QUESTIONS: The Gemara explains that David ha'Melech did not want to marry Avishag because he had already married as many wives as he was permitted to marry. When Avishag heard that, she responded, "When a thief can no longer steal, he presents himself as a peace-loving person," implying that David ha'Melech had lost his strength and therefore did not want to marry her (and not because he was prohibited from taking another wife). David ha'Melech proved to her that he still had his full strength by summoning Bas Sheva to be with him.

There are a number of questions on this Gemara.

However, the RA'AVAD there argues and says that the verse which permits the king to marry eighteen wives refers only to proper wives, not Pilagshim. This also appears to be the intention of RASHI (21a, DH v'Ha Kesiv). The CHIDUSHEI HA'RAN in the name of RABEINU DAVID cites proof for this opinion from the verse which describes Rechavam as having eighteen wives in addition to sixty Pilagshim (Divrei ha'Yamim II 11:21). If he limited himself to eighteen wives, it must have been because he was observing the Halachah that a king may not have more than eighteen wives. It is evident from there that a king is permitted to marry Pilagshim in addition to his eighteen wives.

The Chidushei ha'Ran answers the question by saying that Avishag herself refused to be a Pilegesh. (Perhaps she refused because David ha'Melech was already old, and after a king dies his wives and Pilagshim are not permitted to remarry anyone else, as the Rabanan (18a) rule. She wanted to remain an unmarried Penuyah, because even though she would be prohibited to marry someone from non-royal lineage after being with David ha'Melech, she would be permitted to marry another king, as the Gemara says. By becoming a Pilegesh she would neither be a full wife of David, nor would she be able to marry anyone else after his death, not even another king.)

The ARUCH LA'NER suggests a novel approach to explain the Gemara. The Yerushalmi explains that in order for David ha'Melech to repent fully from his actions with Bas Sheva, David ha'Melech constantly tried to place himself in the same situation as he was in when the incident with Bas Sheva occurred, and then, in that situation, to act with the utmost righteousness and control. (This is the highest form of Teshuvah, as the RAMBAM states in Hilchos Teshuvah 2:1.) For this purpose, David ha'Melech had beautiful Pilagshim brought to him. For the same reason, David ha'Melech wanted an attendant to be found who would be the most beautiful woman in all of Israel. When Avishag saw that David ha'Melech was already very old, she said, "You no longer have the same desire you had in your youth, and therefore having a beautiful woman around will not serve the purpose for which you intend." This is what she meant by saying that even a thief eventually loses his ability to steal and then claims that he has repented, not out of true repentance but merely out of the inability to steal. David ha'Melech showed her that he was still youthful and thus could still accomplish complete Teshuvah. (Even according to the Aruch la'Ner, Avishag might have had the hidden intention in her statement in accordance with the simple reading of the Gemara.)

Moreover, it seems that the story of Avishag itself is what prompted Adoniyah to attempt to take the kingship for himself. Adoniyah thought that David ha'Melech was too old to notice or to care about what happened, because his call for Avishag demonstrated his deteriorating health and strength. He did not realize that David ha'Melech's suffering was caused by a specific sin (see Berachos 62b) and not by old age. When David ha'Melech heard Avishag's comment about his age, he realized that many others might have had the same thought, and thus he felt it necessary to show his strength in order to prevent a coup against his kingship. It was at this opportunity that Bas Sheva revealed to the king that indeed there already was a coup in process, and that the time to show his strength had come.

QUESTION: RASHI (DH Kimchah) explains that the source that Bas Sheva cleansed herself thirteen times is the thirteen words in the verse (Melachim I 1:15) that describes her summons to David ha'Melech. How does Rashi come to the number thirteen? A simple count of the words in the verse shows that there are fourteen words in the verse.

ANSWER: The Acharonim (BE'ER HEITEV EH 129:45 in the name of MAHARASH ALGAZI, the DAGUL MEREVAVAH (at end of the Beis Shmuel's list of spellings of names), the TIV GITIN (2:4), and the VILNA GA'ON (Kol Eliyahu, Sanhedrin)) explain that from this Gemara it is evident that the name "Bas Sheva" is really one word in Hebrew, and should be written as one word in a Get ("Bassheva").

RAV REUVEN MARGOLIYOS (in MARGOLIYOS HA'YAM and in L'CHEKER SHEMOS, p. 59) cites a similar instance of the spelling of a name from the Gemara later in Sanhedrin (102b) which says that Achav was granted a rule of twenty-two years because he honored the Torah which is written with twenty-two letters. The RADAK in Melachim I (20:9) writes that this is derived from the number of words in the verse there, "va'Yomer l'Malachei Ven Hadad...." However, the only way to count twenty-two, and not twenty-three, words in that verse is by counting the name "Ven Hadad" as a single word ("Venhadad").

Another instance of such name-contraction is found in the Midrash Tanchuma (Tetzaveh #9) which states that Yehoshua lost ten years of his life because he spoke ten words before Moshe Rabeinu (in Bamidbar 11:28) when he complained about the prophecy of Eldad and Meidad. The verse there, however, contains eleven, not ten, words! It must be that the Midrash counts "Bin Nun" as a single word (TORAH SHE'BA'AL PEH, Yehoshua 1:5). The Radak alludes to this in Yehoshua (1:1) where he writes that "Bin" is written with the vowelization of a Chirik instead of a Segol ("Ben") because the words are always pronounced together and thus it is easier to read with a Chirik.

The RAMBAN (Shemos 33:11) also suggests that "Bin Nun" is to be read as one word and it means "the one of understanding."

RASHI in Bereishis (35:18) mentions a similar concept. Rashi writes that the name "Binyamin" is really a contraction of two words, "Ben" and "Yamin." The word "Ben" was given a Chirik ("Bin") in order to make it more easily pronounced as a single word.

QUESTION: Rebbi Eliezer states that when a man divorces his first wife, even the Mizbe'ach sheds tears. He derives this from the verses in Malachi (2:13-14) in which the prophet Malachi states that they had to make a cover for the tears of the Mizbe'ach, which was crying because the people were taking Nochri wives aside from their Jewish wives. Since the Jewish women had endured difficult times, their beauty had been marred, and thus their husbands cast them aside in favor of the Nochri women.

What is the meaning of the Mizbe'ach shedding tears?

Alternatively, he refers to the Gemara in Sotah (17a) which says that when a man and his wife are worthy, the Shechinah dwells in their midst. This is derived from the different spelling of "Ish" and "Ishah." "Ish" is spelled Alef, Yud, Shin, while "Ishah" is spelled Alef, Shin, Heh. Normally, in order to denote the feminine form of a thing, the letter Heh is added to the word (for example, a female "Par" (cow) is a "Parah"). In the case of a man and a woman, though, not only is the letter Heh added to the word for woman, but the letter Yud is added to the word for man. These two special additions demonstrate that when a man and his wife are worthy, the Shechinah is with them, for when the Yud and the Heh come together they spell the name of Hash-m. When a man divorces his wife, he breaks apart the name of Hash-m, and therefore the Mizbe'ach cries.

It is specifically the Mizbe'ach that cries, because it was from the place that the Mizbe'ach would be built that floodwaters emerged and threatened to drown the entire world. The Gemara in Sukah (53a) relates that when David ha'Melech dug the Shisin (the hollow under the place where the Mizbe'ach eventually would be built, into which the water and wine libations flowed), he inadvertently removed a potsherd that covered (and plugged) the hole of the Waters of the Deep. The waters arose and threatened to drown the world. David ha'Melech inquired whether he was permitted to write the name of Hash-m on the potsherd and to throw it back into the water in order to stop the deluge. No one gave him an answer, until he pronounced a curse on anyone who knew the ruling but would not reveal it to him. Achitofel told him that he was permitted to write the name of Hash-m on the potsherd and throw it into the water, even though Hash-m's name would be erased by the water. David ha'Melech followed Achitofel's ruling, and when he saw that the water descended too much as a result of the potsherd, he said fifteen psalms of Shir ha'Ma'alos in order to raise the water level.

The KLI YAKAR (Bereishis 6:15) points out that when there is a widespread problem with marital harmony among the people, and wives and husbands are involved in licentious activities, Hash-m punishes the people with water. The world was punished with the Great Flood in the times of Noach because of the sin of immoral relations (Arayos), as the Torah states (Bereishis 6:11-12). (This also may be why the Egyptians were punished by being drowned; the Torah (Vayikra 18:3) describes the people of Egypt as being exceedingly promiscuous.)

This explains why the waters of the Flood rose fifteen Amos above the highest mountain. The people sinned by abusing the Yud and Heh that spell Hash-m's name that dwells among the people when there is peace between man and wife, and therefore they were punished with water that rose fifteen Amos above the highest point (the Gematriya of Yud and Heh is fifteen). Similarly, the rain descended for 150 days, a multiple of fifteen. Each of the three levels of Noach's Teivah (the Ark) was 50 Amos wide, 300 Amos long, and 10 Amos high, or a total of 150,000 cubic Amos. This multiple of fifteen alludes to the fact that it was the name of Hash-m, Yud and Heh, which protected Noach and his family in the Teivah, for they were not involved in Arayos.

David ha'Melech wrote the name of Yud and Heh upon the potsherd in order to prevent the waters of the depth from flooding the world. By doing so, David ha'Melech called upon the merit of the people who guarded themselves from sins of immorality to protect the world from the water. Since the waters beneath the Mizbe'ach are sensitive to marital harmony, it is those "tears" that the Mizbe'ach begins to shed when marital harmony is disrupted. (See Insights to Sukah 53:1.)

QUESTION: Rebbi Yochanan states that the making of a Zivug is as difficult as the Splitting of the Sea (Keri'as Yam Suf). RASHI in Sotah (2a) explains that it is so difficult because a person's Zivug is made according to his deeds; he is paired with a woman whose deeds match his deeds.

The Gemara challenges Rebbi Yochanan's assertion that the making of a Zivug is as difficult as Keri'as Yam Suf from the statement of Rav Yehudah in the name of Rav, who says that forty days before the creation of the embryo a Bas Kol issues forth and pronounces his Zivug ("Bas Ploni l'Ploni"). If the Zivug is already determined based on Hash-m's process of the creation of the person, then how can it be based on a person's deeds?

The Gemara answers that only the "Zivug Sheni" is determined by one's deeds. The "Zivug Rishon" is determined before the person is born.

The reason why the Zivug is determined according to one's deeds is that if a person's deeds are meritorious, he is given a better Zivug (see Rashi in Sotah there). Why, though, is the Zivug Rishon -- which is decreed before the person is born -- not dependent on the person's deeds? Why should a person who is a Tzadik be destined to have to marry a woman who is not a Tzadekes just because of what was decreed for him at the time of his creation?

Rabeinu Tam may maintain that everything that occurs to a person is based on Mazal unless he is an outstanding Tzadik (as Tosfos writes in Shabbos 156a). When the Gemara says that the Zivug Rishon is pronounced before the person is born, it means that his Mazal is determined already from the time he is born. The Zivug Sheni also should be determined by his Mazal like the other major events in his life. However, there are times when a woman loses her husband not because it was the Mazal of her husband to die, but because of the great merit of another person who deserved her as his wife. This is the Zivug Sheni to which the Gemara refers.

QUESTION: Rebbi states that his son-in-law, Ben El'ashah, did not waste his money when he paid to see a very special haircut, because he wanted to learn the unique haircut that was given to the Kohen Gadol each week. The haircut to which he is referring, the Gemara explains, is the "Luliyanis" style haircut, which the Gemara learns from the verse, "Kasom Yichsemu Es Rosheihem" -- "they shall trim [the hair of] their heads" (Yechezkel 44:20).

However, that verse appears together with the words "Pera Lo Yeshalechu," from which the Gemara learns that every Kohen must cut his hair once every thirty days. The haircut mentioned in the verse, therefore, should refer to the haircut of a Kohen Hedyot, and not just to the Kohen Gadol's haircut!

The CHIDUSHEI HA'RAN challenges this Girsa. If every Kohen had such a haircut, then why was it so difficult to find a barber who knew how to give it? Even if the Kohanim stopped having such haircuts when the Beis ha'Mikdash was destroyed, Rebbi did not live that long after the Churban, and thus it still should have been well-known how the Kohanim had cut their hair.

An answer to the Chidushei ha'Ran's question may be suggested as follows. The Rishonim argue about what the Gemara means when it says that Kohanim are allowed to grow their hair long "when it is not the time for entering the Mikdash" ("Zeman Bi'ah"). The RA'AVAD (Hilchos Bi'as ha'Mikdash 1:10) understands this to mean that as long as the Beis ha'Mikdash was standing, the Kohanim had to have haircuts every thirty days. The RAMBAM there understands the Gemara to mean that a Kohen had to cut his hair after thirty days only if he was going to enter the Beis ha'Mikdash in order to perform the Avodah. The Girsa mentioned by Rabeinu Yonah is understood according to the Rambam's view, since the only barbers who knew this unique haircut were the ones who cut the Kohanim's hair in the Beis ha'Mikdash. After the Churban, that expertise was forgotten.

The RADAK cites such an explanation but rejects it. However, the Metzudas David defends this opinion and answers the questions of the Radak.

According to the Metzudas David, how can the Gemara learn from "Pera Lo Yeshalechu" that every Kohen must cut his hair after thirty days? Perhaps that verse, too, refers only to a Kohen Gadol!

A number of answers to this question may be suggested.

From the words of the Rambam (in Hilchos Bi'as ha'Mikdash 1:8 and 10) it seems that he learns that the Gemara cites the verse from Yechezkel only to prove that the Kohen is not prohibited from growing long hair except while he is in the Beis ha'Mikdash (like the law of an inebriated Kohen). The verse in Yechezkel simply adds a point to what the verse in Vayikra says. Accordingly, even if the verse in Yechezkel is discussing only the Kohen Gadol, it teaches how to apply the prohibition for a normal Kohen to grow "Pera," because if the Kohen Gadol is permitted to grow "Pera" outside of the Beis ha'Mikdash then certainly the Kohen Hedyot may do so. (M. Kornfeld)

What, then, is the source that even a Kohen Hedyot today may not grow his hair long? This approach must also follow the view of the Rambam that the verse in Yechezkel merely adds a point to the verse in Vayikra, which refers to a Kohen Hedyot.