Peaking too early: Vayakhel 5785

This week’s haftorah describes the efforts of the great King Shlomo in the construction of the First Temple. He is a great and tragic figure; the attitude of the Talmud towards him is ambivalent.  On one hand, he is the builder of the Temple, he expands the kingdom, builds great fortresses, and administers twelve districts of his country. The wisest of all men, he understands even the cries of animals and the songs of birds. The author of three of the great books of the Bible, he was someone upon whom the Divine Spirit rested.

 On the other hand, the Talmud questions his right to immortality, criticizes his excesses and hubris, condemns his tolerance of the idolatry practiced by his foreign wives and even attributes the rise of Rome and the destruction of the Second Temple to his marrying the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Jewish legend has him driven off of his throne by a demon, being made to wander in exile for part of his life. All of this naturally dims the luster of his earlier accomplishment of building the Temple.

The haftorah parallels our parsha, which deals with constructing the Mishkan and its artifacts, with the artisanship employed in the creation of the Temple and its artifacts. Shlomo, so to speak, becomes a second Moshe, supervising the building of the house of God. But, in the case of Moshe, the building of the Mishkan was only one of his career’s accomplishments, dwarfed by the massive achievement of teaching and instilling Torah within the people of Israel. The building of the Temple by Shlomo was the high point of his career, but he slipped off the lofty pedestal of greatness that he had attained.

 The Talmud teaches us that “happy are those whose later years do not shame their earlier accomplishments.” My old law school professor assured us that every lawyer makes a bad mistake at least once in his professional career. He also stated that those who are fortunate enough to make that mistake early in their career are truly blessed, because they can recover and advance. Making it late in one’s professional life can be disastrous to one’s life and reputation. The same can be said of one’s actions.  Early success can be dangerous because it sets a standard and may cause a degree of complacency that inhibits further achievement. Only a gradual ascent and mature consideration, usually part and parcel of advancing years, can guarantee that those early achievements become lasting, untarnished by later behavior. The comparison between the two great builders of God’s house—Moshe and Shlomo—illustrates this. While building God’s house is a great achievement, maintaining it and using it to increase spiritual guidance and instruction to the people of Israel is even greater.

Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Berel Wein