meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Rashi/Prophets/Rashi on Haggai/English/merged.txt"}
text: Rashi on Haggai
  רש"י על חגי
  merged
  
  This file contains merged sections from the following text versions:
  -The Twelve Prophets, English translation by A. Cohen, Soncino Press, 1948
  -
  
  Rashi on Haggai
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  In the second year of King Darius This was Darius king of Persia, who succeeded Ahasuerus. We find in <i>Midrash Leviticus Rabbah</i> (13:4) that he was Esther’s son. Now, in the days of Cyrus I, Zerubbabel and Joshua the Priest went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with the sanction of Cyrus, as it is said (Ezra 1:3): “Whoever is among you of all His people, etc.” The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin rose up and sent their letters to Cyrus to [have him] ordain that they [Judah and Benjamin] stop the construction of the Temple, which they had commenced; and he gave the order and stopped it. From that day they stopped, as is explained in Ezra (4:24): “Then the work of the house of God was stopped, etc.” It was stopped for the three years that Cyrus reigned, the fourteen years of Ahasuerus, and the first year of Darius his son. In the second year [of Darius] this prophecy was proclaimed to Haggai: to urge them [i.e., Judah and Benjamin] to resume the building, and that they should not fear, for the heathens would not stop them for the Holy One, blessed be He, would grant them success.
  
  Verse 2
  
  This people has said Since their enemies stopped them the first time, they think that I will not fulfill My words that I said, (Dan. 9:2) “According to the completion of seventy years from the destruction of Jerusalem”; and that the time for the House to be rebuilt will never come. Say to them that now the time has come, but the first time was only a remembrance at the completion of the seventy years from the inception of the kingdom of Babylon. And so it was that at the end of seventy years they were remembered for going up by the sanction of Cyrus; but the [time for the] building of the House depended upon [counting from] the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place eighteen years later than [the inception of] the kingdom of Babylon, as the master said (<i>Meg.</i> 11b): “They were exiled in the eighteenth year; they were exiled in the nineteenth year.” Now, the eighteen years are complete.
  
  Verse 3
  
  
  
  Verse 4
  
  Is it [an appropriate] time for you? This is an interrogative expression; therefore the “heh” is vowelized with a “pattah.”
  ceiled covered with boards of cedar, as in (I Kings 6:9): “And he covered the house” and (ibid. 7:3) “And it was covered with cedar.” And so did <i>Jonathan</i> render: “Is such a way proper for you, that you sit in the houses that are covered with boards of cedar, and this Temple is destroyed?”
  
  Verse 5
  
  your ways Your affairs, for you see that there is no blessing in the work of your hands, as he [Haggai] states: You have sown much and you bring in little. All this is because of the desolation of My house.
  
  Verse 6
  
  and you bring in little because of the iniquity of the cessation of [the offerings of] the first fruits.
  You eat without being satiated because of the iniquity of the cessation of the meal-offerings.
  You drink without getting your fill for the taste of wine was taken away because the libations ceased.
  You dress, and it has no warmth because of the iniquity of the cessation of wearing the priestly garments.
  And he who profits, profits into a bundle with holes Any profit that you make becomes less and less, like one who puts his money into a cloth bundle with holes.
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  and I will be honored The “heh” [whose numerical value is five] missing from the Masoretic text corresponds to the five items in the First Temple that were not in the Second Temple: 1) the Holy Ark, 2) the Urim and Tummim, 3) the fire that descended from heaven, 4) the Shechinah, and 5) the Holy Spirit, as is stated in Tractate <i>Yoma</i> (21b).
  
  Verse 9
  
  You looked for much Until now, you expected to bring much from the field, but you brought little.
  and I will blow into it I will bring upon it a plague of decay and worms.
  and I will blow an expression like (Isa. 54:16) “Who blows on a charcoal fire.”
  
  Verse 10
  
  because of you the heavens have kept back Because of your sins.
  
  Verse 11
  
  
  
  Verse 12
  
  
  
  Verse 13
  
  in [fulfilling] the Lord’s mission In the messengership of the Omnipresent.
  
  Verse 14
  
  and they came and performed labor They commenced cutting stones and sawing trees in the sixth month, on the twenty fourth of the month; and in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day, the word of the Lord came to Haggai.
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
  Verse 2
  
  
  
  Verse 3
  
  Who among you is left who was of the exiles and is still alive?
  who saw, etc. Who saw the first one this [one] is of no esteem in his eyes.
  is it not as nothing I know that to one who saw the first one, this one is but nothing in his eyes.
  is it... as nothing It and nothing are equal, as in (Hos. 4:9) “And it shall be like people like priest” Here, too, כָמֹהוּ כְּאַיִן ; it [the Second Temple] and nothing are equal.
  
  Verse 4
  
  
  
  Verse 5
  
  the thing that I set up You keep My Torah, and My spirit rests on your prophets; do not fear.
  
  Verse 6
  
  another one... [for] a little while When this kingdom of Persia, which rules over you, terminates, yet another one will rise up to rule over you, to oppress you; this is the kingdom of Greece, and the time of its rule will be a little while.
  and I will shake up with the miracles performed for the Hasmoneans.
  the heaven, etc. And they will understand that My Shechinah rests in this House, and they will bring gifts of silver and gold, as is written in the book of Joseph ben Gurion.
  
  Verse 7
  
  
  
  Verse 8
  
  The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine and it is in My power to bring it to whomever I desire.
  
  Verse 9
  
  shall be greater There was a controversy between Rav and Samuel. One said: In the building; and one said: In the years, that the years of the First Temple were four hundred and ten, and those of the Second Temple were four hundred and twenty.
  
  Verse 10
  
  
  
  Verse 11
  
  Now ask the priests the Torah Perhaps in exile they forgot the laws of sanctified things, and of impurity and purity.
  
  Verse 12
  
  contaminated flesh flesh of contamination of a carcass as a creeping thing.
  and the pottage a cooked food
  “No.” It [the food] will [not] become contaminated. Rav and Shmuel disagree over this matter. One [Rav] says that the priests erred, for he [Haggai] asked them concerning a fourth degree contamination in reference to hallowed things, and they replied that it [the food] is ritually pure. One [Shmuel] says that the priests did not err, that he [Haggai] asked them concerning a fifth degree contamination in reference to hallowed things.
  if it touches in his skirt It did not touch the creeping thing itself but the garment, which is the first degree of contamination.
  will it become contaminated? Heb. הֲיִקְדָּשׁ 
  
  Verse 13
  
  If the contamination of a dead body The dead body itself.
  It will become contaminated For the dead body is the father of the father of contamination. The fifth degree of the contamination of the reptile or rodent is a fourth degree in the contamination of a dead body.
  
  Verse 14
  
  So is this people Just as you err in this, so do you err in many halachot.
  and whatever they will sacrifice there if they do not put their hearts to learning.
  
  Verse 15
  
  and before The years that passed.
  before placing a stone upon a stone Before you return to resume the building and to add to the foundation that you laid in the days of Cyrus - when it [the building] was stopped - now put your hearts to engage in the building and in studying the necessities of the priesthood.
  
  Verse 16
  
  so that they should not come to a heap of twenty measures So that you should not have a curse sent into your works as [there has been] until now; for they would set up a heap from which twenty seahs should be measured, and would find only ten.
  when one would come to the wine vat That is the pit before the wine press, into which the wine flows.
  to draw off fifty press-measures To draw out from [the winevat] fifty measures with which they would measure wine from the winepresses, and the name [of those fifty measures] is purah.
  to draw off to draw, as in (Isa. 30:14) “To scoop water from a cistern”; and so (ibid. 47:2) “Draw off the path.”
  and there would be twenty Not that more of a curse is sent into the wine than is sent into the grain, but a person [may] err in estimating the measure of the winevat because it is deep, while the heap [of grain] stands before him. In tractate Avoth d’Rabbi Nathan (4:4) we learned a reason why a small measure is not mentioned with regard to wine, while it is mentioned with regard to grain, e.g.. to draw off twenty-five press measures and it was ten. This teaches us that wine is an extra measure for the world, and when the wine suffers, it is a symptom of a curse for the world. Since the wine must be plentiful, [the prophet] counts a larger number concerning it.
  
  Verse 17
  
  
  
  Verse 18
  
  that the Temple of the Lord was founded That now for the second time they began to add to the first foundation that they had built in the days of Cyrus.
  
  Verse 19
  
  The seed is still in the granary You have not yet sown this year, and the trees have not yet ripened their fruits. From now on you shall sow at a time of blessing, for the building of the Temple will bring blessing into the work of your hands.
  
  Verse 20
  
  
  
  Verse 21
  
  
  
  Verse 22
  
  and I will destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations The kingdom of Persia, which now rules over the entire world, will fall into the hands of another kingdom at the end of thirty-four years from the building of the Temple, as we learned in tractate <i>Avodah Zarah</i> (9a).
  
  Verse 23
  
  and I will make you as a signet In contrast to what was decreed upon his father Jeconiah (Jer. 22: 24): “As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, be a signet on My right hand, from there I will remove you.” [Jeremiah further] states there (ibid. 22:30): “Inscribe this man childless.” We learn that his repentance availed [Jeconiah], and Zerubbabel was born to him, and he was made as a signet.