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- Efforts We Make In Life
by R. Gidon Rothstein
Parshat Mikeitz
The Cup, a Debatable Tool of Divination
Yosef’s house-master catches the brothers, “discovers” the goblet they stole, and rebukes them, 44;5. How could they have imagined they would get away with it, when Yosef nachesh yenachesh bo, a phrase the translations on Sefaria all take to mean he performs divination with it. Ibn Ezra is less sure.
He first suggests it means to test, i.e. Yosef was testing to see if they would steal it. Ibn Ezra points us to 30;27, where Lavan used the same word to explain how he figured out Elokim had blessed him because of Ya’akov. There, Ibn Ezra’s comment blurs the issue. He first says nisiti, I tested, which sounds like Lavan figured it out somehow. He keeps going, though, says for Lavan was wont to use nechashim, which does seem to mean divination, except he adds Lavan had terafim. Back in VaYetzei, we saw (as it happens) that Ibn Ezra thought terafim were non-divination tools of discovery about the world.
The continuation of the comment also moves away from magical predictions. He says the housemaster meant to say, how could you not have been afraid, when I put the silver goblet before you specifically to test you, and deliberately turned away, to the point you would take it. Ibn Ezra’s main reading, I think, did not think nichush meant consulting the stars or occult forces, it referred to finding an unusual, but natural, way to hidden truths. Terafim told Lavan what he couldn’t find on his own, in a nonobvious but natural way, and the nichush here tells Yosef and the housemaster about the brothers’ supposed willingness to steal the goblet.
But it’s hard to resist the pull of divination. Ibn Ezra quotes R. Yonah (I think ibn Janah, a known grammarian) who said yenachesh bo meant because of it, the loss of the goblet led Yosef to consult with menachashim, with those who do perform divination. In this reading, which Ibn Ezra is comfortable with, the goblet itself didn’t help with the sorcery, but lead Yosef and the housemaster to consult sorcerers.
Or, finally, maybe Yosef pretended to use the goblet. It was made with designs on it as if it were a vehicle of prediction, and Yosef consulted it as if it told the brothers’ birth order.
Ibn Ezra dances around divination rather than rejects it. His first reading turns the word into a term for figuring out unknown facts, for Lavan and this housemaster. If it does mean sorcery, he accepts R. Yonah’s idea the housemaster meant the loss of the goblet would stimulate Yosef to ask those who do engage in those arts, and if the cup itself, it was Yosef pretending to have it tell him truths he could not know otherwise.
A Little Gift
When Ya’akov concedes the brothers need to go back to Egypt, with Binyamin, to buy food, 43;11, he bids his sons bring a gift for the feared Egyptian leader. Sforno picks up on an odd word in that gift, me’at. Ya’akov tells them to take me’at tzari, me’at devash. The Contemporary JPS translation, as well as the Schocken Bible of Everett Fox (both on Sefaria) render me’at “some,” some balm and some honey, sidestepping the easiest reading of the word, a little bit (the more traditional translations on Sefaria, such as Koren and Metsudah, do use “little”). I think they opt for “some,” because it seems odd for Ya’akov to have the brothers bring only a little of an item for a gift.
Sforno attacks the problem head on. We gift differently to people for whom money is no object, he says. Many people (sadly, no matter how wealthy) still look to make their next buck (imagine the richest man in the world fighting to be paid an outlandish salary). But some people have realized they don’t need more money (or even started giving it away). Ya’akov imagines this distant Egyptian as a man who has more than enough. The size of a gift will make no impression on him.
Instead, he intends to gift rare items, where any amount is appreciated.
Living and Not Dying
When Ya’akov first sends his sons to Egypt to buy food, 42;2, his goal is ve-nichyeh ve-lo namut, we will live and not die. Or HaChayim offers two illuminating explanations for the seeming redundancy (if they live, they clearly won’t die, and vice verse).
First, he suggests Ya’akov was articulating their responsibility to protect their lives, their job—and ours—to do what they could to live. Failure would lead to a guilty verdict in the Heavenly court, they would die in this world and be judged in the next. By going to Egypt, they would live, physically, from the food they would secure, and not die in the next world. A first option: Ya’akov was reminding them, and us, of the human obligation to work at living, to do what we can to sustain our lives.
His second option takes a more mundane view, we will live well if you find a lot of food to buy, not die if you only find the minimal amount to achieve that. It reminds me of what mori ve-rabi R. Lichtenstein once said about the Yeshiva’s gemach, interest-free loan fund . In encouraging donations to the fund, he said people shouldn’t have to survive on bread alone, it was reasonable to want butter on the bread as well.
Here, too, Or HaChayyim thinks Ya’akov is saying, you might get enough for us to live, or, if not, at least not to die.
Sorcery may or may not work, but we can find hidden facts in other ways, according to Ibn Ezra. Some people don’t need anything more, but we can find the kinds of gifts they will still relish, Sforno understood. And sometimes we might find only basic sustenance rather than comfort, Or HaChayyim taught us.Efforts We Make In Life by R. Gidon Rothstein Parshat Mikeitz The Cup, a Debatable Tool of Divination Yosef’s house-master catches the brothers, “discovers” the goblet they stole, and rebukes them, 44;5. How could they have imagined they would get away with it, when Yosef nachesh yenachesh bo, a phrase the translations on Sefaria all take to mean he performs divination with it. Ibn Ezra is less sure. He first suggests it means to test, i.e. Yosef was testing to see if they would steal it. Ibn Ezra points us to 30;27, where Lavan used the same word to explain how he figured out Elokim had blessed him because of Ya’akov. There, Ibn Ezra’s comment blurs the issue. He first says nisiti, I tested, which sounds like Lavan figured it out somehow. He keeps going, though, says for Lavan was wont to use nechashim, which does seem to mean divination, except he adds Lavan had terafim. Back in VaYetzei, we saw (as it happens) that Ibn Ezra thought terafim were non-divination tools of discovery about the world. The continuation of the comment also moves away from magical predictions. He says the housemaster meant to say, how could you not have been afraid, when I put the silver goblet before you specifically to test you, and deliberately turned away, to the point you would take it. Ibn Ezra’s main reading, I think, did not think nichush meant consulting the stars or occult forces, it referred to finding an unusual, but natural, way to hidden truths. Terafim told Lavan what he couldn’t find on his own, in a nonobvious but natural way, and the nichush here tells Yosef and the housemaster about the brothers’ supposed willingness to steal the goblet. But it’s hard to resist the pull of divination. Ibn Ezra quotes R. Yonah (I think ibn Janah, a known grammarian) who said yenachesh bo meant because of it, the loss of the goblet led Yosef to consult with menachashim, with those who do perform divination. In this reading, which Ibn Ezra is comfortable with, the goblet itself didn’t help with the sorcery, but lead Yosef and the housemaster to consult sorcerers. Or, finally, maybe Yosef pretended to use the goblet. It was made with designs on it as if it were a vehicle of prediction, and Yosef consulted it as if it told the brothers’ birth order. Ibn Ezra dances around divination rather than rejects it. His first reading turns the word into a term for figuring out unknown facts, for Lavan and this housemaster. If it does mean sorcery, he accepts R. Yonah’s idea the housemaster meant the loss of the goblet would stimulate Yosef to ask those who do engage in those arts, and if the cup itself, it was Yosef pretending to have it tell him truths he could not know otherwise. A Little Gift When Ya’akov concedes the brothers need to go back to Egypt, with Binyamin, to buy food, 43;11, he bids his sons bring a gift for the feared Egyptian leader. Sforno picks up on an odd word in that gift, me’at. Ya’akov tells them to take me’at tzari, me’at devash. The Contemporary JPS translation, as well as the Schocken Bible of Everett Fox (both on Sefaria) render me’at “some,” some balm and some honey, sidestepping the easiest reading of the word, a little bit (the more traditional translations on Sefaria, such as Koren and Metsudah, do use “little”). I think they opt for “some,” because it seems odd for Ya’akov to have the brothers bring only a little of an item for a gift. Sforno attacks the problem head on. We gift differently to people for whom money is no object, he says. Many people (sadly, no matter how wealthy) still look to make their next buck (imagine the richest man in the world fighting to be paid an outlandish salary). But some people have realized they don’t need more money (or even started giving it away). Ya’akov imagines this distant Egyptian as a man who has more than enough. The size of a gift will make no impression on him. Instead, he intends to gift rare items, where any amount is appreciated. Living and Not Dying When Ya’akov first sends his sons to Egypt to buy food, 42;2, his goal is ve-nichyeh ve-lo namut, we will live and not die. Or HaChayim offers two illuminating explanations for the seeming redundancy (if they live, they clearly won’t die, and vice verse). First, he suggests Ya’akov was articulating their responsibility to protect their lives, their job—and ours—to do what they could to live. Failure would lead to a guilty verdict in the Heavenly court, they would die in this world and be judged in the next. By going to Egypt, they would live, physically, from the food they would secure, and not die in the next world. A first option: Ya’akov was reminding them, and us, of the human obligation to work at living, to do what we can to sustain our lives. His second option takes a more mundane view, we will live well if you find a lot of food to buy, not die if you only find the minimal amount to achieve that. It reminds me of what mori ve-rabi R. Lichtenstein once said about the Yeshiva’s gemach, interest-free loan fund . In encouraging donations to the fund, he said people shouldn’t have to survive on bread alone, it was reasonable to want butter on the bread as well. Here, too, Or HaChayyim thinks Ya’akov is saying, you might get enough for us to live, or, if not, at least not to die. Sorcery may or may not work, but we can find hidden facts in other ways, according to Ibn Ezra. Some people don’t need anything more, but we can find the kinds of gifts they will still relish, Sforno understood. And sometimes we might find only basic sustenance rather than comfort, Or HaChayyim taught us.0 Comments 0 Shares 9517 ViewsPlease log in to like, share and comment! - Jacob sent his sons – except Benjamin – to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. He devised a plan to see if they were ready to accept him as Jacob’s successor: He threatened not to receive them next time without Benjamin. Once Benjamin would be in Egypt, Joseph would invent an excuse to keep him there. If the brothers would be prepared to fight for Benjamin, it would mean that they had overcome their jealousy of Rachel’s sons. Jacob was reluctant to send Benjamin, but his other sons convinced Jacob that they had no choice. So Jacob agreed, but first prayed for their success.
Natural Miracles
וְאֵל שַׁדַּי יִתֵּן לָכֶם רַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי הָאִישׁ וגו': (בראשית מג:יד)
[After preparing a gift to send to Joseph, Jacob prayed,] “May G-d Almighty grant that the man be merciful to you.” Genesis 43:14
Conventional wisdom has it that prayer is necessary only in desperate situations. Thus, Jacob’s sons assumed that since Joseph was detaining their brother because he suspected them of being thieves or spies, it would be enough to pacify him with a gift.
From Jacob’s words to his children, however, we learn that even when a favorable outcome seems perfectly natural, we should never assume that we can reach it without Divine assistance. We must always pray – and not as a secondary measure, but as the primary measure.
Although we must create natural channels to facilitate G‑d’s blessings, we should realize that G‑d, who is beyond nature, controls every aspect of our lives. When we realize this fully, we will indeed perceive that the “natural” occurrences of our lives are all in fact miracles garbed in nature.1
FOOTNOTES
1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 25, pp. 227–234.Jacob sent his sons – except Benjamin – to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. He devised a plan to see if they were ready to accept him as Jacob’s successor: He threatened not to receive them next time without Benjamin. Once Benjamin would be in Egypt, Joseph would invent an excuse to keep him there. If the brothers would be prepared to fight for Benjamin, it would mean that they had overcome their jealousy of Rachel’s sons. Jacob was reluctant to send Benjamin, but his other sons convinced Jacob that they had no choice. So Jacob agreed, but first prayed for their success. Natural Miracles וְאֵל שַׁדַּי יִתֵּן לָכֶם רַחֲמִים לִפְנֵי הָאִישׁ וגו': (בראשית מג:יד) [After preparing a gift to send to Joseph, Jacob prayed,] “May G-d Almighty grant that the man be merciful to you.” Genesis 43:14 Conventional wisdom has it that prayer is necessary only in desperate situations. Thus, Jacob’s sons assumed that since Joseph was detaining their brother because he suspected them of being thieves or spies, it would be enough to pacify him with a gift. From Jacob’s words to his children, however, we learn that even when a favorable outcome seems perfectly natural, we should never assume that we can reach it without Divine assistance. We must always pray – and not as a secondary measure, but as the primary measure. Although we must create natural channels to facilitate G‑d’s blessings, we should realize that G‑d, who is beyond nature, controls every aspect of our lives. When we realize this fully, we will indeed perceive that the “natural” occurrences of our lives are all in fact miracles garbed in nature.1 FOOTNOTES 1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 25, pp. 227–234.0 Comments 0 Shares 2823 Views - I KINGS CHAPTER 5
SOLOMON'S EMPIRE
Abraham had been a truly international figure, having traveled throughout the "Fertile Crescent" from Babylon to Aram Naharayim, throughout the Land of Israel and down into Egypt. Jacob too traveled to Aram and to Egypt. However, since the time of the entry of the Israelites into their Land, their main preoccupation had been to battle against their immediate neighbors – the Canaanites, Philistines, Moabites and Ammonites – in order to maintain their hold over the Promised Land.
It was through the victories of David over all Israel's enemies that an entirely new international vista opened up in the time of Solomon, whose "empire" or "sphere of influence" extended over the entire swathe of territory promised to Abraham "from the river of Egypt to the Great river, the Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18; cf. I Kings 5:1 & 3).
Our text evokes Solomon's opulent royal lifestyle (vv 2-3) including his ownership of multiple thousands of horses (v 6), which despite being prohibited to the king by the Torah (Deut. 17:16) remain a mark of royalty until today. While the various nations that comprised Solomon's empire paid taxes and gifts, this was not an exploitative colonial empire or one that kept its grip through military force alone. For "he had PEACE on all sides around" (v 4) – a situation that modern Israel can only envy, having experienced no peace for a single moment since the inception of the state and for years and years before it.
Our text testifies that the very key to Solomon's influence over this great area of territory as well as over the neighboring foreign powers lay in his unique, God-given WISDOM, which "exceeded the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. And he was wiser than every man (ADAM), than Eitan the Ezrahi and Heyman and Khulkol and Darda the sons of Mahol…" While the simple explanation is that these last names are those of the leading Levite Temple singers of the time, the Midrash identifies "every man" with ADAM, Eitan with Abraham, Heyman with Moses, Khulkol with Joseph and Darda with the Generation of the Wilderness (DOR DE'AH, "generation of KNOWLEDGE), who were "children of forgiveness" (MEHILA).
Most of the narrative in the book of Kings portrays Solomon and his achievements from the outside, but his true wisdom shines forth in his surviving literary creations alluded to in verse 12: Proverbs, Song of Songs and Koheles (=Ecclesiastes). Most translations render ALAPHIM and ELEPH in this verse as "thousand(s)", but Rashi relates them to the same root as in ULPAN meaning "education": the verse thus speaks of three EDUCATIONAL ORDERS of Proverbs (the expression MISHLEY SHLOMO appears three times in the book of Proverbs); these, together with Song of Songs and Koheles constitute the FIVE orders of Solomon's "song". According to the simple meaning of ELEPH as 1,000, Rashi brings the Midrash that Solomon taught three thousand parables on every single verse of the Torah and gave 1,005 explanations of each parable (see Rashi on vv 11-12). "He spoke about the trees from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that comes out of the wall" (before God, the highest and the lowest are equal, Bamidbar Rabba 13). According to Rashi this verse means that not only did Solomon understand the healing properties of all the different trees and plants and exactly how to cultivate them, but that he also explained why the purification of the leper involves the cedar and the hyssop (Lev. 14:4). "He spoke about the animals and birds and creeping creatures and fish…" (v 13): not only did he understand all their different qualities, but also why the SHECHITAH of animals requires the cutting of both the windpipe and the gullet, while that of birds requires the cutting of only one, and why locusts and fish do not require SHECHITAH at all… (Rashi on v 14).
HIRAM KING OF TYRE
The tragic history of modern Lebanon has overshadowed the one-time greatness of this very beautiful country with its once very extensive forests. While Sidon was established by the firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15), the city of Tyre to its south was an immensely powerful city state built up by the Phoenicians, whose prosperity was founded on the magnificent tall trees out of which they built the ships they used to develop a trade empire throughout the Mediterranean area and beyond.
While Hiram king of Tyre is a legendary figure (particularly in the lore of freemasonry, where he is seen as the "father" of the Temple), Ibn Ezra (on Genesis 41:10) views Hiram as the generic name of all the kings of Tyre just as Pharaoh was the generic name of all the kings of Egypt. In later Biblical times Tyre saw Jerusalem as a dangerous rival and hoped to benefit from its destruction (cf. Ezekiel 26:2, "I shall be filled from her destruction"), but the Hiram who befriended King David and King Solomon was – from the testimony of our text – a believer in the One God who (unlike the nations of today) REJOICED when he heard that Solomon wanted to build Him a Temple in Jerusalem (v 20).
Hiram struck a Covenant with Solomon (v 26) inaugurating the first ever venture in international cooperation to build God's Temple. Hiram provided the timber and stone that were the building materials for the Temple in return for very ample supplies of choice wheat and olive oil that were the specialty of Israel. The lumber was tied up to form rafts that were floated down the Mediterranean from the coast of Lebanon to the point nearest to Jerusalem on the Israeli coast. From there it was transported by land to the site of the Temple. The 70,000 "porters" and 80,000 "excavators" who extracted and transported the massive stones for the Temple were GERIM GERURIM – would-be converts who were not admitted into the Assembly of Israel (as no full converts were accepted in the time of Solomon, see commentary on I Kings ch 3) but were nevertheless allowed to participate in the enterprise of building of God's House of Prayer for all the Nations.
CHAPTER 6
The building of the Temple commenced in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt and 440 years after the people's entry into the Land. The actualization of this project to join Heaven and Earth took a total of seven years (vv 37-8).
In his work on the "Secrets of the Future Temple" (Mishkeney Elyon) the outstanding 18th century Kabbalistic sage R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto explains that creation has two roots: the "revealed root" of HOKHMAH ("wisdom") and the "concealed" root of KETER ("the crown"). The two roots are alluded to in the first letter of the first word of the Torah, the Beis (=2) of Bereishis, "In the beginning".
"Know too that the sin of Adam spoiled everything and caused all perfection to become concealed, with the result that the world was not even able to return to its previous state [i.e. the level of Wisdom] except in the days of Solomon, when the Temple was first built. Thus it is written: 'And God gave wisdom to Solomon' (I Kings 5:26). For then Wisdom was revealed in all its beauty and radiant glory, enabling all the lights to shine with great strength and joy. In those days, on every level in all the worlds there was only holy power and delight the like of which had never been seen. Even so, because everything was based only on Wisdom and did not reach the ultimate goal [of Keter], this peace and tranquility came to an end and the Temple was destroyed. But in time to come, when the hidden beginning I mentioned [Keter] is revealed, the happiness will be far, far greater, and it will never cease" (Ramchal, Secrets of the Future Temple).
Although Ramchal's work – which explains in detail the "sacred geometry" that underlies the design of the Temple – is primarily concerned with the FUTURE Temple as depicted by Ezekiel (chs 40ff), the principles on which it is based apply also to the Temple of Solomon, all of whose chambers, walls, gates and courtyards in all their various dimensions allude to and EMBODY IN STONE the various divine attributes as they relate to one another.
Besides the information about Solomon's Temple contained in our text, we have detailed supplementary information in Maseches MIDDOS, the Mishnaic Tractate of "Measurements", which deals with the design of the Second Temple, which was mostly modeled on the first. The rabbinic commentators wrote entire treatises about the structure of the Temple.
The Temple had very distinctive features, such as its windows, which were "wide open from the outside but closed and narrow on the inside" (v 4). This was because the Temple had no need for the light from the outside, since it was lit from within (both by the Candelabra and by the spiritual light that shined in it): on the contrary, light emanated FROM the Temple windows OUTWARDS.
Another distinctive feature was that as the very center of world peace, the Temple was a place where it was not fitting for the sound of metal hammers and axes to be heard (v 7) since metal is the material of weapons of war. All the stones were cut and dressed outside the Temple, and Solomon also miraculously found the Shamir worm, which would silently eat its way across a stone so as to split it just as it had cut the stones of the gems in the High Priest's breastplate in the days of Moses. (This is not a worm that is easy to find; Sotah 48b, Gittin 68a).
Most distinctive of all was that the survival of the Temple was entirely conditional upon Israel's keeping the Torah, as God promised to Solomon (vv 11-13): "If you go in My statutes and carry out My laws… I shall dwell amongst the Children of Israel and I will not abandon My people Israel."
The main Temple building, a structure of 60 x 20 cubits (on the inside) was divided into two unequal parts: the HEIKHAL (40 x 20) containing the Menorahs (Candelabra) Show-bread Tables and Incense Altar, and within, the Holy of Holies (20 x 20) containing the Ark of the Covenant with the wooden figures of two Cherubs overlaid with gold standing with their wings outstretched over it and filling the entire inner chamber. Across the entire front of the HEIKHAL stood the OULAM ("Vestibule").
Around the walls surrounding the Heikhal and Holy of Holies on three sides were a series of cells banked up in three stories one on top of the other. These cells may have been used to store the Temple treasures. Esoterically, they allowed the SHEFA (divine influence) emanating from within the Temple to be concentrated intensely prior to its flowing outwards to nourish the outside world.
The ceiling and roof of the Temple were made of wood, and its stone walls were entirely paneled with wood from top to bottom. The wood (which alludes to the TREE of life) was carved with the forms of cherubs, palms, garlands and flowers. All the walls and all the carvings were overlaid with gold, as was the ceiling and the floor, the effect of which must have been absolutely stunning.
Through God's providence, we have reached the description of the building of Solomon's Temple just as we are celebrating the festival of Chanukah in commemoration of God's miracles for Israel in the Second Temple. In the merit of our studies, may He quickly bring peace to our troubled world and speedily build the Temple we are now awaiting, from which the love and fear of God will spread forth to all the world.
I KINGS CHAPTER 5 SOLOMON'S EMPIRE Abraham had been a truly international figure, having traveled throughout the "Fertile Crescent" from Babylon to Aram Naharayim, throughout the Land of Israel and down into Egypt. Jacob too traveled to Aram and to Egypt. However, since the time of the entry of the Israelites into their Land, their main preoccupation had been to battle against their immediate neighbors – the Canaanites, Philistines, Moabites and Ammonites – in order to maintain their hold over the Promised Land. It was through the victories of David over all Israel's enemies that an entirely new international vista opened up in the time of Solomon, whose "empire" or "sphere of influence" extended over the entire swathe of territory promised to Abraham "from the river of Egypt to the Great river, the Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18; cf. I Kings 5:1 & 3). Our text evokes Solomon's opulent royal lifestyle (vv 2-3) including his ownership of multiple thousands of horses (v 6), which despite being prohibited to the king by the Torah (Deut. 17:16) remain a mark of royalty until today. While the various nations that comprised Solomon's empire paid taxes and gifts, this was not an exploitative colonial empire or one that kept its grip through military force alone. For "he had PEACE on all sides around" (v 4) – a situation that modern Israel can only envy, having experienced no peace for a single moment since the inception of the state and for years and years before it. Our text testifies that the very key to Solomon's influence over this great area of territory as well as over the neighboring foreign powers lay in his unique, God-given WISDOM, which "exceeded the wisdom of all the children of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. And he was wiser than every man (ADAM), than Eitan the Ezrahi and Heyman and Khulkol and Darda the sons of Mahol…" While the simple explanation is that these last names are those of the leading Levite Temple singers of the time, the Midrash identifies "every man" with ADAM, Eitan with Abraham, Heyman with Moses, Khulkol with Joseph and Darda with the Generation of the Wilderness (DOR DE'AH, "generation of KNOWLEDGE), who were "children of forgiveness" (MEHILA). Most of the narrative in the book of Kings portrays Solomon and his achievements from the outside, but his true wisdom shines forth in his surviving literary creations alluded to in verse 12: Proverbs, Song of Songs and Koheles (=Ecclesiastes). Most translations render ALAPHIM and ELEPH in this verse as "thousand(s)", but Rashi relates them to the same root as in ULPAN meaning "education": the verse thus speaks of three EDUCATIONAL ORDERS of Proverbs (the expression MISHLEY SHLOMO appears three times in the book of Proverbs); these, together with Song of Songs and Koheles constitute the FIVE orders of Solomon's "song". According to the simple meaning of ELEPH as 1,000, Rashi brings the Midrash that Solomon taught three thousand parables on every single verse of the Torah and gave 1,005 explanations of each parable (see Rashi on vv 11-12). "He spoke about the trees from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that comes out of the wall" (before God, the highest and the lowest are equal, Bamidbar Rabba 13). According to Rashi this verse means that not only did Solomon understand the healing properties of all the different trees and plants and exactly how to cultivate them, but that he also explained why the purification of the leper involves the cedar and the hyssop (Lev. 14:4). "He spoke about the animals and birds and creeping creatures and fish…" (v 13): not only did he understand all their different qualities, but also why the SHECHITAH of animals requires the cutting of both the windpipe and the gullet, while that of birds requires the cutting of only one, and why locusts and fish do not require SHECHITAH at all… (Rashi on v 14). HIRAM KING OF TYRE The tragic history of modern Lebanon has overshadowed the one-time greatness of this very beautiful country with its once very extensive forests. While Sidon was established by the firstborn son of Canaan (Gen. 10:15), the city of Tyre to its south was an immensely powerful city state built up by the Phoenicians, whose prosperity was founded on the magnificent tall trees out of which they built the ships they used to develop a trade empire throughout the Mediterranean area and beyond. While Hiram king of Tyre is a legendary figure (particularly in the lore of freemasonry, where he is seen as the "father" of the Temple), Ibn Ezra (on Genesis 41:10) views Hiram as the generic name of all the kings of Tyre just as Pharaoh was the generic name of all the kings of Egypt. In later Biblical times Tyre saw Jerusalem as a dangerous rival and hoped to benefit from its destruction (cf. Ezekiel 26:2, "I shall be filled from her destruction"), but the Hiram who befriended King David and King Solomon was – from the testimony of our text – a believer in the One God who (unlike the nations of today) REJOICED when he heard that Solomon wanted to build Him a Temple in Jerusalem (v 20). Hiram struck a Covenant with Solomon (v 26) inaugurating the first ever venture in international cooperation to build God's Temple. Hiram provided the timber and stone that were the building materials for the Temple in return for very ample supplies of choice wheat and olive oil that were the specialty of Israel. The lumber was tied up to form rafts that were floated down the Mediterranean from the coast of Lebanon to the point nearest to Jerusalem on the Israeli coast. From there it was transported by land to the site of the Temple. The 70,000 "porters" and 80,000 "excavators" who extracted and transported the massive stones for the Temple were GERIM GERURIM – would-be converts who were not admitted into the Assembly of Israel (as no full converts were accepted in the time of Solomon, see commentary on I Kings ch 3) but were nevertheless allowed to participate in the enterprise of building of God's House of Prayer for all the Nations. CHAPTER 6 The building of the Temple commenced in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt and 440 years after the people's entry into the Land. The actualization of this project to join Heaven and Earth took a total of seven years (vv 37-8). In his work on the "Secrets of the Future Temple" (Mishkeney Elyon) the outstanding 18th century Kabbalistic sage R. Moshe Hayyim Luzzatto explains that creation has two roots: the "revealed root" of HOKHMAH ("wisdom") and the "concealed" root of KETER ("the crown"). The two roots are alluded to in the first letter of the first word of the Torah, the Beis (=2) of Bereishis, "In the beginning". "Know too that the sin of Adam spoiled everything and caused all perfection to become concealed, with the result that the world was not even able to return to its previous state [i.e. the level of Wisdom] except in the days of Solomon, when the Temple was first built. Thus it is written: 'And God gave wisdom to Solomon' (I Kings 5:26). For then Wisdom was revealed in all its beauty and radiant glory, enabling all the lights to shine with great strength and joy. In those days, on every level in all the worlds there was only holy power and delight the like of which had never been seen. Even so, because everything was based only on Wisdom and did not reach the ultimate goal [of Keter], this peace and tranquility came to an end and the Temple was destroyed. But in time to come, when the hidden beginning I mentioned [Keter] is revealed, the happiness will be far, far greater, and it will never cease" (Ramchal, Secrets of the Future Temple). Although Ramchal's work – which explains in detail the "sacred geometry" that underlies the design of the Temple – is primarily concerned with the FUTURE Temple as depicted by Ezekiel (chs 40ff), the principles on which it is based apply also to the Temple of Solomon, all of whose chambers, walls, gates and courtyards in all their various dimensions allude to and EMBODY IN STONE the various divine attributes as they relate to one another. Besides the information about Solomon's Temple contained in our text, we have detailed supplementary information in Maseches MIDDOS, the Mishnaic Tractate of "Measurements", which deals with the design of the Second Temple, which was mostly modeled on the first. The rabbinic commentators wrote entire treatises about the structure of the Temple. The Temple had very distinctive features, such as its windows, which were "wide open from the outside but closed and narrow on the inside" (v 4). This was because the Temple had no need for the light from the outside, since it was lit from within (both by the Candelabra and by the spiritual light that shined in it): on the contrary, light emanated FROM the Temple windows OUTWARDS. Another distinctive feature was that as the very center of world peace, the Temple was a place where it was not fitting for the sound of metal hammers and axes to be heard (v 7) since metal is the material of weapons of war. All the stones were cut and dressed outside the Temple, and Solomon also miraculously found the Shamir worm, which would silently eat its way across a stone so as to split it just as it had cut the stones of the gems in the High Priest's breastplate in the days of Moses. (This is not a worm that is easy to find; Sotah 48b, Gittin 68a). Most distinctive of all was that the survival of the Temple was entirely conditional upon Israel's keeping the Torah, as God promised to Solomon (vv 11-13): "If you go in My statutes and carry out My laws… I shall dwell amongst the Children of Israel and I will not abandon My people Israel." The main Temple building, a structure of 60 x 20 cubits (on the inside) was divided into two unequal parts: the HEIKHAL (40 x 20) containing the Menorahs (Candelabra) Show-bread Tables and Incense Altar, and within, the Holy of Holies (20 x 20) containing the Ark of the Covenant with the wooden figures of two Cherubs overlaid with gold standing with their wings outstretched over it and filling the entire inner chamber. Across the entire front of the HEIKHAL stood the OULAM ("Vestibule"). Around the walls surrounding the Heikhal and Holy of Holies on three sides were a series of cells banked up in three stories one on top of the other. These cells may have been used to store the Temple treasures. Esoterically, they allowed the SHEFA (divine influence) emanating from within the Temple to be concentrated intensely prior to its flowing outwards to nourish the outside world. The ceiling and roof of the Temple were made of wood, and its stone walls were entirely paneled with wood from top to bottom. The wood (which alludes to the TREE of life) was carved with the forms of cherubs, palms, garlands and flowers. All the walls and all the carvings were overlaid with gold, as was the ceiling and the floor, the effect of which must have been absolutely stunning. Through God's providence, we have reached the description of the building of Solomon's Temple just as we are celebrating the festival of Chanukah in commemoration of God's miracles for Israel in the Second Temple. In the merit of our studies, may He quickly bring peace to our troubled world and speedily build the Temple we are now awaiting, from which the love and fear of God will spread forth to all the world.0 Comments 0 Shares 16599 Views - Although the Egyptians stored up grain during the seven years of plenty, as Joseph directed them to, as soon as the seven years of famine began, everyone’s grain except for Joseph’s rotted. The populace of Egypt thus found themselves dependent upon Joseph for food. Joseph agreed to give them grain on the condition that they circumcise themselves first.
Refining the World
וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה לְכָל מִצְרַיִם לְכוּ אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר לָכֶם תַּעֲשׂוּ: (בראשית מא:נה)
Pharaoh said to all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you to.” Genesis 41:55
Egyptian society was steeped in the pursuit of self-serving carnal pleasure, which is reduced by circumcision. Thus, by having the Egyptians circumcised, Joseph subdued their obsession with carnal indulgence. Pharaoh himself instructed them to go along with Joseph’s condition; thus, even the living symbol of Egyptian corruption was willing to be refined, at least somewhat.
We follow Joseph’s example by remaining spiritually uncontaminated by our materialistic environment and even refining it. By strengthening our own commitment to Judaism, we influence our fellow Jews to strengthen theirs. Moreover, we influence the broader community of non-Jews to keep the Torah’s laws that apply to them (the “Noahide” laws). Thus, we will ultimately transform the entire world into G‑d’s home.1
FOOTNOTES
1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 10, p. 141.Although the Egyptians stored up grain during the seven years of plenty, as Joseph directed them to, as soon as the seven years of famine began, everyone’s grain except for Joseph’s rotted. The populace of Egypt thus found themselves dependent upon Joseph for food. Joseph agreed to give them grain on the condition that they circumcise themselves first. Refining the World וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה לְכָל מִצְרַיִם לְכוּ אֶל יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר לָכֶם תַּעֲשׂוּ: (בראשית מא:נה) Pharaoh said to all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you to.” Genesis 41:55 Egyptian society was steeped in the pursuit of self-serving carnal pleasure, which is reduced by circumcision. Thus, by having the Egyptians circumcised, Joseph subdued their obsession with carnal indulgence. Pharaoh himself instructed them to go along with Joseph’s condition; thus, even the living symbol of Egyptian corruption was willing to be refined, at least somewhat. We follow Joseph’s example by remaining spiritually uncontaminated by our materialistic environment and even refining it. By strengthening our own commitment to Judaism, we influence our fellow Jews to strengthen theirs. Moreover, we influence the broader community of non-Jews to keep the Torah’s laws that apply to them (the “Noahide” laws). Thus, we will ultimately transform the entire world into G‑d’s home.1 FOOTNOTES 1. Likutei Sichot, vol. 10, p. 141.0 Comments 0 Shares 3242 Views - I KINGS CHAPTER 3
SOLOMON'S MARRIAGE TO PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER
Our chapter opens with the very surprising news that Solomon married the daughter of the king of the very nation that had ignominiously enslaved and been forced to release Israel hundreds of years earlier. Rashi (on v 3) notes that the verses in this chapter are not in historical sequence, for Solomon's dream in Giv'on (vv 5ff) took place at the very beginning of his reign, whereas it was not until three years afterwards that he made his marriage alliance with Pharoah. This was directly after the death of Solomon's teacher, Shimi ben Gera (narrated out of sequence at the end of the preceding chapter in order to complete the account of Solomon's settling David's outstanding scores). From the proximity of verse 1 of our present chapter to the last verses of the previous chapter, our rabbis taught that as long as his teacher was alive, Solomon did not make this questionable move of intermarriage, deducing that a person should always live close to his teacher in order to stay on the right track (Rashi on v 1).
Solomon's move was questionable because the Torah states that "you shall not intermarry with them [i.e. the other nations]" (Deut. 7:3). Some rabbis held that intermarriage would only be forbidden if the non-Israelite party to the marriage does not convert, but others held that converting them in order to marry is also forbidden. Another factor raising questions about Solomon's move is the tradition that no converts were accepted in the times of David and Solomon because the prestige of Israel was so great that potential converts would all have had ulterior motives. However the Talmud explicitly states that this did not apply to the daughter of Pharaoh, who had enough wealth not to need to marry Solomon for money (Talmud Yevamos 76a).
A further question is how Solomon could have converted and then married an Egyptian woman when the Torah states that an Egyptian convert may not enter the Assembly until the third generation (Deut. 23:9). However, this objection is countered by a tradition (not accepted halachically) that the referenced verse applies only to an Egyptian male but not to a female (which would make the law of the Egyptian parallel to the law forbidding a Moabite but not a Moabitess from ever entering the Assembly.
Despite the many questions that surround it, we do not find Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter criticized in our text as being intrinsically sinful: verse 3 DOES implicitly criticize Solomon for sacrificing at many high altars but does NOT criticize him for marrying Pharaoh's daughter. It was only in his old age, when Solomon took many wives, that he was criticized for allowing them to turn his heart aside from God.
It stands to reason that the exact intent of the supremely wise Solomon in marrying the daughter of Israel's former persecutors would be beyond the ability of simple people like ourselves to grasp. Since PHARAOH represents the OREPH ("back of the neck", same Hebrew letters as Pharaoh) of creation as opposed to its inner face, the conversion of his daughter by Solomon and her integration into the holy edifice that he was building was a "coup" comparable with the conversion of Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh who drew Moses out of the water. The "daughter of Pharaoh" represents the source of all the different kinds of worldly wisdom (which are her "handmaidens"). By "converting" and "marrying" Pharaoh's daughter, Solomon was perhaps very daringly and ambitiously striving to deepen and enhance the revelation of God's unity on all levels of creation. If so, it was apparently still over-ambitious, because Solomon proved unable to hold his "catch" within the bounds of holiness, and indeed he himself strayed beyond them. In retribution, said the rabbis, at the very moment when Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, the angel Gabriel (GEVURAH, "might", withholding and concealing) descended and drove the first stake into the sea in the very place where more and more sediment eventually collected to form the foundation of what was to become Israel's nemesis: the city of Rome (Talmud Shabbos 56b).
"AND SOLOMON LOVED GOD" (v 3)
Prior to his heart-enticing marriages with foreign women, Solomon passionately followed the Torah of his father David. If he was criticized, it was only for "sacrificing in the high places". This was actually permitted as long as the Temple was not built in Jerusalem. Since the sacking of the Sanctuary of Shilo by the Philistines in the time of Ely and the slaughter of the priests of Nov by Saul, the Sanctuary with the vessels of Moses had been in Giv'on, except for the Ark of the Covenant, which David had taken to Jerusalem. Whereas David had sacrificed only at the "great" Altar in Giv'on (this was the copper Altar made by Moses) or at an altar that he erected before the Ark in Jerusalem, Solomon also sacrificed in other high places (until the building of the Temple), and while this was still permitted, it was seen as a deviation from David's path and as needlessly delaying the building of the Temple in Jerusalem (Rashi and RaDaK on v 3).
THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
Whereas David's kingship was founded on the sword of prayer and faith – he had to fight throughout his life – Solomon's kingship was founded on the very WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING which he had the good sense to request when God offered him anything he wanted. At the tender age of 12 (Rashi and RaDaK on v 7) when many intelligent youngsters tend to be highly arrogant, the wise young King Solomon had the humility to understand he would need divine help in judging the busy, quarrelsome Israelites – for kingship (MALCHUS) is founded on Judgment (MISHPAT=TIFERES, the center column, balance) and the repair of Judgment depends upon BINAH, "understanding". Solomon thus asked God to "give Your servant a LISTENING heart" (v 9) in order to HEAR and UNDERSTAND, while God responded even more generously by giving him a heart that was WISE as well as UNDERSTANDING (v 12). CHOKHMAH, "wisdom", is the ability to GRASP, know and remember what one learns, while BINAH, "understanding", is the ability to ANALYZE what one knows in order to make new inferences, "understanding one thing from another" (RaDaK on v 12).
When Solomon awoke from his dream he knew that his request had been granted, because "he heard a bird chirping and understood its language, and he heard a dog barking and he understood what it was saying" (Rashi on v 15).
COT DEATH: WHOSE IS THE LIVING CHILD?
Solomon's first dramatic demonstration of his divinely-granted powers of judgment came with the arrival of the two "whores" who were quarreling about which of their two babies died and to whom the surviving child belonged.
The Talmudic teacher Rav held that these two "whores" were actually spirits. Rabbi Simon in the name of R. Yehoshua ben Levi said they were literally prostitutes. A third opinion, offered by unnamed sages, is that they were actually a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:10).
This third opinion immeasurably sharpens the dispute between them on the assumption that the aggrieved mother who started pleading before the king saying that she had been the first to give birth (vv 17-18) was the mother-in-law. If the second woman – her daughter-in-law, who gave birth three days later – lost her husband AFTER the birth of her mother-in-law's baby and subsequently lost her own baby (an only child), it would mean that according to the law of the levirate marriage she would have to marry her mother-in-law's baby, the brother of her dead husband, her YAVAM, since with the death of her own baby her dead husband left no living issue. In any event she would have to wait thirteen years until her mother-in-law's baby became a legal adult in order to either carry out the mitzvah of YIBUM by marrying his dead brother's widow or release her from their bond through HALITZAH, "removal of the brother-in-law's sandal" (see Deut. 25:5ff).
Having to wait for thirteen years as a stranded AGUNAH before she could regularize her status would give the daughter-in-law a very strong incentive to take her mother-in-law's baby as her own, because if she could make it appear that her dead husband did have surviving issue this would release her from the bond of YIBUM with any of his brothers. Likewise, it would not bother her in the least if the king sliced the living child in half, because if he was indeed the sole surviving brother of her dead husband, his death would automatically release her from any bond of YIBUM in the absence of any YAVAM, leaving her free to marry anyone she wanted.
Before Solomon delivered his judgment, he first made sure to repeat the claims of each woman in his own words (v 23) to make it clear that he had understood exactly what they were saying. In this he provided a model for every good DAYAN ("judge"), who must review the claims made by the rival claimants before delivering judgment.
Solomon's brilliant bluff ordering a sword to be brought immediately elicited the natural motherly compassion of the true mother and exposed the lying baby-thief for what she was. "And all Israel heard the judgment that the king decided and they were in awe before the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment" (v 28).
* * * The passage in I Kings 3:15-28 and 4:1 is read as the Haftara of Parshas Miketz, Genesis 41:1-44:17 unless this parshah is read on Shabbos Chanukah * * *
CHAPTER 4
"AND SOLOMON WAS KING OVER ALL ISRAEL" (v 1)
David had been king over Judah in Hebron before he was accepted as king over all Israel. It is a tribute to David's lifelong struggle that the entire nation was now able to unite in accepting one king. They did so because they saw Solomon's divinely-bestowed wisdom and everyone rejoiced in his kingship (Rashi on v 1).
Listed first and foremost among Solomon's officers is the Priest – because the entire national agenda was now focused on building a functioning Temple. Solomon had scribes to write down his governmental decisions and dispatch them for execution; he had a MAZKIR (lit. "one who makes you remember") i.e. a "secretary" to make records of events and archive them. Like Saul and David, Solomon had his commander-in-chief. Listed among his officers is also "the king's friend" – presumably one who was likewise very wise indeed and with whom Solomon doubtless loved to fathom the depths of wisdom.
THE TWELVE PROVIDING OFFICERS
Solomon's kingship is portrayed as a model of good order, in which twelve NETZIVIM, "appointed officers", were in charge of collecting all the provisions, materials and other needs of the royal household and army from twelve regions into which the Land of Israel was divided. These regions did NOT correspond to the territorial portions of the Twelve Tribes, which were uneven both in area and in the kind of land they comprised. Rather, these twelve regions represented a fair division of the entire land into portions each one of which could sustain the royal household for one of the twelve months of the year (Radak on v 8).
The twelve months of the year correspond to the twelve possible permutations of the holy "essential" name of God, "HaVaYaH" (YKVK). These are discussed at length in SEFER YETZIRA, the earliest kabbalistic text, attributed to our father Abraham. This was certainly known to Solomon (whose Proverbs contain certain allusions to the wisdom of Sefer Yetzirah).
Just as the "sun" of the Name of HaVaYaH (=Zeir Anpin) shines month by month with different permutations to the "moon" of MALCHUS, "kingship" (=Nukva), so King Solomon (MALCHUS, the receiving vessel of Zeir Anpin=Chochmah) received his PARNASSAH ("livelihood") from TWELVE different regions of Eretz Israel, which itself corresponds to the Partzuf of Malchus.
"Judah and Israel multiplied like the sand of the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing" (v 20). "In the time of Solomon they were blessed with the fruit of the womb and they multiplied, as did the fruits of their animals and their land, and they ate and drank and rejoiced, for they had no fear of any enemy" (RaDaK on v 20).
May a new golden age even greater than that of Solomon speedily be inaugurated by the building of the Holy Temple that we now await!I KINGS CHAPTER 3 SOLOMON'S MARRIAGE TO PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER Our chapter opens with the very surprising news that Solomon married the daughter of the king of the very nation that had ignominiously enslaved and been forced to release Israel hundreds of years earlier. Rashi (on v 3) notes that the verses in this chapter are not in historical sequence, for Solomon's dream in Giv'on (vv 5ff) took place at the very beginning of his reign, whereas it was not until three years afterwards that he made his marriage alliance with Pharoah. This was directly after the death of Solomon's teacher, Shimi ben Gera (narrated out of sequence at the end of the preceding chapter in order to complete the account of Solomon's settling David's outstanding scores). From the proximity of verse 1 of our present chapter to the last verses of the previous chapter, our rabbis taught that as long as his teacher was alive, Solomon did not make this questionable move of intermarriage, deducing that a person should always live close to his teacher in order to stay on the right track (Rashi on v 1). Solomon's move was questionable because the Torah states that "you shall not intermarry with them [i.e. the other nations]" (Deut. 7:3). Some rabbis held that intermarriage would only be forbidden if the non-Israelite party to the marriage does not convert, but others held that converting them in order to marry is also forbidden. Another factor raising questions about Solomon's move is the tradition that no converts were accepted in the times of David and Solomon because the prestige of Israel was so great that potential converts would all have had ulterior motives. However the Talmud explicitly states that this did not apply to the daughter of Pharaoh, who had enough wealth not to need to marry Solomon for money (Talmud Yevamos 76a). A further question is how Solomon could have converted and then married an Egyptian woman when the Torah states that an Egyptian convert may not enter the Assembly until the third generation (Deut. 23:9). However, this objection is countered by a tradition (not accepted halachically) that the referenced verse applies only to an Egyptian male but not to a female (which would make the law of the Egyptian parallel to the law forbidding a Moabite but not a Moabitess from ever entering the Assembly. Despite the many questions that surround it, we do not find Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter criticized in our text as being intrinsically sinful: verse 3 DOES implicitly criticize Solomon for sacrificing at many high altars but does NOT criticize him for marrying Pharaoh's daughter. It was only in his old age, when Solomon took many wives, that he was criticized for allowing them to turn his heart aside from God. It stands to reason that the exact intent of the supremely wise Solomon in marrying the daughter of Israel's former persecutors would be beyond the ability of simple people like ourselves to grasp. Since PHARAOH represents the OREPH ("back of the neck", same Hebrew letters as Pharaoh) of creation as opposed to its inner face, the conversion of his daughter by Solomon and her integration into the holy edifice that he was building was a "coup" comparable with the conversion of Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh who drew Moses out of the water. The "daughter of Pharaoh" represents the source of all the different kinds of worldly wisdom (which are her "handmaidens"). By "converting" and "marrying" Pharaoh's daughter, Solomon was perhaps very daringly and ambitiously striving to deepen and enhance the revelation of God's unity on all levels of creation. If so, it was apparently still over-ambitious, because Solomon proved unable to hold his "catch" within the bounds of holiness, and indeed he himself strayed beyond them. In retribution, said the rabbis, at the very moment when Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, the angel Gabriel (GEVURAH, "might", withholding and concealing) descended and drove the first stake into the sea in the very place where more and more sediment eventually collected to form the foundation of what was to become Israel's nemesis: the city of Rome (Talmud Shabbos 56b). "AND SOLOMON LOVED GOD" (v 3) Prior to his heart-enticing marriages with foreign women, Solomon passionately followed the Torah of his father David. If he was criticized, it was only for "sacrificing in the high places". This was actually permitted as long as the Temple was not built in Jerusalem. Since the sacking of the Sanctuary of Shilo by the Philistines in the time of Ely and the slaughter of the priests of Nov by Saul, the Sanctuary with the vessels of Moses had been in Giv'on, except for the Ark of the Covenant, which David had taken to Jerusalem. Whereas David had sacrificed only at the "great" Altar in Giv'on (this was the copper Altar made by Moses) or at an altar that he erected before the Ark in Jerusalem, Solomon also sacrificed in other high places (until the building of the Temple), and while this was still permitted, it was seen as a deviation from David's path and as needlessly delaying the building of the Temple in Jerusalem (Rashi and RaDaK on v 3). THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON Whereas David's kingship was founded on the sword of prayer and faith – he had to fight throughout his life – Solomon's kingship was founded on the very WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING which he had the good sense to request when God offered him anything he wanted. At the tender age of 12 (Rashi and RaDaK on v 7) when many intelligent youngsters tend to be highly arrogant, the wise young King Solomon had the humility to understand he would need divine help in judging the busy, quarrelsome Israelites – for kingship (MALCHUS) is founded on Judgment (MISHPAT=TIFERES, the center column, balance) and the repair of Judgment depends upon BINAH, "understanding". Solomon thus asked God to "give Your servant a LISTENING heart" (v 9) in order to HEAR and UNDERSTAND, while God responded even more generously by giving him a heart that was WISE as well as UNDERSTANDING (v 12). CHOKHMAH, "wisdom", is the ability to GRASP, know and remember what one learns, while BINAH, "understanding", is the ability to ANALYZE what one knows in order to make new inferences, "understanding one thing from another" (RaDaK on v 12). When Solomon awoke from his dream he knew that his request had been granted, because "he heard a bird chirping and understood its language, and he heard a dog barking and he understood what it was saying" (Rashi on v 15). COT DEATH: WHOSE IS THE LIVING CHILD? Solomon's first dramatic demonstration of his divinely-granted powers of judgment came with the arrival of the two "whores" who were quarreling about which of their two babies died and to whom the surviving child belonged. The Talmudic teacher Rav held that these two "whores" were actually spirits. Rabbi Simon in the name of R. Yehoshua ben Levi said they were literally prostitutes. A third opinion, offered by unnamed sages, is that they were actually a mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:10). This third opinion immeasurably sharpens the dispute between them on the assumption that the aggrieved mother who started pleading before the king saying that she had been the first to give birth (vv 17-18) was the mother-in-law. If the second woman – her daughter-in-law, who gave birth three days later – lost her husband AFTER the birth of her mother-in-law's baby and subsequently lost her own baby (an only child), it would mean that according to the law of the levirate marriage she would have to marry her mother-in-law's baby, the brother of her dead husband, her YAVAM, since with the death of her own baby her dead husband left no living issue. In any event she would have to wait thirteen years until her mother-in-law's baby became a legal adult in order to either carry out the mitzvah of YIBUM by marrying his dead brother's widow or release her from their bond through HALITZAH, "removal of the brother-in-law's sandal" (see Deut. 25:5ff). Having to wait for thirteen years as a stranded AGUNAH before she could regularize her status would give the daughter-in-law a very strong incentive to take her mother-in-law's baby as her own, because if she could make it appear that her dead husband did have surviving issue this would release her from the bond of YIBUM with any of his brothers. Likewise, it would not bother her in the least if the king sliced the living child in half, because if he was indeed the sole surviving brother of her dead husband, his death would automatically release her from any bond of YIBUM in the absence of any YAVAM, leaving her free to marry anyone she wanted. Before Solomon delivered his judgment, he first made sure to repeat the claims of each woman in his own words (v 23) to make it clear that he had understood exactly what they were saying. In this he provided a model for every good DAYAN ("judge"), who must review the claims made by the rival claimants before delivering judgment. Solomon's brilliant bluff ordering a sword to be brought immediately elicited the natural motherly compassion of the true mother and exposed the lying baby-thief for what she was. "And all Israel heard the judgment that the king decided and they were in awe before the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment" (v 28). * * * The passage in I Kings 3:15-28 and 4:1 is read as the Haftara of Parshas Miketz, Genesis 41:1-44:17 unless this parshah is read on Shabbos Chanukah * * * CHAPTER 4 "AND SOLOMON WAS KING OVER ALL ISRAEL" (v 1) David had been king over Judah in Hebron before he was accepted as king over all Israel. It is a tribute to David's lifelong struggle that the entire nation was now able to unite in accepting one king. They did so because they saw Solomon's divinely-bestowed wisdom and everyone rejoiced in his kingship (Rashi on v 1). Listed first and foremost among Solomon's officers is the Priest – because the entire national agenda was now focused on building a functioning Temple. Solomon had scribes to write down his governmental decisions and dispatch them for execution; he had a MAZKIR (lit. "one who makes you remember") i.e. a "secretary" to make records of events and archive them. Like Saul and David, Solomon had his commander-in-chief. Listed among his officers is also "the king's friend" – presumably one who was likewise very wise indeed and with whom Solomon doubtless loved to fathom the depths of wisdom. THE TWELVE PROVIDING OFFICERS Solomon's kingship is portrayed as a model of good order, in which twelve NETZIVIM, "appointed officers", were in charge of collecting all the provisions, materials and other needs of the royal household and army from twelve regions into which the Land of Israel was divided. These regions did NOT correspond to the territorial portions of the Twelve Tribes, which were uneven both in area and in the kind of land they comprised. Rather, these twelve regions represented a fair division of the entire land into portions each one of which could sustain the royal household for one of the twelve months of the year (Radak on v 8). The twelve months of the year correspond to the twelve possible permutations of the holy "essential" name of God, "HaVaYaH" (YKVK). These are discussed at length in SEFER YETZIRA, the earliest kabbalistic text, attributed to our father Abraham. This was certainly known to Solomon (whose Proverbs contain certain allusions to the wisdom of Sefer Yetzirah). Just as the "sun" of the Name of HaVaYaH (=Zeir Anpin) shines month by month with different permutations to the "moon" of MALCHUS, "kingship" (=Nukva), so King Solomon (MALCHUS, the receiving vessel of Zeir Anpin=Chochmah) received his PARNASSAH ("livelihood") from TWELVE different regions of Eretz Israel, which itself corresponds to the Partzuf of Malchus. "Judah and Israel multiplied like the sand of the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing" (v 20). "In the time of Solomon they were blessed with the fruit of the womb and they multiplied, as did the fruits of their animals and their land, and they ate and drank and rejoiced, for they had no fear of any enemy" (RaDaK on v 20). May a new golden age even greater than that of Solomon speedily be inaugurated by the building of the Holy Temple that we now await!0 Comments 0 Shares 14566 Views
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