{"id":100161,"date":"2018-07-09T18:03:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-916\/"},"modified":"2022-01-15T09:55:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T07:55:08","slug":"wall-916","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-916\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Writings-II Chronicles-23"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"916","date":"20290304","book":"II Chronicles","chapter":"23","chapter_main_number":"916","books_group":"Writings","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"100227","color":"#f8ebe3","size":"1","name":"JPS Audio Bible II Chronicles 23 ","post_title":"JPS Audio Bible II Chronicles 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Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"II Chronicles 23","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Hear the daily chapter","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-753876298\/jps_audio_bible_II_Chronicles_23","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Writings","book":"II Chronicles","chapter":"23","chapter_main_number":"916","date":"20290304","wall_id":"916"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"100648","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"The Divisions Will Endure ","post_title":"The Divisions Will Endure","slug":"the-divisions-will-endure","old_id":"100648","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":64450,"post_title":"David Curwin","slug":"david-curwin","old_id":"64450","first_name":"David ","last_name":"Curwin ","description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","short_description":"David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat, and the author of the Balashon blog www.balashon.com","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":64452,"alt":"","title":"david curwin","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","width":427,"height":464,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-276x300.png","medium-width":276,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","medium_large-width":427,"medium_large-height":464,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","large-width":427,"large-height":464,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","1536x1536-width":427,"1536x1536-height":464,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","2048x2048-width":427,"2048x2048-height":464,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin.png","post_full_size-width":427,"post_full_size-height":464,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/david-curwin-387x420.png","home_baner-width":387,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"916","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"If they are for the sake of heaven that is\u2026.\u00a0\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

II Chronicles 23 tells the story of the crowning of Joash. His grandmother, Athaliah, had killed the members of the royal family, but Joash was shielded by the high priest Jehoiada.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jehoiada used the shifts of the priests and the Levites in the Temple to protect Joash. They were armed and instructed to kill anyone who entered the Sanctuary. We then read that both those from the outgoing shift and the incoming shift remained in the Temple:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe Levites and all Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered: each took his men\u2014those who were on duty that week and those who were off duty that week, for Jehoiada the priest had not dismissed the divisions.\u201d (II Chronicles 23:8)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The \u201cdivisions\u201d in the verse refer to those shifts. The Hebrew word used here is <\/span>machlekot<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0in singular. The word <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is likely more familiar today in the sense it was used in the Talmud: \u201cdispute\u201d or \u201cdisagreement\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

One of the most famous uses of the word is in the Mishna:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cEvery <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>that is for the sake of Heaven, will in the end endure; But one that is not for the sake of Heaven, will not endure. Which is the <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>that is for the sake of Heaven? Such was the <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>of Hillel and Shammai. And which is the <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>that is not for the sake of Heaven? Such was the <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>of Korah and all his congregation.\u201d (Avot 5:17)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Usually the word <\/span>machloket<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>in this mishna is translated as \u201cdispute\u201d or \u201ccontroversy.\u201d However, some scholars, citing its usage in Chronicles, say the word should rather be translated as \u201cdivision\u201d, meaning the division of the groups from opposite sides of the debates. They point out that it doesn\u2019t make sense that the mishna intended the sense of \u201cdispute\u201d here, because disputes \"for the sake of heaven\" should be easy to resolve by good arguments (so they won\u2019t endure). But disputes not for the sake of heaven, where personal and external factors are involved, will not be settled by claims of logic (and will endure).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

However, if we use the meaning \u201cdivisions\u201d (as in groups debating an issue), there is no such problem. Those groups that are organized for a positive purpose will endure. The mishna counts the schools of Hillel and Shamai as such groups, and it would certainly apply to those priests and Levites who protected the young king Joash as well.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0Rabbi Hillel and the gentile. Stained glass window in the lodge of Bnai Brith in Hamburg, early 20th C. \/ wikipedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":100649,"alt":"","title":"2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","width":332,"height":598,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster-167x300.jpg","medium-width":167,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","medium_large-width":332,"medium_large-height":598,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","large-width":332,"large-height":598,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","1536x1536-width":332,"1536x1536-height":598,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","2048x2048-width":332,"2048x2048-height":598,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster.jpg","post_full_size-width":332,"post_full_size-height":598,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2chron23-Hillel_Farbiges_Glasfenster-233x420.jpg","home_baner-width":233,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"The 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He is the author of TANAKH: An Owner\u2019s Manual (Jerusalem: Urim\/Ktav, 2015).\r\n\r\n","short_description":"Dr. Moshe Sokolow is Associate Dean of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, Yeshiva University","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34244,"alt":"","title":"sokolow","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","width":302,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow-300x298.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":298,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","medium_large-width":302,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","large-width":302,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","1536x1536-width":302,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","2048x2048-width":302,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","post_full_size-width":302,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sokolow.jpg","home_baner-width":302,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"916","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Temple, Tabernacle, Shabbat - Deep Connections\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

The Chronicler\u2019s preoccupation\u2014even obsession\u2014with matters genealogical is on display here, too. While the parallel passage in 2 Kings reads only: \u201cIn the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the chiefs of the hundreds of the Carites and of the guards, and had them come to him in the House of the LORD\u201d (11:4), our chapter provides the names of those chiefs: \u201cIn the seventh year, Jehoiada took courage and brought the chiefs of the hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri, into a compact with him\u201d (1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The subject of the compact was the distribution of labor in the Temple, as follows: \u201cOne third of you, priests and Levites, who are on duty for the week, shall be gatekeepers at the thresholds; another third shall be stationed in the royal palace, and the other third at the Foundation Gate\u201d (4-5). Most significantly, the Hebrew designation for \u201con duty for the week\u201d is <\/span>ba\u2019ei haShabbat<\/span><\/em>. The Old JPS translation rendered this as \u201cthat come in on the Sabbath,\u201d indicating that each weekly shift began on Friday evening\u2014 something we would not necessarily have known if we had to rely entirely on the New JPS\u2014 constituting something lost in what later editors probably thought was a more colloquial translation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Just why Temple service was regulated according to the Sabbath is not specified\u2014neither here nor in the parallel passage in 2 Kings (11:5)\u2014but we may speculate based on our observations on a previous association between the Sabbath and the Temple\u2019s predecessor, the Tabernacle (<\/span>mishkan<\/span><\/em>). On that occasion (see <\/span>our comments on Exodus 39<\/span><\/a>), we offered several examples of their affinity for one another.<\/span><\/p>\r\n