All Solomon’s deeds were threefold. He had three ascents (in which the scope of his rulership increased until he ruled the whole world) and three declines (in which the scope of his rulership decreased until he ruled just over his household); he saw three worlds (having viewed life as a king, a commoner, and then again a king); he committed three sins (having accumulated many horses, many wives, and much wealth; he wrote three Books (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Songs) (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:10).

To come close to an under-standing of Solomon, son of David and Bath-Sheba, is to appreciate a multifaceted personality, who experienced the very extremes of existence. Builder of the Temple, king, poet, historian, statesman, literatus, politician, philosopher, romantic, sage - Solomon was an exemplar for all that was good, for all that was tragic, in the history of Israel. How to delimit a man who could create the eternal beauty of the book of Proverbs, the gentle cynicism of Ecclesiastes, the sensual rhythms of The Song of Songs? Solomon could not be, would not be, confined, nor defined, as any type of biblical hero. He shattered every paradigm in every aspect of his life. A child born of the illicit union between the Lord’s most favored shepherd, who would be king, and the "unforgettable" Bath-Sheba, he embodied the poetic, musical lilt of his father as well as the aristocratic, unmoved yet seductive beauty of his mother. Possessor of a thousand wives (including the Queen of Sheba), ruler over 252 provinces, a judge of unparalleled wisdom, a man of war and peace, a student and expounder of Torah, a royal monarch who reveled in the golden perquisites of office - when Solomon moved, the earth shook.

Yes, this was a giant of our people, somewhat infantilized by Isaac Rosenfeld’s delightful fantasy of Solomon’s dotage ("King Solomon," 1956). He had everything, he had nothing - if that indeed is the explicit message of Ecclesiastes in breve. He was a man of excess in everything he assayed. His whole personality overflowed in the manner of Aristotle’s "Unmoved Mover," the creator of the universe. To know him was to love him, but as Rosenfeld neatly suggests, a man of this breadth, who seemingly possessed the key to all forms of worldly and spiritual knowledge, could not really love in return. He was the ultimate narcissist, creating beauty by his very presence, which enlightened and stimulated all those lucky enough to receive his attention; but evenso there remained a penumbra of coldness, an aloofness that surrounded and protected the brilliant king and survived his earthly career.

Yet this is how he is biblically perceived:And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.... And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom (I Kings 5:9,14).