Musar su I Re 5:78

King Solomon, peace be upon him, also said (Proverbs 15:30-31) "What brightens the eye gladdens the heart; good news puts fat on the bones. He whose ear heeds the reprimand of life lodges among the wise." And every wise-hearted person should know that it is not likely that King Solomon, peace be upon him, composed idle words like these [in the middle of] words of reproof and fear of God for nothing - since Scripture has already testified about him (I Kings 5:11), "He was the wisest of all men." Rather this is the understanding of the thing: "What brightens the eye gladdens the heart" - the eye is a very esteemed organ, for they will see all the events that gladden the heart with it. But more esteemed than it is the ear, for they will hear good news, that puts fat on the bones, through it. For [the ear] has no feeling and it will not be fattened from the light of the eyes, unless it is a special enjoyment. And so did our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, say (Bava Kamma 85b) that the ear is more esteemed than the other organs. For if one blinded his eye, he must pay for the value of his eye; but if he makes him deaf, he pays all of his value. And truly a person is obligated to serve, God, may He be blessed, with his limbs. And they were all formed for His service - as it is written, (Proverbs 16:4), "The Lord made everything for His sake." Even with the esteemed limbs that He formed in him, is he obligated to serve their Maker. And the great punishment is even much greater if he prevents them from doing His commandments, he does not do the service with them and he does not pay back the good that is done through them. For with his esteemed senses, God gave him a great kindness; and He crowned him with beauty and glory through them. Therefore he prefaced to mention one of the virtues of the ear in order for you to see the greatness of the obligation of its service. And afterwards, he explained that the service of the ear should be in listening to reprimand; and he said "He whose ear heeds the reprimand of life lodges among the wise." Its explanation is [that] it is fitting to dwell among the sages, since he can [then] listen to their reprimands. And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Shemot Rabbah 27:9), If a man falls from a roof and all of his limbs are broken, he needs a bandage and a plaster for every one of his limbs and his bones. And a sinner who has sinned with all of his limbs is considered as if he received a great wound on all of his limbs - from the sole of his foot to his crown, as it is stated (Isaiah 1:6), 'From head to foot, no spot is sound.'" But behold the Holy One, blessed be He, heals all of his limbs with one bandage. And that is the listening of the ear, as it is stated (Isaiah 55:3), "Incline your ear and come to Me; hearken, and you shall be revived."

And Solomon was the richest of all men, as it is written, "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones" (I Kings 10:27). For him it was proper to say "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" (Eccl. 1:2), and one ought not to busy himself with anything save for the reverence of Heaven. And thus did Moses, our teacher, peace be upon him, say: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God" (Deut. 10:12). And thus did David, the King, peace be upon him, say: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. 111:10).

The following is the commentary of the Rekanati on the limitation of the number of wives a king may marry: "In view of the fact that the attribute זאת must dominate in the conduct of the king, G–d has warned him not to be attached exclusively to the philosophy of מלכות represented by that attribute. Were he to do so, he would remove himself further and further from the attribute of חסד. (Cf. Solomon in Proverbs 30,20 who describes the adulterous woman as: "she eats, wipes her mouth and claims not to have committed any wrong.") In order to prevent the king from falling victim to such influences, the Torah warns the king only (because he is more at risk than the ordinary citizen) not to marry too many wives, not to amass too many horses, etc.

I must confess that I have been troubled for many years by what happened to king Solomon. How is it possible that a man who is described as having been wiser than anyone (Kings I 5,11) and beloved of his G–d, could become so bereft of wisdom when he became old that he is described in the Book of Kings I 11,4 as having been misled by his wives to follow idols, in particular the cult of "Ashtoret the idol of the Tzidonites and Milkom the abomination of the Ammonites?" Such conduct would be totally incomprehensible if an ordinary Israelite had engaged in it, how much less could one credit such behaviour to the wise king Solomon? Besides, most of the Book of Proverbs authored by Solomon in his prime is devoted to warnings of the wiles of women! Once I reminded myself that the one thousand wives and concubines Solomon is reported as having wed or consorted with were predominantly of non-Jewish descent, the veil was lifted from my eyes. The genuine Kabbalists have said that the total number of levels of impurity leading to the highest level of impurity is one thousand. These levels of impurity are referred to collectively as נכריות, "foreign-born wives." [I believe that Rekanati here deliberately leaves open the question of whether the number one thousand mentioned as the number of Solomon's wives is to be understood allegorically. Ed.] Solomon's very wisdom was the cause that he investigated the significance and influence of all these various levels of the original serpent's pollution. When the Book of Kings describes Solomon of having "walked after Ashtoret the idol of the Tzidonim," it does not say that Solomon served or worshipped such idols. The meaning is that 'he went to investigate the philosophical basis of that cult.' In the process, he became more involved than necessary for the purpose of his investigation. This was accounted a sin on his part. Whereas it was incumbent upon Solomon to understand the nature of that cult, it was wrong of him to develop any kind of attachment to it." Thus far the Rekanati.