Mashal

Everything that we learned in this class reminds me of a משל I once heard. I may get some of this wrong, but here it goes. A man was stranded on an island. One day, a huge lifeboat came to the island and the captain yelled, "We are here! Come get on the boat and we can take you home!" The young man looked at the captain and replied, "No thank you! God will save me!" The boat disappeared in the distance. A few days later, another lifeboat appeared at the island. The emaciated man, looked up to see the captain. "We have come to get you! Please get on and we can help you!" said the captain. The frail man motioned the people to go saying, "No thank you! God will save me." The boat floated away. Not too long after the man lost all of his strength and passed away. When he got to heaven he said to God, "God! Why didn't you come and save me? I waited and waited and you were never came!" God smirked and said, "Are you kidding me? I sent two huge lifeboats to you! Each captain offered help, but you just turned them away."

The jews were not doing what was expected of them. They were "stranded" on a corrupt "island." God sent help but they always turned it away. In order for them to change there had to be some huge, miraculous sign. Eventually, they were at the point of no return and God could not help them. Yes, חזקיהו helped somewhat by removing the במות and restoring the בית המקדש, but they were still missing the מצוות בין אדם לחבירו.

ישראל Takes a Trip to the Water Park-- Slippery Slope Time!

In class, we learned about what ישראל was doing that led them to exile. ישראל was on a slippery slope and eventually there was no chance of returning to ה. The first 3 steps were only beliefs and thoughts. Then, it turned it to actions.

They believed in ה, but they would see other people practicing other religions and they thought that the practices weren't so bad. Now that they were accepting to other practices they started to incorporate these practices into their own worship of God. Some people just used these practices from other nations into their worship of God, but some people started worshipping other gods in addition to ה. Once ה realized how bad it was getting he sent נביאים to warn the people. The people changed their actions, but they never changed their beliefs. They reached the point of no return when they convinced themselves that they didn't believe in Hashem. They lived hedonistic lifestyles, left the תורה, and worshipped עבודה זרא. God was fed up and exiled the people, but he did leave the people of יהודה.

רבשקה's Message

רבשקה, the messenger for Assyria, used psychological warfare to get the Jews to abandon G-d and therefore surrender to Assyria. They told them a number of things that made them question G-d and his abilities. He greatly offends חזקיהו because he makes an implication that חזקיהו is not the greatest king. He was great at psychological warfare because he made many statements that successfully questioned חזקיהו's faith. רבשקה started out by saying that חזקיהו put his faith in Egypt while Egypt was very weak. If G-d really was on their side, wouldn't Hashem make Egypt stronger? He also mentioned how he removed the במות and questioned his action. What if you got rid of something G-d created for a reason and wanted? He also mentioned שומרון. Hashem never saved שומרון from Assyria. Why will he save you? He also said that G-d sent Assyria to attack them. Hashem wanted this for you. 

רבשקה says this in Hebrew so everyone can understand. חזקיהו tells him to speak in a different language, so that everyone else doesn't hear what's going on. But רבשקה doesn't change the language he speaks in because his purpose was for everyone to hear, so that they would panic and surrender. This was a great method that he used. He made sure that the whole area would start panicking therefore forcing חזקיהו to surrender. But this didn't end up happening. חזקיהו kept the people peaceful enough. ישעיהו was sent to get a message from G-d telling them that He will not let Assyria attack ירושלים. 

If ישעיהו had not gotten reassurance from G-d, they may have given in to Assyria because their ideals were questioned, and they were scared because of the psychological warfare that scared everyone. 

Be Yourself :)

Chizkiyahu is sick, oh no! He is told that he will die so he goes into hyper-drive and prays for life. He is given a sign and recognizes a miracle. This is admirable because the people of Yisroel did not recognize G-d.
We learn from this that despite your surroundings  you can be a good Jew and person. It is never an excuse to blame the lack of good deeds you do on peer pressure - you are your own person! Do not let other peoples bad actions impact your life negligently. Either avoid those people or learn independence. Chizkiyahu stuck to his word and believed in G-d in this fatal time. It is always good to turn to G-d for support when you are in a desperate and hard time. G-d is always there, even if you do not see Him.

NO H8

Chizkiyahu did an amazing thing, he took away the altors, bamot. The bamot where preventing people from going to the Bait Hamikdash. He's doing a really good job. He got rid of the avodah zarah; the snake that Moshe used to save the Jews during the plagues in Egypt. The people believed the snake had medical benefits and powers. He was well known for his Bitachon, faith in G-d and he followed all the Mitzvot. In the first few years, Hashem was with him in all that he did - he was a faithful person who did mitzvot. He rebeled against the king of Ashur. He extended his boarders and took gold from the Bait Hamikdush to pay taxes to Assyria - this was a no no. Then he rebelled for 8 years.

Chizkiyahu made some mistakes in his life, we can all admit that. That is not what matters though, he did a lot of good! We shouldn't dwell on the negatives. We can learn from this to be optimistic and see the best in people, there is no point of looking at the bad things in people. Unless they're a crazy murderer or lunatic, there is no reason to hate! So, the next time someone does something wrong, thing of all the GOOD they have done! You'll feel better, promise.

silly Chezikiah!!

             So, Chezikiah became king at the age of 25. This was after his father, an Idol worshiper who was horrible for the Jews, died. At first Chezikiah was great and got the jews on track with Judaism and he was very faithful. But then Assyria commits psychological warfare and Chezikiah panics and loses faith in G-d and starts mourning.  He asks Yeshayahu to speak to hashem but Chezikiah doesn't even pray ! Yeshayahu talked to G-d and it ended up that G-d didn't let them attack but then Chezikiah got ill like at the same day!! This is when Chezikiah prays to G-d and then G-d gives him 15 more years! He recognizes G-d then but not when he saved the whole nation!
           Today we thank G-d for the personal things but we often don't think like, wow- hashem was part of that war ! We just think the people are doing it all on their own!

Ravshakeh

It says in Hezekiah Perek 36 that in part of his message to the people, Ravshakeh questions Hezekiah's faith in G-d. He also asks the people if they think G-d is happy with them for removing the Bamot. He ends by saying that G-d was the one who sent him to come and destroy the nation.

I am confused about this message. Why does Ravshakeh know what goes on with the nation religiously? He is Assyrian and obviously shouldn't believe in the one and only God, and should not be involved with the Jews' religious issues. You wouldn't find this part of the story in history books.  Also, shouldn't it seem odd to the Jews that this outsiders comes into the nation and has all of this knowledge of G-d and what he wants? If it were me listening to this message I couldn't help but be skeptical. It just doesn't add up.