Rabbi Yudan tells us that for seven long years, as Solomon built the Beit Hamikdash, the Temple, he abstained from wine. A monumental achievement, right? But the moment he finished, the moment he married Bitya, the daughter of Pharaoh, he celebrated with wine. And here's where things get interesting.
That night, there were two dances, two celebrations intertwined. One for the Temple, a beacon of holiness, and the other for the Pharaoh’s daughter. And, according to the text, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, The Holy One, blessed be He, was essentially like, "Which one of these am I supposed to be happy about?"
The stakes? The story suggests that in that moment, God considered destroying Jerusalem! As it says in Jeremiah 32:31, "For this city has been a cause of My wrath [api] and of My anger from the day that they built it until this day, to remove it from My presence." Rabbi Hillel bar Hileni cleverly points out that the Hebrew word api, "my wrath," can also mean "my nose," likening God's reaction to wrinkling one's nose at a foul odor.
Can you imagine? The weight of that moment!
Rabbi Honya adds that Pharaoh’s daughter danced eighty kinds of dances that night. Solomon, exhausted or perhaps a bit too merry, slept until four hours into the day, the keys to the Temple still under his head. Now, normally, the daily morning offering was sacrificed at the very beginning of the morning (as we see in Tamid chapter 3). But on this particular day, because Solomon overslept, it was offered several hours late.
Talk about a royal screw-up!
Someone had to say something, right? The text offers two possibilities. Some say it was Solomon's mother who entered and rebuked him. Others say it was Yerovam ben Nevat. How could Yerovam, a commoner, dare to rebuke a king? Rabbi Hagai, citing Rabbi Yitzchak, explains that Yerovam gathered a thousand men from his tribe and, with their support, confronted Solomon. As Hosea 13:1 says, "As Ephraim spoke there was trembling [retet]." The numerical value of retet is one thousand, subtly hinting that Yerovam's words caused Solomon to tremble.
But HaKadosh Baruch Hu, The Holy One, wasn’t thrilled with Yerovam's audacity either! God essentially said, "Who are you to rebuke a prince in Israel? I'll give you a taste of his authority, and you won't be able to handle it." And, the text says, as soon as Yerovam became king, "he became guilty through the Baal and he died" (Hosea 13:1), because he introduced idolatry.
But let's go back to Solomon's mother. The Rabbis suggest she was the one who really gave him a piece of her mind. She took her shoes and started slapping him, saying, "What, my son [beri], and what, son of my womb?" (Proverbs 31:2). Rabbi Hoshaya points out that it doesn't say "beni" (my son), but "beri." This alludes to the commands and prohibitions of the Torah, which is called bar (clear), as in "Yearn for bar" (Psalms 2:12), because all its matters are barim (clear).
She continues, reminding him of his father’s many wives and the vows they made to bring sacrifices if they bore Solomon. "Now, I have stood and my offerings are with me, and you are sleeping?" A powerful moment, filled with a mother's love and concern. She quotes Proverbs 31:3, "Do not give your strength to women, or your ways to that which destroys kings." She reminds him that licentiousness led to the Flood and the destruction of a generation.
The passage continues, quoting more of Proverbs 31, emphasizing the importance of kings staying sober and mindful of God's word. Rabbi Yochanan states that kingdom isn't given to those who stray from God, but to those who follow His word. Wine can lead to forgetting what's legislated, even the 248 limbs of the human body!
Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa sums it up poignantly: God says, "I had a great House, and I destroyed it only due to wine." The Rabbis add that the two sons of Aaron died because they entered intoxicated with wine.
But the story doesn’t end on a down note. The Holy One says that while wine causes trouble in this world, in the future, it will bring joy. As Joel 4:18 says, "It will be on that day the mountains will drip with wine."
So, what can we take away from this incredible story? It's a reminder that even the wisest among us are fallible. That moments of celebration can be fraught with danger. And that the consequences of our actions, even seemingly small ones, can be enormous. But also, it offers a glimmer of hope, a promise that even the things that cause us trouble now can, in the future, be transformed into sources of joy. It's a complex, layered story that invites us to reflect on the balance between celebration and responsibility, pleasure and mindfulness, in our own lives.