In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

b.Sanhedrin 94a: “Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land.” (2Kings 18:32; Isaiah 36:17). Rav and Samuel— One says: He was a clever king. And one says: He was a stupid king.1 The one who says He was a clever king2—If I tell them it is3 superior to your land, they will say: You are lying. And the one who says He was a stupid king4—If so, what significance is there to where he exiled them? Sifré on Deuteronomy 37:5 “Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth” (Proverbs 8:31). “The habitable part [tevel]”—This is the Land of Israel. Why is its name called tevel?—On account of the spice [tevel] that is in it. What is the spice that is in it?—Torah, as it says (Lamentations 3:9): “among the Gentiles there is no Torah.”6 From here [we deduce] that the Torah is in the Land of Israel. And thus do you find with respect to Sennacherib, that when he came to entice Israel, what did he say to them?—“Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land.” “To a land better than your land” is not written here, but rather “to a land like your own land.” And are not these things an a minori argument: If one who had come to speak the praises of his own land could not speak disparagingly of the Land of Israel, all the more so with respect to the praises of the Land of Israel! Rabbi Simeon ben Yoh· ai says: This man was a fool and did not know how to entice. It is comparable to a man who went to marry a woman. He said to her: Your father is a king and I am a king. Your father is wealthy and I am wealthy. Your father gives you meat and 117 28 : Sennacherib, Clever or Stupid? fish to eat, and he gives you old wine to drink, and I give you meat and fish to eat, and I give you old wine to drink.—This is not enticement . How ought he to address her? Your father is a commoner and I am a king. Your father is poor and I am wealthy. Your father gives you greens and pulse to eat, and I give you meat and fish to eat. Your father gives you new wine to drink and I give you old wine to drink. Your father takes you to the bath house on foot, and I take you in a litter. And are these things not an a minori argument: If one who had come to speak the praises of his own land could not speak disparagingly of the Land of Israel, all the more so with respect to the praises of the Land of Israel! The “stupid” interpretation supplied by the Talmud for the dispute between Rav and Samuel7 is very similar to Rabbi Simeon ben Yoh· ai’s argument in the Sifré: Sennacherib,8 in his attempt to persuade the Judeans to acquiesce voluntarily to exile, was less than persuasive in not promising them that their new location would be better than their present homes. However, the diverse contexts confer diverse meanings on the contrary views in the respective passages. In b. Sanhedrin, the “clever” assessment seems to go a step farther than the “stupid” one. Even though inflated praises of their exilic destinations would serve the short-term interests of Sennacherib’s propaganda, their patent untruth would in the long term destroy his credibility and defeat his purposes. In the Sifré, on the other hand, Rabbi Simeon ben Yoh· ai is not really disagreeing with the previous view; he is strengthening it by pointing out its underlying logic: In spite of the fact that Sennacherib’s lukewarm recommendation of the new land was “foolish” and counterproductive to his purposes, he still could not bring himself to disparage the Land of Israel.9 Thus, the opinion that Sennacherib was exhibiting cleverness in his words appears to be unique to the talmudic sugya10 and is not found in the Sifré.11 In the Talmud, Rav’s and Samuel’s dispute is incorporated into a sugya about Hezekiah and Sennacherib. This, in turn, is a spin-off from a compendium on the theme of messianic redemption. In assuming that anyone who claims that another land could be better than the Land of...

Share