Dear Rabbi,
Question:
I was recently reading Rashi’s commentary of Tanakh on the chabad website, and curiously for one verse (Melachim I – 10:13), it includes Arizal’s commentary from five centuries later that Nebuchadnezzar is King Solomon’s son. I am blessed to have learned, mostly at the beginner’s level, Sefer Yetzirah, Zohar, and what they call “Lurianic Kabbalah” generally, but I will likely not get to any texts that cover this question until April or May, so I would like to have it clarified now which is why I write to you. I found you through google for “Ask the Rabbi” websites. I hope it is OK that I start with a tough one!
Here is the question. It is written that Moshiach will be a return, or reincarnation, depending on the interpretation, of David ha-Melech. In Lurianic terms, the sparks of the children are sometimes passed from the parents, so King Solomon likely would have received a partial spark from David ha-Melech. Likewise, since Nebuchadnezzar issued from King Solomon, he likely would have received a partial spark from the same lineage. So notwithstanding all the evil he did, my question is, what is Nebuchadnezzar’s relationship to Moshiach, and have any verses about him in Tanakh been interpreted by the sages in a manner in which he actually represents Moshiach in those verses? I feel a responsibility to acknowledge that the question seems counter-intuitive on the surface, given that he destroyed the Beis Hamikdash as opposed to building it like Moshiach, however I ask anyway because I know Tanakh is full of these seeming contradictions on the surface that actually reveal much more beneath, and Kabbalah is full of both positive and negative interpretations, one could say, of the same or similar verses.
If I could shorten my question down to one sentence, it would be what do the sages teach about Nebuchadnezzar’s soul in relationship to Moshiach viz-a-viz its issuing from King Solomon who issued from David ha-Melech, with an emphasis on Lurianic and post-Lurianic teachings but with an inclined ear to all teachings of the sages. I am parimily interested in interpretations where Nebuchadnezzar represents Moshiach, if only in certain verses, or certain spark fragments, i.e., Moshe and Bilaam both being partial sparks of Abel. Clearly Nebuchadnezzar was spiritually composed of evil partial sparks at the very least, but my question is asking about verses that discuss if he also had even one good partial spark from King Solomon, David ha-Melech, and their lineage.
Thank you very much!
Answer:
Thank you very much for your wise things, and for the wise question. The assumption that they assumed is true, but in partly, indeed Nebuchadnezzar had a spark of his father, but not the holy spark of the good part of the King Solomon’s, but a spark from the bad part that was in its entirety (a part that adhered to ‘Sheba’, as a bad part of a righteous man, that ended up departing to a mostly bad thing), so that the birth of Nebuchadnezzar was the waste to separate the filth from the saint, And as the kabbalist rabbi Meir Pafrash Katz Ashkenazi wrote in the book of Or Hanar, based on the words of rabbi arizal,: “Nebuchadnezzar, etc., and he is a son of Solomon, containing a bad spark from that part of the Queen of Sheba.” And since this is the bad part that belongs to Solomon, it is obvious that he acted the opposite of mashiach, and destroyed the temple (as you wrote). therefor Nebuchadnezzar does not have a spark of Messiah in him, but rather is the “counter” of Messiah on the side of impurity, since Nebuchadnezzar is a reincarnation of Nimrod (as the Arizal extended ), and Nimrod is the soul of ‘Gog’ as the Rabbi’s writing , and Gog is destined to fight the Messianic King. According to certainly, like all creators, there were also holy sparks in Nebuchadnezzar (and not necessary Messiah sparks), for otherwise he would not have had reason to live, and rabbi Hahidah wrote according to this foundation to interpret the words of the Gemach in Sanhedrin, about Nebuchadnezzar, .
