This Shall Pass

One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most  
trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring  
that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which  
gives you six months to find it."

"If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I  
will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"

"It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it,  
he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy."  
Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to  
give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he  
could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a  
walk in one of he poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a  
merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet.  
"Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy  
wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his  
sorrows?" asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and  
engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his  
face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with  
great festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what  
I sent you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and  
declared, "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the  
inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written  
three Hebrew letters on the gold band: gimel, zayin, yud, which  
began the words "Gam zeh ya'avor -- "This too shall pass."

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous  
wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he  
would be nothing but dust.