For the source text click/tap here: Sanhedrin 102
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The Gemara on our daf returns to the list of kings that appears in the Mishna (90a), which enumerates three kings that lost their share in the World-to-Come. The three kings listed are Yerovam, Aḥav and Menashe.
King Aḥav, the son of Omri, led the people in the Northern Kingdom to accept and implement Canaanite idol worship (see I Melakhim 16:23-34).
Our Gemara discusses what merit Aḥav’s father, King Omri, had that allowed him to become king of Israel. According to Rabbi Yoḥanan, it was his establishment of Shomron, a new city in the Land of Israel, that gave him that merit (see I Melakhim 16:24).
We explore his character and the mixed reception in rabbinic literature.