1. 0:00 Question on Solomon’s verse about his wives

ושלמה לא עבד, אלא מה אני מקיים? What's the peshat in the pasuk, \"ויהי לעת זקנת שלמה\" when Shlomo got old, \"נשיו הטו את לבבו\"? His wives turned his heart. The Gemara, הי כדרב נתן, the peshat there is like Rav Natan said, רב נתן רמי, רב נתן asked a contradiction between two pesukim. Ksiv, one pasuk says, the pasuk we just quoted, \"ויהי לעת זקנת שלמה נשיו הטו\", that when he was old, his wives turned his heart. Ksiv, but the other pasuk says, \"כלבב דוד אביו\" that he wasn't like his father's heart. \"כלבב דוד אביו הוא דלא הוי\", he wasn't like his father, \"מיחטא נמי לא חטא\", but he didn't sin. And here it's mashma he did sin, it turned his heart to sin. And the answer is הכא קאמר, this is the peshat. \"ויהי לעת זקנת שלמה נשיו הטו את לבבו\", it says in the pasuk, when he was old, his wives turned his heart \"ללכת אחרי אלוהים אחרים\", to go after avodah zarah. \"ולא הלך\". They tried, they didn't succeed. In other words, they tried to, that's what it means. He had a thousand wives who he converted and, and he wasn't supposed to have more than 18. That's a different problem. Okay. We're talking about the chet of avodah zarah that the pasuk talks about. That's a different problem. But for an emet, the Midrash says, יצתה בת קול ואמרה, יאבד שלמה ואלף כמוהו, ואל יאבד אות אחת מן התורה. That Shlomo and a thousand like him get lost, like the Eibershter is fucking not happy, and not to be mevatel one ot from the Torah, because he tent that the pasuk says, why can't you have a lot of wives? \"ולא יסור לבבו\", might turn his heart. So, I won't. Won't work for me. So, bafoal the pasuk says it did turn his heart. But the Gemara here says it doesn't mean it turned his heart, they tried. Won't work for me, what See, but they tried, it's not the peshat they tried, I mean, a guy could come over to try to make you a baal avodah zarah. It means that It's a It's a, it turned the heart, that's what Rashi says, no? Pasuk says. Pasuk says, what about horses and all Horses, you shouldn't go to Mitzrayim, and by כסף וזהב also, you shouldn't. So here, the fact that the pasuk says they tried, it means they tried and they almost got him, but they didn't. So on one hand, it shows how it was not so pashut that he was שייכות to it. On the other hand, if a person is not שייך, it's a big deal that they tried. If you're שייך and they tried, and you didn't, that shows even more. It shows even more. It's a mashal by Yosef. The two pshatim. It says when he came home, \"לעשות מלאכתו\", to do his work. So one pshat is he came home to, he was ready to give in to her, chas v'shalom. Another pshat is he was not. Which one shows a greater gadlut? On one hand, if you say he came home to do his cheshbonot, but not to do anything with her because he was not שייכות for it, so that's greater. The other one, he came home and then he changed his mind. But on the other hand, the other pshat is even more. If you're not שייך, you're not שייך, but if you're שייך and you came, and much harder to overcome yetzer hara. It's the same thing here. That was siyata dishmaya, he couldn't do anything. What means siyata dishmaya? יוסף, דמות דיוקנו של אביו. Any baal teshuva could do. Baalei teshuva, yeah. You had siyata dishmaya. Yeah, but a baal teshuva actually did aveirot, he didn't do. Close. Close, yeah. He's a beinoni. So the Rambam, yeah. But the Rambam, the Rambam in in in Perush Hamishnayot, the Rambam says of a father, there are two categories of Yidden. There is a a I forgot the first word also, but it means a tzadik, but he doesn't use the word tzadik. קורא לו מושל, and הכובש את יצרו. Somebody who has to fight with his yetzer and he conquers it. So are the two different, they're both and they're both, yeah, one has a maalah, another maalah. So I'm saying here also, the fact that he was שייכות to it... But isn't it a pegam that you have to be tested? You shouldn't have a test come before you. Right, you get a higher מדרגה בעצם that that you had even a test. No, that you should that you shouldn't be tested, that should be no test should come before you. Nothing should be put before you. No, we ask the Eibershter, we ask every morning in davenen, \"ואל תביאנו לידי נסיון\", don't bring us a test, but we hope so. But sometimes the Eibershter, it says \"כי מנסה ה׳ אלוקיכם אתכם\", Hashem tests you, why? He loves you. So the pasuk says \"לדעת הישכם אוהבים\", he wants to know that you're serving Hashem, so the Rambam or the Ramban, someone asks the she'eilah, he doesn't know? Eibershter knows. So he taytsh it's not that he should know, he wants he knows that you're you're able to swi- he wants it to be בפועל. This is only בכח, you have the potential, you have the ability. Do it. But he wants, אינו דומה if you're able to do it or you mamash do it. So the Eibershter tests you, he wants you to do it. But סוף כל סוף, someone chas v'shalom, somebody, you know, doesn't, that's it. Okay, let's learn a few more lines. But the Gemara, so so far he didn't do an aveirah, he didn't worship avodah zarah. The Gemara asks, \"כתיב\", but it says, \"אז יבנה שלמה במה לכמוש שקוץ מואב\". Shlomo built a mizbe'ach, a bamah, for the avodah zarah of Moav. והרי גם, yeah. But the Gemara answers, \"שביקש לבנות ולא בנה\". \"אז יבנה\" means he wanted to build, but he didn't. Why did he want to? His wives. Yeah, but he decided not to. So the Gemara says, why, because it says \"יבנה\", it doesn't say \"בנה\"? So, every time it says \"יבנה\", it means he wanted? \"אלא מעתה\", so it says, \"אז יבנה יהושע מזבח לה'\". Then יהושע built a מזבח לה', \"הכי נמי דביקש לבנות ולא בנה\"? He wanted to build and didn't build? \"אלא דבנה\", it means he built, \"הכא נמי דבנה\", so here it must mean he built! So it can't be that peshat. \"אלא כדתניא\", another pshat. Rav Yosei says, it says in a beraita, Rav Yosei says, the במות, that's how על פני ירושלים אשר מימין הר המשחית. It says בנוגע Josiah hamelech that he destroy all of avodah zarah, and he destroyed everything, including the avodah zarah which are on the right side of הר המשחה which is הר הזיתים, אשר בנה שלמה מלך ישראל which Solomon the king built לעשתרות שיקוץ צידונים, those avodah zarot. Okay, that's what it says. So who did it? Josiah. So אפשר, בא אסא ולא ביער? Asa was before him, who destroyed all of avodah zarah. Jehoshaphat came ולא ביער, didn't? עד שבא יאשיהו וביערם? Josiah did it? If they was there from Solomon's time already, and Asa already destroyed all of avodah zarah, why didn't Asa destroy this? Why didn't Jehoshaphat destroy this? והלא כל עבודה זרה שבארץ ישראל, אסא ויהושפט ביערום. All the avodah zarot they destroyed. אלא it comes to tell you something else. מקיש ראשונים לאחרונים. It comes to compare the ראשונים, which means Solomon hamelech, the earlier ones, to Asa veJehoshaphat. מה אחרונים לא עשו ותלאו בהם לשבח. Just like אחרונים means Josiah hamelech. Just like Josiah, he did not destroy the avodah zarah that Solomon made, that was going to make. Why? And nevertheless the Torah considers that he did it. He destroyed other avodah zarot, but because he did such a good thing, the Torah gives him the credit more than he did, considered that, too. אף ראשונים the same way, לא עשו ותלאו בהם לגנאי. The same farkert by the Solomon. Solomon, something he didn't do, and the Torah considers if he did. He didn't do עבודה זרה, but since he the wives tried to, considers that he did.