The Soul of a Poet

“To be a poet is to have a soul so quick to discern that no shade of quality escapes it, – a soul in which knowledge passes instantaneously into feeling, and feeling flashes back as a new organ of knowledge.” George Eliot As a child, King Solomon, “the wisest of all men”, fascinated me. I couldn’t imagine anyone wiser than my father. I read all the Midrashim I could that described Solomon’s brilliance and, although I believed, I was not convinced that it was the ancient king, and not my father, who deserved the official title. It could not have been because of the books he wrote. His father composed the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, wrote their great books. The story of the young king’s “order” to divide the baby between the two women is smart, but certainly not the smartest strategy in the bible. I had no choice but to ask the wisest person I knew. “King David taught us how to express anything a person could possibly feel. Solomon took all those feelings and connected them to the moment of greatest achievement; the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem.” My father usually answered my questions in simple terms that I could understand. My six-year-old brain had no idea what this answer meant but certainly knew from the look on his face that my father was waiting for me to admit my incomprehension. “I don’t understand!” “That,” he said, “is the beginning of wisdom. You have to know what you don’t understand. There were many things that Solomon did not understand, but he was wise enough to know that the answers were already there in the world and Torah. He knew that the answers to everything were in there in what the people experienced when they dedicated the Beit Hamikdash and he composed Shir Hashirim – The Song of Songs – so that whoever looks will find all the wisdom he needs.” I still did not understand his answer, but he turned away before I could, as usual, pester him for more. My father planted a seed in my soul at that moment, a seed that grows each time I study the Song of Songs. Author Info: Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.