundred thousand against eight hundred thousand. How many soldiers are there in the IDF? Three hundred thousand? Here we are talking about one million two hundred thousand.
"Aviyah stood up on Mount Tzemarayim, which is in the hill country of Efraim, and said: Hear me, Yerovam and all Yisrael." Here they are about to hear a "shmus," a rebuke: "Should you not know that Hashem, the God of Yisrael, gave the kingship over Yisrael to David forever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt" - a covenant that is not reversed. "Yet Yerovam the son of Nevat, servant of Shlomo the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his master" - your boss is a servant who rose up against his master. "And empty, worthless men gathered around him and asserted themselves against Rechavam the son of Shlomo, and Rechavam was young and tender of heart and could not stand firm before them" - he was not yet strong enough to go out against them. "And now you think to stand firm before the kingdom of Hashem in the hand of the sons of David" - meaning in our hand, for I am Aviyam the son of Rechavam the son of Shlomo the son of David.
"And you are a great multitude, and with you are the golden calves that Yerovam made for you as gods" - here he mocks them with sarcasm: you have a great multitude, eight hundred thousand, and additionally the aid of the golden calves, they too come to help you. "Did you not drive out the priests of Hashem, the sons of Aharon, and the Leviim, and make for yourselves priests like the peoples of the lands" - like the gentiles, "whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams becomes a priest of no-gods." You have priests and Leviim, all serving the calf and the idolatry, but God you do not have.
"But as for us, Hashem is our God and we have not forsaken Him" - we, Hashem is our God and we have not forsaken Him, "and priests serve Hashem, the sons of Aharon and the Leviim at their work, offering to Hashem burnt offerings every morning and every evening, and incense of spices, and the arrangement of bread on the pure table, and the golden menorah with its lamps to burn every evening, for we keep the charge of Hashem our God, but you have forsaken Him." In short: what are your chances against us? "And behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound against you. Children of Yisrael, do not fight against Hashem, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed." We have God, and what do you bring with you? Golden calves?
"But Yerovam set the ambush to come around behind them." Yerovam says: God or no God, we have tactics. They came at them from the front and set an ambush behind them, a very well known method of warfare in those days, what is called the pincer maneuver: the army is caught between one part coming from behind and one part coming in front, until it announces surrender. "And Yehudah turned, and behold, the battle was before them and behind, and they cried out to Hashem, and the priests sounded the trumpets, and the men of Yehudah shouted. And when the men of Yehudah shouted, God struck Yerovam and all Yisrael before Aviyah and Yehudah, and the children of Yisrael fled before Yehudah, and God delivered them into their hand, and Aviyah and his people struck them a great blow."
How many of Yisrael were killed? The number is staggering: "And there fell slain of Yisrael five hundred thousand chosen men." Half a million men killed, and by whose hand? By the hand of their brothers, the Jews. All of Yisrael's wars since the founding of the state come to something like twenty three, twenty five thousand, and here we are speaking of half a million Jews. Unbelievable.
"So the children of Yisrael were subdued at that time, and the children of Yehudah prevailed because they relied on Hashem, the God of their fathers. And Aviyah pursued Yerovam and captured cities from him: Beit El and its villages" - where the calves were - "and Yeshanah and its villages, and Efron and its villages." Efron was a place that had much grain and much straw. Hence the expression: "You are hauling straw to Efrayim" - like people say today about someone who comes to sell air conditioners in Alaska. In Efrayim they are full of straw, and you go there and bring straw from outside.
"And Yerovam did not recover his strength again in the days of Aviyahu, and Hashem struck him and he died. But Aviyahu" - meaning Aviyam - "grew strong and took for himself fourteen wives, and fathered twenty two sons and sixteen daughters. And the rest of the acts of Aviyah, his ways and his words, are written in the midrash of the prophet Iddo. And Aviyah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years." This far from Divrei HaYamim, and let us return to our text.
וַיִּשְׁכַּב אֲבִיָּם עִם־אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ בְּעִיר דָּוִד וַיִּמְלֹךְ אָסָא בְנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו׃ - And Aviyam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa his son reigned in his place.
וּבִשְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים לְיָרָבְעָם מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל מָלַךְ אָסָא מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה׃ - And in the twentieth year of Yeravam king of Israel, Asa reigned as king of Yehuda.
Aviyam became king in the eighteenth year of Yeravam and reigned for three years, but these were incomplete years, partial years, and in that same year Asa became king.
וְאַרְבָּעִים וְאַחַת שָׁנָה מָלַךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם וְשֵׁם אִמּוֹ מַעֲכָה בַּת־אֲבִישָׁלוֹם׃ - And forty one years he reigned in Yerushalayim, and his mother's name was Maacha the daughter of Avishalom.
Maacha the daughter of Avishalom was the name of Aviyam's mother, not of Asa. So what, then, was Asa's mother's name? Rather, Chazal say that it is a person's way to call his grandfather "father" and his grandmother "mother," as we saw with "And they came to Reuel their father," even though Reuel was the father of their father, the father of Yitro, and not Yitro himself, and nevertheless he is called "father" though he was the grandfather. Here too, "his mother's name" does not refer to his biological mother, but she was his grandmother. And why does it mention this? To tell you: even though he had such a wicked guide, Maacha the daughter of Avishalom, as we shall soon see, nevertheless Asa was righteous and did not follow in her deeds.
וַיַּעַשׂ אָסָא הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה כְּדָוִד אָבִיו׃ - And Asa did what was right in the eyes of Hashem, like David his father.
Asa was among the righteous kings, though not to the very end and though not in complete perfection, but he was among the righteous kings.
וַיַּעֲבֵר הַקְּדֵשִׁים מִן־הָאָרֶץ וַיָּסַר אֶת־כָּל־הַגִּלֻּלִים אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ אֲבֹתָיו׃ - And he removed the male prostitutes from the land, and took away all the idols that his fathers had made.
"The idols" (gilulim) refers to idolatry, which is repulsive like dung and excrement.
וְגַם אֶת־מַעֲכָה אִמּוֹ וַיְסִרֶהָ מִגְּבִירָה אֲשֶׁר־עָשְׂתָה מִפְלֶצֶת לָאֲשֵׁרָה וַיִּכְרֹת אָסָא אֶת־מִפְלַצְתָּהּ וַיִּשְׂרֹף בְּנַחַל קִדְרוֹן׃ - And also Maacha his mother, he removed her from being queen mother, because she had made an abominable image for the Ashera, and Asa cut down her abominable image and burned it in the brook of Kidron.
"Maacha his mother" - as we explained, this refers to his grandmother. He removed her from being queen mother. What does it mean that he removed her from being queen mother? That she herself was among the idols: people would kneel and bow down to her for the sake of idolatry, or she was a temple prostitute of the idolatry. He removed her from being queen mother, and he also took away the abominable image that she had made.
And what is this "miflatzet"? The Radak explains it from a term of dread and trembling, as in "פַּלָּצוּת בִּעֲתָתְנִי" and "אחז אותו פלצות" - meaning that its dread is cast upon those who worship it, a frightening thing whose terror is upon its worshippers. And Chazal in Tractate Avodah Zarah explain that "miflatzet" is a word composed of two words: "mafli letzanut," abounding in lewdness - for she made for it a form of male genitalia and would couple with that idol. To such an extent was she wicked and corrupt.
וְהַבָּמוֹת לֹא־סָרוּ רַק לְבַב־אָסָא הָיָה שָׁלֵם עִם־יְהוָה כָּל־יָמָיו׃ - But the high places were not removed; nevertheless the heart of Asa was whole with Hashem all his days.
These are the bamot that we will encounter throughout the entire book: high places that people would build for the sake of Hashem, in order to offer their sacrifices upon them instead of ascending all the way to Yerushalayim, which in their times was a long journey. People would make themselves a bamah in their courtyard, and upon it offer their vows and freewill offerings. Indeed, the bamot were permitted until the building of the Beit HaMikdash, but once the Beit HaMikdash was built the bamot were forbidden, and one who sacrifices on a bamah transgresses a prohibition punishable by karet.
And even so, almost all the righteous kings did not succeed in removing the bamot. Why? Because the greatest difficulty in fighting the yetzer hara is when it convinces me that I am performing a mitzvah. And here they were certain that they were performing a mitzvah: even our grandfather's father offered sacrifices on the bamot, so why suddenly not now?
And I have seen it further explained that the bamot were not removed because there were many bamot that remained from the period when the bamot were permitted, and then a bamah had the status of something holy. And if you now wish to abolish the bamah, heaven forbid you would be punished, for this is a bamah that was built at a time when bamot were permitted and it was holy, and one who tears down a stone from the altar is punished. And since this was so, the bamot remained in their place and it was forbidden to tear them down - and what did this bring about? That when people would see the bamah, it was too great a temptation for them not to offer their sacrifices upon it instead of ascending to the Beit HaMikdash.
וַיָּבֵא אֶת־קָדְשֵׁי אָבִיו וְקָדְשֵׁי בֵּית יְהוָה כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב וְכֵלִים׃ - And he brought in the sacred things of his father, and the sacred things of the House of Hashem, silver and gold and vessels.
He brought the sacred things of his father, what his father had consecrated, and the sacred things of the House of Hashem - he brought everything to the Beit HaMikdash.
וּמִלְחָמָה הָיְתָה בֵּין אָסָא וּבֵין בַּעְשָׁא מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּל־יְמֵיהֶם׃ - And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Yisrael all their days.
Although in Divrei HaYamim it is written that there was no war until the fifteenth year of his reign, the meaning is that there was no complete, full-fledged war, but there were quarrels and disputes, and afterward it appears that in the fifteenth year of his reign there was indeed a great war.
וַיַּעַל בַּעְשָׁא מֶלֶךְ־יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל־יְהוּדָה וַיִּבֶן אֶת־הָרָמָה לְבִלְתִּי תֵּת יֹצֵא וָבָא לְאָסָא מֶלֶךְ יְהוּדָה׃ - And Baasha king of Yisrael went up against Yehudah, and built Ramah, so as not to allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Yehudah.
Baasha, king of Israel, apparently came to avenge what had happened in the previous war, in which Aviyam had managed to subdue Yerovam and to recover for himself what had been taken from the kingdom of Israel since then. And what was that "Ramah"? He built a tall tower opposite the gates of Yerushalayim, and this tower gave no one "going out or coming in" access to Asa, king of Yehudah: whoever wanted to come and enter was unable to. Why? Because from the tower they built opposite Yerushalayim they would shoot catapult stones, in order to halt their movements.
The chapter opens with Aviyam, called by this name to distinguish him from the "Aviyah" of Israel, and the mention of his mother Maachah comes to teach where he sprang from - and yet he was saved and victorious not by his own merit but by the merit of David and Yerushalayim, the "lamp" that was promised to the house of David. From Divrei HaYamim we learned of his rebuke delivered on Mount Tzemarayim and of the terrible blow that Israel absorbed: half a million dead at the hands of their brothers. After him arose Asa, who proved that even from the house of the wicked Maachah a righteous king could emerge: he cleared away the temple prostitutes, the idols and the abomination, but the high places he did not manage to remove - and from here comes the great moral lesson, that the hardest of inclinations is the inclination that disguises itself as a mitzvah. And finally, the war of Baasha and the building of the Ramah, which leads us into the continuation of the conflict between Yehudah and Israel.