The Root of the Problem

Poor King Solomon. While building the First Temple in Jerusalem, enjoying a 40 year rule, and creating the First Jewish Empire, he was hounded all the days of his reign from enemies outside and within his realm.
 
Hadad, the Edomite king, and Razon, ruler of Damascus both arose and harassed King Solomon. If that weren't enough, the king’s son would not inherit the full measure of his throne. The nation would be split and his heirs would only rule over two of the tribes.
 
How could such a great man befall such tribulations?
 
There must have been some political mistakes he made during his 40 year reign. But King Solomon is known as the wisest man that ever lived. How could he make mistakes?
 
He didn't.
 
The Midrash explains that measure for measure King Solomon was hit with these three mishaps as punishment for committing three sins. As the King of Israel he was forbidden from taking too many wives, accumulating too many horses, and amassing too much money.
 
His intentions were for the sake of Heaven. He married 700 wives and took on 300 concubines so that he could spread Hashem's Name to the world. A King married for political reasons. In taking a wife, he also took some of the estate of the nation he was marrying into. In making these 1000 women convert to Judaism, he was attempting not only to expand the Jewish Empire, but the Kingdom of Hashem as well.
 
He accumulated wealth for two reasons. One was to demonstrate to the world that abundant blessings were showered upon those who remained steadfastly close to Hashem. He also wanted to give himself a greater trial, then defeat his Evil Inclination and gain greater reward in Heaven.
 
As a result, his tenure as leader of Israel was fraught with many problems.
 
To the leadership of the day, these unexpected problems could have been attributed to the political and military situation at hand. The solutions were probably political and military in nature as well.
 
The Torah tells us something different. We learn that these national issues were NOT from any problem with the government or the political climate. They were a result of transgressions against the Torah.
 
Hashem was sending a message to King Solomon that he needed to make teshuvah. He was communicating to him that what he was doing wasn’t working. Instead of passing great tests and spreading Hashem’s greatness to the nations, all he was doing was transgressing the three commandments specifically designed for a Jewish King!
 
How could he have not seen this?
 
It could be for the same reasons our own biggest problems are so tough to solve. We instinctively look for external factors like something physically wrong, or an event that made a bad impact on our lives. The challenge is to perform a spiritual accounting to see what needs fixing is a big one indeed.
 
The hardest transgressions to detect are the ones that are closest to us. They are the ones that we have been doing for such a long time they no longer feel like sins. They have been so ingrained into our day to day lives that it feels like an iniquity to stop rather than continue.
 
This is the hardest teshuvah.
 
We most likely questioned these actions the first couple of times we did them. Soon after we got used to them and from then on we didn’t even bother to think about the consequences. The moral battles we fought inside our consciousness ended years, even decades ago. The Gemara teaches – a transgression starts out as a sin, then becomes a standard action, and if we do it enough it is approached as if it were a mitzvah.
 
When was the last time we asked ourselves if it is all right to watch TV? When was the last time we determined if the most popular movie in theatres was suitable for us simply because there was a PG sign at the bottom of the advertisement with the girl in the bikini? When was the last time we really took ourselves to task for continuing to recite the morning Shema late, or in not reciting it at all?
 
We assume that because we lived a full day yesterday and woke up in one piece today all is well.
 
G-d loves us. If He put us in some sort of a rut, it’s because He does not want us to stay there.
 
He throws us a rope all the time. He sends us tribulations to wake us up. He sends emotions, problems, deep awareness of the things in life we lack for the sole purpose of hoisting us out and bringing us closer to Him.
 
King Solomon decided that the wives, horses, and the money were mitzvot. When his tribulations hit, he performed a through spiritual accounting of what he was doing wrong. It never occurred to him to “re-open” the case of whether or not it was okay to continue to ignore the Commandments of a king. As his enemies circled the gates, he needed to declare every aspect of his life open to review.
 
As do we. To get to the root of any problem – personal or national – we need to perform an audit of all that we are not doing right. We can always grab the Hashem’s hand that’s always open to those who seek Him.
 
 
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Dovber Halevi is the author of the financial book, How to Survive the Coming Decade of Anxiety. He writes for Breslev Israel and The Middle East Magazine. He lives with his wife and two children in Eretz Yisrael.