Overview

Our Parshah tells the story of Jacob’s final moments in this world. He speaks to Joseph, blesses Joseph’s children, and then gathers his sons for them to hear his last words to them. In a similar vein, the haftarah describes the final words of another one of our greatest heroes: King David.

In this last command to his young son Solomon, the king begins with telling him to be strong and fear G‑d. Following the Torah and its mitzvot would bring him wisdom and success, and guarantee that G‑d would keep His promise to David that his descendants would forever be the kings among Israel.

After these general instructions, David leaves his son with some work to do. There were a number of things that David wanted to see happen, but which could be carried out only after his death. In the following paragraphs we will explain some of the background behind these various commands.

Overview

Perhaps the most tragic of all Jewish divides was that of the ten tribes versus the two (Israel and Judah). This split, which was divinely ordained, began with a political motive. The overwhelming majority of the people were disenchanted with Rechavam (Rehoboam), the heir to King Solomon, and ended up forming their own state.

The real trouble began, however, when Yeravam (Jeroboam) ben Nevat, the leader of the revolt and its appointed king, did not think it was a good idea for his people to visit the Temple in Jerusalem. The ruling monarchs there were Rehoboam and later his successors from the Davidic dynasty, and for his subjects to maintain a strong connection to the opposing state was not politically wise. Jeroboam therefore banned all pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and instead erected two large golden calves at the two ends of his kingdom for pilgrims to visit in worship. The spiritual elite, as well as many kohanim and Levites, were obviously appalled by this act. Slowly but surely, many of them made their way out of Israel and settled in Judah.

The net effect of all this in subsequent generations was the spiritual devastation of the entire state. Over the next two centuries, most of the rulers were quite wicked, and the people went in similar ways. Many of the prophets warned time and again that their actions would bring on catastrophe, but their warnings were hardly heeded. In the end the state fell to the Assyrians, and its inhabitants were scattered across the globe. Most of the exiled Jews assimilated in the local population and were lost to their people.

Lost, but not totally. In this prophecy of Ezekiel, he speaks in clear and certain terms of the eventual ingathering and return of all Jews from wherever they may have been exiled. They will return to their homeland and reside under a united kingdom—no longer split in two. It will be Moshiach who will reign over all Israel: Moshiach, who is the ultimate heir to King David.

The spiritual ills of the past will be entirely cured, and the Jews will once again attain the holy state in which they were destined to be. No longer will they need to fear exile, for the redemption, the Temple in Jerusalem and Davidic rule will now all be final and eternal.

To demonstrate this, Ezekiel is instructed to take two sticks of wood; on one he was to write “For Judah” and on the other, “For Joseph and for Ephraim.” He was to bring these pieces together, thus demonstrating that the two kingdoms, that of David (from the tribe of Judah) and that of Jeroboam (from the tribe of Ephraim, son of Joseph) would in time to come be united.

The connection to the Parshah is quite fascinating. The portion of Vayigash begins with the confrontation between Judah and Joseph about the fate of Benjamin. The difficult exchange between them served as a precedent for the future rivalry between the descendants of these two leaders.

Solomon was just a young lad when he assumed the throne. In fact, he was a mere twelve years of age. In those days, prior to the construction of the Temple, the altar that was built by Moses was situated in Gibeon. Soon after he became king, Solomon went to Gibeon to pray and give thanks.

While in Gibeon, G‑d appeared to Solomon in a dream. “What should I give you?” the Almighty asked. Solomon was acutely aware of his young age and lack of experience. He, therefore, asked G‑d for “an understanding heart to judge Your people.”

G‑d expresses His great satisfaction and happiness with this choice. Solomon could have opted to make any other attractive wish for himself: long life, wealth, victory over his enemies, etc. Because he had wished for what he did, G‑d told him that in addition to wisdom, he would also enjoy great wealth and honor. And the wisdom G‑d would grant him would be the likes of which no one before him or after him would possess.

This gift of wisdom was put to the test soon after the young king returned home. Two prostitutes came before the king with a quarrel. The first began to lay out her side of the story:

They had both been sharing a lodging space, and had both given birth—she first, her housemate three days later. Unfortunately, her housemate’s baby had died the night after it was born. Upon realizing this, her housemate had gone and secretly exchanged her dead child with her housemate’s live one. “I awoke in the morning to nurse my son, and behold, he was dead! But I looked closely at him in the morning, and behold, it was not my son whom I had borne.”

The second woman denied this entirely. “Not so! The living child is my son, and the dead one is your son.” And so the argument continued.

Solomon repeated the claims of each party, thus ensuring he understood them. (Our sages use this verse as the source for a judge’s obligation to repeat the claims of the litigants in front of them, to ensure he has understood them properly.)

The case was obviously made more difficult by the fact that there were no witnesses for any of the events. Solomon had to think of some original method of how to detect who was speaking the truth.

• The king said, “Fetch me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”
• The woman whose son was the live one said to the king—for her compassion was aroused for her son—and she said: “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “Let it be neither mine nor yours; divide it.”
• The king answered and said, “Give her the living child, and by no means kill him: she is his mother.”

Word of Solomon’s great display of wisdom spread throughout the entire kingdom. The people now revered the young king, for they saw that the wisdom of G‑d was with him.

Simply speaking, what impressed the people was that despite his young age, the king had managed to think of such a clever scheme to solve this difficulty.

Now of course such a scheme would not always be effective. Any decent human being would at least be hesitant to agree to the proposition of “dividing” any child, even if it was not theirs; indeed, they would most probably express profound shock at the mere proposition. The wisdom of Solomon was the ability to discern the precise character of the litigants who stood in front of him. The accurate assessment that his charade would be effective was the product of his great wisdom and a clear display of it.