King David was being run out of town by his son. He left Jerusalem with his closest men including Yoav ben Zeruia. Shimi ben Gera came to curse David and to throw dirt at him. So one of David's men said to David "Why should this dog curse the king? let me go and put a sword into him."
It is famous that King David said to him ''No. Let him curse because God told him 'Go and curse David.'" [Samuel II 16:10]
The sages say at that moment King David became the forth foundation of the Divine Chariot.
The thing I noticed was that that was not the first thing that king David had said. The first thing was "Let him curse because after all it makes no difference. It is not as if God told him go and curse David." But then in the middle of that thought it occurred to David that in fact that is exactly what had happened. "God told him to curse David."
That is: at that moment he changed his mind from, "It is not as if God told him to curse me" to "Yes in fact God told him to curse me."
From this event the Hafez Haim learns that one ought to be patient and accepting when people complain about you.
For all English speaking people out there--I have to apologize because I think you really can not see this in the English translation. It is rather in the Hebrew that you see David changing his mind in mid sentence.
That is: at that moment he changed his mind from, "It is not as if God told him to curse me" to "Yes in fact God told him to curse me."
From this event the Hafez Haim learns that one ought to be patient and accepting when people complain about you.
For all English speaking people out there--I have to apologize because I think you really can not see this in the English translation. It is rather in the Hebrew that you see David changing his mind in mid sentence.
