Welcome back to another episode of NachDaily with the 4th chapter in Ezra, where permission to continue building the 2nd Beis Hamikdash was revoked.

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

As the Jews from Yehudah and Binyamin were building the Beis Hamikdash, the other people who were living in Yerushalayim became jealous. They approached Zerubavel and asked to join in the building so that they could offer sacrifices to their gods as well.

Zerubavel and Yehoshua Kohen Gadol responded that they had express permission from King Cyrus to build the Beis Hamikdash for Hashem and were strictly following his orders.

The others tried everything in their power to demoralize the Jews building the Beis Hamikdash, planning, intimidating, threatening and attempting to derail the building during the entire reign of King Cyrus.

Who were these enemies?

The Sifre explains that they were the Kusim and Samarians. The back- story of who they are is in Melachim II 17:40. When Sancheriv, King of Ashur (Assyria), exiled the 10 tribes, he replaced them with Kusim and Samarians. Lions came to attack the new residents, who felt that the animals were a punishment from God because they weren’t Jewish. They “converted” to Judaism but continued to worship avoda zara all their days. They are known as the Ger Arayot – Lion converts.

They converted out of fear, only to try to appease the Jewish God.

On a deeper level, the Ramad Walli explains that K’she zeh kam zeh nofel – when Kedusha rises, tuma falls. The spiritual impeding negative forces were about to meet their downfall with the spiritual elevation of the 2nd Beis Hamikdash. That is why they tried everything in their power in a last attempt to try and stop this holy structure from being built.

The Ramad Walli continues to explain that like a pig in a trash can, the sitra achra tries to join the side of Kedusha by making it look kosher, but really just wants to take down the spiritual forces from within.

Any time we strive for spiritual growth in our avodas Hashem, the impeding negative forces try to stop us. We need to stay strong and continue our path of building so as not to get knocked down.

Zerubavel understood this and did not let them join in the Binyan shel Kedusha.

After the reign of King Cyrus, a letter was drafted to Achashverosh, the next in line, asking him to stop the Jews from completing the Beis Hamikdash. This is the famed Achashverosh from Purim. The story of Esther begins during the 3rd year of his reign.

There’s a debate among the Meforshim whether or not Achashverosh was actually the king, or was just appointed by Cyrus to run the country’s affairs. From a historical perspective it should be noted that up until this point Cyrus the great was essentially the undisputed ruler of the Persian Empire.

Then in the days of King Artach’shashta (which is seemingly the generic name given for a Persian ruler at that time, which makes it a little difficult to place who exactly this was), the Kusim and Samarians again sent a letter asking the King to halt the construction.

The perek actually records the letter, whose essential message is that when the Jews finish building their Beis Hamikdash they will stop paying taxes and being subservient to you. If he checks historically, the King will see how connected Yerushalayim and the Jewish people are. Once they have their Temple they will be completely disloyal to you.

It’s interesting to note that even in the days of Ezra, the site of the Beis Hamikdash was a hot-spot with ongoing protests and political diplomacy.

The King of Persia replied that it was true. All powerful kings wanted to rule over Yerushalayim because they were afraid that the Jews would be disloyal. He ordered construction on the Beis Hamikdash to be immediately halted.

The letter was immediately brought to the construction site and, sadly, all work ceased until the 2nd year of the reign of King Darius, Esther’s son that she had with Achashverosh. It was during this 18 year time period that the story of Esther and Purim took place.

At this time period we see a subtle but huge shift in Hashem’s Hashgacha Pratis. During the time prior to the Purim story, Hashem still performed open miracles. Although they weren’t as frequent as the early days, we still find those of Doniel, Chananya, Azariah and Mishael. Not too many years later, during almost the exact time period, all open miracles completely stopped. By the time we shift into the story of Purim, there are no open miracles; all miracles are hidden. A nes b’toch hateva.

Stay tuned to the next episode of NachDaily when we’ll learn about the resumption of work on the 2nd Beis Hamikdash.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day