Newsletter September 1, 2011 - 2 Elul 5771
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Cut & Dry
For the Healing of Shaina Chana bas Golda Feiga
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He awoke from one of the most famous dreams in the bible. "The Lord said to him, 'Request what I should give to you' (I Kings 3:5)." Solomon asked well in the dream, "May You grant Your servant an understanding heart, to judge Your people." "It was good in the eyes of the Master that Solomon had requested this thing (Verses 9-10)." Solomon was granted everything, wealth, honor, power, and wisdom, because he asked so well. "Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream... and he made a feast for all his servants (Verse 15)."
Even the best dreams must end, and immediately after Solomon's celebration of his great dream, two women of the lowest profession, appeared before him for judgment. The young king who had been granted "a wise and understanding heart," faced his first test. We all know the famous story of the sword that proved who was the real mother, but, quite frankly, I'm unimpressed. It is clear long before the threat of the sword who is the real mother: "This one claims, 'This is my son, who is alive, and your son is the dead one,' and this one claims, 'It is not so! Your son is the dead one, and my son is the live one (Verse 23)." One woman stresses the son who lives, the other, the son who died. We already know who is lying.
We are suspicious from her opening statement, "The son of this woman died at night, because she lay upon him. She arose during the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and her dead son she laid in my bosom (Verses 19-20)." I readily admit that I am not Solomon, but I know that she's lying: How does she know how the baby died? Why does she not simply claim that the other woman stole her baby?
Why did Solomon call for the sword? We also have to consider the irony that immediately after his death, Solomon's kingdom is split in two, just as he threatened to do to the baby!
I suspect that the baby is a distraction from the story's message: We have Solomon celebrating a dream he had while sleeping, treating it as a reality, and a woman who describes how a person is so unconscious while sleeping that she can smother her baby to death. Solomon's challenge was not how he would judge the case; it was how he would judge his dream after hearing of the danger of what happens while we sleep. All knew of the dream; the king had made a huge celebration. Parties are good, but how will this young king judge his dreams after hearing the woman's tale?
Solomon understood that the same people who joined him to celebrate his great dream, were now questioning the validity of what happens while we sleep. The people were watching to see which it would be, one or the other, or, in other words, the people were slicing reality in half with a sword!
They were doing what many of us do as we prepare for the Day of Judgment on Rosh Hashanah: Good and evil. Life and death. Black and white. Let's take a sword and slice everything in half; even our dreams! So many of my dreams have failed that I consider them all meaningless! I thought I would be a better person this past year, but I did not succeed as I dreamt!
A very young, very wise king, demonstrated the absurdity of the sword approach to determine truth, especially of our dreams and aspirations. Solomon warned the people that once a kingdom practiced only the sword approach, the kingdom would split.
There are four weeks until Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment. This week's portion is Shofetim, Judges. We need only look to the first judgment of the wisest king and learn from the way he judges his dreams. Some of what happens in our sleep is real and some is not, and some can be determined only by us as the judges. The first step in preparing for the Day of Judgement is to judge our dreams: Which are the ones in which we still believe and which are the ones we doubt? The answers will tell us much of how well prepared we are to be judged by the Ultimate Judge.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg President If you are interested in sponsoring our  winning Newsletter, please email info@thefoundationstone.org Go to our Blog  Follow us on Twitter   Become a Fan  |
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