Nach Summaries; Melachim Aleph 20-22 & Melachim Beis 1-3
MA 20 – Aram makes unreasonable demands of Achav, King of Israel. We beat Aram in battle (twice), but Achav has mercy on Ben-hadad, the King of Aram; instead of killing him, he agrees a truce and retakes cities that Aram had seized from Bnei Yisrael. A prophet comes and tells Achav that there will be future destruction because of this inappropriate mercy.
MA 21 – Achav covets Navos’s vineyard and, after Navos refuses to give/sell it to Achav, his wife Jezebel hires false witnesses to testify that Navos cursed HaShem, and thus had him killed and she possessed the vineyard, ad gave it to her husband. Eliyahu rebukes Achav for this and curse him. But due to Achav’s humbling himself, HaShem delays the punishment for the next generation.
MA 22 – Yehoshafat, King of Yehudah, fights alongside Achav, King of Israel, and Achav is killed in the battle with Aram, in accordance with the warning from Michayahu the prophet. Achaziya takes Achav’s place as King of Israel, and Yehoshafat dies, and is replaced by Yehoram as King of Yehudah. Achaziya is equal to the evil of Achav, his predecessor.
MB 1 – Achaziyah becomes ill, and asks to enquire from a foreign god as to whether he will recover. Eliyahu the prophet rebukes him via his messenger for not asking HaShem. Achaziyah sends men to try and seize Eliyahu, but he evades capture by causing a fire to descend from Heaven and kill his potential captors. Eliyahu finally comes to Achaziyah, and prophecises that Achaziyah will die – and this comes true. Yehoram, his brother, replaces Achaziyah.
MB 2 – Eliyahu travels with Elisha, who refuses to forsake him. Eliyahu goes up to Heaven in a storm, and his powers find home in Elisha.
MB 3 – Israel and Yehudah make an alliance and go to war together against Moav. After travelling for 7 days, they need water, and Elisha provides it miraculously; and also prophecies victory over Moav. Moav see the water but think it is blood and charge after the Bnei Yisrael, dreaming of spoils, but are beaten.
DT (v short)
We see from perek 20 of MA that Achav was punished for showing mercy to the King of Aram. Isn’t mercy a good middah?
One answer is that no middah is inherently good or bad (maybe one exception is anger, but this is also debatable); all are opportunities which we can use for the good or the bad. This is how Rav Bernstein ztl explained the fact that Chametz and Matzah are made out of the exact same ingredients, yet Matzah is a mitzvah and causes greater Emunah, whilst chametz brings on kares – to teach us that each ingredient and midday can be used for the good or bad; it’s our responsibility to use our powers wisely. So too here, though mercy is often seen as good, when used against HaShem’s Will, it is bad.
Thus remember, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
