A Soulful Journey

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...

Solomon had a powerful ring, the most powerful ring ever created. No one knew the secret of the writing that encircled its core and Solomon never let the ring leave his finger. When the great king was on his deathbed, his advisers begged the king to give them his ring. ”Are you certain?” The dying king gasped, “that you want to ring so powerful that when a happy man looks at it he becomes sad and sad person sees it he becomes happy?” “Yes,” said all the ministers. So, with a dying gesture, King Solomon let the ring slip from his finger. The prime minister picked up the ring held to the light and read, gam zeh ya’avor , “this too shall pass.”   This was Solomon’s greatest wisdom and guarded secret.    “This too shall pass.”

An old legend tells of the wise King Solomon who understood the danger of wallowing in self-pity.   Solomon knew well that staying in there would diminish his abilities and sap his joy.   King Solomon commissioned a jeweler to make a ring that would jolt him out of the thick clouds of despair. The jeweler brought him a ring bearing the words, “This too shall pass.”    All things do pass.