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1) THE DESTRUCTION OF TUR MALKA

(a) Tur Malka was destroyed on account of a rooster and a hen - the custom was to bring a rooster and a hen in front of a groom and bride, so they should be fruitful as chickens.

1. Once a Roman troop took the rooster and hen; the Jews hit them. The troop told the Kaiser that the Jews were rebelling; he brought an army against them.
2. There was a Yisrael from the south that could leap a Mil (kilometer) and kill soldiers. The Kaiser put his crown on the ground.
3. Kaiser: Master of the whole world - please do not hand over my kingdom and me to one man.
4. The southerner spoke improperly - he said "Hash-m, have You not abandoned us, You do not go in our legions"!

i. Objection: David also said that!
ii. Answer: David said it in wonderment.

(b) The southerner went to the bathroom; a snake dislocated his anus, and he died.
(c) Kaiser: Since Hash-m did a miracle for me, I will leave them.
(d) The Jews ate, drank and made a great bonfire - 1 Mil away, one could see the image on a coin from its light.
(e) Kaiser: They are mocking me!

1. He returned to attack them.

(f) (Rav Asi): 300,000 sword bearing soldiers came upon Tur Malka; they killed for 3 days and 3 nights. On the other side of Tur Malka, they were singing and dancing, unaware of what was happening.
(g) (Ravin): "Hash-m swallowed, He did not have compassion, all the beautiful places of Yakov" - These are 600,000 cities than Yanai the king had in Har ha'Melech;
(h) Each city had 600,000 inhabitants; the following 3 had twice this.

1. The village of Bish (shame) - they would not give lodging to a guest.
2. The village of Shichlayim (cress) - their income came from cress.
3. The village of Dichriya (male).

i. (R. Yochanan): A woman would first have males, then a daughter, and would not conceive again.

(i) (Ula): I saw Har ha'Melech - it cannot hold even 600,000 reeds!

1. A heretic: You (Chachamim) lie!
2. R. Chanina: Eretz Yisrael is called "The land of the deer".

i. Just as a deer's skin cannot cover the flesh once it has been flayed, Eretz Yisrael is expansive when Yisrael dwells on it, and shrivels when we are not on it.

(a) A man and woman were engaged; they were captured by a Nochri, who married them to each other.

1. The wife: Please don't touch me - I don't have a Kesuvah from you.

i. He didn't touch her his entire life.

(b) She told the eulogizers: he overcame a harder test than Yosef.

1. Yosef was only tested once - my husband was tested every day!
2. Yosef was not in the same bed as Potifar's wife - my husband was in the same bed as me!
3. Yosef was tempted by someone he was not married to - my husband had to refrain from touching his wife!

(c) The price (of grain) used to be 1 Dinar for 40 measures; it went up to 1 Dinar for 39 measures.

1. They investigated the cause; it was found that a father and son had raped a betrothed Na'arah. They were stoned in Beis Din, and the price returned to the normal level.

(d) A man once decided to divorce his wife, but her Kesuvah was great, and he did not want to pay it.

1. He gave his wife and a close friend to eat and drink, until they were drunk; he lied them down on a bed, and put egg white on the sheet between them. He took them to Beis Din.
2. Bava Ben Buta, a Talmid of Shamai: Shamai taught - if one puts a fire near egg white, it forms a crust; a fire near semen will make it get more absorbed in the sheet.

i. They tested the sheet, and realized what happened; they whipped the (ex-)husband, and forced him to pay the Kesuvah.

(e) Question (Abaye): If they were such Tzadikim - why was the city destroyed?
(f) Answer (Rav Yosef): They did not mourn over Yerushalayim - "Make Yerushalayim glad, rejoice in it; all who love it, all that mourned over it will rejoice with it".

(a) Beitar was destroyed on account of a carriage wheel.

1. The custom was to plant a cedar tree when a boy was born, and a & for a girl; when they got married, they would cut the trees to make the canopy.
2. One day, Kaiser's daughter was riding; the wheel of the carriage broke. They cut down a cedar to fix it; the Jews struck them. The told the Kaiser that the Jews were rebelling.

(b) (R. Zeira): "In (Hash-m's) anger, he cut down the horn (greatness) of Yisrael" - 80,000 horn-blowing troop leaders that entered Beitar when they conquered it.

1. They killed men, women and children, until the blood flowed into the Meditaranian Sea.

i. This was 1 Mil (kilometer) away!

(c) (Beraisa - R. Eliezer ha'Gadol): There are 2 rivers in the valley called Yadayim; they flow in different directions. They measured - 2/3 of the flow was water; 1/3 was blood of those killed in Beitar.
(d) (Beraisa): The blood sufficed to fertilize the vineyards of the Nochrim for 7 years.

4) ATROCITIES IN YERUSHALAYIM

(a) (R. Chiya Bar Avin): In 1 valley, Nevuzaradan, the chief butcher, killed 2,110,000 people.
(b) In Yerushalayim, he killed 940,000 on 1 rock, until their blood touched the blood of Zecharyah - "Bloods touched bloods".

1. Nevuzaradan had seen Zecharyah's blood boiling; he asked what it was.
2. Jews: It is blood of sacrifices that was spilled.

(c) Nevuzaradan tested this; he found that it did not resemble the seething blood.

1. Nevuzaradan: If you do not tell me, I will tear your skin with iron combs!
2. Jews: There was a prophet that rebuked us on spiritual matters. We killed him; his blood has been boiling all these years.
3. Nevuzaradan: I will appease the blood.

(d) He slaughtered the great and smaller Sanhedrins by the blood; it did not rest. He slaughtered male and female youths; the blood did not rest. He slaughtered children that learn from a Rebbi; it did not rest.

1. Nevuzaradan: Zecharyah - I have slaughtered the best among them - would you like me to slaughter them all?
2. The blood rested.

(e) Nevuzaradan repented. He reasoned: if this was the punishment for killing 1 person - how much greater will be my punishment, after I killed so many!

1. He sent a message to his home, what to do with his estate, and he converted.
2. (Beraisa): Na'aman was a Ger Toshav (a Nochri that keeps his 7 Mitzvos and may live in Eretz Yisrael); Nevuzaradan was a convert; Haman's grandchildren taught Torah in Benei Berak; Sisera's grandchildren taught children in Yerushalayim; Sancheriv's grandchildren taught Torah in public.
3. Question: Who were these descendants of Sancheriv?
4. Answer: Shemayah and Avtalyon.

(f) "I will put the blood on the smooth rock, that it will not be covered" - this is the blood of Zecharyah.
(g) "The voice is the voice of Yakov, the hands are the hands of Esav" - "The voice" refers to (the victims of) Adrayainus Kaiser, who killed 1,200,000 in Aleksandriya of Mitzrayim;

1. "The voice of Yakov" is Aspasyainus Kaiser, who killed 4,000,000 in Beitar; some say, 40,000,000;
2. "The hands are the hands of Esav" - this is the evil kingdom that destroyed our house, burned our Heichal, and exiled us from our land.

(h) Alternatively: "The voice is the voice of Yakov" - prayer only works for those that descend from Yakov;

1. "The hands are the hands of Esav" - Conquest in war only comes to descendants of Esav.

(i) From the story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, we learn as R. Elazar.

1. (R. Elazar): "By evil speech, you should hide" - by quarrelsome speech, hide.

(j) (Rav Yehudah): "By the rivers of Bavel we sat and cried when we remembered Tziyon" - this teaches that Hash-m showed David (who wrote the Psalms) the destruction of both Temples.

1. "By the rivers of Bavel we sat and cried" - this teaches that David saw the destruction of the first Temple;
2. "Hash-m, remember the sons of Edom, the day of (the destruction of) Yerushalayim, when they said "Raze, raze it to the foundations".

(a) (Rav Yehudah citing Shmuel): There was a boat with 400 boys and girls that were being taken for sexual exploitation; they realized this.

1. The girls: If we drown ourselves in the sea (to avoid this), will we come to the world to come?
2. The oldest boy: Yes - "(Hash-m) will return from the depths of the sea".

i. Upon hearing the answer, the girls jumped into the sea.

3. The boys made a Kal va'Chomer: it was proper for the girls to take their own lives, to avoid heterosexual exploitation, which is a 'natural' abomination;

i. We are being taken for homosexual exploitation, an unnatural abomination - all the more so, we should take our own lives to avoid this!

4. The boys jumped into the sea, fulfilling "For you we are killed all the day, we are as sheep to be slaughtered."

(b) Opinion #2 (Rav Yehudah himself): This verse refers to a woman and her 7 children.

1. The first child was brought before the Kaiser; he was told to serve an idol.
2. The child: I will not serve - the Torah says, "I am Hash-m your G-d" - he was killed.
3. The second child was brought; he was told to serve an idol.
4. The child: I will not serve - the Torah says, "You will not have other gods in front of me" - he was killed.
5. The third child was brought. He refused, citing "One who sacrifices to (the other, false) gods will be killed" - he was killed.
6. The fourth child was brought. He refused, citing "You will not bow to another god" - he was killed.
7. The fifth child was brought. He refused, citing "Shma Yisrael, Hash-m is our G-d, Hash-m is One" - he was killed.
8. The sixth child was brought. He refused, citing "Hash-m is One in Heaven above and on the land below" - he was killed.
9. The seventh child was brought. He refused, citing "You have designated Hash-m...Hash-m has designated you" - we swore to Hash-m that we will not serve another god in place of Him, and He swore to us that He will not exchange us (to have his closest connection) to another people.
10. The Kaiser: I will throw my ring with my image engraved in it - bow down and pick it up, so it will appear as if you accept my authority.
11. The child: Woe to you! You are so concerned for your honor - how much more I must be concerned for the honor of Hash-m!

i. As they took him to be killed, his mother asked to kiss him first. She told him to give a message to Avraham (in the next world): You tied a son on 1 altar to sacrifice him - I tied sons on 7 altars.
ii. She went up to the roof and fell to her death. A voice from Heaven proclaimed "Happy is the mother of children".

(c) Opinion #3 (R. Yehoshua ben Levi): ("We are killed for you all the day") refers to circumcision, which we do on the eighth day (and sometimes die from it).
(d) Opinion #4 (Reish Lakish): It refers to Chachamim that demonstrate slaughter on themselves (for this can prompt death).

1. (Rava): A person may demonstrate anything on himself, except for slaughter and Tzara'as.

(e) Opinion #5 (Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak): The verse refers to Chachamim that give their lives for learning.

1. (Reish Lakish): "This is the Torah - a man that will die in a tent" - words of Torah only last in someone that kills himself for them.