Oct 20, 2026 · 12 min · 7 segments
Solomon is dead. The people come to crown his son Rechavam (Rehoboam) and ask for a tax break. Rechavam takes bad advice and responds to the people in an imperious, disdainful manner. In response…
Alex IsraelHost
But why with the king? the heir to the throne the grandson of david the son of solomon why would he not have his coronation in jerusalem it seems like he already senses that there is some sort of unrest or dissatisfaction or maybe the tribes up north refuse to come to his coronation unless he makes a gesture to them trouble is brewing and rohavam goes out of his capital out of his safety zone to make a gesture to the nation what do they want Interestingly, what they want is a lowering of taxes.
They say in Pasuk Dalad, verse 4, Avicha Hiksha to uleinu, your father, pressed a very heavy burden upon us.
We're happy to accept your governance, say the people, but we want to have an assurance that you will lower the burden upon us.
Interestingly enough, leading them, they choose a character called Yoravan Ben-Navat.
Yoravan Ben-Navat has been a dissident, an exile, because as we read in chapter 11, he had actually opposed some of Shlomo's grandiose building.
He said, I'm not going to back that our tax money goes to take an area of public land and to give it to royal purposes.
In that sense, Yeravam is something of, how should I call him, maybe a sort of a democrat, a liberal.
But why with the king? the heir to the throne the grandson of david the son of solomon why would he not have his coronation in jerusalem it seems like he already senses that there is some sort of unrest or dissatisfaction or maybe the tribes up north refuse to come to his coronation unless he makes a gesture to them trouble is brewing and rohavam goes out of his capital out of his safety zone to make a gesture to the nation what do they want Interestingly, what they want is a lowering of taxes.
They say in Pasuk Dalad, verse 4, Avicha Hiksha to uleinu, your father, pressed a very heavy burden upon us.
We're happy to accept your governance, say the people, but we want to have an assurance that you will lower the burden upon us.
Interestingly enough, leading them, they choose a character called Yoravan Ben-Navat.
Yoravan Ben-Navat has been a dissident, an exile, because as we read in chapter 11, he had actually opposed some of Shlomo's grandiose building.
He said, I'm not going to back that our tax money goes to take an area of public land and to give it to royal purposes.
In that sense, Yeravam is something of, how should I call him, maybe a sort of a democrat, a liberal.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.