- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Dec 14, 2015 10:20:25 GMT -8
While the par'shot are pretty much universal, haftarot may vary from one sect to another. One of the alternative haftara this week is particularly instructive. It is a familiar story to most of us; however we need to go deeper than the surface story we were all told in Sunday School. Main body of scripture here is 1 Kings 3:15-4:1(ESV).
15 And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
This haftarah begins and ends with verses seemingly unrelated to the story. The first is 3:15, which shows the new king now confidently assuming the mantle of leadership while acknowledging his Elohim, from Whom not only his authority to lead comes, but the wisdom to do so effectively.
Psalm 37:4 (ESV) Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
The only man worthy of God’s grant of his heart’s desire is the man who delights in God in the first place.
16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
Matthew 9:11 (ESV) And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher [Yeshua] eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
In God’s economy, all have access to the King; even prostitutes. This case probably came to the king instead of being decided in a lower court because of its difficult nature. There were no witnesses other than the two prostitutes who both claimed to be the mother. How could anyone be a sure arbiter in such a case?
James 1:5 (ESV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Since Solomon had the wisdom to ask for more wisdom in the first place, he was well placed to decide in this matter.
17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king.
Solomon discerned two things here. The first woman was the most declamatory, and her speech emphasized death. The second was the most passionate, and her speech emphasized life. However a judgement would require more proof than even the kings intuition if it was to be seen as fair. Solomon, in his wisdom understood the real problem: jealousy. He discerned that a real mother would never see harm done to her own child. However, a jealous person in order to take away another’s possessions and happiness would do almost anything! Even when their actions harm others, and add nothing to what they themselves have.
23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.”
Solomon appealed to the maternal instinct that would suffer a life of anguish alone rather than see the certain death of her child. Because he understood both a mother’s love and the nature of jealousy the truth was dramatically revealed.
28 And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.
And his wisdom and justice was vindicated. However there are deeper lessons than just the fact God chose a smart guy to be king. Noted moralist Bishop Hall wrote of this story:
“Truth demands entireness, falsehood is satisfied with less. Satan, who has no right to the heart, is content with a piece of it: God, who made the heart, will have either all or none.”
James 3:14,16 (ESV) But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. … For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.
One emphasizes life, the other death, as the heart can no more live divided than an infant can.
Proverbs 14:30 (ESV) A tranquil [healing] heart gives life to the flesh, but envy [jealousy] makes the bones rot.
Hebrew for bones is etzem (עצם), which can also mean essence. More than any other part of the body, the bones symbolize who and what we are. I love shows like Quincy M.E. and Bones, where forensic anthropologists can dissect a person’s life by studying their bones. There are few secrets when our skeletal record is studied by a knowledgeable person (at least in Hollywood and for Jewish sages). Being jealous of someone else and what they have is to deny both who you are at your very core, and to deny God’s calling on your own life. Jealousy decomposes one’s essence; their individuality. It is harmful, self-destructive and makes no sense whatsoever.
James 4:2 (ESV) You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
To be one with Elohim is to instinctively wince whenever anything is said, done or proposed that would dishonor Him. Thus the mother in righteous love never hesitated to say don’t kill my son, while the careless and jealous mother contemplatively said kill him so we both mourn our sons. She was querulous, demanding of the earthly king to give her what she should have asked the heavenly King to grant.
Acts 7:9 (ESV) “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
Jealousy almost destroyed the nation of Israel at its very conception. It tore a family apart; the sons having to watch and live with their father’s anguish while keeping a terrible secret. But God knew what Joseph needed and both prepared and positioned him for the task He had laid out for his life. The bones of Joseph, who knew no envy, were carried out of Egypt to be buried Shechem. The essence and record of the life of Joseph was symbolically carried out of slavery to sin in Egypt, to life and freedom with his people.
4:1 King Solomon was king over all Israel,
And lastly, this verse points us to other aspects of Solomon’s wise leadership. If we read further we see he established a beaurocracy to manage the kingdom, and goes on to fill those posts with competent men; and more importantly men of good moral character.
I'll leave this with an excerpt from a d’rash by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein:
Thankfully, the antidote for this self-destructive behavior is to embrace our identity and recognize that everything in our lives is perfectly arranged for us. When we accept that truth, we won’t want what belongs to anyone else. So as we start off each day, let us repeat these words to ourselves until they are felt deep in our bones: “God has given me exactly what I need for my life today — and I am so very grateful.”
Dan C
Sources: Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, JPS Study TNK, W Wiersby, EB Meyer, Bishop Hall, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, Netflix (well, truth in advertising and all
), my father and others.
