Yechezkel Perek 4

Some of the Meforshim learn that Yechezkel actually carried out the acts in this perek. (Seder Olam) Others maintain that Yechezkel only saw them in a prophetic vision and didn’t actually do them. (Radak, Rambam)

• Yechezkel was commanded to take a brick and “pretend” it was Yerushalayim under siege.

• Yechezekel was to lay siege on the brick, placing a siege wall, ramp, an army with battering rams around it, and an iron pan between him and the “city”.

• Yechezkel was to lay on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for forty days, which corresponded to the years Yisrael and Yehudah had sinned.

• Yechezkel’s actions were to atone for the entire Klal Yisrael’s sins.

• Yechezkel was given a strict regimen of “Ezekiel” bread to eat during this time period.

• A conversation between Hashem and Yechezkel ensued about whether to bake the bread in human dung or animal dung.

• Hashem listened to Yechezkel’s request to bake the bread in animal dung instead of human dung.

• The bread was a sign to Yisrael that there would be a famine in Yerushalayim with no bread to eat.