Shlomo HaMelech’s Request for Wisdom
It is one of Shlomo HaMelech’s greatest moments. When asked by Hashem during his dream at Givon as to his desired wish, Shlomo HaMelech responds (Melachim I 3:5-10) that he wishes for the wisdom to properly lead and judge (see Da’at Mikra) the nation. Hashem, in turn, is exceedingly pleased with Shlomo HaMelech’s request.
To place this remarkable exchange into perspective, it is worth viewing the worthwhile talk delivered by business leader Bob Davids, titled “The rarest commodity is leadership without ego.”12Davids, Bob. “The rarest commodity is leadership without ego.” TEDx Talks, 10 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQrPVmcgJJk. In this talk, Mr. Davids emphatically communicates that effective leadership can only be accomplished when the leader is wholly devoted to his or her people. The ineffective leader is one who is self-serving, and whose goal is to advance his or her interests.
Hashem’s Offer as a Nisayon
Shlomo HaMelech is the only king to whom Hashem offers a choice of wish. Why is he of all people given this choice? Da’at Mikra asserts that Hashem presents a Nisayon (character test) to Shlomo HaMelech. The Pesukim certainly seem to support Da’at Mikra. Hashem’s gushing praise of Shlomo making the appropriate choice and not selecting more enticing options, and the consequent reward He presents to Shlomo HaMelech, are clear indications that a Nisayon has ensued. However, Da’at Mikra does not explain why Shlomo HaMelech is presented with this Nisayon.
We suggest that the unprecedented and bold actions of Shlomo HaMelech’s marriage to Bat Paroh and offering of one thousand Korbanot at the Bamah Gedolah at Givon leaves one wondering about Shlomo HaMelech’s motivations. Are these grand actions expressions of self-aggrandizement, or does Shlomo HaMelech harbor a noble motivation to serve Hashem and His people? This unprecedented Nisayon helps reveal Shlomo HaMelech’s true motivations for these unprecedented actions.
Of course, Hashem does not need this Nisayon. A Nisayon, as Ramban explains (BeReishit 22:1), is for the benefit of the one being tested. It activates and actualizes the latent potential within the one to whom the Nisayon is administered. In the case of Shlomo HaMelech, the young king is afforded the opportunity to realize his potential for being a great leader. Indeed, Shlomo HaMelech, in his dream, describes himself to Hashem as being “BeToch Ami,” “within my people.” He is not above the people, he is with the people. His is a government for the people, and he, therefore, chooses to advance his ability to properly lead and judge the people.
In his talk, Mr. Davids describes an incident which he regards as a paradigmatic example of proper leadership:
I went to China, lived there for 13 years. I built a company, started with a handful of people and we ended up with 8,000 people. We had to build a factory to house 8000 people. On occasion I would go to Guangzhou and walk around and inspect the site. I have a technical background, so I felt I had a little bit of expertise in construction. And one monsoon rainy afternoon we’re walking along by the foundation and I look down in the ditch and I see five or six men working and they’re installing a sewer pipe. And they had a level and I’m looking down and I see that they’re making the pipes level, while I have enough technical background to know that a level pipe’s not going to flow. And it’s going to get buried under the foundation, so we’re going to have lifetime problems, because we’ll never get to this to fix it.
So I thought about telling them how to fix it and then I realized I didn’t speak Chinese. So I took off my shoes and I jumped into the trench. I know that a one-inch pebble underneath one end of the level will be just about 2% grade, that’s what we needed. So without saying a word, I grabbed the level, I took a rock and I held it and went back to pipes and I raised it up and I signaled for them to put some sand under the pipe when we got it just right.
And then I went to the next pipe, then I did it again and on the third pipe I handed it to the men in the trench and I had them hold a pebble under the level until they got it just right. Then I asked them to do one more and they did. And then I got out of the trench, took my shoes and went back to the hotel.
That incident went viral in the company. I had no idea what was going to happen. But inside I was realizing what Bob Townsend had told me, if I had pushed them and I had yelled at them and told them what to do, I probably wouldn’t know where they’d go. But by grabbing the level and pulling them, showing them exactly what to do without saying a single word in a totally different culture, they listened. That incident went through the whole company and they realized that it was – it’s a symbol that I would jump in the trenches with them. The big boss would jump in the trench in the mud and pull them. I had no idea it was going to be so powerful. But it really paid off.
The Case of the Two Harlots
Mr. Davids’s incident sheds light on the narrative of Shlomo HaMelech’s famous resolution of the dispute between two harlots as to the identity of the true mother of the child, which is recounted in Melachim I 3, immediately after the conclusion of Shlomo HaMelech’s great dream. More important than the clever means of generating evidence in a case where there is no evidence for a judge to decide the case, is the very fact that Shlomo HaMelech is willing to devote time to resolve the case. His willingness to take from his precious time and focus his talents on representatives from the least prestigious segment of society is the equivalent of Shlomo HaMelech taking off his shoes and jumping in the mud to properly install a pipe. It is a concrete expression of what he gains from the Nisayon that Hashem administers during his dream at Givon.
Shlomo HaMelech is a king who is truly dedicated to the service of his people. He ensures that justice and fairness prevail at all levels of society.
We will return later to the theme of the servant leader, regarding the failure of Rechav’am. In that incident, Rechav’am is advised by Shlomo HaMelech’s wise advisors that “Im HaYom Tiheyeh Eved La’Am HaZeh Ve’Avadetam… VeHayu Lecha Avadim Kol HaYamim,” “if today you become a servant to this people and serve them... they will be servants all the days” (Melachim I 12:7). As Bob Davids points out,
Power comes when the people that you are leading give you their support. When that support comes to you, I call that like power. They offer you the power and then they watch you. If you take that power and you deflect all of it back to them, then they give you more. And then if you give more back to them in the second wave they’d give you even more. But if you start to take some of that power, they start giving you less. And those leaders that accept the power make a critical mistake, because now the power that’s going to come and give them more and more and more power, falters and goes away. And I can point out many leaders around the world even today that are falling, because they took the power. They didn’t give it back to the people they were leading.
Likewise, Rechav’am fails to follow in the footsteps of his father and fails miserably.
Conclusion
A final word from Bob Davids:
Herb Keleher was the CEO and Founder of Southwest Airlines. He would go out and work one day a month handling baggage in the company. Bob Townsend used to spend one day a week renting out cars at the counter. You need to be in touch with the people you lead and you need to be in their shoes.
There is no better example of this than Shlomo HaMelech judging the custody dispute between the prostitutes. In the ancient world, such a king was unheard of. The kings were in it for themselves and themselves alone. It was the Jewish people, and Shlomo HaMelech in particular, who introduced the groundbreaking idea of the servant leader to a world with a great need for proper leadership.