Shabbat Parashat Teruma 5786

Parashat Hashavua: Rachel, Leah, and King David – What Happened? – part V

The unity of the people of Israel, as we have been discussing, takes on a special significance when the descendants of Rachel and Leah lead the nation in partnership.

This week, we look at the generation of Shlomo, the king from the Tribe of Yehuda/Leah, who was unwittingly paired with Yerovam ben Nevat from the Tribe of Ephrayim/Rachel, who eventually split the Kingdom of Israel. We see the great potential of the two working together from Chazal: “Hashem grabbed Yerovam by his garment, and said to him: ‘Stop [your rebellion], and I and you and the son of Yishai will stroll in the Garden of Eden” (Sanhedrin 102a). The stroll implies that the final liberation would come, and things would return to the situation in the Garden of Eden before Adam’s sin. This is an unprecedented offer!

The Ohr Hachayim (Vayikra 26:3) says in the name of kabbalists that this stroll represents the highest level of spiritual pleasure. Yerovam’s garment is called a new cloak (Melachim I, 11:29), which the Rabbis consider an exceptional compliment: Yerovam was like a new cloak, as his Torah was without blemish like a new cloak, or that he initiated ideas that had never been heard.

Thus, one cannot minimize the benefit that could have come if Shlomo, the wisest man and the son of David, from the Tribe of Yehuda, had joined up with Yerovam, a prominent descendant of Ephrayim son of Yosef. What prevented this cooperation, and how did damage emerge?

Shlomo identified the potential of a young Yerovam, whom the navi calls a young brave soldier who was talented in work, and he appointed him to be in charge of all of the “work of the House of Yosef” (Melachim I, 11:26-28). Yerovam was apparently active in Shlomo’s massive construction projects. A problematic part of this work, third in importance, after the Beit Hamikdash and Shlomo’s own palace, was the extensive palace of the daughter of Paroh, in a section called the Milo (ibid. 9:16,24).

A pasuk implies that Yerovam was incensed by Paroh’s daughter’s palace, near the Beit Hamikdash. The cantillation of the description of Yerovam’s distancing himself from Shlomo interestingly makes a major break between “the king” and “Shlomo” right before mentioning the building of the Milo (ibid. 11:27). This hints that Shlomo’s mistake of giving undeserved importance to Paroh’s daughter was a major factor in weakening his position as sole king of Israel. So, while Yerovam sinned by rebelling against Shlomo, Shlomo was also wrong.

Chazal summed up their criticism of the failure to unite the nation under the joint leadership of the sons of Leah and of Rachel with the following statements in Shabbat (56b): “When Shlomo married Paroh’s daughter, Gavriel went down and drove a reed into the sea, which caused a landfill upon which the great city of Rome was built… On the day Yerovam brought two golden calves into Beit El and in Dan, a shack was built, and this is Italy that belongs to the Greeks.”

Rome, the capital of Italy, destroyed the Second Temple, which could only be destroyed after the first one was destroyed. Thus, Shlomo’s marriage to the daughter of Paroh and Yerovam’s sins caused national rupture and disunity, which caused the destruction of both Temples.

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