Po Ve Sham

“Have you Ever dreamed of ruling a kingdom?

Be A King!

Feel Like A King! 

The invitations to join this fantasy royal family are all over the place from Disney movies to mattresses advertising: Sleep Like A Queen! 

Our Sidra this week, Parashat Shoftim has a variation of this invitation to royalty! 

Deut 17:14

ידכִּֽי־תָבֹ֣א אֶל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֨יךָ֙ נֹתֵ֣ן לָ֔ךְ וִֽירִשְׁתָּ֖הּ וְיָשַׁ֣בְתָּה בָּ֑הּ וְאָֽמַרְתָּ֗ אָשִׂ֤ימָה עָלַי֙ מֶ֔לֶךְ כְּכָל־הַגּוֹיִ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר סְבִֽיבֹתָֽי:

14 When you come to the land the Lord, your God, is giving you, and you possess it and live therein, and you say, “I will set a king over myself, like all the nations around me,”

While the Talmud (Sanhedrin) engages in discussion around this because the sentence is enunciated as a conditional  and not as a direct positive commandment, generically speaking the Rabbis interpret this as one of the three commandments (the other two – building a house and cutting the seed of Amalek)  the people of Israel should fulfill upon their entrance to the promised land.  

However a brilliant perspective emerges from the  “Haamek Davar” the Torah commentary written by Rabbi Naphtali Zevi Yehudah Berlin  (Valozhyn,19th century) also known as the Natziv.

The Natziv quotes:

“and you say , I will set a king over myself”

And explains: “saying” [here] is not like its simple meaning, but rather like [its] usage in the phrase (Deuteronomy 12:20), “and you shall say,’ I want to eat meat’” and in similar [instances]. However, according to this usage, it is implied that this is not an absolute commandment to appoint a king, but rather optional, as in the case of “and you shall say, ‘I want to eat meat,’ etc.” 

He continues and explains that ONLY then it becomes a positive commandment for the Sanhedrin, the rabbinical assembly to appoint a Monarch. It is done only to comply with the will of the people. 

Now, The Torah doesn’t seem to be afar from this idea because the verses that follow will describe a model of kingship that has nothing to do with the disney fantasy, the mattress publicity and with the bipartisan materialistic reality of our politics in which we constantly hear that fortune is a testament to wisdom.

The Torah has a set of guidelines for the selection of a Monarch:

1- Make sure that he (she) is one of yours, while the torah is clearly referring to the people of Israel, I think that for us this can be translated to models of humanity as opposed to individuals that present themselves as superheroes.  This is true for all aspects of life: Politics ,Religion ,Fitness, Dieting, School, you name it…  Make sure that you enthrone relatable figures.

2- Limitation of Wealth (for the sake of gender inclusion I will turn around this part)

• The Queen should not have too many horses.
• The Queen should not have too many husbands or wives…
• The Queen should not amass excessive silver and gold

 All these mean that an ostentatious Queen or King is a NO GO! 

Maybe the Torah emphasizes this idea because we are naturally attracted to wealth. In fact some researchers argue that we have an evolutionarily predetermined way to interpret the accumulation of wealth as a form of survival. Indeed too often people die because of the lack of its distribution.

And lastly

3- Once he is seated on the throne, he must write for himself a copy of the Torah on a scroll, obtained from the Levitical priests (Deut. 17:18). This personal copy of the law is to be with him always and he is to read it all the days of his life (Deut. 17:19).

They, Those Who Reign,  are supposed to attach themselves to a set of principles, to a constitution and to make value-based decisions. 

So ultimately what the Torah is trying to communicate to us is “you don’t really need a King but if you really want to get one this is what you ought to look for”:

1- Look for someone real; models of aspirational reality are dangerous, they set impossible standards, and undermine our self-perception. 

2- Stay away from those who introduce themselves through what they own and from those that mostly seek to own. Their judgment is biased, in their world view everything they do is a transaction. 

3- The King, the Queen should have a spine! The principles of their people should be well known to them. They should hold them by their throne, and also every single time they walk around! 

This is not an easy task as over our history we had kings  who widely deviated from this essential idea.

The best example is King Shlomo. He had Many Wives and Horses, he was the richest man on earth and because of it he was highly criticized. 

King Shlomo was also highly regarded for his wisdom, and at the end of the day, this extremely rich and wise man looks at his kingdom and feels completely empty. That’s the foundation of the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is this existential paradox of the emptiness of a life filled with materialism.

If I asked you again, do you want to feel like a King?  After reading the book of Eclessiastes you would probably say NO!

Dear Friends, This is a very special time of the year… 

As some of us are going back to school and ,all of us, 

during the month of Elul are preparing for the HHD’s.

We are not literally asked if we want to be Kings but we are asked how we want to govern our lives! 

And here it goes once again, this time not for an imaginary entity but for ourselves.

Let’s Keep it Real: Let’s try to hold ourselves to inspirational models that are deeply rooted in a reality we can relate to.

Let’s not chase the horses: Let’s recognize the things that are taking big portions of our attention but are not helping anyone. And let’s stay away from them.

And Lastly ,

Let’s grow a spine: Let’s hold our values close to wherever we go, let’s not be circumstantial  and base our decisions on what is convenient but rather on what we believe is right. At times it might feel uncomfortable but ultimately  there is nothing more grounding than that. 

And so ,as we celebrate this Shabbat of parashat Shoftim, the first Shabboth of the month of Elul I wish for us all to feel like royalty ,the kind of royalty that keeps it real, that doesn’t chase horses, and that constantly works to grow its spine!

Shabbat Shalom ve Chodesh Tov