Cutting a Baby in Half?

 It is a rare occurrence when we read the Haftorah of Parshat Miketz.  The Haftorah is a section from the prophets,read after the regular weekly Torah reading, with similar themes.  However, on special days like holidays and Rosh Chodesh, we read a section of the prophets relating to that special day.  Parshat Miketz almost always falls on Chanukah, so we read the special Chanukah Haftorah.  The only exception is when Chanukah begins on a Friday, as it did this year, and then we read the “regular” haftorah for Parshat Miketz.  It happens approximately four times in forty years!

 

(By the way, next week there is another very rare occurrence.  The fast of the Tenth of Tevet happens next Friday, and we go into Shabbat fasting.)

 

The Haftorah this week is the famous story of King Solomon’s wisdom.  Solomon became king at age 12, and Hashem appeared to him in a dream,offering him any gift he would like.  Rather than riches or fame, he chose the wisdom to be able to lead and judge his people properly.  Because of his wise and humble choice, Hashem promised him all of it, wisdom, fame and riches.  

His wisdom was put to the test shortly after.  Two women (we’ll call them the plaintiff and the defendant) approached the king. The defendant was carrying a baby, though each woman claimed the baby was her own.

 

They had both slept in the same room with their babies, to whom they had given birth around the same time.  The plaintiff claimed that while she was asleep, the defendant had rolled over onto her own baby and smothered him.  She had then, the plaintiff claimed, switched the babies, placed the dead baby next to her, and taken the plaintiff’s live baby as her own.  The defendant denied the whole thing and claimed that the live baby in her arms was hers.  As the verse says (Melachim - 1 Kings 3:22)  “And the other woman said, ‘Not so, the living (is) my son, and the dead (is) your son,’ and this one said, ‘Not so, the dead (is) your son, and the living (is) my son.’” 

King Solomon ordered a sword be brought to him, and he said that the only way to deal with this situation was to cut the baby in half and divide him between the mothers.

 

Verse 26 continues the story: “The woman whose son (was) the live one… her compassion was aroused for her son, and she said, "O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means slay him." But the other said, "Let it be neither mine nor yours, divide (it).”  King Solomon proclaimed that of course the living baby was the defendant’s, and as verse 26 says: “All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king; for they saw that the wisdom of G-d (was) in him to do judgment.

 

This famous story begs several questions:  How could the king risk the baby’s life?  What would have happened if both women agreed to divide the baby, what would he have done?  Another question:  What right did the plaintiff have to lay claim to the baby that was in the possession of another woman with no proof?  And once the actual mother had agreed to let her have the baby, why did she not accept?  Isn’t that what she wanted?  Why did she say to go ahead and cut the baby up?

 

I want to briefly give an answer based on the teachings of  our Sages.  Solomon knew that the baby belonged to the mother who was holding him. She claimed that everything happened while she was asleep.  How could she know that the other woman had rolled over her baby?  Maybe the baby was bitten by a snake?  Maybe a third person came and stole her baby?  There was another very telling clue in the words of the two women’s arguments.  Note (in verse 22) that the defendant said: “the living (is) my son, and the dead (is) your son,” mentioning the living son first, while the plaintiff said: “Not so, the dead (is) your son, and the living (is) my son,” mentioning the dead son first. 

 

This, our sages say, was King Solomon’s clue.  In his great wisdom he understood human nature, and he knew that a person mentions first what is uppermost in their mind.  The first woman focused on the fact that her child was alive, whereas the second one focused on the death.  Solomon could see that she was jealous of the other woman, and was focusing on the fact that her baby was dead and that the other woman had a live baby which she no longer had.  (I’m sure she was in grief, and this is not about judging her, it is about her frame of mind.)  King Solomon knew that when a person is jealous of another, they can’t stand to see the other have something they don’t.  So he knew that she would want to see the other woman lose her baby just as she had lost hers, and was not at all interested in raising another woman’s child.  He knew that there was no chance that she would agree to take the living child, because in her jealousy, all she wanted was that the other woman should not have what she had lost.

 

(The plaintiff had no legal right to the baby, as I mentioned before, and King Solomon could have just dismissed the case, but this was an opportunity to show the nation that this young man, with his great wisdom and understanding of human nature, was well equipped to lead them.)

 

The lesson here is how far jealousy can go.  Rather than trying to get ahead and thrive, jealousy leads us to resent what the other has, to the extent that she was willing to have the baby killed.  When we recognize that we have each been given what we need for our mission, we can be happy that others have what they have, because what we have is exactly what Hashem wants us to have.

Am Yisrael Chai!  Happy end of Chanukah!  We need more light than ever in the darkness of the world.  Please encourage everyone you know who may not have lit the Menorah to do so tonight, and let’s spread the light of all eight Chanukah lights around the world!