Daily Tanach Tuesday Sefer Melachim 1 Chapter 10: Queen of Sheba returns home with gifts from Solomon

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1.      The Almog wood delivered by the Hiram’s ships:

  • The ships of Chiram which had brought gold from the land of Ofir likewise brought from Ofir [to King Solomon] a large quantity of Almog wood as well as precious stones.
  • The wood is used to make a path and musical instruments: The king used the Almog wood to make a path between the temple of G-d and the king’s palace. He also used the wood to make musical instruments such as harps and the like for the [Levites[1] who would] sing [in the temple]. There has never been such quality wood seen before, from that day and onward.

 

2.      Queen of Sheba returns home with gifts from King Solomon:

  • King Shlomo gave the Queen of Sheba all that she desired and asked for [i.e. wisdom[2]], and gave her all the possible gifts that he could. She then went and returned to her land, she and her servants. [The sages[3] state that king Solomon was intimate with her, and from that union with the Queen of Sheba was (eventually) born Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the temple after 410 years.]

3.      The King amasses gold:

  • The amount of gold that arrived to King Shlomo in a single year was 666 Kikar of gold. This is aside for all the gold that he amassed through the tourists and merchants that came to the country, as well as all of the Kings and leaders of the lands.
  • The gold shields: King Shlomo uses the gold to make 200 body surrounding shields of thin and flexible gold. Each shield contained 600 coins worth of gold. He made another 300 regular shields using soft and flexible gold, each shield being made up of 300 coins worth of gold. The king placed the shield in the forest of Lebanon.

 

4.      The king’s throne:

  • The material: The king made a great throne from ivory and covered it with gold.
  • Its steps: There were six steps leading up to the throne.
  • The throne itself: The top of the throne where the king sat was circular and had arms that stretched from each side [i.e. armrests[4]] by the place of the seat. There were two [gold[5]] lions standing next to the arms.
  • The lions on the throne: There were 12 lions that stood by the throne, six lions by each side of the steps, one lion by each of the six steps.
  • There was no throne like this amongst all the monarchies.

[1] Rashi 10:12

[2] Rashi 10:13

[3] Addition to Rashi 10:13

[4] Rashi 10:19

[5] Rashi 10:19

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.

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