{"id":64384,"date":"2019-10-15T10:51:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T07:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64384"},"modified":"2023-05-10T08:22:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T05:22:29","slug":"the-archetype-of-the-penitent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-archetype-of-the-penitent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Archetype Of The Penitent"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[941,571],"acf":{"old_id":"64384","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"330","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Manasseh\u2019s prayers get through, even as he boils in the cauldron\u2026.","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kings presents an uncomplicated biography of Manasseh. However, when we study Chronicles, we encounter a surprisingly different account of Manasseh&#8217;s end:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the Lord brought the army commanders of the king of Assyria against them, they took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylonia. In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly&#8230; God was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom&#8230; Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the city of David&#8230;. He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the house of God&#8230;. He restored the altar of God and sacrifices of peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings upon it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, God of Israel\u201d (II Chr. 33:10-17).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the account in Chronicles, rabbinic tradition presents Manasseh as the most extreme exemplar of the principle that no penitent, however evil, is beyond acceptance and repair. The Talmud relates a dramatic account of Manasseh&#8217;s humiliation and torture at the hands of his Assyrian captors, and his reluctant rediscovery of God, as a desperate last resort:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cR. Levi said: [The Assyrians] filled a copper cauldron and placed Manasseh inside it and lit a fire under it. When he saw his plight, he called out to every idolatrous deity. When none assisted him, he said, &#8220;I remember that my father read me a verse in the synagogue: &#8216;When you are in distress and all these things befall you in the latter days, you shall return to the Lord your God, and listen to His voice&#8230;He will not fail you nor destroy you&#8217; (Deut. 4:30-31). Now I will cry out to God. If He listens to me, well and good; if not, then all kinds of gods are alike.&#8221; The angels barricaded the windows of heaven that the prayer of Manasseh would not ascend to God, and they said: &#8220;Lord of the world! Are You willing to give gracious hearing to one who has worshipped idols and set up an idol in the Temple?&#8221; &#8220;If I did not accept the penance of this man,&#8221; replied God, &#8220;I should be closing the door in the face of all repentant sinners.&#8221; God made a small opening under the throne of His glory and received the prayer of Manasseh through it\u201d (Y. Sanhedrin 10:1).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paradoxically, the most sinful Judahite king in the book of Kings becomes the archetype of the penitent!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind, Maggid Books, 2019, King Menasseh: An Idolatrous Kingdom\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63310,"id":63310,"title":"Alex Israel - 2_kings_cover","filename":"Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hairy-prophet\/alex-israel-2_kings_cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-2_kings_cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63117,"date":"2019-09-23 13:43:41","modified":"2019-09-23 13:53:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1711,"height":1821,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-282x300.jpg","medium-width":282,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-768x817.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":817,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-962x1024.jpg","large-width":962,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1443,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1711,"2048x2048-height":1821,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-1128x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1128,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-395x420.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: II Kings - 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