Torah for Christians: King Solomon

TORAH FOR CHRISTIANSSEASON FIVEEPISODE SEVENKING SOLOMONHe was the wisest man of his age. He built the Temple. He hosted the Queen of Sheba. He was Solomon. And he was a disaster.I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and on this episode of Torah for Christians, we’ll take another look at King Solomon – the good and the bad. Let’s get started.MUSICWelcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.Believe me, I don’t like to burst your bubble when it comes to Biblical heroes. But as I have often said, our heroes were not perfect. While they reached for, and often achieved, greatness, heroes such as Jacob, Moses and David were beset with deep flaws. In other words, they were human beings, just like us. That’s what makes them so special.King Solomon was such a flawed individual. He was the second son of Bathsheba, the infamous consort of King David. As we recall, after David impregnated Bathsheba and then sent her husband, Uriah the Hittite, on a suicide mission, the Prophet Nathan decreed that this son would die shortly after birth – but that the next son born to Bathsheba would inherit David’s kingdom. This came to pass. But the second part of Nathan’s prophecy is also important. Nathan further prophesied that David’s sons would engage in a fratricidal civil war to decide who would inherit his throne. Even though David proclaimed Solomon as king shortly before his death, Solomon had to fight for the kingdom, even killing one of his brothers to achieve this. Solomon also expanded David’s kingdom, extending Israel’s territory to the Euphrates River, the modern-day border between Iraq and Syria. He was so powerful, he enticed King Hiram of Tyre, the modern Lebanese city of Sidon, to furnish him with the cedars needed to build the Temple. Interestingly, Hiram was the son of the previous  King of Tyre but his mother was of the northern Tribe of Naphtali, making a special connection with Solomon. In a way, they were kin.Solomon’s greatest accomplishment, of course, was building the First Temple in Jerusalem. David was denied this privilege; God only allowed him to build his palace. David was a man of war; Solomon’s very name means peace – and God determined that a man of peace would build the Temple in Jerusalem.Later, the rabbis ascribed three books of the Bible to King Solomon: Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes – as well as certain Psalms. These three books are part of a collection called Wisdom Literature, books that are more akin to Plato than to Genesis. Today, we doubt that he wrote these books but the mere fact that the rabbis attribute these books of wisdom to him attests to the high regard in which they held him for his wisdom. One famous story that we all know shows his wisdom. This story, of course, is the story of the disputed baby. Early in his reign, two prostitutes came to King Solomon to resolve a major dispute: each claimed that a certain infant boy was her child. Obviously, one of the women was lying, if not both. Solomon’s job was to decide which woman was the mother.After listening to both women, Solomon, in what became known as a Solomonic decision, ordered the baby chopped in half. After all, in many disputes splitting the difference was a good way to solve a problem. But not when it comes to a baby. When Solomon proposed that he cut the baby in half, one of the prostitutes screamed out to give the child to the other prostitute. Solomon immediately ordered that the baby, the entire baby, be given to the woman who backed down. He said that since she was willing to give up the baby rather than see it killed, she must be the true mother. How brilliant!But as I said at the start of this episode, there is a dark side to King Solomon, one that had terrible consequences for the Jewish people, consequences that extend to the present daySupport the show