{"id":61592,"date":"2019-08-20T17:56:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T14:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=61592"},"modified":"2023-03-14T14:30:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T12:30:50","slug":"solomons-courage-grace-and-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/solomons-courage-grace-and-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon\u2019s Courage, Grace And Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[519,391,838,372],"acf":{"old_id":"61592","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56290,"related_cahpter":"290","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Everyone deserves to be judged in truth","content":"

King Solomon\u2019s in Hebrew, Shlomo, means \u201cHis (presumably God\u2019s) peace.\u201d How do we experience this peace? Traditionally, it seems, through Solomon\u2019s wisdom, which he acquires in today\u2019s chapter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

God appears to Solomon in a dream and offers him, well, anything.\u00a0 \u201cWhat shall I give you?\u201d But the King does not fall for this ruse. He does not ask for money or power or even long life.\u00a0 Instead, he confesses that he is not sure he is up to the task in front of him. He has just survived a battle to succeed his father and become king of Judah and Israel, no easy task.\u00a0 He is worried, perhaps, that he is no David. Instead of power, however, he asks for a \u201clev shome\u2019a<\/em>,\u201d a \u201clistening heart,\u201d with which to judge God\u2019s own people, to be able to figure out \u201cgood and bad,\u201d right and wrong, \u201cfor who can judge your people?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And thus does Solomon become not only wise, but rich and glorious as well. God is so pleased by the request, that God promises that which the king did not ask for: riches and long life, as long as Solomon walks in God\u2019s ways, following God\u2019s Torah. King Solomon, of course, by tradition, goes on to display his wisdom in the books of Proverbs and Kohelet\/Ecclesiastes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But where is his wisdom first put to the test? Not in grand writings, nor in governance, but in the story of the baby claimed by two mothers \u2014 and prostitutes at that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The text presents this as a run-of-the-mill encounter with the king, but it could not have been. How, in the normal course of things, did two prostitutes, who come from the lowest caste of society, have access to the king, who position is second only to God? The juxtaposition of the lowly and the mighty in this story, following so closely on God\u2019s gift of wisdom to King Solomon, underlines what it means for Solomon to know \u201cright from wrong.\u201d It is, as the king had asked, \u201cto have a listening heart.\u201d Knowledge comes from the learned and power may come from strategic alliances, but wisdom \u2014 and, from wisdom, the ability to \u201cobserve … mitzvot\u201d \u2014 may come from unexpected places.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

King Solomon\u2019s willingness to be available to two women, whose only livelihood came from selling themselves, who had no other discernible resources, was an act of courage and grace. He saw that they, too, deserved to be judged fairly, according to God\u2019s law. They learned from him; he grew from judging them. And, by so doing, King Solomon\u2019s wisdom was recognized by all Israel; \u201cthey stood in awe of the King.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone deserves to be judged in truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

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