King Solomon writes this thought-provoking verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 9:13-18 JPS Tanakh 1985
"This thing too I observed under the sun about wisdom, and it affected me profoundly. There was a little city, with few men in it; and to it came a great king, who invested it and built mighty siege works against it. Present in the city was a poor wise man who might have saved it with his wisdom, but nobody thought of that poor man. So I observed: Wisdom is better than valor; but
A poor man’s wisdom is scorned, And his words are not heeded. Words spoken softly by wise men are heeded sooner than those shouted by a lord in folly. Wisdom is more valuable than weapons of war, but a single error destroys much of value."
It's amusing to me, as King Solomon is the wealthiest king to have lived. Yet, he never gave much acclaim to money and riches. He treasured and valued wisdom above anything else that life had to offer.
Infact, we are all familiar with the story where after he sacrificed 1000 burnt offerings to the Most High, he sees a dream where the Almighty asks him -
"Ask! What shall I give you?"
He answers saying, "…an understanding heart to judge Your people (Israel) that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?"
The Almighty was very pleased with the answer King Solomon gave Him.
Do read 1 Kings 3 of the Tanakh for the full and detailed version of this famous and beautiful encounter.
King Solomon basically valued understanding of good and evil, discernment, righteous judgment and wisdom above -
Long life
Riches
The lives of his enemies
That speaks a lot.
All these things are basically what we have grown up to value highly and think of as great parameters of one's success.
Modern science has made strides in finding the cures to so many diseases and are constantly on the lookout to increase life expectancy. It's considered to be a meritorious field of study.
Money, the size of one's home and fleet of cars, the amassing of shiny glitzy things, is considered the most apparent indicator of a person doing well for himself.
And someone who has the power to avenge himself on his enemies and destroy those who cause him the slightest unease is considered powerful in society.
And yet, King Solomon chose something totally apart from all these.
Interesting indeed.
Going back a little bit,
When we love the Father, we must take an effort to view and perceive things from his lens.
King David, the 8th and the last of Jesse's sons, was not even considered by his own father to be the one the God of Israel would choose to rule as King over Israel.
Even Prophet Samuel who heard directly from God himself thought one of the older sons to be more fitting and appealing for the throne of Israel.
And yet, God's choice was obvious.
In 1 Samuel 16: 6-7 JPS Tanakh 1985
"When they arrived and he saw Eliab, he thought: “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands before Him.”
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees [does the LORD see]; man sees only what is visible, but the LORD sees into the heart.”
We lean towards
Money
Fame
Possessions
Looks
Power
Physical prowess
Assets
Security
Ownership
But the Maker of the heavens and the earth considers understanding and righteousness to be more of value and everlasting.
We favor the rich fool.
He pays attention to the poor man's choice words.
At the same time, He'd also pay attention to the rich man if he were wise.
He is no respecter of persons. He is not partial and shows no favoritism.
God is not against wealth or living a good and nourishing life.
The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy speaks of so many blessings that are ours to lay hold of if we keep His commandments.
He is against unrighteousness and wickedness.
He is against adopting ill-means to acquire riches.
He is against cheating, stealing and hoarding.
For me personally, I place a lot of emphasis on living a good quality life and being unapologetic about it. My personal belief is however one chooses to spend his/her money is not my concern. I am no one to decide that a Mercedes would be a more wiser and economical choice when someone goes ahead and purchases a Rolls Royce.
I have every right to decide how I spend my money and someone else has every right to make the choice regarding theirs. There's no place for judgment in matters like these.
When we take off our foggy and soiled glasses, and wipe them clean and then see the world again, we'd gain a fresher and truer perspective of the nature of things.
I'd love to encourage you to step out of your old worldview and try to consciously think. Take a pause from your everyday hustle and bustle and ponder about the simple habits you have. Think about why you do certain things the way you do. Question things. Research and use the gift of technology to learn about topics and subjects that interest you.
Don't merely exist, but live.
Don't take what someone else spoon-feeds you to be the ultimate answer to something as deep as the Truth.
Don't be afraid of judgements and criticism. We all live once, and mortality confrontation is a very real thing.
Live the life you want to live and don't be sorry about your wins. Life happens to the best of us. We all are met with circumstances that wreck us and we try our best to rise up from those times and have our seasons of good times.
After what you go through, live freely and make the most out of your times of joy.
As my husband says, being sorry for being different or happy is stupid.
As for me, I make all my choices in the light of the Torah. Basically, I use the guidelines of the 613 commandments laid out in the first 5 books of the Tanakh and make my life choices on the basis of that.
What's permitted for me in those boundaries, I enjoy and freely do, without any qualms. And what's not permissible to me, I refrain from without any second thoughts.
It helps me to be diligently discerning about the way I live my life. Not as a brute beast without any thoughts, but as a gifted human being, with the ability to think for myself, to exercise my free will for the better, created by the Creator to have a life beyond one's existence and scrambling around to make a livelihood.
The life of Torah observance I have adopted keeps me aware and, in a pursuit, to constantly be in check and fear of HASHEM.
The way I choose to eat,
the way I choose to dress,
the way I choose to undertake my work and business.
All these daily life choices and habits are what gives my life more meaning and purpose.
People notice me to be different. Different visibly. Visibly different.
They notice my husband to be different too.
The ones who we meet know we follow a different set of guidelines and are very respectful of that, they try to be accepting and understanding of our different life approaches, even when it's contrary to theirs.
They know we mean no harm, we practice what we do in the space within our 4 walls and we show utmost respect to the others who have strong convictions. They are ready to give up their life for what they stand for, and that's a pretty tough feat.
But that being said, not everyone takes kindly to the way we choose to live our lives. This kind of imposing behavior where people want to take matters into their own hands to force someone to comply with their worldview stems from a toxic and encroaching mindset that the receiver of this kind of behavior can do nothing about. Except be mature about it and not let it affect your peace.
You gotta be okay with having haters and naysayers when you stand strongly for something.
Don’t live in the shadow of lies and falsehood and regret it when you are much older in life. Don't care so much about your image and getting it all right in this world because there will always be someone who will disagree.
We all make mistakes. We are far from perfect. Doesn’t mean we never try to start though. "Oh that today you would hear his voice, harden not your hearts."
Live it right and when the Maker appears at the end of time, I'm sure it'll all be worth it for the ones who dared to break free from the lies and live free without being bogged down by dogma.
Making a choice contrary to the majority, but doing it because it's the Truth is only a choice away.
Remember, no one ever said that just because they're many, they're right.
Stand alone but stand for the Truth and your reward will meet you in due time.
The Pursuit of Truth
We're all on a pursuit,
Some on a quest of our own.
We're in debt to the lenders
Left with a heavy impounded soul
We left to increase our barns
Our minds we lost in turn
What's the point of the big cheques my friend
When you're helpless watching your house burn?
Find me the Truth
I detest these lies
The truth-seeker hides in his safe house
In the midst of the chaos where everyone dies
There's a cleft
There's a rock
There's a theft
There's a spiritual block
Find me the raft in which there go the truthers
I hate the ships of the liars
Of so-called merchant, thieves and killers
I learnt true increase lies in a pursuit quite rarely found
It's where the truth seems like a glimmer but
The lies a deafening sound
All this chastening
All these attacks
Couldn't have it any other way
To get these wolves off my back
I praise I thank I understood the right way
It's the way to increase my power to believe
A spiritual boost
And not a physical sway
It's this pursuit I love
The truth I see in a distance I hope
Always closer than I thought
A doubter's Exodus under the heavenly scope
I've watched many grow
I've watched quite a few stunt
I've learnt the truth is sharper
When my words are blunt.
To leave you with a thought to play around with, if anyone is interested in the first baby step to attain wisdom like the great King Solomon, the definition of what THE HEBREW SCRIPTURE considers to be Wisdom is:
"The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD, And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
(Proverbs 9:10 JPS Tanakh 1985)