Rav Berger on Kever David and Geula - Part 3 of 6

From Rav Berger's latest:

Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

The Holy Treasures that are Hidden in the Graves of the Kings of the House of David

The Seder Hadorot (2924) writes that in the year that King David A"H passed away to the next world,

King Solomon placed in this father's grave a large amount of silver and gold, and after 800 years, Hyrkenus brought out 3000 talents of silver for Antiochus. [YY - See also Yosifon for more about this.]  And similarly did Herod afterwards, but no one entered [the actual] grave area.  Several days later, Herod wanted to enter further into the cave and to loot the treasuries.  He sent 2 young men at night secretly while he waited at the doorway of the grave.  A fire came out and burned the young men, and he ran away.  Afterwards, he built over the grave a nice building.  Nevertheless, from then on, all of Herod's actions were negative.

And in Josephus' book [Antiquities of the Jews], it is brought down that from that moment, he became insane until the end of his days.

The author of the Seder Hadorot further wrote that which the famous traveler Ribbi Binyamin of Tudela Z"L wrote, of whom the Seder Hadorot attests:

Everything that he saw and heard from trustworthy people, he wrote in his book called "Masa'ot Binyamin".  And he was a silence-inducing wise man, who was understanding of knowledge.

And he heard the testimony of the pious and set apart Tzaddik, who was one of the mourners of Zion, Ribbi Avraham of Constantinople ZT"L about 2 workers who worked for the Xtian patriarch.  One day, the doorway to the cave of the graves of the kings of the House of David was revealed to them, and they wanted to take a treasure from the kings' treasuries, and the next day, they were found dead in their beds.  The pious and set apart Ribbi Avraham of Constantinople told them to cover up the opening because this was the will of Heaven.

And it can be inferred in the testimony of those workers which was written by Ribbi Binyamin of Tudela that the room of the resting place of our master King David A"H is the opening of the palace where the kings' treasuries are hidden.

Melachim Alef 7:51:  וַיָּבֵא שְׁלֹמֹה אֶת-קָדְשֵׁי דָּוִד אָבִיו, אֶת-הַכֶּסֶף וְאֶת-הַזָּהָב וְאֶת-הַכֵּלִים--נָתַן, בְּאֹצְרוֹת בֵּית יְהוָה [And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.]

And Rashi quotes a Midrash Aggada that is brought down in Yalkut Shimoni Remez 186:

Because Shelomo did not want to give from the Hekdesh of his father David for the building of the Beit Hamikdash.  And I heard that some of the Jewish sages would say that this was because he knew that it would eventually be destroyed, and he didn't want the non-Jews to say that their G-d is harsh since they [the destroyers] took their revenge on the Beit Hamikdash which was built from theft and usury that David stole from them.  And some say that this is what Shelomo said: There was a famine during his father's days for 3 years consecutively and he should have spent this Hekdesh money to support the poor of Israel.

In This Place, the Vessels of the Mikdash and Musical Instruments that David Prepared for the Music of the Levites are Hidden

In the book Yalkut HaRo'im Hagadol (which is a compilation of books and among them are Beraitot and Midrashim from early sages.  And inside it, is "Messechet Kelim" of the Beit Hamikdash on the place where the vessels were hidden, which was written by Shimur the Levi, Hizkiya the scribe, Tzidkiya, Haggai Hanavi, and Zecharia Ben Ido Hanavi), the compiler writes in his introduction the following:

The Kabbalist, the Ga'on, Moreinu Verabbeinu Rav Naftali Ben Harav Yaakov Elhanan, in his book Emek Hamelech (p. 14a, chapter 14) wrote the following:

These "Mishnayot" - in other words, the paragraphs that describe the great treasuries that were hidden by the kings of the House of David and these 5 Tzaddikim, the 5 complete Tzaddikim wrote them down.  And these are they: Shimur Halevi, Hizkiya the Scribe, Tzidkiya, Haggai Hanavi, and Zecharia Ben Ido Hanavi.  And they hid the vessels of the Beit Hamikdash and the wealth of the treasuries that were in Yerushalayim and they will not be revealed until the day Mashiah Ben David comes BB"A.

And following this, the aforementioned 5 Tzaddikim wrote the list of all the treasures that the kings of the House of David hid - as well as what they themselves hid.  Among them, the vessels of the Mishkan and the Mikdash and everything that David prepared from the spoils of the wars for Shelomo his son that he didn't use and hid there since it was Hekdesh.  Similarly, they hid there precious stones and jewels and musical instruments that David prepared for the music of the Levites - everything was so beautiful that there were none like them ever before.  And in order to guard them, they made the angels swear...

And this is the wording of the tractate:

All these were revealed to Hizkiyahu the Scribe and he gave them over to the angel Sham-shi-el who would guard them until King David arises.  And he gave over to his hand the silver and gold together with the gold that Shelomo donated, along with the talents of gold and precious stones that are invaluable.  All these are buried and hidden and guarded by the angel Sham-shi-el from the Chaldean army that was called Borsippa...

 And the tractate continues on:

All was hidden and buried in front of [King] Tzidkiya since the worthy ones knew the secret that they would G-d forbid fall into the hands of the oppressor who hated Israel.  Because these vessels cannot be used except by Israel... And he buried them until the day that Israel will return to its original state and they will take the honor of the world when the man of David will be found - his name is "Ben David".  And the silver and gold will be revealed to him when all of Israel will gather and will go up as a complete Aliya to Yerushalayim...

[To be continued]