CMV: Solomon was an awful king

He inherited a semi-stable kingdom, taxed it in a way that we would think of now (and they thought of then) as oppressive, and channeled the revenues into Canaanite religion, which he spent more money on than he did on the Israelite one. He set Israel up for brutal civil war and put an idiot on the throne after himself despite presumably having more competent children and no obligation to choose the eldest (he wasn’t the eldest and the succession is literally his main job). Crucially, these are all the results of choices that he made. He didn’t have to marry a thousand women – his poor older brother Adonijah died for the love of only one – he didn’t have to build idolatrous temples, and he didn’t have to tax Israel into literal oblivion (where are the Bnei Naftali again?) for a palace.

If the Book of Kings calls him wise, then that’s a critique of wisdom, and not an endorsement of Solomon.

Happy Chayei Sarah, people. We should read the Haftara in Eicha trope because Solomon’s accession was a disaster.