Haftorah Parashat Vayehi
I Melakhim, 2:1-12
Starting with a Famous Verse
Although my practice this year has been to leave a brief discussion of some famous phrases from that week’s haftarah for the end, one of the early phrases I wanted to focus on captures the theme of the haftarah so well that I may as well put it here.
In the second verse, David tells Shlomo that he is going “be-derech kol ha-aretz, in the way of all of the earth,” a euphemism for death. The particular euphemism used carries with it an attitude towards death that is central to understanding the haftarah, and vital to Judaism’s view in general, one neglected by all too many important people, particularly political leaders. David here is preparing for his death by telling Shlomo what he needs to do, akin to Yaakov’s telling his sons what they need to do to contribute to the Jewish people.
Instead of focusing on general issues of character and tendencies, though, David tells his son which people need to be killed and which rewarded, a seemingly mundane set of directions, lacking in the kind of vision or uplift we would expect. It is odd to see someone contemplating meeting his Maker by recommending tit-for-tat vengeance. Admittedly, David opens by admonishing Shlomo to keep God’s law, the condition on which their hold on the kingship rests, but it seems almost lost in the shuffle.
A key clue to understanding David’s words to Shlomo lies in realizing that the haftarah goes beyond the end of that section, adding two verses, one of which summarizes David’s rule, and the other which relates that Shlomo took over the throne, and that his monarchy was very well established.
The Reason to Settle Scores
These last verses suggest that David’s words to Shlomo were as much about Shlomo’s ability to continue David’s legacy as about how Shlomo could act for himself. To insure the continuity of the kingship—which is not the same as Shlomo acting self-interestedly to secure his monarchy—Shlomo needs to strengthen himself and “be a man,” a term Radak understood as referring to his needing to learn to control his temptations. Part of that, as well, is serving God, since God’s promise to David about his descendants’ rule was contingent on observant of mitsvot.
Within that rubric, David might have told Shlomo about Yoav, Barzilai, and Shimi because they carry some broader message about how Shlomo can best tie up the loose ends of David’s life. To see these as the only three people with whom David had accounts to balance seems unlikely, since Tanach tells us of many people who had helped him, and he must have had antagonists other than Shimi and Yoav. Rather, in learning how to handle these people, Shlomo will learn lasting lessons about his father’s rule.
David’s having left Yoav alive and functioning for many years after these incidents highlights the limitations in power even David had. By asking Shlomo to take care of Yoav, David was both closing a chapter and teaching Shlomo that even as king he, too, would confront people he could not control but also could not excise from his life.
Barzilai: Showing Friendship Unnecessarily in Times of Need
Yoav presents the complicated example of how to deal with people with whom we are close, who almost invariably have provided great services while also causing distress and anger. Barzilai models a different kind of friendship, where the kindnesses performed have no apparent cause other than goodwill. When Barzilai helped David, the latter was out of power and could only bring trouble. David’s stressing the importance of permanently incorporating his descendants at the king’s table teaches Shlomo the value of publicly rewarding such open-handed friendship.
Shimi is almost the reverse, in that he had no need, no personal stake, in cursing David when Avshalom rebelled. Such people, David tells Shlomo, the king has to actively kill (in contrast to Yoav, where the command was only to insure that he not die peacefully).
Rather than recording the minute details David chose to waste his time with in his waning moments, the haftarah shows us David using those last instructions to show Shlomo the complexities of his own life, from which the son can take object lessons on how to run his future monarchy.
Seeing the haftarah that way shows us that David’s death was not the end, since Shlomo would be a completion and continuity of David’s life. The final verses of the haftarah, summarizing David’s rule and leading into Shlomo’s well-established throne, are actually both a summary of David’s success—he ruled successfully, but, as importantly, lay the groundwork for that success to continue well into the future.
Two More Verses with Resonance
Verse 5: When speaking of Yoav, David refers to him as having put “demei milhamah be-shalom, the blood of war in time of peace.” In Yoav’s case, David was referring to his having killed people who did not need to be, but in later halachic literature, it is used for any case of causing unnecessary strife or embarrassment. For example, Rashba uses the phrase when speaking denigratingly off someone who embarrassed someone else, while Rivash applies it to nullifying an oath that was taken for someone else’s benefit. Removing the promised benefit is putting “blood of war in times of peace.”
Verse 9: When David wishes to broadly hint to Shlomo that he needs to kill someone, he throws in “ki ish hacham atah, for you are a wise man.” Since this is before Shlomo asks Hashem for the special wisdom that makes him the Shlomo we all know, David is here simply expressing confidence in Shlomo’s ability to handle the challenge ahead of him. That aspect of the phrase crops up later as well, where rabbis will write these words as a way of bucking up a correspondent’s self-confidence.
1Kgs.2
[1] Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
[2] I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
[3] And keep the charge of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:
[4] That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.
[5] Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
[6] Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.
[7] But shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.
[8] And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.
[9] Now therefore hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.
[10] So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
[11] And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.
[12] Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.