Sanhedrin (103b) With regard to that which is written: “And He shall pass through the sea with affliction and shall strike the waves in the sea” (Zechariah 10:11), Rabbi Yoḥanan says: This affliction is a reference to the idol of Micah, as Micah passed through the sea during the exodus from Egypt. It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Natan says: The distance from Gerav, where Micah resided, to Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was at that time, was three mil, and the smoke from the arrangement of wood on the altar in Shiloh and the smoke from the worship of the idol of Micah would intermingle with each other.
Sanhedrin (103b) The ministering angels sought to dismiss him from the world. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: Leave him, as his bread is available for travelers. And it is for this matter, the sin of Micah’s idol, that the people involved in the incident of the concubine in Gibeah were punished. The tribes of Israel waged war with the tribe of Benjamin and forty thousand of them were killed. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: You did not protest for My honor and took no action to destroy Micah’s idol, but you protested for the honor of one of flesh and blood who was killed? Therefore, the other tribes were initially unsuccessful, and many of their soldiers were killed.
Sanhedrin (103b)And Rabbi Yoḥanan himself says: Food distances the near, and draws near the distant, and averts eyes from the wicked, sparing them from punishment, and causes the Divine Presence to rest on the prophets of the Baal; and an unwitting transgression with regard to it is at times considered an intentional transgression.
Shoftim (17:1-5) 1. And there was a man of Mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2. And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, about which you cursed, and spoke of it also in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be you of the Lord, my son. 3. And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image; now therefore I will restore it to you. 4. And when he had given back the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the silversmith, who made an engraved image of it and a molten image; and they were in the house of Micahyehu. 5. And the man Micah had a house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
