Lenny Goldberg Bible Classes

Who is Yehonadav ben Reichav? Why does Yehu want to ally himself with him? What is the significance of their relationship

The heads of Ahab's 70 sons are severed and placed in a basket, and delivered to Yehu. He then kills the relatives of King Achaziayhu, the king of Judea who he encounters coincidentally. 

King Yehu sets his sights on Ahab's 70 sons in Samaria. He writes letters to the Ahab loyalists, and gives them an ultimatum

Yehu continues his rampage, and kills Jezebel, leaving her body for the dogs. 

The new King of Israel, Yehu, kills Yehoram with his bow and arrow, and throws his body into the field of Navot. He also kills Achaziyahu, the king of Yehuda on the fly. 

Yehu starts the rebellion, and is on his way to kill King Yehoram, son of Achav, in his first move to wipe out the House of Ahab. On his way to Yehoram, he is described as riding like a madman. 

Upon being anointed, Yehu is giving the charge to strike down the house of Ahab, whom are the masters of Yehu, who serves as a general in their army.  Ahab and Jezebel are cursed.

Yehu, who at the  time was a general in King Yehoram's army, is secretly annointed by the disciple of Elisha.  He is hesitant to tell his soldiers about it.

Two evil kings of Judea are discussed - Yehoram and Ahaziyahu.

The scripture teaches that Yehoram son of Yehoshafat was an evil king. Here we end the string of righteous kings ruling in Judea. 

Elisha goes to Damascus and prophesies that Hazael will replace Ben Hadad as king.  Through prophesy, Elisha knows the cruelty Hazael will impose on Israel. 

The Shunammite woman has her property stolen while she was away.  Through a great coincidence, the king orders that her property be returned. 

The gatekeeper who doubted Elisha's prophesy is trampled at the gate.  We examine the reason why the last two chapters repeat what was already in the narrative. Finally, what is the significance that the salvation come about through lowly lepers? 

During the brutal siege, Elisha guarantees a surplus of food.  Four Jewish lepers outside the city walls find the camp of Aram abandoned, and eventually report it to their brethren. 

When Aram lays a seige on Samaria, famine and shocking cannibalism ensues. The King of Israel  blame Elisha for the tragedy.

When Elisha warns against Aram's ambush, they try to capture the prophet, but no avail. Elisha eventually leads Aram to defeat. 

As the prophets are building a new yeshiva, one of their tools falls into the water, and Elisha pulls off another miracle.

Elisha curses his servant Gehazi. In this shiur, we go over Trachtate Sota (uncensored version) where the rabbis discuss Gehazi and Jesus to learn important lessons. 

Elisha refused Naaman's gift, but Elisha's servant Gehazi chases down the Aramean general, lies to him, and takes a gift

Acting on the advise of his wife's servant, Naaman, the commander of the army of Aram goes to the land of Israel to seek a cure for his leprosy. Elisha obliges, but a lot happens on the way

The prophets are starving and we see various miraculous ways in which Elisha sustains them.

Elisha returns the child to life. We see that for a miracle to work, one has to assert maximal effort, and make it seem as "natural" as possible.

A prominent woman from Shunem offers to Elisha the hospitality of her home, and Elisha blesses her with a son. The son suddenly dies, and she goes to Elisha for help. 

Elisha helps a widow (of the prophet Ovadia) who has lost all her possessions . Elisha performs a miracle, where an unending flow of oil flows into vessels she prepares. In this class, we learn some of the rules of miracles. 

In this class, we examine the bizarre ending to chapter three. What did the King of Moav actually do, and what brought wrath upon Israel, causing them to return to their land?