The Biblical King Hezekiah's Six Controversial Actions: Three Approved, Three Not (Mishnah Pesachim 4:9)
This Mishnah chapter (Chapter 4) outlines various contemporary local customs related to religious practices.1
Variety in local customs relating to six things are discussed:2
Labor on Passover Eve
Consuming Sabbatical Year Produce Transported Across Regions with Varying Statuses
Selling Livestock to Non-Jews
Eating Roasted Meat on Passover Outside the Temple
Lamp Kindling on Yom Kippur
Labor on the Ninth of Av
Then, the Mishnah discusses two cases of six things done, where three were accepted by others, and three weren’t:
Six Customs of Jericho’s Community
Six Actions of the biblical King Hezekiah
The Passage
King Hezekiah's Six Controversial Actions: Three Approved, Three Not (Mishnah Pesachim Chapter 4)
The Mishnah states that the biblical King Hezekiah (c. late 8th century BCE) performed six actions during his reign, three of which were approved,3 while the other three were not.
Hezekiah’s actions were agreed with when:
He dishonored his father Ahaz by dragging his bones on a bier of ropes.4
He destroyed (כתת) the copper snake that Moses had made.5
However, the Sages disagreed with him when:
He cut off the doors of the First Temple Sanctuary (היכל) and sent them to the King of Assyria.8
He diverted the waters of the upper Gihon stream into the city.9
He intercalated the year, delaying the month of Nisan after Nisan had already begun.
ששה דברים עשה חזקיה המלך,
על שלשה הודו לו,
ועל שלשה לא הודו לו.
גרר עצמות אביו על מטה של חבלים, והודו לו.
כתת נחש הנחשת, והודו לו.
גנז ספר רפואות, והודו לו.
על שלשה לא הודו לו:
קצץ דלתות של היכל ושגרן למלך אשור, ולא הודו לו.
סתם מי גיחון העליון, ולא הודו לו.
עבר ניסן בניסן, ולא הודו לו
The Sages taught: King Hezekiah performed six actions.
With regard to three of them, the Sages of his generation conceded to him;
and with regard to three of them, the Sages did not concede to him.
Due to King Hezekiah’s father’s wickedness, he dragged the bones of his father Ahaz on a bier of ropes and did not afford him the respect due to a king, and the Sages conceded to him.
He ground the copper snake that Moses fashioned in the desert because Israel worshipped it, and the Sages conceded to him.
He suppressed the Book of Cures, and they conceded to him.
And with regard to three actions, the Sages did not concede to him.
He cut off the doors of the Sanctuary and sent them to the King of Assyria, and they did not concede to him because he thereby demeaned the Temple.
He sealed the waters of the upper Gihon stream, diverting its water into the city by means of a tunnel, and they did not concede to him, because he harmed the local populace in the process and should have relied upon God (Me’iri).
He intercalated the year, delaying the advent of the month of Nisan during Nisan, and they did not concede to him. The Gemara explains that he declared the first of Nisan to be the thirtieth of Adar and only then intercalated the year (see II Chronicles 30:2).
Mishnah_Pesachim.4. For a reader-friendly formatting of this chapter, showing the structure, see my recent piece at my Academia page, “Literary Structure and Rhetorical Technique in the Mishnah: Visualizing Patterns with Formatted Lists and Tables“, pp. 65-70 (I split the chapter into three sections).
#2 isn’t strictly about local customs, but variety in statuses.
Approved by whom is not stated, it may be approved by the sages/elite, it may be approved by the general populace.
As Ahaz was considered to have been wicked.
Since people had begun worshipping it.
For another discussion in the Mishnah of this copper snake, which seems to have been seen by the Mishnah as especially problematic from a theological perspective, see the Mishnah on intention (quoted in my piece at my Academia page here, p. 28):
כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר (במדבר כא):
"עשה לך שרף
ושים אתו על נס,
והיה כל הנשוך
וראה אתו וחי"
וכי נחש ממית, או נחש מחיה?!
אלא,
בזמן שישראל מסתכלין כלפי מעלה
ומשעבדין את לבם לאביהן שבשמים,
היו מתרפאים,
ואם לאו, היו נמוקים.
Similarly, you can say:
The verse states:
“Make for yourself a fiery serpent,
and set it upon a pole;
and it shall come to pass,
that everyone that is bitten,
when he sees it, he shall live” (Numbers 21:8).
Once again it may be asked: Did the serpent kill, or did the serpent preserve life?!
Rather,
when the Jewish people turned their eyes upward
and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven,
they were healed,
but if not, they rotted from their snakebites.
גנז - literally: “archived”.
ספר רפואות; this is otherwise-unknown. traditionally explained: to encourage reliance on prayer and divine healing instead of remedies.
On non-canonical books, referred to in talmudic literature as Seforim Hitzonim (External Books), see my piece at my Academia page here.
Presumably, they saw as a disrespectful act toward the Temple.
Steinsaltz interprets that this was criticiszed because it was felt that this harmed the local population and showed a lack of trust in God’s protection.