I thought of this idea about a month ago, when a friend of mine hy"d was KIA in Rafiach. But I haven't thought about it since, so it might come across as half-baked. This morning I thought it would be relevant to share with regards to 17th of Tamuz and the Three Weeks.
There's a gemara that I think some Orthodox Jews may take for granted because they heard it a lot of times during their lives (Sanhedrin 94a):
I suppose it takes a very particular kind of someone to be able to immediately overcome the sheer magnitude of terror and destruction in the wake of that campaign and be able to sing praises. Think about it: Lachish was besieged and Hashem did not perform a miracle (well, at least not a huge one worthy of being recorded in our sources). Gat and Beit Ha'etzel and Shafir and other towns were besieged and destroyed and no miracle occurred. Yerushalayim was besieged for a significant period, and only then did a mass miracle occur. But when the Assyrians picked up and left and the remaining Judahites went out to see the levels of destruction around the kingdom, they were probably filled with great despair at the immense loss of life and material wealth.
I would venture to say that Chizkiyahu and his men did not have it in them to say shirah at that moment. David experienced many hardships, but he did not experience a kingdom on the brink of collapse. Chizkiyahu himself should be praised for managing to get things going again, even if in more limited capacity than before. When faced with hardships, different people react differently. After the Holocaust, there were people who lost faith completely and others whose faith grew. There were people who felt Hashem was with them and others who thought that He had sat on the sidelines and watched without lifting a finger. I was of course not yet born in the time of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but I gather that after the Six Day War there was a lot of euphoria, and the celebrations at the Kotel and Har Habayit and elsewhere were significant, even though there was a loss of life, as in any war. After the Yom Kippur War, there was a general feeling of despair, anger and betrayal, even if by military measures we won that war as well.
The gemara's criticism of Chizkiyahu seems to stem from the notion that we must at times be aware of - as we say in Hebrew - גודל השעה, the greatness of the hour and rise above the despair and pain and see the light of Hashem shining upon us. The gemara doesn't say it's easy. The gemara, I believe, is saying that therein lies the greatness of man, the ability to see the bigger picture even when it is most instinctual - and perhaps even most logical - to forget the bigger picture.
May we hear good tidings speedily and see the geulah soon.
There's a gemara that I think some Orthodox Jews may take for granted because they heard it a lot of times during their lives (Sanhedrin 94a):
"the Holy One, Blessed be He, sought to designate King Hezekiah as the Messiah and to designate Sennacherib and Assyria, respectively, as Gog and Magog The attribute of justice said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, and if with regard to David, king of Israel, who recited several songs and praises before You, You did not designate him as the Messiah, then with regard to Hezekiah, for whom You performed all these miracles, delivering him from Sennacherib and healing his illness, and he did not recite praise (אמר שירה) before You, will You designate him as the Messiah? [...] It was taught in the name of Rabbi Pappeyas: It is a disgrace for Hezekiah and his associates that they did not recite a song themselves and that a song was not recited until the earth began and recited a song, as it is stated: “From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous” (Isaiah 24:16)."
A question that occurred to me is: Why didn't Chizkiyahu sing (trans. here as "recite praise", in Hebrew it's Amar Shirah)? The gemara here doesn't state. It seems to hint at a lesser greatness in comparison between David and Chizkiyahu, but that doesn't explain Chizkiyahu's own rationale. For me the answer was: Well, we're forgetting the sheer mass of destruction that occurred in the lead-up to the Assyrian siege of Yerushalayim. The fall of Lachish was dramatic enough to be recorded both in Tanach and in Assyrian sources, including the infamous Lachish reliefs from the Assyrian palace. And the prophet Michah laments the destruction of several Shephela cities (Micah 1:10-16). It is widely thought by archeologists today that most of the Shephela was destroyed during Sanchariv's campaign, and that the Judahite settlement never managed to return to its former glory on its western frontier. Later expansions focused mainly on the east, north and south. That's quite stunning.I suppose it takes a very particular kind of someone to be able to immediately overcome the sheer magnitude of terror and destruction in the wake of that campaign and be able to sing praises. Think about it: Lachish was besieged and Hashem did not perform a miracle (well, at least not a huge one worthy of being recorded in our sources). Gat and Beit Ha'etzel and Shafir and other towns were besieged and destroyed and no miracle occurred. Yerushalayim was besieged for a significant period, and only then did a mass miracle occur. But when the Assyrians picked up and left and the remaining Judahites went out to see the levels of destruction around the kingdom, they were probably filled with great despair at the immense loss of life and material wealth.
I would venture to say that Chizkiyahu and his men did not have it in them to say shirah at that moment. David experienced many hardships, but he did not experience a kingdom on the brink of collapse. Chizkiyahu himself should be praised for managing to get things going again, even if in more limited capacity than before. When faced with hardships, different people react differently. After the Holocaust, there were people who lost faith completely and others whose faith grew. There were people who felt Hashem was with them and others who thought that He had sat on the sidelines and watched without lifting a finger. I was of course not yet born in the time of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but I gather that after the Six Day War there was a lot of euphoria, and the celebrations at the Kotel and Har Habayit and elsewhere were significant, even though there was a loss of life, as in any war. After the Yom Kippur War, there was a general feeling of despair, anger and betrayal, even if by military measures we won that war as well.
The gemara's criticism of Chizkiyahu seems to stem from the notion that we must at times be aware of - as we say in Hebrew - גודל השעה, the greatness of the hour and rise above the despair and pain and see the light of Hashem shining upon us. The gemara doesn't say it's easy. The gemara, I believe, is saying that therein lies the greatness of man, the ability to see the bigger picture even when it is most instinctual - and perhaps even most logical - to forget the bigger picture.
May we hear good tidings speedily and see the geulah soon.