Kommentar zu Haggai 2:30

Who among you is left who was of the exiles and is still alive?

who saw, etc. Who saw the first one this [one] is of no esteem in his eyes.

is it not as nothing I know that to one who saw the first one, this one is but nothing in his eyes.

is it... as nothing It and nothing are equal, as in (Hos. 4:9) “And it shall be like people like priest” Here, too, כָמֹהוּ כְּאַיִן ; it [the Second Temple] and nothing are equal.

the thing that I set up You keep My Torah, and My spirit rests on your prophets; do not fear.

another one... [for] a little while When this kingdom of Persia, which rules over you, terminates, yet another one will rise up to rule over you, to oppress you; this is the kingdom of Greece, and the time of its rule will be a little while.

and I will shake up with the miracles performed for the Hasmoneans.

the heaven, etc. And they will understand that My Shechinah rests in this House, and they will bring gifts of silver and gold, as is written in the book of Joseph ben Gurion.

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine and it is in My power to bring it to whomever I desire.

shall be greater There was a controversy between Rav and Samuel. One said: In the building; and one said: In the years, that the years of the First Temple were four hundred and ten, and those of the Second Temple were four hundred and twenty.

Now ask the priests the Torah Perhaps in exile they forgot the laws of sanctified things, and of impurity and purity.

contaminated flesh flesh of contamination of a carcass as a creeping thing.

and the pottage a cooked food

“No.” It [the food] will [not] become contaminated. Rav and Shmuel disagree over this matter. One [Rav] says that the priests erred, for he [Haggai] asked them concerning a fourth degree contamination in reference to hallowed things, and they replied that it [the food] is ritually pure. One [Shmuel] says that the priests did not err, that he [Haggai] asked them concerning a fifth degree contamination in reference to hallowed things.

if it touches in his skirt It did not touch the creeping thing itself but the garment, which is the first degree of contamination.

will it become contaminated? Heb. הֲיִקְדָּשׁ

If the contamination of a dead body The dead body itself.

It will become contaminated For the dead body is the father of the father of contamination. The fifth degree of the contamination of the reptile or rodent is a fourth degree in the contamination of a dead body.

So is this people Just as you err in this, so do you err in many halachot.

and whatever they will sacrifice there if they do not put their hearts to learning.

and before The years that passed.

before placing a stone upon a stone Before you return to resume the building and to add to the foundation that you laid in the days of Cyrus - when it [the building] was stopped - now put your hearts to engage in the building and in studying the necessities of the priesthood.

so that they should not come to a heap of twenty measures So that you should not have a curse sent into your works as [there has been] until now; for they would set up a heap from which twenty seahs should be measured, and would find only ten.

when one would come to the wine vat That is the pit before the wine press, into which the wine flows.

to draw off fifty press-measures To draw out from [the winevat] fifty measures with which they would measure wine from the winepresses, and the name [of those fifty measures] is purah.

to draw off to draw, as in (Isa. 30:14) “To scoop water from a cistern”; and so (ibid. 47:2) “Draw off the path.”

and there would be twenty Not that more of a curse is sent into the wine than is sent into the grain, but a person [may] err in estimating the measure of the winevat because it is deep, while the heap [of grain] stands before him. In tractate Avoth d’Rabbi Nathan (4:4) we learned a reason why a small measure is not mentioned with regard to wine, while it is mentioned with regard to grain, e.g.. to draw off twenty-five press measures and it was ten. This teaches us that wine is an extra measure for the world, and when the wine suffers, it is a symptom of a curse for the world. Since the wine must be plentiful, [the prophet] counts a larger number concerning it.

that the Temple of the Lord was founded That now for the second time they began to add to the first foundation that they had built in the days of Cyrus.

The seed is still in the granary You have not yet sown this year, and the trees have not yet ripened their fruits. From now on you shall sow at a time of blessing, for the building of the Temple will bring blessing into the work of your hands.

and I will destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations The kingdom of Persia, which now rules over the entire world, will fall into the hands of another kingdom at the end of thirty-four years from the building of the Temple, as we learned in tractate Avodah Zarah (9a).

and I will make you as a signet In contrast to what was decreed upon his father Jeconiah (Jer. 22: 24): “As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, be a signet on My right hand, from there I will remove you.” [Jeremiah further] states there (ibid. 22:30): “Inscribe this man childless.” We learn that his repentance availed [Jeconiah], and Zerubbabel was born to him, and he was made as a signet.