Comentario citado sobre I Reyes 6:1

ארבעה ראשי שנים הן. למלכים – [Regarding] Israelite kings, we count for them from Nisan, for if King ruled [in the month of] Shevat or Adar, when Nisan arrived, he completed for himself one year and we begin to count the second year. And we derive this from Scripture from Nisan we count this for them, as it is written (I Kings 6:1): “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, in the month of Ziv – that is, the second month – in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, Solomon [began to build the House of the LORD].” [The Rabbis] make an analogy between Kingdom of Solomon and the Exodus from Egypt. Just as [concerning] the Exodus from Egypt, we count it from Nisan, so too for the Kingdom of Solomon we count it from Nisan. And for the kings of the nations of the world, we count from Tishrei, and that is as it is taught in the Mishnah further along, that “the first of Tishrei is the first day for years, that is for the years of the kings of the world. And we derive from it, that since we are accustomed to count the time of documents by the years of the king from the year that he stood in [rule] because of the peace of the kingdom, for if the king stood in Adar and the scribe wrote for him [a document] in the Nisan of after thirteen months, Nisan of the second year, since that Nisan is the New Year of the Kings, it would be an antedated note and ineligible [for use], because this Nisan would be of the third year. And antedated notes of indebtedness are ineligible [for use], for it is found that he would be seizing sold property unlawfully, that they took the field from the borrower whether from the time of the document until the time of loan, which is not according to the law, for the sale had preceded the loan. Therefore, they fined him to lose also from the time of the loan onwards and he may not collect from mortgaged properties.

the month of Spring is so called because it was during the Springtime that they left Egypt. The Dissenters have claimed that one may not perform the Paschal sacrifice until Spring-time. I have replied to their nonsense elsewhere [comment on Exodus 12: 2] (nevertheless, we must acknowledge that the court did examine whether or not Spring had arrived). Know that in the Hebrew language the months have no proper names. The names that appear in Scripture — like Nisan [Esther 3: 7], Sivan [Esther 8: 9], Kislev [Nehemiah 1: 1], Ṭevet [Esther 2: 16], and Adar [Esther 3: 7] — are all Aramaic. Consequently, Scripture had to tell us, “…this being the month of Nisan” [Esther 3: 7]. The only Hebrew terms that we find are the descriptive terms “Splendor” [I Kings 6: 1], “Mighty” [I Kings 8: 2], and “Wilt” [I Kings 6: 38]. The original rule was that the first month (the month from which the others are counted) was to be reckoned with the coming of the Spring — whether the previous year had twelve or thirteen months being of no concern. However, our ancestors, of blessed memory, added other considerations, in addition to the Spring [Sanhedrin 11b]; and all of their words are true.

ויהי ביום השמיני, it was on the eighth day; We need to analyse why the Torah had to introduce this chapter with the word ויהי. We are told in Megillah 10 that Rabbi Levi claimed there was an ancient tradition that every time the word ויהי appears it has a connotation of something painful having occurred. This view was challenged by the questioner pointing to the word ויהי in our portion which introduces the joyous event of Aaron performing the rites in the Tabernacle; furthermore, we have a Baraitha according to which this day was as joyous an occasion as the day on which G'd created Heaven and Earth, a day which is also introduced in the Torah by the words ויהי ערב ויהי בקר, "it was evening it was morning, etc." The Talmud answers that the saddening event in our portion was the death of Nadav and Avihu. The questioner in the Talmud continues, wanting to know why the word ויהי is used in Kings I 6,1 when the building of Solomon's Temple is reported. He also points to Genesis 29,10 where Jacob's encounter with his bride-to-be Rachel is introduced by the word ויהי. The questioner mentions a further occurrence of that word every time G'd completed part of the creation of the universe and the Torah describes the completion of that portion with the words ויהי ערב ויהי בקר. What were the negative elements on those occasions which prompted the Bible to draw our attention to them by means of the word ויהי? Rav Ashi answers that the word ויהי by itself may have either positive or negative connotations. When the word ויהי is followed by the word בימי, "during the lifetime of, etc." it invariably has a negative connotation. The Talmud added that there are five occasions when the expression ויהי בימי occurs in the Bible. Thus far the discussion in Megillah 10.

The end has come Because I had said (Deut. 4:25): “and you will have grown old (וְנוֹשַּׁנְתֶּם) in the land, and you will practice corruption, etc., so that you will be lost.” [The word] וְנוֹשַּׁנְתֶּם has the numerical value of 852, but they stayed there for [only] 850 years: 440 from the time they entered it until the Temple was built, and [then] the Temple stood 410 years.

And he commenced to build in the second month This is explained at the beginning of Tractate Rosh Hashanah Yerushalmi (1:1), and the meaning is: the second of Iyar. Since he wished to say, “in the fourth year of his reign,” he had to repeat and say, “in the second.” A similar instance is (Gen. 8: 5): “And the waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, etc.” Another similar instance is (I Kings 6:1): “in the fourth year in the month Ziv, which was the second month of Solomon’s reign, etc.” This refers back to “the fourth year,” and then in the fourth year of his reign he commenced in the second [month], because all the days of the winter he could not [build] because of the cold, and in Nissan he could not [build] because of Passover.

and the holy ones shall be exonerated The iniquity of Israel shall be expiated to bring an end to the decrees of their being trodden upon and crumbled since they were exiled in their first exile to Egypt, until they will be redeemed and saved with a perpetual salvation by our king Messiah, and this computation terminates at the end of 1,290 years from the day the daily sacrifice was removed, and that is what is stated at the end of the Book (12:11): “And from the time the daily sacrifice is removed, and the silent abomination placed, will be 1,290 years,” and no more, for our king Messiah will come and remove the silent abomination. The daily sacrifice was removed six years before the destruction of the Second Temple, and an image was set up in the Heichal. Now that was the seventeenth day of Tammuz, when Apostomos burned the Torah, put an end to the daily sacrifice, and set up an image in the Heichal, as we learned in Tractate Ta’anith (26b), but for the six years that I mentioned, I have no explicit proof, but there is proof that the daily sacrifice was abolished less than a complete shemittah cycle before the destruction, for so did Daniel prophesy about Titus (9:27): “...and half the week of years [shemittah cycle] he will curtail sacrifice and meal-offering,” meaning that a part of the week of years before the destruction, sacrifices will be abolished. So it is explained below in this section. Let us return to the earlier matters, how the computation of “evening and morning, two thousand and three hundred,” fits exactly with the time commencing from the descent to Egypt to terminate at the end of 1,290 years until the day that the daily sacrifice was abolished: 210 years they were in Egypt. 480 years transpired from the Exodus until the building of the Temple. 410 years the Temple existed. 70 years was the Babylonian exile. 420 years the Second Temple stood. 1,290 should be added until the end of days, totaling: 2,880. Subtract six years that the daily sacrifice was removed before the destruction, for Scripture counted 1,290 years only from the time that the daily sacrifice was removed. Here you have the computation of “evening and morning, and 2,300” added to the computation. Fortunate is he who waits and reaches the end of days 45 years over 1,290 [years]. We may say that the king Messiah will come according to the first computation, and he will subsequently be concealed from them for forty-five years. Rabbi Elazar HaKalir established (in the concluding poem of the portion dealing with the month of Nissan): in the foundation of his song: six weeks of years, totaling 42. We may say that the three years that did not total a week of years he did not count. And I found it so in Midrash Ruth that the king Messiah is destined to be concealed for forty-five years after he reveals himself, and proof is brought from these verses.