Comentario citado sobre I Reyes 11:4

Tanchuma Chayey Sarah 2 claims that there are four possible causes why premature old age suddenly settles on a person. 1) because he lives in fear of something; 2) because he is angry at his children; 3) because he is married to an evil person; 4) because of being involved in waging wars. The respective verses from Scripture quoted by that Midrash to support its claim are 1) Chronicles 1 21,30 “and David was unable to go to it to worship the Lord because he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the Lord.” We also have a verse in Kings I, 1,1 “and King David was old, advanced in years.” As to the anger caused to a person by his children aging him, we read in Samuel I 2,22: now Eli was very old. When he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, etc.” We have proof that being engaged in constant warfare ages a person from Joshua 13,1: “Joshua was old, advanced in years.” Concerning a husband’s aging prematurely due to being married to bad women, we find a verse in Kings I 11,4 “it was when Solomon grew old because his wives had turned his heart, etc.” On the other hand, we know that Avraham’s wife had always honoured him and not caused him any grief, for even when she referred to him as old (Genesis 18,12), she still called him אדוני, “my lord.”

as all that his father Uzziah the good deeds that his father had done. That is what R. Simeon ben Yohai said in Tractate Sotah (sic. Should be Sukkah 45b): If Abraham would take upon himself all the sins of the generations until his time, I would take upon myself the sins of the generations from Abraham until my time. And if Jotham the son of Uzziah were with me, we would take upon ourselves the sins of all the generations from Abraham until the end of all generations, for in all the kings before him and after him we find sin, except in Jotham. Concerning David it is written, (I Kings 15:5): “Only concerning the matter of Uriah the Hittite”; concerning Solomon it is written, (ibid. 11:4): “His wives turned his heart away”; Rehoboam forsook the Lord’s Torah; Abijah (ibid. 15:3): “went in all his father’s sins”; Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the House of the Lord and put the prophet in prison; Jehoshaphat associated with a wicked man (Ahab and his son Ahaziah); Joram killed his brother; Ahaziah’s mother advised him to sin; Joash killed Zechariah and was [later punished by being] sexually molested (Yer. Kid. 1:7); Amaziah prostrated himself before the graven images of Seir; Uzziah entered the Temple to burn incense; Ahaz went in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made monuments for the baalim; Hezekiah became haughty and there was anger upon him, and the sages did not concur with him on three things that he did (Pes. 4:9); Manasseh did evil in the eyes of the Lord; Josiah did not heed the words of prophecy from God; Zedekiah did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not humble himself before Jeremiah (below 36:12). In Jotham, however, no trace of sin was found. (R. Eliezer the son of Moses told me this.)

in the first ways of David, his father But not the last ways, when he sinned in the incident of Bathsheba, and when the Adversary enticed him to count Israel. This is the most accurate interpretation, but others explain “first” as meaning superior to Solomon and Rehoboam. Regarding Solomon, it is written (I Kings 11:4): “his wives turned away his heart” at the end of his days, and he built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.” Regarding Rehoboam, it is written (above 12:1): “And when he became strong, he abandoned the Law of the Lord.” [Jehoshaphat was also not] like Abijam, about whom it is written (I Kings 15:2): “and his heart was not complete with the Lord, his God,” or like Asa, who did not rely on the Lord; [Jehoshaphat] resembled his father, David, who had only one heart for his Father in heaven.

Madness. Dullness and confusion of thoughts, an expression of mixing, as in, “diluted מָהוּל with water.”⁴⁹Yeshayahu 1:22.

I understand now, that also wisdom has frustration in it, for in great wisdom, a person relies on his great wisdom and does not distance himself from the prohibition, and much vexation comes to the Holy One, Blessed Is He. I said, “I will get many horses, but I will not return the people to Egypt,” but ultimately, I returned. I said, “I will take many wives, but they will not turn my heart away,” but it is written about me, “his wives swayed his heart.”⁵¹I Melachim 11:4. And similarly it states that he relied on his great wisdom and did many things, as it is stated, “the words of this man to Isieil, because God is with me, I will be able.”⁵²Mishlei 30:1.