A Great Leader?

If you ask any educated Jewish kid if Shlomo HaMelech was a good king, they would all respond unequivocally, yes. Even if you were to ask an educated adult, they still might respond yes but if you look at the facts, you might be torn as to whether Shlomo was actually as great as we make him out to be. Yes, he is Shlomo HaMelech, builder of the holy Beit Hamikdash and wise author of Mishlei, but he also made many mistakes.

It can not be said that Shlomo was not a good king. He definitely did some incredible things as king for Bnei Yisrael. Yet, as soon as his reign ends, chaos begins and his kingdom splits. After this, corruption and sins were widespread. Shlomo had numerous alliances with foreign nations causing him to gain immense power. He had been granted wisdom from G-d along with wealth, wisdom, and and length of days. He had a great reputation and was known to people all over the world. He created a centralized government which made people want to follow G-d. He built up a great military, expanded the borders, and gained tremendous wealth for the nation. His greatest achievement came when he built the Beit HaMikdash. He taxed the people in order to obtain the money necessary to build. The Beit Hamikdash served as a place for the people to connect to G-d, pray, ask for forgiveness, and was meant to be a universal home for Jews and non-Jews unlike. At this point, Bnei Yisrael was closer to G-d than ever. Shlomo was a perfect role model and inspiring ruler for the people. Then, that very same wise and spiritual king began breaking rules.

He began to gain more wealth and horses than G-d would allow him to. He also began marrying multiple foreign women. These women influenced Shlomo to serve their own gods. He even built a Bamah for the purpose of worshipping these other gods. I can only assume that these actions were a great disappointment to the people. How could their spiritual, G-d fearing, wise king worship Avodah Zara? It is quite ironic that the one who built the Beit Hamkidash, a place to make jews closer to G-d was the one who strayed from G-d the most. His role model status went down the drains and the people were probably more let down than ever.

Learning about this during this time of year is very appropriate. Everyone is talking about the elections. People are worried that Obama will ruin the country while many are terrified that Romney will not be able to run the country. Whatever happens, there will be people left disappointed; the Republicans if Obama is elected President or the Democrats if Romney wins. You know there are serious problems when the Democrats are disappointed in Obama or the Republicans are disappointed in Romney but this is exactly what happened in Shlomo's days. Bnei Yisrael, who at first had looked up to Shlomo as the great, powerful, religious leader now see him as an idol worshipping, power hungry trader.

 The people want to see their leaders thrive but remain humble and in control. They don't want to them struggling to maintain their power or have to go to great lengths to maintain their leadership position. For example, Yeruvum builds temples in Dan and Beit El to prevent his people from going to the Beit Hamikdash for the Shalosh Regalim in fear that they will join the other kingdom. This ended up preventing the people from getting closer to G-d and caused them to sin.

So yes, Shlomo was a great king. He did many things politically that made his nation thrive. He will forever be known as the great, wise, powerful Shlomo HaMelech but we cannot forget that what he did. We must learn from his mistakes. There are numerous lessons we can derive from this story. Of course, the clear messege is 'listen to G-d' but we also must realize that one mistake can cause a chain reaction. Shlomo strayed from G-d and because of his actions, regardless of his prior incredible achievements/accomplishments, he caused an entire nation to stray from G-d's path and commit more sins than Shlomo could ever have imagined.