Shoftim - King of Israel

you're listening to the weekly paraa podcast recorded with hashem's never- ending assistance in R Israel 5775 2015 this par parim the very beginning of the para the Torah talks about the concept of the judges that we are to have and then a little bit later it speaks again about these judges about the idea of judgment and it tells us this is in chapter 17:14 the obligation to appoint a king says like this when you will come to the land that God is giving you and you inherited and you live there and you will say I will place upon myself a king like all of the Nations that surround me the Torah continues to speak about the details of what it looks like what is a Jewish King what is the concept of a Jewish King which we'll see soon but when we read this verse we read this PUK so it's really unclear what is the nature of this statement of the Torah is this an obligation for the Jewish people to place upon themselves a king is this something which is just saying a prophecy what's going to happen which indeed does happen in the times of King Saul sh in the times of shi Samuel the prophet so the ramban says very clearly that this statement of the Torah when it speaks about the obligation when it speaks about the king speaks about the placing of the king the request of the Jewish people to place upon themselves a king the next verse says Place upon yourselves a king this is actually an obligation once the Jewish people come into the land of Israel they have three obligations the first of them is to destroy amalik to destroy this nation that which is the antithesis of the Jewish people which represents all the evil in the world the second obligation is to place upon themselves a king and the third obligation is to build a temple to build the so indeed this is an obligation this is something which is incumbent upon the Jewish people when they come into Israel which is to place upon themselves a king to have this ruler now what's interesting is the mafor point this out and the med speaks about this at length that when the Jewish people indeed ask of shavi when they ask Samuel the prophet to place upon them a king and indeed Samuel does Place upon the King King Saul sha when they do this so it's clear from the verses that this is something which was incorrect it was inappropriate for them to ask for a king rather as the verses indicate over there they should have been content that God be their King that God be the one who is their leader so to speak directly instead of instead of placing upon themselves a Mel a king and the question becomes if that's the case so what's going on in this verse this verse makes it clear that indeed one is obligated the Jewish people are obligated to place upon themselves a king to appoint a king also in the Mish the M speaks about the fact that each of these Kings and it goes through a number of different Kings but each of the Kings did something wrong they did things which caused the MaGa on the Jewish people caused some kind of plague or it caused them to to lose things to lose different the the the ramifications of them having these Kings in most cases was quite negative King akov was an very evil King caused him to lose the reain and stop rigning in the land of Israel there was famine in the land because of him and it seems like it seems very clear from the Mish that it's a negative thing so how are we to to try to understand these verses the placing of the king is that a good thing the Torah is obligating us to do this or is it a bad thing is it a negative thing it's also very interesting uh at the end at the end of this Mish over here i' like to actually read it to you at the end of the me it speaks about the fact that we're going to place upon ourselves a king aim so I'd like to read this to you inside our sages say God says in this world you request the Kings and the Kings stood up from the people of Israel and they caus you to have a downfall through the sword King sa caused a downfall in har gilboa this a certain location it brings the verse King David also he did something which caused a plague a as we said he caused there to be a famine a lack of Rain King sedekah caus the destruction of the temple it's another me say something very interesting when the people of Israel saw the results of these Kings what happened as a result of all these Kings all of them began to call out to God we don't want a a king over the people of isra we want our first king the verse says in Isaiah 33:22 God is our judge God is our lawgiver Our God he is the one who will save us God responds to this request of the Jewish people I swear to you that this is what I'm going to do how do we know this as the verse says the verse in Zariah in Zar 14:9 that God and ultimately in the end God will be the king over all of the land as the verse continues and finishes off go on that day God's name will be one and he will be one and God's name will be one so we see that ultimate it's going to be in the future that uh we're going to have Hashem God himself is going to be our King and so the question becomes again what's the understanding why is God indeed commanding us to place upon ourselves a king if ultimately that's not really what's good for us and ultimately God himself is going to be our King now this problem is further exacerbated by the fact that we see in in in doing we pray three times a day we say we beg God return to your City Jerusalem to dwell within the city as you have spoken but we ask return the Throne of David into there establish reestablish the kingship of King David his offspring the Messiah comes from King David we pray let the let the Messiah come right there we say it we say it again bring that offshoot of David let it let him come back let him let him grow again we ask God raise up the honor of the king the Messiah who's from from King David raise up his honor and then we say but for your salvation are we earning right obviously it's very clear from our request it's clear from the prayer which was written by the prophets written by the an S which included prophets that uh it's clear that King David his offspring we're asking for him to be returned but we're asking for God's salvation they're not exactly the same thing but the question is again what what's going on in this prayer this prayer seems to indicate that we want a king but the MIM seem to say that ultimately we don't want this King we want God himself to be our King and on rashash as we mentioned last week on rashash yam Kipper throughout the high holidays we speak about God being the king the MIM here constantly quote theuk in the verses speak about God is the ultimate judge God is the ultimate King we want God we want his revelation we want God to reveal himself we don't want intermediaries we're not interested in that so what's the idea why is it to commanding us to have a king and why indeed are we praying that there be a king what is the idea what is the concept of Messiah of the Messiah of that King the offshoot of David of King David that we're asking for in our prayers every day so if we look at the verses we start to get a picture of what a king in the Jewish people looks like it's very different than what we would think it's very different than perhaps the kings of the nations of the world you know you think about a king what's the idea especially today you know the the people in Britain and the UK are very proud of their King their royal family their Queen and uh the princes and the princesses Etc it's very exciting for them when there's a princess is born what is the idea of a king in the in the by the nations of the world what is the concept of a king I was thinking about it we could say that it's somebody who represents the nation this King represents the Grandeur the greatness of this nation clearly a king is the K as we've spoken about the king is somebody who's all inclusive the king is someone who's concerned with his people the king is somebody who represents the greatness of his Empire represents the greatness of that country why would people ask for a king why would they request a king because the King you know he's very wealthy he's very great he he's somebody who who conquers other places he's somebody who represents the power of that Nation now when we look at the description of the Torah of what a Jewish King looks like it seems very different verse says like this this is the next verse is chapter 17:15 Place upon yourselves a king that God will choose from amongst your brethren you shall place a king it's not permitted for a Jewish King for the king of the Jewish people to be a non-jew who is not your brother now the T starts to describe who is this person what is his job description what does he look like first tells us he's not allowed to have a lot of horses can't bring the Jewish people back back to Egypt that's where the horses came from at the time Etc verse 17 he can't have a lot of wives his heart shall not turn away he can't have a lot of wealth can you imagine this a king is not allowed to have a lot of wealth a Jewish king and the ma say the the commentaries say that he's allowed to have enough money to support his army to support the needs of his of his army that's what it says unbelievable thing he can't have a lot of money can you imagine a king doesn't have a lot of money he's allowed to have what he needs but he can't it can't be overly pompous can't be overly can't be a big display a Big Show Now What's his do job description when he sits on his throne what does he do does he have court gestures come out to entertain him does he have uh you know all the famous singers in the land come to sing for him when he sits on his throne you know who comes out to to talk to him no court Chesters no singers the the priests the Levites they come out they write him a to and they they read to him they give him mus they give him they give him rebuke they give him Direction they they remind him what God's will is next verse verse 19 is to keep that Torah with him every single day he has to read from the Torah what's his job description he has to learn in order to fear Hashem is God the king's job is to do the Torah the king's job is to fulfill the Commandments the king's job is to be the ultimate representation of what looks like of what it looks like to serve God what it means to have a relationship with God and now get this this is amazing what's the the end of his job description the the climax the the finale the room he's not allowed to be hoty he's not allowed to think that he's any better than any other Jew he can't turn away there's no exceptions he's not above the law he's not above the Torah he can't turn away from the Torah right or left and if he does this what happens in such a way if he does this properly he's going to have long days he's going to live long his kingship will last who for him and for his children amongst the people of Israel it's an amazing thing it's very interesting ran points out that we learn from here that the Torah has obligates a person not to be Hy if a king who who is indeed he has a palace indeed he is wealthy can't be overly wealthy can't have too much money he can't have too many horses but he has horses he can't have too many wives but he has wives right this person he's not allowed to be hoty he has every reason to be hoty he every reason to think that he's great because he is great he's a tremendous Torah scholar he's somebody who represents what Anem is what a servant of God is the the ran says if he is not allowed to be Hardy certainly all of us regular people are not allowed to be Hy very interesting but the but the amazing thing that the Torah is teaching us here is what does a king look like why did the Kings not succeed indeed what was the problem with the Jewish request for Kings they said we want a king like all the other nations we want to be like everybody else we want a king who is our mascot who represents the Grandeur the greatness of the Jewish people who represents the power of the Jewish people the powerful Army we can conquer we can overcome we can rule over the entire world perhaps even as it was indeed in Solomon's days was the greatest Empire at that time was the Jewish Empire but that's not the type of King that hashm wants Hashem wants a king who is humble doesn't have a lot of horses doesn't have a lot of wives doesn't have a lot of money even unbelievable and what does he do what's his job description he is somebody who has he what does he do all day he sits and he learns Torah he sits and he has the Kohan and the priests and the Levites instructing him how do I serve hasem better how do I how do I represent to the Jewish people how can I be a better leader how can I be a better example of a servant of God it's amazing thing King David was he is the quintessential King of the Jewish people even though indeed as the M says he made mistakes of course he made mistakes he was a human being nevertheless he did a lot of things right it's there's a reason why the Messiah comes specifically from King David because he was the one who represented the king ship in the greatest way he was the one had the greatest chance to actually be the Messiah it didn't happen in his time but he was the closest in any event what was King David oural tell us the verse says King David says about himself he says about himself my hands were full of blood what is it what does it mean his hands were full of blood or say just tell us it was referring to the dam it's referring to the blood of a woman who menstruated the there are manyas there many Jewish laws around menstruation whether when a woman is allowed to be with her husband when it's permitted and and if there's a there's a stain from blood so sometimes it can cause a woman to become forbidden to be with her with her husband now who would you go to today who do we go to we ask a rabbi who has the M of which blood is considered problematic which is not and and we ask rabbis in those times you would go to the rabbi but who is the greatest Rabbi of that generation it was King David himself his son King Solomon SCH also was someone who would judge the people they would bring their questions to them like we see with the story with many stories but the story with the famous story he says to cut the baby in half of course the mother says no but the idea is that that King David was somebody who you would think he's the king he he doesn't have to be involved with these Petty matters a woman whether she can is permitted to be with her with her husband this is something you bring to the king the king has other things to be involved in no King David was the the the the Dion he was the judge he was the the sador he was the godor he was the prophet the greatest Prophet I don't know if he's the greatest prophet of his generation but he was a prophet he was one of the greatest to Torah Scholars of his times and he was the one who they would come and they would ask their shilas to they would interact with him directly and find out what do I do am I permitted and that's why he said y d my hands are full of blood it was specifically this Blood the blood of the of the woman who had menstruated there was a she needed to know she was allowed to be with her husband that's who a king is in the Jewish people the king of the Jewish people doesn't he's not better than anybody else he's not greater than anybody else he's not somebody who thinks that he's he's amazing and he has so much wealth he has so much money has so many wives so so many so many horses no he's just like everybody else yes he's a great sadic but he's the one who who represents the Jewish people how do we serve God how how can I serve you asks the king how can I how can I help you asks the king that's a true king of the Jewish people and so you know if that's what the king of the Jewish people looks like if that's what the king of the Jewish people looks like all he all he's about is a representation of a true servant servant of God doesn't think that he's greater than anyone else he's not hay his whole focus is on serving God he's constantly learning the Torah constantly focusing on his relationship with God that's what a king of the Jewish people looks like that's the ideal that's what the king mssiah looks like that's what we're asking for every day we're not asking for a king like the the mascot of you know that sits in Buckingham Palace we're not asking for the king who sits in the in the White House and represents the greatness of that country we're not asking for you know that's not what we're asking for we're asking for someone who is is a true servant of God we're asking for somebody who's a true representative who represents what our relationship with God should look like who even though he has all of this honor and fame and wealth he doesn't think that he's any better than anybody else if he can do that I can do that that's what we're asking for when he asked God bring bring back that Sprout of David the one who represents the ultimate humility we're looking for your salvation we're looking for your [Music] kingship Hashem will be the king over the entire land what do we need a a messiah for what do we need a messiah for we need a m mashiach cuz he's going to be the one that we're going to we're going to be beholden to no of course we will be obligated to do whatever he says but whatever he says will just be a reflection of whatever hasem says he will be the ultimate example for us to be able to choose to have a true relation ship with hem it will be like it will be like you won't even see him King David is the moon right we talk about him we say we speak about King David when we when we bless the moon once a month and the idea of that is that King David is just he's just a reflection he doesn't have any light of his own he's completely nothing of his own he's King David and his offspring mhia the king the Messiah King Messiah is not God he's not he's not he has nothing he has no light of his own he has nothing of his own he's just somebody who facilitates and helps to see what it looks like what does it really look like to serve God and that's what we're asking for that's what we're always asking for that's what the King King David's Throne it's an amazing thing King David sits inside of the inside of the of the sanctuary of the temple no one else is allowed no one else is allowed to sit in the thr inside of the the Temple of of God why is King David allowed to sit there because he represents he's the ultimate example of what a true IEM looks like CU when he's sitting there he's only sitting there because God told him to he's not doing it because there's any GAA there's no there's no uh Hess there's no ego in it he's just there to represent to remind us to to to give us a clear example of what it looks like to truly serve God so that we can choose to be like him we can choose to have that relationship with God I want to bless you and I ask you to please bless me hasm should bless all of us that we should be Z we should Merit to be able to understand to to learn a lesson of what a king looks like from the for the Jewish people we should be we should Merit to to see this King with our very eyes and the rebuilding of the temple with King David's Throne sitting inside looking at what does it look like what does a human being look like and they TR serve God and how can we should help us to realize how we can indeed have a true relationship with him as well thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.old wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]