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Сила Теилим

9 Tevet · Yahrzeit

The Prophet Nechemiah ben Chachalyah

Nechemiah ben Chachalyah was one of the ministers in the government of Achashverosh. Yahrzeit - 9 Tevet When King Achashverosh II of Persia allowed Ezra ben Serayah HaKohen to leave Babylon for Jerusalem, taking with him anyone who wished to go, 1,500 Jews left together with Ezra the redeemer, including women and children. After four months of an exhausting journey, they reached their destination – the holy city of Jerusalem.
Thirteen years after this event, Nechemiah ben Chachalyah, one of the ministers of King Achashverosh II, persuaded the ruler to let him go to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the city and erect a fortified wall around it. Together, Ezra and Nechemiah instilled in the Jewish people a reverence for the study of G-d's law, the Torah, and its commandments.
Nechemiah knew that the leaders of the Samaritans, Ammonites, and other peoples would oppose him, so he was very cautious and told no one but his closest friends of his plans. One night, together with a group of trusted companions, Nechemiah walked around the city to plan the best way to build the fortified wall. Nechemiah's associates accepted his plan, understanding that only a strong fortified wall could protect the city from raids by hostile neighbors. Nechemiah assigned each of his devoted supporters a clearly defined section of the wall to build. At first, the leaders of the hostile tribes mocked and ridiculed the Jews, not believing their undertaking would succeed, but later, seeing the wall steadily rising, they joined together and swore to destroy the builders. But Nechemiah and his supporters were not afraid. Nechemiah divided his associates into two groups: one worked on construction, while the other, armed with swords, stood guard. If the builders saw enemies approaching the wall, they would blow the shofar, and the guards would rush to their aid. Nechemiah and his friends knew neither sleep nor rest until the construction was complete — at night they guarded the city, and by day they built the walls and fortifications. To hinder the construction, apostates from the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin resorted to a tried-and-true method — slander. They said: "Nechemiah is plotting a rebellion; he wants to overthrow the Persian king and become the ruler of Judea himself." The slanderers found like-minded people even among the renegades within Jerusalem itself, but Nechemiah, being a man of courage, did not let them interfere with the holy work and saw it through to completion. After 52 days, on the 25th of Elul, the construction of the walls of Jerusalem was completed under Nechemiah's leadership, as it is written: "And the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of Elul." (Nechemiah 6:15) The city became a mighty fortress. Nechemiah entrusted the guarding of the city gates to men loyal to him. The threat from Israel's enemies no longer endangered the Jews, and Nechemiah was now able to turn to the spiritual revival of his people, teaching them Torah. Nechemiah served as governor of Judea for 12 years. When he returned to the court of King Achashverosh, the life he had established in Jerusalem again fell into decline. With the king's permission, Nechemiah returned to Judea and found that not only the common people, but even the kohanim and levi'im, had again strayed from the Torah. Thus, Elyashiv HaKohen had dared to place part of the Holy Temple at the disposal of Tuviah the Ammonite. Most of the Jews had stopped observing Shabbat, ceased separating tithes, and continued to intermarry with the surrounding tribes. Their children did not know Hebrew and spoke the local dialects. Nechemiah's first act was to purify the Temple grounds, throwing out Tuviah the Ammonite along with all his belongings. He then expelled from Jerusalem the grandson of Elyashiv HaKohen, who was married to a non-Jewish woman, and ordered Jews who had entered into intermarriages to send away their foreign spouses from Jerusalem. As for the sanctity of Shabbat, he took strict measures to ensure the observance of this vital commandment, not only in Jerusalem but throughout all of Judea. In the end, Ezra and Nechemiah succeeded in instilling in the people a reverence for the Torah and its commandments, and in getting them to maintain the purity of the Jewish family and observe the holy Shabbat. These foundations of Jewish life became binding law for all the Jews living in Judea. (https://chassidus.ru/library/history/auerbach/1/06.htm)