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b. K·iddushin 72b: “And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” (Ezekiel 11:13). Rav and Samuel— One says:i For good. And one says: For evil. The one who says For good—Like the case of the Governor2 of Mesene who was the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar. He sent to him: From all the captives that I have brought to you, you have not sent me any to stand before us. He wanted to send him some from Israel. Pelatiah the son of Benaiah said to him: We who are of importance ought to stand before you here,3 and let the slaves go there. And the prophet said:4 Shall one who did good in Israel die in the middle of his days! The one who says For evil—As it is written (Ezekiel 11:1) “and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people .” And it is written (8:16) “and he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men,5 with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.” From the fact that it says “and their faces towards the east” can I not know that their backs are “towards the temple of the Lord”?!6 What does it teach us by saying “with their backs toward the temple of the Lord”?—This teaches that they uncovered themselves and defecated 97 23 : Ezekiel’s Cry upwards.7 And the prophet says:8 Shall the one who has done this evil in Israel die on his bed!? You may designate that Samuel was the one who said For evil, since Rabbi H· iyya bar Abba says in the name of Samuel: Moshekheni is like the Captivity with respect to pedigrees. They did not have qualms about Mesene neither on account of slavery nor on account of mamzerut. Rather, the priests who were there were not scrupulous regarding divorcées. I can still tell you that it was Samuel who said For good. And Samuel follows his own view, since he says: One who declares his slave ownerless, the slave goes free and does not require a bill of manumission, since it says (Exodus 12:44) “But every man’s slave that is bought for money.” “Every man’s slave” and not “every woman’s slave”?!—Rather, a slave whose master exercises control over him is called a “slave,” but a slave whose master does not exercise control over him is not called a “slave.” Ezekiel 11:1–13 tells of twenty-five leading citizens of Jerusalem, including Jaaziniah and Pelatiah, who are disparaged for obscure offenses.9 The prophet is instructed to condemn them, foretelling how they will be removed from Jerusalem and given over to an enemy in whose hands they will fall by the sword. Pelatiah son of Benaiah fell dead even as Ezekiel was speaking,10 prompting the outcry that is the topic of this pericope. The Bible’s account, taken on its own terms, offers no indication that Pelatiah was anything other than an unredeemed villain. Precisely for this reason, Ezekiel’s apparent distress at his death can be viewed as puzzling.11 The original context of Rav’s and Samuel’s dispute12 is not clear. The favourable assessment of Pelatiah is likely to have arisen in connection with the book of Lamentations, although it might plausibly have evolved out of the sugya in b.K·iddushin that examines the halakhic pedigrees of various regions in Babylonia. By the same token, the unfavorable opinion might have been formulated with reference to m.Sukkah 5:4, which touches on the phenomenon of bowing towards the east with one’s back to the Sanctuary.13 A similar tradition, about a Pelatiah son of Joiada (!), who inspired his fellow Levites not to sing before Nebuchadnezzar, is included in the Second Targum...

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