Welcome back to NachDaily, covering the entire Tanach one perek at a time. I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, and today with great excitement we begin the introduction to sefer Ezra. In the next class we hope to begin the actual sefer.

[May this segment be a merit for the aliyas neshamos of Raizel bas Moshe, Avraham Aharon ben Yisroel Yitzchok, and Refael ben Yehoshua Falek.]

This is actually one of my favorite books in Nach, and possibly in many ways the most relevant to us nowadays. It deals with the events surrounding the Jews’ return to Eretz Yisrael in 348 B.C.E., after 70 years of exile, to rebuild the 2nd Beis Hamikdash.

Ezra was given substantial power by King Darius to have authority in the “land over the river,” meaning Eretz Yisrael. The King had appointed him as the magistrate over the country and gave the Jews permission to return to their native homeland.

Despite this permission, only a relatively small amount of people returned at that time. People didn’t want to leave their nice homes and fancy yeshivas in Bavel. Sound familiar?

Stages of Aliyos, going up to the Land

The Aliyos recorded in sefer Ezra happened in 3 stages.

Stage 1 occurs in this first chapter. It was headed by Sheshbazzar, one of the princes of Yehuda. It was a small group, mostly the family heads of tribes from Yehudah, Binyamin, and some Kohanim. These were the pioneers who began making the preliminary arrangements for the Beis Hamikdash to be rebuilt. Koresh offered financial assistance for anyone who made Aliyah, and returned thousands of looted vessels from the original Beis Hamikdash.

Stage 2, approximately one year later, was headed by Zerubavel. This was when the bulk of the people who returned made Aliyah. It was still a relatively small number of 43,000 people plus 7,000 slaves.

Included in this group were the famed Yehoshua Kohen Gadol and Mordechai Hatzaddik from Purim.

It was Zerubavel who got the daily korbanos up and running again, only to be stopped after a short time.

It should be noted, according to the Gemara in Sanhedrin 38A, that Zerubavel is actually Nechemia.

The 3rd stage of Aliyah took place about 23 years after Zerubavel, led by Ezra. Ezra was unequivocally the greatest leading Torah authority at that time and in Rav Shwab’s words “one of the greatest Jews of all time.” In fact the Gemarah in Sanhedrin 21B brings that he was of such a high stature, that had he lived before Moshe, it would have been fitting for Ezra to have given the Torah to Am Yisrael!

During the 3rd stage of Alyiah, about 1,750 men with their women and children returned with Ezra, who was deeply disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm of the rest of the Jewish people.

Most of the people who came back were completely unlearned. So much so, that when Ezra conducted a census, he wasn’t able to find a single Levi fit to work in the Beis Hamikdash. Nevertheless, his return to the Land raised the hopes and spirits of the entire Jewish nation.

The gates of Eretz Yisrael are wide open, with most of or almost half of the Jewish people currently living there, yet we continue to remain in exile with every fancy excuse. This is no different than the people in the times of Ezra, who were rebuked for not returning. In fact, perhaps it can be said that in certain ways it is worse, as now in Eretz Yisrael there are great yeshivas, nice homes, and a proper economy. This wasn’t true in the times of Ezra.

Ezra and the establishment of the Anshei K’nesset Hagedolah

Ezra and his Beis-Din instituted many decrees that served as the foundation for life in exile until today. They instituted the text for the 3 daily standardized prayers and abolished the desire for idolatry.

The Rambam in the introduction to Mishnah Torah brings that Ezra and his court, called the Anshei Kenesset Hagedol, were comprised of Chaggai, Zecharia, Malachi, Doniel, Chananya, Mishael, Azarya, Nechemia, Mordechai, Zerubavel, and many other sages, a total of 120 in all.

It could be said that the Jewish nation has experienced two different phases in its history: prior to Ezra and after Ezra. He was the one who gave halacha the prominence in Judaism to help to continue preserving Yiddishkeit to carry us through our long galus until the coming of Mashiach.

Similarly, Rav Kook explains in one of his famous essays, Hamehalech B’ideyos Yisrael, that prior to Ezra and the Anshei K’nesset Hagedolah, the national ideal of the nation was more front and center in the consciousness of the Jewish people while the spiritual component was secondary. Nonetheless, halacha was always a part of Judaism and was followed scrupulously; it was the essential focus of Judaism at that time.

Ezra and the Anshei K’nesset Hagedolah began to emphasize and give the role of halacha center stage, placing it over the national and spiritual ideals of Yiddishkeit. Chazal say, “Hashem can only be found in the 4 amos of halacha.” This was set up specifically by Ezra to keep Am Yisrael going over the next 2,000 years.

Ezra and Baruch ben Neriyah

Why did Ezra wait to return to Eretz Yisrael? Why didn’t he return with the masses in the early stages of Aliyah? The answer to this sheds light on just how important a person in our history he was.

He wanted to learn more Torah from his Rebbe, Baruch Ben Neriyah, who was the main student and scribe of Yirmiya HaNavi. Equally as important, the Rambam, in his introduction to Mishnah Torah, counts Baruch Ben Neriyah as one of the “Ba’alei Mesorah, transmitters of the Torah tradition from Har Sinai.“ Our entire tradition passed

through Baruch Ben Neriyah, and was received by Ezra. Thus was the torch of our tradition passed along.

This answers our question. Ezra stayed back to receive our mesorah from Baruch Ben Neriyah. It’s estimated that Baruch Ben Neriyah was well over 100 years old when he died, which delayed Ezra’s return to Eretz Yisrael.

Who wrote the books of Ezra and Nechemiah?

The Gemarah in Bava Basra 14a brings that sefer Ezra is the 2nd to last sefer in Tanach. It should be noted, however, that from an historical perspective it is actually the last.

Through Chazal we find no mention of Sefer Nechemiah, because Ezra and Nechemiah are really one book consisting of two parts.

On one hand, Bava Basra 14a tells us that Ezra wrote sefer Ezra. On the other hand, Sanhedrin 93b says that all the words of Ezra were said by Nechemiah.

Rav Shwab explains this contradiction. Throughout sefer Ezra, when the text refers in the third person to something Ezra said or did, it was written by Nechemiah. When it comes to the second half of the sefer, which begins with “Divrei Nechemiah ben Chachalyah – these are the world of Nechemiah” this was most certainly written by Nechemiah himself.

It seems that Nechemiah wrote most of Sefer Ezra, but nevertheless Chazal did not list him as the author or coauthor of the book. It was only later in history, at the time of the printing press, that Ezra and Nechemiah were split into two books.

We will learn more about Nechemiah as a great, fearless, and powerful leader.

I hope that you enjoyed this episode of NachDaily. We’ll begin the sefer in the next shiur with the first stage of Aliyah.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.