Rashi on Haggai

‫רש"י על חגי‬
The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
https://www.nli.org.il/en/items/NNL_ALEPH990019164710205171/NLI

Rashi on Haggai

Chapter 1

Verse 1

In the second year of King Darius This was Darius king of Persia, who succeeded
Ahasuerus. We find in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah (13:4) that he was Esther’s son.
Now, in the days of Cyrus I, Zerubbabel and Joshua the Priest went up from Babylon
to Jerusalem with the sanction of Cyrus, as it is said (Ezra 1:3): “Whoever is
among you of all His people, etc.” The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin rose up
and sent their letters to Cyrus to [have him] ordain that they [Judah and Benjamin]
stop the construction of the Temple, which they had commenced; and he gave the
order and stopped it. From that day they stopped, as is explained in Ezra (4:24):
“Then the work of the house of God was stopped, etc.” It was stopped for the three
years that Cyrus reigned, the fourteen years of Ahasuerus, and the first year of
Darius his son. In the second year [of Darius] this prophecy was proclaimed to
Haggai: to urge them [i.e., Judah and Benjamin] to resume the building, and that
they should not fear, for the heathens would not stop them for the Holy One,
blessed be He, would grant them success.

Verse 2

This people has said Since their enemies stopped them the first time, they think
that I will not fulfill My words that I said, (Dan. 9:2) “According to the
completion of seventy years from the destruction of Jerusalem”; and that the time
for the House to be rebuilt will never come. Say to them that now the time has
come, but the first time was only a remembrance at the completion of the seventy
years from the inception of the kingdom of Babylon. And so it was that at the end
of seventy years they were remembered for going up by the sanction of Cyrus; but
the [time for the] building of the House depended upon [counting from] the
destruction of Jerusalem, which took place eighteen years later than [the inception
of] the kingdom of Babylon, as the master said ( Meg. 11b): “They were exiled in
the eighteenth year; they were exiled in the nineteenth year.” Now, the eighteen
years are complete.

Verse 3

Verse 4

Is it [an appropriate] time for you? This is an interrogative expression; therefore

the “heh” is vowelized with a “pattah.”
ceiled covered with boards of cedar, as in (I Kings 6:9): “And he covered the
house” and (ibid. 7:3) “And it was covered with cedar.” And so did Jonathan render:
“Is such a way proper for you, that you sit in the houses that are covered with
boards of cedar, and this Temple is destroyed?”

Verse 5
your ways Your affairs, for you see that there is no blessing in the work of your
hands, as he [Haggai] states: You have sown much and you bring in little. All this
is because of the desolation of My house.

Verse 6

and you bring in little because of the iniquity of the cessation of [the offerings
of] the first fruits.
You eat without being satiated because of the iniquity of the cessation of the
meal-offerings.
You drink without getting your fill for the taste of wine was taken away because
the libations ceased.
You dress, and it has no warmth because of the iniquity of the cessation of wearing
the priestly garments.
And he who profits, profits into a bundle with holes Any profit that you make
becomes less and less, like one who puts his money into a cloth bundle with holes.

Verse 7

Verse 8

and I will be honored The “heh” [whose numerical value is five] missing from the
Masoretic text corresponds to the five items in the First Temple that were not in
the Second Temple: 1) the Holy Ark, 2) the Urim and Tummim, 3) the fire that
descended from heaven, 4) the Shechinah, and 5) the Holy Spirit, as is stated in
Tractate Yoma (21b).

Verse 9

You looked for much Until now, you expected to bring much from the field, but you
brought little.
and I will blow into it I will bring upon it a plague of decay and worms.
and I will blow an expression like (Isa. 54:16) “Who blows on a charcoal fire.”

Verse 10

because of you the heavens have kept back Because of your sins.

Verse 11

Verse 12

Verse 13

in [fulfilling] the Lord’s mission In the messengership of the Omnipresent.

Verse 14

and they came and performed labor They commenced cutting stones and sawing trees in
the sixth month, on the twenty fourth of the month; and in the seventh month, on
the twenty-first day, the word of the Lord came to Haggai.
Chapter 2

Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

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, ‫ ; ָכֹמהּו ְּכַאִין‬it [the Second Temple] and nothing
are equal.

Verse 4

Verse 5

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

Verse 6

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.

Verse 7

Verse 8

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

Verse 9

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.

Verse 10
Verse 11

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

Verse 12

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. ‫ֲהִיְק ָּד ׁש‬

Verse 13

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.

Verse 14

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.

Verse 15

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.

Verse 16

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.

Verse 17

Verse 18

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.

Verse 19

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.

Verse 20

Verse 21

Verse 22

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).

Verse 23

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.