"Shimon ben Azzai said: I found a scroll of genealogy, and it was written, 'So-and-so is a mamzer, [having been born] from [a forbidden union with] a married woman; and it was written, 'the teaching of Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob is small in quantity, and clean'. And in it was also written, 'Menashe slew Isaiah'" (Yevamot 49b).
The context of this Talmudic passage is to weigh in on the debate as to how terrible the forbidden relationship must be between a couple that it could produce a mamzer. The scroll found by Ben Azzai attests to the view that a mamzer is the product of a forbidden relationship only if such union carries a death penalty.
I find it most interesting that this scroll was found by Shimon ben Azzai, who never married (Yevamot 63b)--or, according to one tradition, married for one day only (Sotah 4b). Perhaps this notion of childlessness connects Ben Azzai to the teaching regarding Menashe. The Talmud (Brachot 10a) records that his father Chizkiyahu did not want to marry because he had a vision that if he would have a son, he would be most evil. Yishayahu told him, "in the secrets of the Merciful One, why do you concern yourself?" and chastised him for his neglect of this crucial mitzvah. Chizkiyahu listened to Yishayahu and his 'prophecy' was confirmed--Menashe was the worst king (and there was some serious competition) the Jewish people would know. It is more than ironic that Menashe--who owed his life to Yishayahu--would kill him. Menashe was, in fact, an illegitimate child, morally if not physically.
Yet instead of describing Menashe's killing of Yishayahu as pure evil, the Gemara almost justifies it. "Raba said: He brought him to trial and then slew him" [1]. This "trial" consisted of accusing Yishayahu of "heresy" as, on three occasions, the words of the prophet seemed to contradict those of the Torah itself. The Gemara relates that Yishayahu had responses to these (false accusations), but was well aware that Menashe would not accept them and thus, he preferred to remain silent, lest he turn Menashe from a inadvertent sinner into a willful one. Instead of trying to heap punishment and blame on Menashe, he tried to minimize his guilt. "He [Yishayahu] thereupon pronounced [the Divine] Name and was swallowed up by a cedar. The cedar, however, was brought and sawn asunder. When the saw reached his mouth, he died. [And this was his penalty] for having said, 'And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,'"(Yishayahu 6:5, Yevamot 49b).
Yishayahu is the author of some of most powerful words of rebuke to the Jewish people. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: Children I have reared, and brought up, and they have rebelled against Me...The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider...Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sedom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gemorrah" (Yishayahu, chapter 1).
We are worse than animals, we act like the people of Sedom, Yishahayu laments. Yet for this, he was not punished. Harsh words, but they needed to be said. They were words of rebuke ordered by G-d. The Jewish people had lost their way, corruption was everywhere, and the powerful abused the weak. The rebuke was meant to spur the people to repentance, and Yishayahu offers the road to such: "Zion will be redeemed with justice, and they that return to her with tzedakah, righteousness" (1:27).
Yet as Rashi (Yevamot 49b s.v. nach nafshei) explains when Yishayahu stated that he is "dwelling amongst people of unclean lips", he did so neither on the command of G-d nor for the purpose of rebuke, but on his own initiative. He was criticizing the sinner instead of the sin.
Yes, the Jewish people sin, often in quite terrible ways; and at times, rebuke is needed. But the Jewish people are a wonderful people, and anyone who identifies as a Jew is to be warmly embraced. I have often joked (actually, I mean it quite seriously) that the Jewish people are proof that Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest is correct. Despite having a 2,000 year head start on Christianity and a 2,600 year head start on Islam, they each outnumber us by more than 100:1.
The simple fact is that most Jews throughout history have, one way or another, left the Jewish people. Starting with those who Abraham and Sarah converted, to the 80% or more who remained in Egypt, to the exiled ten tribes, the various sects that disappeared with the destruction of the Temple, the many who converted to Christianity willingly or not, to the modern period where the vast majority of Jews (outside the land of Israel) are intermarrying, only the most dedicated have remained Jewish. Those who identify as Jews are truly exceptional, and we should treat them as such.
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[1] That Menashe would use a religious pretext to "try" Yishayahu indicated the depth of his evil. Sadly, those who mock Torah will often try and use it to justify their actions.
