We begin the Book of Nechemya. Ezra wrote his book, and Nechemya ben Chachalyah wrote his book. But to understand the book, we must first establish the chronology, so we know exactly where each figure fits into the picture.
In the first year of Cyrus - the earlier Cyrus, not the king of Nechemya's time - Israel received permission to build the Beis HaMikdash. However, the adversaries of Yehudah and Binyamin came and disrupted the work, sending slanderous letters and fabricating accusations that the Jews were building walls and preparing to rebel against the king. Consequently, Cyrus halted the construction of the Temple. The building was suspended for eighteen years, which was precisely the time difference between the exile of Yechonyah and the exile of Tzidkiyahu - exactly eighteen years. Thus, if one counts seventy years from the exile of Tzidkiyahu, it brings us directly to the end of those eighteen years of interruption - seventy years from the desolation of Jerusalem and the exile of Tzidkiyahu.
Then came Darius, and in his second year the construction resumed. In the second year of Darius they began building, and in the sixth year the construction was completed - they spent four years building the Temple. In the seventh year of Darius, Ezra arrived in the Land. Thus, Ezra made his aliyah approximately twenty-two years after the first return: eighteen years of suspension plus four years of construction. That is to say, just one year after the Beis HaMikdash was completed, Ezra arrived to strengthen the people.
We are now in the twentieth year - thirteen years later. Thirteen years after Ezra's arrival, Nechemya goes up. Ezra HaSofer, an immense talmid chacham, ascended to rebuild the ruins of the people in terms of spiritual structure, to teach the people Torah; and Nechemya goes up to restore the people in terms of political leadership and governance in Jerusalem and Eretz Yisrael, as will be expressed in the verses before us.
Originally, the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nechemya were counted as one single book. Anyone who examines earlier works will see that Rashi, for example, never mentions the "Book of Nechemya" anywhere - he always writes "it is written in Ezra," or "it says in Ezra," attributing even verses from Nechemya to Ezra. The Gemara indeed asks: Nechemya wrote his book, so why was the book not named after him?
The answer: because he said, "Remember it for me, my God, for good." Chazal teach: whoever attributes merit to himself, Heaven attributes it to others; and whoever attributes merit to others, Heaven attributes it to him. One who says, "Master of the Universe, act for their merit," the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: "I will act for yours." But one who says, "Act for my merit," is told: "I will act for their merit." This is the path of humility, that a person should not rely on his own merit or say, "I deserve it, we did it, we built it." For this reason, Nechemya was not granted to have the book bear his name.
It appears that this penalty was temporary, since in a later era the division into the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nechemya was accepted, and today everyone recognizes it. Evidently, the penalty lasted for a certain duration, so many hundreds or thousands of years, and after Nechemya paid his debt, he was granted that the book would once again be named after him, no longer considered merely a continuation of Ezra. Indeed, the Malbim notes that in the count of the twenty-four books of Tanach, Nechemya is not counted as a separate book; rather, Ezra is counted, and Nechemya is included within it.
דִּבְרֵי נְחֶמְיָה בֶּן־חֲכַלְיָה וַיְהִי בְחֹדֶשׁ־כִּסְלֵו שְׁנַת עֶשְׂרִים וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה׃ - The words of Nechemya the son of Chachalyah: And it came to pass in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the capital.
וַיָּבֹא חֲנָנִי אֶחָד מֵאַחַי הוּא וַאֲנָשִׁים מִיהוּדָה וָאֶשְׁאָלֵם עַל־הַיְּהוּדִים הַפְּלֵיטָה אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִן־הַשֶּׁבִי וְעַל־יְרוּשָׁלִָם׃ - That Chanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men of Yehudah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, that were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
וַיֹּאמְרוּ לִי הַנִּשְׁאָרִים אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִן־הַשְּׁבִי שָׁם בַּמְּדִינָה בְּרָעָה גְדֹלָה וּבְחֶרְפָּה וְחוֹמַת יְרוּשָׁלִַם מְפֹרָצֶת וּשְׁעָרֶיהָ נִצְּתוּ בָאֵשׁ׃ - And they said to me: The remnant who remain from the captivity there in the province are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is breached and its gates are burned with fire.
A delegation from Judea arrives to Nechemya in Shushan the capital, and he asks two questions: first regarding the Jews - what is their condition; and second regarding Jerusalem - what is its condition, what is the status of the building, and what is the state of the wall.
The Malbim notes the precise phrasing here: "concerning the Jews, the remnant who remained from the captivity", and in the response, "the remnant who remain from the captivity". Why the emphasis on "the remnant"? Were there other Jews he was not asking about? The Malbim explains that indeed there were. The Jews who had returned in the two major waves of aliyah - those who came with permission from Cyrus (Koresh) in the first year, and those who came in the days of Darius with Ezra - had their own dedicated governor (pecha), an official and administration of their own. In contrast, the Jews who had been there from the beginning, those isolated individuals who never went into exile even when Klal Yisrael was exiled, were under the jurisdiction of the governor of Ever HaNahar (Beyond the River), a Gentile administration. Nechemya inquires specifically about them, for their plight was much worse; therefore, they answer him: "The remnant who remain from the captivity there in the province are in great distress and reproach." Those who had received royal permission from Cyrus and Darius to return and settle in the land, however, were in a relatively better situation.
וַיְהִי כְּשָׁמְעִי אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה יָשַׁבְתִּי וָאֶבְכֶּה וָאֶתְאַבְּלָה יָמִים וָאֱהִי צָם וּמִתְפַּלֵּל לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמָיִם׃ - And it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
These words pained Nechemya so profoundly that he sat upon the ground and wept out of intense sorrow over the plight of his Jewish brethren in Eretz Yisrael. Nor was this a momentary cry, but rather, "and mourned for days, and fasted and prayed."
וָאֹמַר אָנָּא יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם הָאֵל הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא שֹׁמֵר הַבְּרִית וָחֶסֶד לְאֹהֲבָיו וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֹתָיו׃ - And I said: I beseech You, Hashem, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, Who keeps the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and observe His commandments.
"Who keeps the covenant and lovingkindness" - this means that the Holy One, blessed be He, preserves the covenant He made with our forefathers, the promise He swore to us: "Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them nor spurn them to destroy them, to break My covenant with them." Hashem made such a promise to us, and He faithfully keeps it for us.
תְּהִי נָא אָזְנְךָ־קַשֶּׁבֶת וְעֵינֶיךָ פְתוּחוֹת לִשְׁמֹעַ אֶל־תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מִתְפַּלֵּל לְפָנֶיךָ הַיּוֹם יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה עַל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבָדֶיךָ וּמִתְוַדֶּה עַל־חַטֹּאות בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר חָטָאנוּ לָךְ וַאֲנִי וּבֵית־אָבִי חָטָאנוּ׃ - Please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You today, day and night, for the Children of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the Children of Israel which we have sinned against You; both I and my father's house have sinned.
"Please let Your ear be attentive" - that these words fall upon attentive ears, that Hashem incline His ear to hear my supplication. For there are times when a person cries out and Hashem does not listen. This does not mean a lack of ability, Heaven forbid, but rather that He does not incline His ear to accept our prayers, either because we lack merit or due to a specific transgression that blocks prayer from being accepted, such as the sin of shaatnez or the like. Furthermore, he asks, "and Your eyes open" - open eyes represent divine providence (hashgachah). When a person tells his fellow, "keep an eye on this," he means "watch over it"; similarly, "Your eyes open" means to watch over us and see what is happening to us.
The Malbim explains the words "day and night": it does not mean "may Your eyes be open day and night," but rather, "to hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You today, day and night" - I am praying continuously, day and night, just as it states: "and mourned for days." This was not merely a single prayer where he sat for an hour, prayed, and stood up, but rather: "and mourned for days, and fasted and prayed."
Nechemya confesses "concerning the sins of the Children of Israel which we have sinned against You," and adds, "both I and my father's house have sinned." And here lies a great moral lesson: the Gemara teaches that when a person rebukes the public, he should not rebuke them in an accusatory, personal manner. He should not say, "Know this, gentlemen: you have many severe sins, you must repent, you and you." Rather, he should always speak in the plural and include himself: "We have sinned." We see this as well at the end of Sefer Ezra, where Ezra came and said, "We have sinned, we have married foreign women" - everything in the plural, in order to include himself among them. For when people confront someone and hurl accusations at him, it is hard for him to accept them; but when they tell him, "We have a problem," and the one rebuking includes himself in the problem, the person is far more open to receiving it.
And in this lies an additional lesson. Many times a person says, "Look at what is happening out there - such desecration of Shabbat, such immodesty, is it any wonder there are so many tragedies?" What is he really saying? That the entire problem is theirs, while among us, thank God, everything is fine. This is an error, because the primary demand of Hashem, blessed is He, is from us. The main claim and expectation is directed at the shomrei mitzvot. One who walks in darkness does not understand and sees nothing; although he will certainly be called to account in the Heavenly Court, the crux of what occurs depends on us, for we who observe the mitzvot know what is expected of us and yet do not always fulfill it. Therefore, Nechemya says, "both I and my father's house have sinned," just as Yonah said, "It is because of me that this great storm is upon you." A person must say: "This is because of me," blaming himself rather than looking for others to blame.
חֲבֹל חָבַלְנוּ לָךְ וְלֹא־שָׁמַרְנוּ אֶת־הַמִּצְוֹת וְאֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָ אֶת־מֹשֶׁה עַבְדֶּךָ׃ - We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which You commanded Your servant Moshe.
The word chavol relates to a pledge or collateral (mashkon), as in, "No man shall take a handmill or an upper millstone as a pledge" - it is forbidden to take the lower or upper millstone used for grinding grain as collateral, "for he takes a life as a pledge," since if you take them as collateral, the person will have nothing to eat. Similarly, "If you take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun sets" - for he needs the garment to wear, having only that single cloak.
Thus a parable emerges here: Israel received a loan - the holy Torah - and undertook to keep Hashem's law. When we fail to repay the debt, meaning we do not observe the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, takes collateral from us. And what is that collateral? The Beit HaMikdash and the Holy Land, while we are sent into exile. When we repent, meaning we repay the debt and fulfill our obligation, Hashem returns the collateral to us and rebuilds the Beit HaMikdash. It is likewise written, "Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy [vechibel - seize as collateral] the work of your hands?" Chazal say similarly: Why was it called Mishkan? Because it was taken as a pledge (nitmashken) for the sins of Israel. The Mishkan has the nature of a pledge; it was taken from us as collateral until we repent.
This is what Nechemya means: "We have given You collateral" - we yielded to You a pledge, the Holy Land and the Beit HaMikdash, yet we did not repay our debt, "and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which You commanded Your servant Moshe," and consequently the collateral was seized from us. If one does not pay his debt, the bank forecloses on the house; here, the Holy One, blessed be He, takes the Beit HaMikdash and our ancestral heritage, and we go into exile.
The Dubno Maggid asks: It says, "These are the accounts of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of the Testimony" - what is the meaning of this repetition? He answers with a parable: Two men arranged a match between their children, and at the time the tenaim (engagement contract) was signed, each side committed to a substantial sum. However, guarantees were needed, lest after the wedding one side begin to evade payment - "Not now, I do not have it, when I have it, God willing" - leaving the other side empty-handed. Yet these men had nothing of value to offer as collateral.
The rav stood up and said, "I have an idea." One of the men was in the business of renting out gardening tools - rakes, shears, and various garden implements - and the other, a fitting match, was a gardener who regularly rented those tools from him. The rav told them: "Let us take the gardening tools as collateral, and that will compel both of you to hurry and settle the debt. You, the owner, make your living by renting them out, so you will want them returned to you quickly; and you, the renter, need them for your livelihood, and since he is the only supplier in town, without him you have no work. In this way, both of you will be motivated to pay your debt so that the tools are returned."
The arrangement worked wonderfully, until one day the tool owner discovered that his future in-law had made a career change and moved into the high-tech sector. Said the Dubno Maggid: Who remains bound here? Only the tool owner. His tools are locked away as collateral and he cannot rent them out. But the in-law is bound no longer. When told, "You cannot rent the tools and work!" he replies, "I do not work in that field anymore; I bought a computer and work in high-tech." It turns out that the only one harmed by the pledge is the tool owner, not the renter.
So it was when the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. The Sanctuary was taken as collateral, and who was bound by it? Both the Holy One, blessed be He, and us. The Holy One, blessed be He - because the Shechinah is in exile, and He declared, "I will not enter the heavenly Jerusalem until I enter the earthly Jerusalem," and as it were, He has no home; He has a clear interest in returning the collateral to us, desiring it for His own sake. And us - for when there is no Beit HaMikdash, there are no korbanot, no divine bounty, no livelihood, and no protection against enemies. As long as they offered the Tamid sacrifice, the enemies could not breach the walls of Jerusalem; once a pig was brought up in place of the Tamid offering, the city fell. We learn from this that the absence of the Beit HaMikdash is an immense loss for us, and, as it were, a loss for the Creator of the world as well. Both of us are held in pledge.
Yet all of this is true only as long as we yearn for the Beit HaMikdash, remain close to the service of Hashem, and want the Temple to be built. But once we ceased serving Hashem, ceased anticipating Him, and ceased seeing virtue in the service of the Beit HaMikdash - from that moment on, who remains holding the collateral? Only the Holy One, Blessed be He. We have already moved on to other pursuits. Does a Jew distant from mitzvot feel the absence of the Beit HaMikdash? Does he feel that he lacks the sacrifices? He feels nothing at all.
Based on this, the Dubno Maggid explains our verse: "We have dealt corruptly [chavol chavalnu - literally, pledged a pledge] against You" - there is a House here that serves as collateral, and initially both of us were pledged through it, both the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it were, and us. But "we have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances" - and from the moment we failed to keep them, who became the one whose pledge was seized? Only the Holy One, Blessed be He. Only from Him, as it were, was something taken away, for the Shechinah is in exile, He is not in His home, and the Shechinah is in sorrow. We were not pawned, for we do not feel that we lack anything. And that is the meaning of "we have pledged unto You" - to You, and not to us.
From here we also understand the repetition, "These are the reckonings of the Mishkan, the Mishkan of testimony": pekudei is related to nifkad, meaning missing or lacking. When the Mishkan was missing - "Mishkan, Mishkan" - who was lacking? Both the Holy One, Blessed be He, and us; both of us, as it were, gave a pledge. But Nechemya is speaking about what happened afterward, when we had already forsaken the way of Hashem, and at that point the only One missing and holding the pledge is Hashem - "we have pledged unto You."
With this, a major question is resolved. Scripture states: "No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life to pledge" - it is forbidden to seize collateral on something essential to life itself. Rav Zalmele of Volozhin, the brother of Rav Chaim of Volozhin, who was an immense genius, raised a question. People once asked Rav Chaim: What is the difference between Rav Zalmele and the Vilna Gaon? To such an extent did they seem equal in the eyes of the people. He told them: It is not the same thing. My brother Rav Zalman knows the entire Torah forward; the Vilna Gaon knows it forward and backward. Try reciting "Ashrei yoshvei veitecha" backward - we cannot do it, let alone "Eizehu mekoman shel zevachim" or "Pitom haketoret." Rav Zalman knew everything forward; wherever you asked him, he would quote it word for word; but the Vilna Gaon knew it backward as well.
At any rate, Rav Zalmele asks: The Beit HaMikdash is our very lifeblood - the sacrifices, the service of Hashem, closeness to God - so how could Hashem take the Beit HaMikdash from us, when "he taketh a man's life to pledge"? And he answers: When is something considered a necessity of life? "And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto Me, that I will hear; for I am gracious." If a person comes and cries out, "Master of the Universe, I have nothing to eat, they took away my millstone!" - this demonstrates that it is essential to life, and Hashem says: Beware, I will hear his cry for I am gracious, and know that it is a grave sin. But when the people of Israel do not cry out, do not feel pain, when we do not feel the loss of the Beit HaMikdash - it turns out that you have not been stripped of life's essentials at all. That is not considered seizing a life-sustaining pledge. A pledge that touches one's very life is one that you feel you cannot live without, that you hunger to eat and long to live and cannot exist without it, and the proof of this is the outcry. If there is no cry, it is not considered essential to life, and therefore it may be taken from you. And that, unfortunately, is our situation.
זְכָר־נָא אֶת־הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָ אֶת־מֹשֶׁה עַבְדְּךָ לֵאמֹר אַתֶּם תִּמְעָלוּ אֲנִי אָפִיץ אֶתְכֶם בָּעַמִּים׃ - Remember, I beseech You, the word that You did command Your servant Moses, saying: If you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples.
וְשַׁבְתֶּם אֵלַי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם מִצְוֹתַי וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם אִם־יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲכֶם בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם מִשָּׁם אֲקַבְּצֵם וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר בָּחַרְתִּי לְשַׁכֵּן אֶת־שְׁמִי שָׁם׃ - But if you return unto Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though your dispersed were in the uttermost part of heaven, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set My name there.
"If you trespass [tim'alu]" - one who commits me'ilah denies having received a deposit, continuing the motif of collateral: the Torah was deposited into your hands and you committed to safeguard it, and if you betray the mitzvot, "I will scatter you abroad among the peoples," thereby taking back the pledge - the Holy Land. Yet Hashem promised us: "But if you return unto Me, and keep My commandments and do them" - when you repent, pay the debt, and fulfill the Torah and the mitzvot, then "though your dispersed were in the uttermost part of heaven, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set My name there" - I will return you to the Land and restore to you the pledge I took. It is merely a temporary pledge until the debt is repaid.
The Malbim notes with precision: the statement, "that You did command Your servant Moses, saying," does not refer to verse 8 alone, but also to verse 9. It is not only "if you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples" that is a commandment, but also "if you return unto Me, and keep My commandments." According to this, "and you shall return" speaks of an obligation, just as the Rambam interprets the verse, "and you shall return unto the Lord your God" - that there is a positive commandment for a person to repent, and the Torah commands it. Thus, one of the mitzvot Moshe Rabbeinu was commanded to convey to the Jewish people is to do teshuvah.
וְהֵם עֲבָדֶיךָ וְעַמֶּךָ אֲשֶׁר פָּדִיתָ בְּכֹחֲךָ הַגָּדוֹל וּבְיָדְךָ הַחֲזָקָה׃ - Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.
Nechemya says: even though they returned to the Land of Israel by permission of the kings of Persia, You, Master of the Universe, took them out of Egypt with great power, with signs and wonders. If so, just as You showed us miracles and wonders back then, it is fitting that You do so for us now as well - that we should not go up to the Land of Israel merely by the permission of a king, but rather You, Hashem, should go before us and reign over us.
אָנָּא אֲדֹנָי תְּהִי נָא אָזְנְךָ־קַשֶּׁבֶת אֶל־תְּפִלַּת עַבְדְּךָ וְאֶל־תְּפִלַּת עֲבָדֶיךָ הַחֲפֵצִים לְיִרְאָה אֶת־שְׁמֶךָ וְהַצְלִיחָה־נָּא לְעַבְדְּךָ הַיּוֹם וּתְנֵהוּ לְרַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי הָאִישׁ הַזֶּה וַאֲנִי הָיִיתִי מַשְׁקֶה לַמֶּלֶךְ׃ - "Please, my Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name, and grant success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy before this man; for I was cupbearer to the king."
"And to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name" - lest You say: back then they were worthy because they were righteous. Today as well, Master of the Universe, there are people here who genuinely desire to fear Your name, God-fearing and wholesome people who want to draw close. Therefore, "and grant success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy before this man" - make me successful before the king, for I am about to approach him and present my request before him, and grant me favor in his eyes so that he accepts my request and permits me to do what is on my heart, as we will see in the next chapter.
"For I was cupbearer to the king" - this was Nechemya's role, the chief cupbearer before the king. From this also stems his additional name that we discussed in the previous lesson: the Tirshatha. For the one who poured the king's wine was required to drink from it first to ensure it was not poisoned and that no one had set a trap for the king; therefore, he was called the Tirshatha - hitir shetiyah (permitted drinking), as the Sages permitted him to drink setam yeinam (gentile wine). Although setam yeinam is forbidden under the laws of libation wine, in his case they made a special allowance so that he could serve before the king.
Chapter 1 opens the Book of Nechemya thirteen years after the aliyah of Ezra: Ezra came to rebuild the spirit of the nation, while Nechemya came to revive it politically. Nechemya inquires specifically about those survivors who were under the rule of the governor of Ever-HaNahar, and their dire condition breaks his heart to the point of weeping, mourning, fasting, and continuous prayer. In his prayer, he leans upon the covenant Hashem forged with our forefathers, asks for an attentive ear and open eyes, and confesses in the plural - "both I and my father's house have sinned" - in the manner of one offering rebuke who includes himself with the community, teaching us not to cast the blame on others. "We have dealt corruptly against You" reveals that the Land and the Beis HaMikdash serve as collateral for the debt of the Torah, and that as long as we cry out and grieve over their absence, both of us are held as collateral; but once we cease crying out, it turns out that only the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, is held in pawn. Nevertheless, the promise remains: "And you will return to Me" - we will pay the debt, and the collateral will be returned to us. In conclusion, he prays for success before the king, for he was the king's cupbearer, and from this point onward his great mission begins.
Today we begin the Book of Nechemya, with Hashem's help.