Torah Reading is Mikkets (Genesis 41:1-44:17); Haftorah is I Kings 3:15-4:1
By Irv Jacobs, M.D.
LA JOLLA, California — This short all-prose episode describes a famous story c. 965 BCE attributed to the rule of King Solomon. It is about his wise determination of the rightful mother of a son, for whom two prostitutes competed.
I apply the translation and commentaries of Emeritus Professor Dr. Robert Alter, of the University of California Berkeley. {1]
The connection to the Torah parasha is that both open with a key figure awakening from a dream, respectively the Egyptian Pharoah in Mikkets, and King Solomon in this haftorah. [2]
The haftorah text is preceded by verses that describe Solomon’s ‘desire’ to rule the then combined North-South nation with understanding and wisdom. Hyperbole is inserted in that his small nation is described as ‘vast’.
On cue, two prostitutes came to Solomon. Both had given birth to baby boys in the same house, but one child died, the result of his mother laying on him. She then tried to claim that the dead infant was the other woman’s child, resulting in contested ownership of the survivor child.
The matter was brought before Solomon who, surmised what was going on. He stated,”Fetch me a sword.”
On delivery of the sword, Solomon said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.” [3]
The real mother said, “ I beseech you, my lord, give her the living newborn but absolutely do not put him to death.”
Her contender expressed the opposite, saying: “Neither mine nor yours shall he be. Cut him apart!”
Now comes the mandatory upbeat ending. The king spoke up:
“Give her (the real mother) the living newborn, and absolutely do not put him to death. She is his mother.”
And all Israel heard of the judgment (of the king)… they held the king in awe…God’s wisdom was within him to do justice.
This simple story speaks for itself. Solomon was deemed wise, on the basis of such stories. Would that his full career as king were of this special pristine wisdom and behavior. Not to be.
At Solomon’s death, so the story goes, his Kingdom split apart, amid hostilities, into the North (Israel) and South (Judea) kingdoms. Solomon, via mean and arbitrary force, had driven the separation of his Kingdom.
*
NOTES
[1] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Prophets Vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2019, pp. 450-2
[2] Etz Hayim, The Jewish Publication Society, 2001, New York, p. 271
[3] This manifests Solomon’s wisdom; the story and its message has become a world classic.
*
Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.