Jeremy Rosen
From David to Solomon: From Strength to Wisdom
Summary
Pulling from the early books of the Bible, Jeremy Rosen explores the transition of power from David to Solomon. Specifically he examines how stories like this are really studies of the conflict between religion and politics and how they both evolve.
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Yes, Judy, that’s the whole point. No, a wife was in an official formal position. The wife was somebody, whether it’s inheritance, whether it’s to produce sons to lead. They had a unique position as hopefully every wife has with every husband to this day and age. But in addition, there was a concubine. The concubine was in a sense the property of the king like a super servant with benefits. They had lots of children. He had hundreds of children from them but they had no position of authority. But it’s not again like the court of Louis XIV. The Sun King had all these wives and mistresses. The wives, the official wives produced the heirs. The mistresses, they had sons who were given knighthoods or dukedoms or whatever it was, had positions. Some of them were ignored but that’s how it was. And or to this very day, if you look at Saudi Arabia. So the concubine is somebody with specific sexual rights. Later on, this becomes an interesting theological issue.