Shiur from Shabbat Parshat Vayechi, 5786

So, there was one person called ‘Sissai’.

She jumped off the roof. Why did she jump from the roof? She simply committed suicide, jumped of the roof.

It appears, she was ‘Shuvu Banim’…

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So, why did she jump off the roof? Bring Gemara Bava Batra.

The Gemara, on page 3, says that Herod killed all of the House of the Hasmoneans. And that only one girl remained, and she went up to the roof and she jumped, and said:

Whoever comes in the future and will say that he is from the House of the Hasmoneans – so he is a slave!

And this is also [in the] Gemara Kiddushin, page 70.

The Gemara says, all those who will say that they are from the House of the Hasmoneans – he is a slave.

Because Herod killed the whole House of the Hasmoneans, and nothing remained except for one girl, and she also jumped off the roof and died.

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[The Rav is now referring to the Gemara Kiddushin, page 70, where it also talks about what was happening in Babylonia, in relation to slaves intermarrying with kohanim.]

So Shmuel [in the original, R Yehuda] got to Nehardea, and he expounded on this, and said that there are many [people in the Jewish community] here who are slaves.

So, they came to kill him with stones.

From this, we can show that they were ‘Shuvu Banim’. Because they lifted up gigantic stones to throw at Shmuel. So he said to them:

If you quieten down – OK, b’seder. But if not, I will pronounce upon you that you are all mamzerim![1]

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They immediately dropped all their stones, and threw them into the river – they stopped-up the river with them.

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Pashchor[2] had 400 slaves, or 40,000 slaves, and all of them married Kohanim.

They assimilated within the families of the Kohanim.

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Why did this happen to the House of Hasmonean, that they were all annihilated?

The RAMBAN says, about our parsha:

Why was the whole House of the Hasmoneans annihilated? Because they took the malchut [kingship], and they weren’t from the House of David.

[The RAMBAN writes this about] the passuk “The scepter will not depart from Judah”[3]

• That the kingship could only be for someone who was from the House of David, and they were not from the House of David.

It was forbidden for them to take the malchut.

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So, only someone from the House of David can take the kingship.

“The scepter will not depart from Judah.”

And so they were punished, that nothing would remain of the Hasmoneans, even though they were tzaddikim.

Because it was forbidden for them to be kings.

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Translated from Shivivei Or, 440.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] In halacha, the status of ‘mamzer’, or bastard, does NOT apply to a child who, even if he is born out of wedlock, his parents would be halachically permitted to be married to each other. It only applies to a child produced by the type of union that is permanently forbidden, meaning the parents could never be married according to halacha. Also, the child of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father does not have the status of mamzer, even though a Jew and a non-Jew cannot be married halachically.

[2] In the original Hebrew spelt: פשחור.

[3] Bereishit, Parshat Vayechi, 49:10.