THE CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FIRST TEMPLE

By Rav Yitzchak Levi

Translated by David Strauss

Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of three sins committed at the time: idol worship, illicit sexual relations and bloodshed. (Yoma 9b)

            An examination of the relevant scriptural passages and rabbinic statements reveals additional reasons for the destruction, aside from the three mentioned above. In this shiur, we will explore the first half of First Temple period, from Shelomo to Chizkiyahu. (In a future shiur, we will address the second half, from Menasheh to the destruction itself in the days of Tzidkiyahu.)

I.          THE DAYS OF SHELOMO

The prophet Yirmiyahu says:

For this has been to Me as a provocation of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it and to this day; that I should remove it from before My face. (Yirmiyahu 32:31)

"From the day that they built it" implies that the sinfulness began in the days of Shelomo.

            Chazal and the Rishonim pinpoint two main sins of Shelomo. The Gemara in Nidda understands that Shelomo's marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh was the major cause of God's anger against the city:

One verse says: "For the Lord has chosen Zion" (Tehillim 132:13), but another verse says: "For this city has been to me a provocation of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it even unto this day" (Yirmiyahu 32:31)! The former applies to the time before Shelomo married the daughter of Pharaoh, while the latter applies to the time after Shelomo married the daughter of Pharaoh. (Nidda 70b)

            The Radak adopts a similar approach in his commentary to this verse in Yirmiyahu, only that he emphasizes the idolatry practiced by Shelomo's wives:

For it was during the days of Shelomo who built the city and the Temple that they began to offer sacrifices on the bamot, and Shelomo's wives worshipped foreign gods. From that day it was as “a provocation of My anger and My fury,” that is to say, it existed despite My anger and My fury, for in My anger, it should have been removed, but I was long-suffering until this day, but I will suffer no longer. And the Midrash teaches: On the day that the Temple was established, Shelomo married the daughter of Pharaoh.

            In this context, it is interesting to note the Radak's argument (in his commentary to Divrei Ha-yamim 35:3) that Shelomo himself already prepared a place to conceal the ark, since he knew that the Temple would eventually be destroyed.

            Chazal's understanding (alluded to by the Radak in the aforementioned passage) that Shelomo's marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh took place on the day of the Temple's dedication (Vayikra Rabba 12, 5) illustrates Shelomo's blurring of the boundaries between his own kingdom and the kingdom of God, a phenomenon that would find expression in various ways over the course of the entire First Temple period. This blurring, which was based upon, among other things, Shelomo's arrogance and his understanding that his wisdom was greater than the wisdom of the Torah itself (see Sanhedrin 21b), found expression in various areas: the unmediated closeness between the house of the king and the house of God (to the point that Yechezkel [43:6-9] conditions the building of the future Temple and the everlasting resting of God's Shekhina therein on a distancing between the two); the dimensions of the royal house, which were greater than the dimensions of the house of God; Shelomo's taking foreign women as his wives, which, even if his intention was to draw them in under the wings of the Shekhina, led in the end to the establishment of bamot in honor of idols in Jerusalem – on the mountain to the right of the Mountain of Corruption – which stood from the days of Shelomo until they were removed in the days of Yoshiyahu, that is to say, almost until the end of the First Temple period.

            Shelomo's multiplying of wives, horses, silver and gold also stemmed from his inflated view of his own greatness and that of his kingdom. Similarly, his idea that the Temple was meant to serve the entire world and that it would stand forever, never to be destroyed, was based on exaggerated self-confidence and seeing his own greatness as a central component of this eternity.

            Already in the next generation, Shelomo's sins led to the division of the kingdom, a division which in and of itself was calamitous during the entire First Temple period.

II.        THE KILLING OF ZEKHARYA THE SON OF YEHOYDA THE PRIEST

II Divrei Ha-yamim 22-23 describes the great kindness performed by Yehoyada the High Priest and his wife Yehoshavat for Yoash the son of Achazyahu and the House of David.  Following the death of her son King Achazyahu, Atalyahu killed all of Achazyahu's sons and assumed the throne herself.  However, one son, Yoash, survived surreptitiously.  Yehoshavat hid Yoash in the House of God for six years, after which Yehoyada arranged a coup to depose the evil Queen Atalyahu and restore the rightful heir Yoash to the throne.  As part of the coup, Yehoyada also restored the worship of God to its rightful place:

And Yehoyada made a covenant between him, and between all the people and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. Then all the people went to the house of the Ba'al, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of the Ba'al in front of the altars. And Yehoyada appointed the offices of the house of the Lord under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had given charge over the house of the Lord, to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the Torah of Moshe, with rejoicing and with singing, as ordained by David. And he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord, so that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in… And all the people of the land rejoiced: and the city was quiet, after they had slain Atalyahu with the sword. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 23:16-21) 

            Yehoyada's action and the spiritual revolution that he brought about with the coronation of Yoash endured until the end of his life, and the kingdom expressed great appreciation of his efforts:

Yoash was seven years old when he began to reign… And Yoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Yehoyada the priest… But Yehoyada grew old, and was full of days, and he died; a hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both towards God, and towards his house. (ibid. 24:1-2, 15-16)

            Following the death of Yehoyada, however, the situation utterly changed:

Now after the death of Yehoyada the princes of Yehuda came, and prostrated themselves before the king. Then the king hearkened to them. And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and worshipped asherim and idols. And anger came upon Yehuda and Jerusalem for this their crime. But He sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord; and they forewarned them; but they would not give ear. (ibid. 17-19)

            Chazal understood that the prostration of the officers before Yoash was not merely a display of honor before the king, but rather prostration as part of a religious ritual:

From where do we know that Yoash made himself into a god? For it is written: "Now after the death of Yehoyada the princes of Yehuda came, and prostrated themselves before the king. Then the king hearkened to them." What is meant by, "And they prostrated themselves before the king"? They made him a god. They said to him: Were it not that you are a god, you would not have come out after seven years in the Holy of Holies. He said to them: Thus it is, and he accepted upon himself to become a god. (Tanchuma, Vaera)

            This Midrash is based on another Midrash, according to which the "bedchamber" in which Yoash hid for six years was in the Holy of Holies (see Shir Ha-shirim Rabba 1:2; Rashi, II Melakhim 11:2; and the commentary attributed to Rashi, II Divrei Ha-yamim 22:11). Yoash's extended stay in the sanctified quarters brought his officers to attribute to him Divine qualities, and in his arrogance, Yoash accepted what they said and allowed them to worship him.

            Zekharya, the son of Yehoyada the priest, arose to admonish the people about their sudden spiritual deterioration:

And the spirit of God came upon Zekharya the son of Yehoyada the priest, and the he stood above the people, and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, though you cannot succeed? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has also forsaken you. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 24:20)

            Yoash then repays Yehoyada's kindness with evil and gives the order that his son be killed:

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Yoash the King did not remember the faithful love which Yehoyada his father had shown him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, May the Lord see and revenge. (ibid. 21-22)

            According to the Midrash, Zekharya was put to death because he had tried to keep idol worship out of the Temple:

Yoash was about to bring an idol into the sanctuary. Zekharya stood at the entrance to the sanctuary and said to him: You will not bring it in, unless you kill me. He stood up and killed him. (Midrash Shir Ha-shirim 3, 2 [ed. Gruenhut])

            Neither Chazal nor the Rishonim relate directly to the connection between the killing of Zekharya the son of Yehoyada the priest and the destruction of the Temple. This, however, is undoubtedly another example of the shocking blurring of the boundaries between the authority of the king and the functions of the priest and the prophet. Out of intense arrogance and posing as a god (and obviously out of extreme ingratitude), Yoash scoffs at Zekharya's objection and reproach and orders that Zekharya the priest and prophet be killed in the courtyard of the house of God, as if the priesthood and prophecy belonged to him.

            Now, while there is no direct reference to a connection between the killing of Zekharya and the destruction of the Temple, there is an allusion to this idea in the difficult
Midrash about the boiling of Zekharya's blood two hundred and fifty two years before the destruction.

You find that when Nevuzaradan went up to destroy Jerusalem, the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to that blood [Zekharya's blood] that it should seethe and bubble two hundred and fifty two years from Yoash to Tzidkiya. What did they do? They swept earth over it, and made a pile, but it did not rest. And the blood continued to seethe and bubble. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the blood: The time has come to collect your debt.

When Nevuzaradan went up and saw it, he said to them: What is this blood that it should bubble so? They said to him: It is the blood of bullocks, rams and sheep that they would slaughter and offer as sacrifices. He brought bullocks, sheep and rams, and slaughtered [them], but [the blood] did not quiet down, rest or stand. He immediately ordered them to be brought and hung on the gallows. He said to them: What is the nature of this blood? If you do not tell me, I will comb your flesh with iron combs. They said to him: Since the Holy One, blessed be He, demands his blood from us, we will tell you. They said to him: A priest and a prophet and a judge would prophesy concerning us about all these things that you are doing to us, but we did not believe him, and we stood up against him and killed him for having reprimanded us.

Immediately, he brought eighty thousand young priests, and slaughtered them, but it did not rest. And the blood would issue forth until it reached the grave of Zekharya. He then brought a great Sanhedrin, as well as a minor Sanhedrin, and slaughtered them, but it did not rest. At that very hour, that wicked man came and cried out about the blood and said to him: What good are you, and how is your blood better than all these bloods? Do you want me to destroy your entire nation on its account? At that very moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, became filled with mercy and said: Now, if this wicked man the son of a wicked and cruel man, who has come to destroy My house, has became filled with mercy, I… all the more so. At that moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to the blood and it was swallowed up in its place. (Kohelet Rabba 3, 16; see also parallel in Gittin 56b)

            Another Midrash that draws a connection between the killing of Zekharya and the destruction of the Temple relates to a verse in Eikha:

Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their cherished babes? Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? (Eikha 2:20)

The Midrash relates:

It once happened that Doeg the son of Yosef died and left a young child to his mother, and every year she would measure him with handbreadths and donate his weight in gold to Heaven. When Jerusalem was surrounded, she slaughtered him with her own hands, and ate him. And Yirmiya lamented before God and said: "[Consider] to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their cherished babes." And the holy spirit answered him: "Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?" – this is Zekharya the son of Yehoyada. (Eikha Rabba)

III.       UZIYAHU

One of the most important historical events in the second half of the First Temple period was the great earthquake in the days of Uziyahu. Despite its importance, we know little about it. Yishayahu appears to be alluding to it in one of his prophecies:

Therefore She'ol has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure. And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that is joyful, shall go down into it. (Yishayahu 5:14)

            We learn about the importance of the event from the way it was used to date the prophecy of Amos:

The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Teko'a which he saw concerning Israel in the day of Uziyah King of Yehuda, and in the days of Yarovam the son of Yoash King of Israel, two years before the earthquake. (Amos 1:1)

            In the continuation of his prophecy, Amos makes several allusions to the earthquake (see Amos 3:14-15; 6:1; 9:1). So great was the impression left by the earthquake that its memory was still alive in the period of the return to Zion, as mentioned by the prophet Zekharya:

Then shall the Lord go out, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split along the middle of it by a very great valley from east to west; and half of the mountain shall be removed towards the north, and half of it, towards the south. And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Aztel. And you shall flee, just as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uziya King of Yehuda; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with you. (Zekharya 14:3-5)

            The author of the Seder Olam Rabba draws a connection between the earthquake and the vision with which Yishayahu was consecrated for prophecy, in which he foresees the removal of the Shekhina from the Temple:

In the year that King Uziyahu died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple. Serafim stood above Him … And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (Yishayahu 6:1-4)

In Amos it says: "Two years before the earthquake," and in Yishayahu it says: "In the year that King Uziyahu died, etc." That was the day of the earthquake, as it is written: "And the posts of the door moved, etc." (Seder Olam Rabba 20)

            Rashi, in his commentary to this prophecy (Yishayahu 6:6), connects it and the earthquake to King Uziya's entry into the sanctuary in order to burn incense:

"At the voice of him that cried" – at the voice of the angels who were crying out. Now this occurred on the day of the earthquake, about which it is stated: "And you shall flee, just as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uziya" (Zekharya 14:5). On that very day Uziya stood up to burn incense in the sanctuary. The heavens thundered to burn him, that is to say, he was liable to death by burning… The earth thundered to swallow him; it thought that he was liable to be swallowed up like Korach who challenged the priesthood. A heavenly voice issued forth and said: "To be a memorial to the children of Israel, [that no stranger, who is not of the seed of Aharon, come near to offer incense before the Lord: that he be not like Korach and his company: as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moshe]" (ibid. 17:5). "That there be not" – another person who challenges the priesthood; "like Korach" – to be swallowed up; "and his company" – to be burned; but rather "as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moshe" at the burning bush – "Put now your hand into your bosom" (Shemot 4:6), and he took it out diseased, white as snow, here too tzara'at broke out on [Uziyahu's] forehead.

(The Midrash cited by Rashi appears in a very similar formulation in Tanchuma [Tzav 70], and with changes in Yalkut Shimoni.)

What led to the earthquake and to the removal of the Shekhina from the Temple, according to Chazal, was King Uziyahu's going into the sanctuary to burn incense. Divrei Ha-yamim relates the following about this king:

Sixteen years old was Uziyahu when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty two years in Jerusalem… And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord… And he sought God in the days of Zekharyahu, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. And he went forth and warred against the Pelishtim… And God helped him against the Pelishtim, and against the Arvim… And the Amonim rendered tribute to Uziyahu, and his name spread abroad to the entrance of Egypt, for he strengthened himself exceedingly. Moreover Uziyahu built towers in Jerusalem… and fortified them. And he built towers in the desert, and dug many wells. For he had much cattle, both in the lowland, and in the plains. He had farmers, and vinedressers in the mountains, and in the Karmel, for he loved the soil. Moreover Uziyahu had a host of fighting men … an army of 307,500, who made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. And Uziyahu prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging. And in Jerusalem he made engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azaryahu the priest went in after him and with him eighty priests of the Lord, who were men of valor. And they withstood Uziyahu the King, and said to him, It is not for you, Uziyahu, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests the sons of Aharon, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; for it shall not be for your honor from the Lord God.

Then Uziyahu was angry, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, the tzara'at broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. And Azaryahu the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and behold, he was diseased in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; and he himself hastened to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uziyahu the King was afflicted with tzra'at to the day of his death, and dwelt in the house of separation, being diseased; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. (II Divrei Ha-yamim 26:1-21)

            Uziyahu's enormous military and political strength (alluded to by his name), his mighty army, his victories, his grand construction projects, and the international esteem which he had earned – all these planted pride and arrogance in his heart "to his destruction," which reached their climax when he entered the sanctuary to burn incense. The Midrash recounts:

Regarding Uziyah it is written: "For he loved the soil" (II Divrei Ha-yamim 26:10) – he was king and he abandoned himself to the soil, having no connection to Torah. One day he came to the bet midrash, and said to them: In what are you occupied?

They said to him: Regarding "And the stranger that comes near shall be put to death" (Bamidbar 1:51).

Uziya said to them: The Holy One, blessed be He, is King, and I am king. It is appropriate for a king to serve a King and burn incense before Him. Immediately, "he went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense"…. Immediately, "Uziyahu was angry, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, the tzara'at broke out on his forehead." At that very moment the sanctuary split this way and that way twelve square miles. "And they thrust him out quickly from there; and he himself hastened to go out, because the Lord had smitten him." What caused him to do this? Because he neglected the Torah and abandoned himself to the soil. (Tanchuma Noach 13)

            This Midrash once again emphasizes the sin appearing among various kings of Yehuda - the blurring of the difference between the kingdom of flesh and blood and the kingdom of God. This is what brought Uziyahu to enter the sanctuary and burn incense before God, in an attempt to take control of the priestly functions, and in the wake of this he also brought about the great earthquake and the removal of the Shekhina.  (Josephus likewise connects Uziyahu's arrogance, his tzara'at and the earthquake; see Antiquities of the Jews, book IX, pars. 222-227.)

            Yishayahu's prophecy thus opens with great wrath and with the beginning of the Shekhina's departure in the wake of Uziyahu's pride, his confidence in his own strength and greatness, and his comparing himself to God.  All of these factors brought Uziyahu to try to take control of the priestly service and enter the sanctuary in order to burn incense.

            A connection exists, then, between the sins of Shelomo, Yoash and Uziyahu. All of them failing to limit their monarchy to its original objectives, blurring the difference between their kingdom and the kingdom of God, because pride, glory, and self-enhancement had taken hold of them.

IV.       ACHAZ

Chazal and the Rishonim do not directly connect the actions of Achaz to the destruction of the Temple.  Yet clearly, his reign was utterly unfit: he rejected the words of the prophet, subjugated himself to the king of Assyria and desecrated the Temple. The Gemara states that Achaz stopped the Temple service, sealed the Torah, and permitted incestuous relationships (Sanhedrin 103b), and it would appear from Scripture that he committed other sins as well.

Achaz was the first king to serve the Molekh (II Melakhim 16:3). Thus, without a doubt, Achaz served as poor example for the entire people, who also began to serve the Molekh. This abominable rite, which combines elements of idol worship, incest, and bloodshed, we find again in Yehuda in the days of Menasheh and Yehoyakim, and it is not by chance that the prophet Yirmiyahu sees it as inevitably leading to the destruction of the city (Yirmiyahu 19).

Achaz also rejected the word of God as found in the Torah and in the mouth of His prophets. He refused to ask God for a sign (Yishayahu 7:10-12); and it is about his days that the prophet said: "Bind up the testimony, seal the Torah among My disciples" (Yishayahu 8:15).

Achaz's absolute political subjugation to the King of Assyria ("I am your servant and your son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen against me," II Melakhim 16:7) had far-reaching spiritual ramifications. (Of course, the very reliance on a foreign king involves a certain denial of God's reign.)  Even before the Assyrian subjugation, Yehuda and Jerusalem were replete with idolatry (II Melakhim 16:6; II Divrei Ha-yamim 28:2-3); yet now, Achaz closed the Temple, cut its vessels, sent its treasures as a bribe to the King of Assyria and built an altar in the Temple courtyard to the gods of Damasek and offered sacrifices on it (II Melakhim 16:8, 12-18; II Divrei Ha-yamim 28:21-24; 29:6-7). Here too Achaz bore guilt for being the first – the first king who dared to close the Temple, and establish in its place the worship of other gods, a sacrilege of the highest order.

How did Achaz come to this terrible state? Perhaps he understood that with the removal of the Shekhina from the Temple in the days of Uziyahu his grandfather, "the Lord has forsaken the land" (Yechezkel 8:12; 9:9). Therefore, he utterly despaired of walking in the path of God and heeding the prophet's guidance, and instead turned to save his kingdom in his own way – by subjugating himself to the world power of Assyria.

V.        CHIZKIYAHU

Despite his righteousness, it was in the days of Chizkiyahu that the first explicit prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple (Mikha 3:12, and see Yirmiyahu 23:18) and the first explicit prophecy concerning the exile to Bavel (II Melakhim 20:16-18) were received. Why did two such harsh prophecies come precisely in the days of this righteous king?

Despite the impressive beginning of Chizkiyahu's reign, which found expression in the renewal of the Temple service and the king's close connection to the prophet and the Torah, Chizkiyahu decided – apparently, already at an early point in his life – to fight against the Assyrian superpower, and for this purpose he entered into an alliance with Egypt (Yishayahu 30-31). The spiritual meaning of this act is the negation of the Exodus from Egypt and the covenant with God associated with it.  The covenant with Egypt indicated a return to the situation that preceded God's declaration, "I am the Lord your God who took you out from the land of Egypt from the house of bondage," and subordination to another superpower instead of absolute subordination to God.

With Sancheriv's invasion of Yehuda and his conquest of its fortified cities, Chizkiyahu begged forgiveness from the King of Assyria and paid them tribute from Temple funds, from the doors of the sanctuary and from the pilasters that he himself had overlaid with gold (II Melakhim 18:14-15).

Moreover, by focusing on this international activity, Chizkiyahu abandoned his primary mission, an internal spiritual, moral and social mission – to establish the kingdom upon justice (Yishayahu 9:6) – and in large measure he left the internal arena in the hands of his officers, Shevna the scribe standing out as the most evil among them. As a result, moral corruption spread through all the institutions of the regime – the priests, the prophets, and the officers – and it stands to reason that in their wake also through a large part of the nation. It was this corruption that brought about the first prophecy concerning the destruction of the city (Mikha 3; we find similar criticism about the corruption of the city, but without a prophecy concerning its destruction, in Yishayahu 1).

Chizkiyahu was also guilty of arrogance: "But Yechizkiyahu did not pay back according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was proud: therefore wrath came upon him, and upon Yehuda and Jerusalem" (II Divrei Ha-yamim 32:25). A king who is preoccupied with entering into alliances with regional powers against a global power will have difficulty not succumbing to arrogance, and the direct ramification is a certain eating away at the kingdom of God.

The blurring of the boundaries between human kingdom and the kingdom of God was caused in part by the king's inflated image of himself, his position, and his wealth – this coming at the cost of revealing God's kingdom in the kingdom of man. In the case of Chizkiyahu, this process found expression in his showing his treasures to the delegation of the king of Bavel – the very treasures that had come into his possession as spoil from the plague that befell the Assyrian army and saved Jerusalem. Thus, Chizkiyahu indirectly attributed his victory to himself and belittled the great salvation brought about by God. It was in the wake of this conduct that a prophecy concerning the exile to Babylonia was first heard (see II Melakhim 20:12-19; Yishayahu 39; Shir Ha-shirim Rabba 3:4).

VI.       THE ABSENCE OF THE JUSTICE IN THE CITY OF JUSTICE

As we saw above, two harsh prophecies were delivered during the days of Chizkiyahu regarding the consequences of the cessation of justice in Jerusalem. One of them – the prophecy of Mikha the Morashti – went as far as to base on that sin the earliest threat of destruction of the city and the Temple. Justice was central to the definition of the city, as the prophet declared:

And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterwards you shall be called the city of justice, a faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and those that return to her with righteousness. (Yishayahu 1:26-27)

            Jerusalem is called the city of justice, and this designation is instructive about its essence. The kingdom of God manifests itself in the world, among other ways, through justice, and therefore it is necessary that justice prevail in the city serving as the seat of that kingdom.

            It is not by chance that Scripture sets Jerusalem against Sodom. In his encounter with Malkitzedek and the King of Sodom, Avram chooses to give a tithe to the King of Shalem, on the one hand, and to reject any connection whatsoever with the King of Sodom, on the other (Bereishit 14:17-24). When the prophet wishes to describe the moral corruption of Jerusalem, he compares it to Sodom (e.g., Yishayahu 1:9-10).

            The name of the kings of the city even became identified with the name of the city itself (as we see from the parallel between Yirmiyahu 23:5-6 and 33:14-15). It includes the word tzedek, justice – as in the names Malkitzedek (Bereishit 14:18), Adonitzedek (Yehoshua 10:1) and Tzidkiyahu (II Melakhim 24:17 – and it constitutes an adjective for the king of Jerusalem, who is obligated to execute justice and judgment.

            The idea that the Temple is a place of justice finds expression in various ways. Justice is a prerequisite for the offering of sacrifices in the house of God (Tehillim 15:1-2; 24:3-4); the seat of the Sanhedrin is in the Lishkat ha-Gazit, next to the altar (Devarim 17:8-9); the priests, ministers of God, serve also as judges (ibid.; also Devarim 21:5, 33:10); the priestly garments are called "garments of justice" (Tehillim 132:9; see also Yishayahu 59:17; 61:10; Iyov 29:14), each of them representing atonement for a different sin; and Jerusalem and the Temple is where the nations of the world will be judged at the end of days (Yishayahu 2:1-4; Mikha 4:1-5; Yo'el 3:5-4-21; Zekharya 9:9-10).

            Since the Temple and Jerusalem are supposed to epitomize justice, justice being a revelation of the Shekhina, we understand that a diminishment of justice in Jerusalem constitutes a diminishment of the revelation of the kingdom of God in the world.  In the absence of justice, there is no justification for the existence of the city and the Temple, and they are destined for destruction, as stated in the prophecy of Mikha.

SUMMARY

            The common denominator of the actions of all the kings discussed above – which constitute, in my opinion, the background for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple – is arrogance and inflated self-importance, which impair the relationship between the king and God, and thus pervert also the standing of the king in his own eyes and in the eyes of his subjects. Jerusalem and the Temple constitute the earthly seat of the kingdom of God, and therefore any diminishment of His kingdom contributes to their destruction.