The Blood of Zechariah That Would Not Rest

"How has the faithful city become a harlot" (Isaiah 1:21), a new city, a great city. Rabbi Pinchas in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya said: There were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem, and each one had within it a Scripture school and a Mishnah school, a Scripture school for the Written Torah and a Mishnah school for the Mishnah, and Vespasian came up and destroyed them all, as it is written, "And he uncovered the covering of Judah" (Isaiah 22:8). "She that was full of justice" (Isaiah 1:21), such as the Mishnah of Rabbi Chiyya, the Mishnah of Rabbi Hoshaya, and the Mishnah of Bar Kappara. "Righteousness lodged in her" (ibid.). Rabbi Yudah son of Rabbi Simon said: In his days no one ever lodged overnight in Jerusalem with iniquity in his hand. How so? The morning daily offering would atone for transgressions committed in the night, and the offering of the late afternoon would atone for transgressions committed in the day; so no one lodged in Jerusalem with iniquity in his hand. What is the reason? "Righteousness lodged in her" (ibid.). "But now murderers" (ibid.) -- they became killers; they killed Uriah the priest, they killed Zechariah. Rabbi Yudan asked Rabbi Acha: Where did they kill Zechariah, in the court of Israel or in the court of the women? He said to him: Neither in the court of Israel nor in the court of the women, but in the court of the priests. And they did not treat his blood as the blood of a deer or the blood of a ram or the blood of a bird. There it is written, "Any man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who hunts any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust" (Leviticus 17:13). But here, "For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the bare rock" (Ezekiel 24:7). Why so? "That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock" (Ezekiel 24:8). Seven transgressions Israel committed on that day: they killed a priest, a prophet, and a judge; they shed innocent blood; they profaned the Name; they defiled the courtyard; and it was the Day of Atonement that fell on a Sabbath. And when Nebuzaradan came up, the blood began to seethe. He said to them, "What is the nature of this seething blood?" They said to him, "It is the blood of bulls, lambs, and rams that we used to offer upon the altar." Immediately he sent and brought bulls, rams, and lambs and slaughtered them before it, and still the blood seethed. When they did not confess to him, he took them and hanged them on the gallows. They said, "Since the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks to demand this blood from our hand, it is the blood of a priest, prophet, and judge, who used to prophesy to us all the things you are doing, and we rose against him and killed him." Immediately he took eighty thousand young priests and killed them over it, until the blood reached the grave of Zechariah. What is the reason? "They break out, and blood touches blood" (Hosea 4:2). And still the blood seethed. At that moment he rebuked it, saying to it, "What do you want? Shall your whole nation be destroyed because of you?" At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, was filled with mercy and said, "If this one, who is flesh and blood and cruel, here today and gone tomorrow, was filled with mercy upon My children, then I, of whom it is written, 'For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not fail you nor destroy you' (Deuteronomy 4:31), how much more so." At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, gave a sign to that blood, and it was absorbed in its place.