Hezekiah at the Foreign Table and Elkanah Leading Israel Up to Shiloh

Let a person keep this in his heart: that he should not eat at the table with an idolater, for we find regarding Hezekiah king of Judah that he ate with an idolater at the table, and in the end he was punished with a great punishment. How do you know? When Sennacherib came and surrounded Jerusalem, Hezekiah stood in prayer before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, O LORD, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim... incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib... that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God alone" (2 Kings 19:15-19). It appears that Hezekiah spoke with the Holy One, blessed be He, like a person speaking with his friend. At once the spirit of God rested on Isaiah the prophet, and Isaiah the prophet said to Hezekiah the king: Does not a person who speaks with one greater than himself shudder in all his body and tremble in all his limbs? One who speaks before the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, all the more so should speak with awe and fear and trembling. Therefore Hezekiah fell ill with a great illness, as it is said, "In those days Hezekiah fell sick to the point of death, and Isaiah came to him... and said, Thus says the LORD, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live" (2 Kings 20:1). What is "you shall die and not live"? The prophet said to him: You shall die in this world and not live in the world to come. He said to him: And why so much? He said: Because you did not occupy yourself with being fruitful and multiplying. He said to him: Because I foresaw by the Holy Spirit that unworthy children would come from me. He said to him: With the hidden things of the Merciful, why are you concerned? What you were commanded you ought to do, and what is pleasing before the Holy One, blessed be He, let Him do. He said: Give me your daughter now; perhaps your merit and mine together will cause worthy children to come from me. He said: The decree has already been issued against you. He said: Son of Amoz, finish your prophecy and go out. Thus I have received from the house of my father's father: even if a sharp sword rests on a person's neck, let him not withhold himself from mercy, as it is said, "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" (Job 13:15). Therefore let a person marry a wife so that he may have children, and let him learn from Hezekiah: even though he knew in his mind by the Holy Spirit that he would not have fitting children, and therefore offered objections before the Omnipresent, even so he was being punished in the world to come had he not married a wife. And the sages learned four things concerning prayer. First, that a person should not stand in a valley to pray, after the manner of idolaters. Second, that he should not stand in the public domain and pray, on account of the notice of people and the notice of women. Third, that he should sanctify his space, four cubits to the north, four to the south, four to the east, and four to the west; and if the prayer was in his house, he must sanctify the whole house, even a hundred cubits; why? "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). Fourth, the sages learned that a person should not stand beside a tree or beside a stone and pray, but beside the wall, and let nothing interpose between him and the wall, as it is said, "And he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD" (2 Kings 20:2). "And Hezekiah wept greatly" - the LORD, who is merciful and gracious and full of compassion, saw his lips murmuring uprightly with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and insight, and at once heard his prayer, as it is said, "And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying... I have heard your prayer... behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD" (2 Kings 20:4-5). "And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign... And Isaiah said, This is the sign for you... the shadow went back ten steps" (2 Kings 20:8-11). At that hour all the idolaters and their sages and sorcerers were confounded, and said, No one recognizes this matter except the Great Court in Jerusalem alone. At once the king of Babylon wrote letters and a gift to Hezekiah king of Judah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill, and Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure-house; there was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them. At once the spirit of God rested on Isaiah and he said to Hezekiah, What did these men say, and where did they come to you from?... And Hezekiah said... There was nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them. But were these the things asked of him? Rather he said to him: Why did you reveal the secret of the LORD to idolaters? And the idolaters say, What difference is there in Hezekiah from his Father in heaven? Therefore it is said, "And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD: behold, days are coming when all that is in your house... shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left" (2 Kings 20:16-17). From here they said: Let a person not be arrogant about the words of Torah and not provoke over them, lest they be uprooted from the world; for so we find regarding Hezekiah the king, who was arrogant about the words of Torah and provoked over them, and they sought to uproot him from the world. At the hour when God in heaven made known to Hezekiah that He would heal him as the reward of his prayer and his tear and that he would go up on the third day to the house of the LORD, Hezekiah asked for a sign, and the Holy One, blessed be He, changed for him the work of the heavens; and when He changed the work of the heavens for him, his mind grew haughty, and he ate with the idolaters and showed them the Ark and revealed to them the secret of the upper realms, and because he ate with idolaters and showed them the Ark and revealed to them the secret, He gave him Manasseh. Similarly: "There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah" (1 Samuel 1:1). Elkanah used to go up to Shiloh four times a year - three from the Torah and one which he took upon himself as a freewill offering, as it is said, "And this man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh" (1 Samuel 1:3). Elkanah and his wife and his sons and his household and his brothers and his sisters and all his relatives would go up with him, and he said to them: Learn the way of service from the Canaanites and from the idolaters, who fashioned a way of service for their idol, though it is vanity and emptiness; how much more so must you fashion a way of service and go up before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, who is the living and enduring God. He told them all to go up with him; and when they went up with him along the way, they would lodge in the open square of the city, and the people would gather, the men by themselves and the women by themselves, for the man would speak with the man and the woman with the woman, the great with the small; and the city would be stirred, and they would ask them, Where are you going? And they would say, To the house of God in Shiloh, from which Torah and good deeds go forth; and why will you not come with us, and let us go together? At once their eyes streamed tears, and they said, We will go up with you. And he said this to them again and again, until the next year five households went up with him, and the year after that ten households went up with him, and the year after that they were all stirred to go up, and about sixty households went up with him; and by the road he went up one year he did not go up the next, until all Israel were going up, and Elkanah inclined all Israel to the side of merit and trained them in the commandments, and many were brought to merit through him. The Holy One, blessed be He, who searches hearts and inmost parts, said to Elkanah: You inclined Israel to the side of merit and trained them in the commandments, and many were brought to merit through you; I will bring forth from you a son who will incline all Israel to the side of merit and train them in the commandments, and many will be brought to merit through him. From this you learn: as the reward of the deed of Elkanah, Samuel; and as the reward of the deed of Hezekiah, Manasseh. From here they said: Whoever eats with idolaters at the table is as if he worships idols and eats from the sacrifices of the dead.