The Real Meaning of King Solomon's Dream: A Listening Heart - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel

now usually if I were to ask people when Solomon has that whole dream experience what does he ask for and almost every translation in English misses the translation in Hebrew they'll say understanding uh an understanding of something wisdom he was the wisest of all men but the Hebrew specifically says Le sha a listening heart therefore give your servant a l sha a listening heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil and you wonder like why would Solomon ask for a listening heart and I think the answer to that is because every decision that a king needs to make and that's goes to the king of their own home the king of their own life it's G to come from the heart so let me listen from to my gut that I'll be able to trust what I'm listening to and is that you can't trust your gut you can't trust your heart look at Genesis chter 8 verse 21 this is right after the flood and Hashem said in his heart I will never again curse the ground for man's sake although the inclination of man's heart is evil from his Youth and so what is Solomon asking for imagine that I mean how are you supposed to trust your heart when people are born their instincts are selfish survival instincts they're they're created in order to survive most people unless they go through some spiritual emotional psychological training their instincts their Basic Instincts very primitive very selfish and so can you imagine someone saying my heart is telling me that I should go and steal that man's money I mean I'm really feeling it in my heart he dropped is money I found it my heart is telling me I need the money and so it's like well how do you know what to listen to and so Solomon is asking for a listening part I want to really be able to listen to know what hashem's will is in my life and now in some ways we know what the real spiritual work of life is be to really have an understanding heart as the says that's like an ancient Sage that's so brilliant and having a Discerning heart an intelligent heart is what life is all about and I want to just for a moment go into Latin intelligent an understanding heart be not to live intelligence in Latin is intelligentia but those are two words fused into one what is the atmology of the word intelligence it's inter leg to choose between that's intelligence it's like the ability to choose between right and wrong so batal an understanding an intelligent heart is the ability to choose between what's right and what's wrong the ability to have a listening heart to have the ability to know to choose between the different forces in our life or voices in our head I mean that's why the Latin based English translation maybe in that story in the book of Kings it almost always says that he's asking for understanding he's asking for wisdom if you go back to the source maybe that's what it's saying to have an intelligent heart or wisdom it's like oh he he's asking out for a listening heart to hear God's voice in his life and his heart to be intelligent to choose between to make the right choice