Solomon After His Fall Finds Comfort Among the Poor

Midrash Aggadah Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 246

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 12, 2025

When King Solomon was stripped of his throne — cast out by Ashmedai, the king of the demons, and forced to wander his own kingdom as a beggar — he discovered that hospitality has two registers.

The rich invited him in. They set out fine dishes. They fed him the kind of meal he would have once arranged for visiting kings. But as they served, they talked. They reminded him of what he had been. They described his former palace, his former wives, his former wealth. They gestured, kindly, at the height from which he had fallen.

Solomon rose from their tables hungrier than he sat down. The food was good. The reminding was unbearable. Every bite tasted like the loss of the kingdom.

Then he came to the homes of the poor. They had little to offer — a piece of bread, a cup of water, a bowl of boiled beans. They set these before him without ceremony. They did not mention his past. They did not compare the small meal to his former banquets. They simply fed him what they had and let him eat in peace.

Solomon left their tables consoled.

Gaster's Exempla #246 preserves the teaching. A feast that keeps reminding the guest of his fall is poorer than a crust given in silence.

Themes

Solomon Charity Poverty Humility

Continue Reading

Midrash Aggadah Solomon Sprouts Boiled Beans to Outwit King David In the time of King David (who reigned c. 1010 to 970 BCE) there were three years of famine across the land of Israel. A... Midrash Rabbah Vanity of Vanities - Is Everything Really Meaningless That nagging sense of "Is this all there is?" That, my friends, is a feeling as old as time itself. The book of Ecclesia... Midrash Aggadah Why Rabbi Judah Wanted to Exclude the Ignorant from Alms A terrible famine had descended on the land. Grain was scarce. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi — the Prince, the compiler of the Mis... Midrash Aggadah Why Rav Chasda Sighed at the Gate of a Ruined House Ulla and Rav Chasda were walking together when they came to the gate of the old house of Rav Chana bar Chenelai. Rav Cha... Midrash Aggadah Refuse Not the Small Things — A Rabbinic Warning on Poverty At the very tail of Moses Gaster's 1924 Exempla of the Rabbis, tucked in among the short sayings that the editor gathere... Midrash Aggadah The Poor Man Who Dined on Fowl and Old Wine A beggar once came to Rava's door asking for a meal. The story is told in tractate Ketubot (folio 67, column 2), and it ... Midrash Aggadah Mar Ukva Leaps Into a Furnace to Protect a Poor Man Mar Ukva, a fourth-century Babylonian sage and exilarch, was famous for his habit of secret charity. Every day he would ... Midrash Aggadah The Open Purse That Once Hung at Rav Hisda's Doorpost Rav Hisda was one of the leading sages of Babylonian Jewry in the third century, and in his prime he was also one of the... Ginzberg Solomon Learns Humility From a Tiny Ant Queen According to the Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), Solomon, in all his glory, was wandering through a valley. Now, this wa...