Searching for the Donkeys | Five Qualities of Jewish Leadership

the yeshiva.net [Music] today's class is dedicated by dina dornbush thank you so so much and tremendous luck and everything and we really are grateful and very appreciative for your partnership and dedication parsha scheiftim the weekly parsha is a very fascinating portion and one of its sections close to the beginning deals with what we would call the parsha of the melech the king it speaks about the possibility of appointing a jewish king and most importantly the legislation that should define that ought to define leadership monarchy and judaism so let's see the first source it's parashat scheiften perek youth zion prosecutor that's devarim deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14. moshe is speaking to the jewish people and he says as follows i'll translate it when you're going to come to the land that hashem gives you and you're going to settle it and you might say asimo alaim just like all the nations around me i i here is the collective eye the jewish people i want to appoint a king we want a leader we want a monarch just like all of the other nations have a leader so the pasa continues you should appoint upon yourself a king somebody hashem will choose me but don't bring in a foreigner as a king it should be a brother meaning somebody from within your people because leadership requires somebody who really understands the geist the zeitgeist the energy the the the characteristics of the people it should be from amongst you iraq it's a big rock however here is legislation this king should not have personally should not own many horses the primary center for breeding the most gorgeous and powerful horses was egypt i'd want them to have many horses and then bring everybody back to egypt in order to get more horses when hashem said do not go back to mitzrayim yod zayan loyabili nashim this king should not have many women not not men should not take many wives for himself loyocerolavo his heart must not turn away from righteousness the hess of his own nor shall he acquire excessive silver and gold i don't want him to be so rich and so affluent and he finishes in pasakhoff le bilti room lava in so that his heart shall never become haughty become exalted arrogant over his brothers or abilities and that he should never turn away from the mitzvahs from the commandments of hashem either going to the right or to the left lamanya that he may prolong his days as a king he and his children among the jewish people that's the parasha the halal is very brief of the king indeed hundreds of years later and this took hundreds of years it's exactly what occurred and now we go from torah to naveem of course the history of the jewish people and hummish ends with the passing of maishrabenu 40 years in the wilderness and mushroom passes away at the verge at the border of going in territory that's where khumash ends navi takes over from there it begins with yahushua yeshua who takes the jewish people into the land of eretz israel after his master's passing murshid it's messiah the exodus of egypt happened in the year 2448 since creation 2448 forty years later they went interested israel which would be two thousand four hundred and eighty eight that's when moshe passes away and yeshua takes over and then begins the book of yeshua and this is where the naviem take over tanakh tyra and naveem but hundreds of years later we have joshua then you have the safer shmoor in small isle of perry cass small isle of perryquest which is small 1 chapter 8. we have the story of navi being approached by the jewish people and literally saying these words that martian abenu said might happen hundreds of years earlier because all these years there was no king the jewish people didn't have a king and it was not essential for them to have a king they had leaders they had shayfton they had judges they had sources of inspiration and and and mentorship and guidance and halachic authority sanhedrin but not a melaka king but what happens in shmuel in the times of small the prophet is that changes and let's see the story in your next source small aleph passage his reputation was undisputed in fact the posix says in tehillim we say it friday night moshe were the servants of hashem the cayenne priests and small among the callers of his name and the murderer says that shmuel is equivalent to moshe and iron together so that tells you something about shmuel his his magnitude and his reputation was was incredible as sometimes happens his children did not live did not live up to their reputation and the tanaki knows very blunt about people tanakh says they took bribes and they were dishonest and there was corruption there and the people sought and you know judaism and jewish leadership must always be based on authenticity and truth first and foremost and they realize that schmuel will not be able to be succeeded by his sons they just don't have that integrity and that authenticity certainly not relative to their father so what happens is the tanakh says as follows this is a small one chapter eight verse four vaisgaps all the elders of israel gathered and they come to shmuel who lived in a place called rama he's called haramas you have grown old and your children have not walked in your ways set up for us a king to be able to judge us and lead us like all the gallium like all the nations like all the empires and the tribes around us almost verbatim echoing maisha's words hundreds of years earlier in the wilderness where moshe said one day they may say said the words that they would later say later say to small or maybe they just said it because my said it ramban discusses it here in the about the the similarity in the words used by and used by the jewish people when they speak to shmuel shmuel is not very happy about the idea of a king he knows the dangers of monarchy history has learned very well the dangers of monarchy you know now 20 what do they say hindsight is 2020 vision monarchy is very serious a king has a lot of power and power as we know corrupts and absolute power what do they say corrupts absolutely so shmuel shmuel tells the jewish people about the dangers but they want a king they want a king and moshe told them hashem agrees as long as the king follows the legislation that the toyota articulates you can have your king so after they ask for the king shmuel acquiesces hashem says they can have a king what happens next is the tanakh deviates from the story and from chapter eight in small aleph we go to chapter nine it's a whole chapter and it's quite a strange and you would think an irrelevant story it's certainly an interesting story but in terms of the history and the theme it seems far it seems like just from as we say from left field irrelevant and strange basically the prelude of how the first king of the jewish people was coronated was nominated by hanavi it's a story about a young man who the tanach describes as excessively handsome and appealing it's a story about lost donkeys it's a story about young women in a conversation with this young man as we will see and it's a story about a prophet shmola navi and the story occupies the entire ninth chapter of shmuel aleph the entire periodic testosterone is the story what's the story this is how the tanakh introduces how the first king came about small aleph his name is kish benaville he's the son of avil bensr [Applause] he comes from important lineage and he's a person of stature of of of dignity of valor [Music] he's young baka means young and chosen he's he's good as the mafirsham say toiver doesn't only mean character he's got a character he's good looking he's handsome and there's nobody that as handsome as he is from his shoulders and upwards he was taller than any of the people by the way here is where the expression comes from head and shoulders above others doesn't come from nowhere it comes from this bossac has many expressions in english mishikha vamaya from his shoulders and up he's gavaya so he's tall he's appealing he's striking and he says no nobody's more handsome nobody's more good-looking than him to know this okay next the father of shawl had donkeys a bunch of female donkeys or some donkeys that's cyanides in the plural and they got lost valley mercury take with you one of the farm boys one of the lads one of the young people who was one of their servants helping out in the home and go search for the donkeys they pass the mountain of ephraim and they traverse the land for three days looking for the donkeys and they don't find them they pass a place called shaolin place called yamini searching everywhere for the donkeys they are nowhere to be found they're gone hema baritzuf they come to a place called suf for show um and show tells the farm boy he says it's time to go back we have to return back why pen yet because very soon tati my father our father my father is going to stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about us the dog no no no we are where are they where is my son charlotte where are you where's the lad that's what's gonna happen he's gonna go and perhaps he's gonna panic he's gonna be stricken by by fear and terror and dread of what happened to us so i think we don't have the donkeys let's go back that's what he says the farm boy tells show no i don't think we should go back and he says there's an ishalikim there's a man of god who lives not far from here he helps people let's ask him about the donkeys maybe he'll be able to help us seoul hesitates seoul doesn't want to go why the tanakh says the reason he hesitates is because he says let's say we go to this man we have to bring something we have to bring a gift we don't have what to bring the bread that we took has been used up because they have been on a journey for a long time we don't have any present to give to this person so therefore we can't go to him so the farm boy responds to shawl and he says i have in my possession a rev shekel a fourth of a shekel of silver the common currency at the time was called a shekel it was a certain coin with a certain weight of silver anywhere between eight or eleven grams of silver and i have a fourth of a shekel silver in the fourth of a shekel probably a much smaller coin which in currency was a fourth of a shekel and i will give it to this man of god so that he tells us where the donkeys may have gone so we could find them the pasta continues prosecute by omar show the narrative okay if you got the money if you got the money as we say this is good he acquiesces and they walk they travel to the city where the man of elikim the man of hashem is living that's where they go hema limb as they arrive to the city and they're going up the steps milos are like the steps or the ramp going up to the city it's on a slope so they have to go upwards of maya they meet several young women who are coming out of the city to draw water obviously there was some well it of course brings up the association that reminds us of the story of rifka eliza meeting rifko also comes out of the city of kharan to the well the public well where they drew water from these young girls come out leash if mayam they're drawing water whether they had a well or another source of water and they find them ruler so naturally these two strangers show and the farm boy turn to these young girls and they say is there a prophet here roya is a seer you know like somebody who sees arroyo it's very interesting term for a navi somebody who sees somebody of course he doesn't they don't only mean somebody who physically sees but somebody who sees somebody who really sees sees beyond the veneer beyond the facade beyond the present did we come to the right place is there a seer s-e-e-r a prophet here now before i go to the next possible what would you expect the girls to answer okay it reminds me there was once a guy in el al and he was in first class and he was very excited that he had a first class ticket and he was going to israel comfortably you know it's a long trip and it's nice to have a comfortable seat and he's sitting there and finally a flight attendant comes to him and says would you like to have dinner and he's absolutely i'm starving and he's a first-class passenger returns to her and he says how many choices are there she says two he said what are they she says yes or no you know ella right so they asked the girl they showell asks joel and his friend asked the girls is there a seer you would expect either yes or no you came to the right place or you didn't come to the right place but take a look at their response and you have to realize that when the tanach inserts this response it's because it wants us to know every detail prosecute base and the girls responded to yes there is there is a prophet here in fact he is before you he is in front of you rush hurry now as you would say this is your lucky day he actually came home today they were well informed today he came to the city so rush why do you have to rush the people are actually making a sacrifice today on obama obama is like a high place an elevated place a platform remember this is before there was a base amigners many many years before so there was a mishkan there was a sanctuary but there was a point that they could still do certain offerings in obama and a platform in your own city and today there's going to be a sacrifice there and the girls continue when you come to the city because they were going up into the city and the girls came out to get water but you will find him before he goes up to the platform to the bummer to eat because you have to understand that the people are not going to eat until he comes you know why kihuyu because he's going to be the one to make a blessing on the carbon you see the relevance to what the they came to ask where small hanover is and these girls are really giving him a presentation you know why he's going to be blessing the sacrifice and only afterwards will the invited guests eat therefore now aloo go up for at this time today you will find them this is what the girls tell showel and the farm boy udalid they go up hair into the city as they enter into the city and who comes out to go up to the platform on the way to bless the offering and now like in parentheses the tanakh says let me tell you the background vashem gilas of the boys one day earlier one day before seoul came hashem has whispered into the ear of shmuel meaning he has revealed information to shmuel and he said tomorrow you should anoint him as the leader on my people let him save my nation from the philistines because i have seen their distress and their cry for this type of leadership has reached me coming into the city remember allah is on the way to go to the bummer where everybody is having this meal with the carbon fashem says here is the man i spoke to you yesterday about yatsurbami he is the one who's going to rule the nation the tanakh continues how small invites shaol and the other boy to come to the feast and when they speak about the donkeys they want to speak about the donkey small right away says even before they talk about it don't be distressed about the donkeys of your father because they have been found already and besides the fact you don't have to be worried about donkeys when you're going you and your family are going to be elevated to such stature and prominence and soul says i think you got the wrong family we're very simple people the next morning the morning after the feast the tanakh continues how schmuel takes a vial a jug of oil he pours it on shoal's head this is the beginning of chapter 10. he kisses him and he says hashem has anointed you to be the melech the ruler over his knuckle over his inheritance over the jewish people and sholamella becomes the first king of the jewish people nominated and anointed by small hanavi by the direct instruction of hashem that he is the right person so moshe's words when you want a king you should appoint a king one of your brothers the one hashem chooses is the first time in history fulfilled in the presence and the personality of which show the king but what i want to focus on today is the whole prelude to the story the story with the donkeys it's a charming story but if you think about it it seems a little strange first of all why was there a need to create this whole situation where shoal's father's donkeys get lost and now his son has to look for them for three days and then more days and then while he's searching he meets the prophet shmall the story could have been a lot simpler hashem tells a point show la navi as a king in fact that's what happens with the second king with the second king david what happens it's not like david's father's of his father loses donkeys and davids go searching for them and he bumps into small navi and smaller navy says oh by the way you're looking for donkeys but in the meantime i'm going to make you a king what happens is later on this is in in the chapter 16 small olympic to zion a few chapters from now basically hashem tell shmuel fill your horn with oil fill your have horns with or fill your horn with oil and i'm sending you to baselechem because there is among yishai sons a king and you're going to nominate that king and that's what shmuel does hashem gives him an address and he sends them to that address and small navi coronates david as the second king of the jewish people says go to base left him to the house of yishai and you'll appoint one of his sons as as a king here it's very different here it's a whole story with donkeys keisha loses donkeys and paul has to go with this farm boy and then meat small anovi almost by mistake and then it goes to meet smaller navi and then he says forget the donkeys we have more important business thank you for coming you're the king of the jewish people now even if it had to happen this way this is how hashem wanted it to happen so what happened this way that's how we met smaller navi different people's experiences as we know every person's life stories a different life story but it's interesting how the tanakh gives us so many details about the story that at first glance would seem not really relevant to the theme of the story the main story is that shovel was appointed as the new king of the jewish people the details of the donkeys even if it happened that way and all the nuances of the story that the tanakh incorporates really seems superfluous for example do we have to know exactly where they went to search for the donkeys how long the search went on for the conversation between shoal and the farm boy i don't have bread i don't have money i can't give him a gift and the farm boy says no i do have a gift and then the whole conversation with the girls like why is that relevant it happened that way he asked them is there a prophet and they gave him this longed russia and this long lecture about why schmuel is here and when he came and what he's going to be doing and go rush and you're going to find them and find them before not after and where you're going to find them and how you're going to find them is it relevant to the story even if it happened that way you know when we tell a story you say a person arrived to this in this town and this is what happened now it happens to be maybe he stopped at a gas station before ways and google maps to get directions you remember the good old days when you told your husband to stop at a gas station but he was smarter because he knew the directions you remember right he's still smarter than waze but then he was certainly smarter than the people in the gas station and you ended up in miami instead of in borough park or on the way to miami is it really basically he asked these girls for directions they gave him a shmuis okay the tanakh wants us to know this why is it relevant you don't even have to mention it they came and he met small how imaginable he asked somebody for directions he didn't have somebody for their actions no apparently it's in a very important part of the story it could have even just said one possible kish lost his donkeys shaw went to look for them he went to ask shmuel and shmuel made him a kink i want to now tune into one element zoom into one element and that's how those those young women responded to shawl and the farm boy talk about redundancy when anybody teaches communication in writing even in speaking but certainly they tell you you don't repeat things right even if in speaking we do repeat things okay in writing and speaking it's also superfluous words should be defined and articulate say what you want to say they once said if you're getting up to speak tell them what you're going to tell them then tell it to them then tell them what you told them and sit down but in writing this law is much more important when you read an article and some of you are are insidious readers i know you read a book or you read an article you know immediately if this person has mastered the art of writing or not one of the weakest points that you can see in a writer is redundancy repetition how string is oct you said it already i got it and the fact that you're using another adjective doesn't necessarily allow you to say it again if it's unnecessary it's excessive superfluous i just did that it was superfluous to use the word superfluous okay i stand corrected certainly if you're using the same adjectives at least change around the words now i want to study for a few moments this response of these young women to show show and the farm boy asked a simple question is there a prophet here hayes that's a question of three words is there a seer look at their answer okay go back to prosecute base and let's study their answer they answered yesh there is done point the finger and show me where that's it hine behold life he's in front of you okay thank you maher ata guys gotta rush now here goes against russia completely irrelevant here he came to town today and if he came yesterday and if he came a month ago and if he never left they didn't ask these girls to give them a diary in a journal about the news in the shtetl who came and who went and who's supposed to come on one now they give him a whole new russia let me tell you why he came home first of all i didn't ask you if he came home i'm just looking for him i'm just looking for him people coming all the time right they look for people yeah they say voucher and where can i find this so you say he's there takes a second you move on yeah these girls were busy they had to bring water back to the house you said by the way he's here but let me tell you he had a flight yesterday the flight was delayed so therefore he's still here and let me tell you why he was going okay it's completely irrelevant but they tell the whole story and what's the story there's a big sacrifice today on the bum on the platform a big sacrifice so you had to come home he came home okay so now we know why he's home now they continue but voyage my ear when you come to the city can't im so nice you're gonna find him but make sure but catch him before the meal um by the way nobody eats before small comes can anybody explain how that's relevant to the question we ask to schmuel around nobody eats before he comes and let me tell you why nobody eats he has to make the bracha he has to make the brother and by the way it's one of the sources that the gemara brings from the tanakh that you make a bracha before you eat before you eat this ever he's going to make abraha and now after this whole presentation they say va'ata now today you're gonna find him whenever you see such a long winding conversation recorded in tanakh the student's ears have to be triggered and asked what is going on here how do i know it's a good question because the gemara asks this question the gemara asks why did they bother to get into all these details why couldn't they just give them directions and even if they did some people have these you know some people are very what's the word wordy forthcoming social creatures you meet them right you meet them and you never saw them before and two hours later they're still telling you everything about their life etc fine but the tanakh incorporates it in other words we all have to know about it so if you look in your next source the track they dedicated to blessings is the first tractate of mishnais and in page 48 memphis speaks about making brock's blessings and brings this story that small is going to make a blessing on the food and the gomorrah asks a question they call kach lama why did they give him such a long speech why why and the tanakh wants us to know about it and the gemara gives three fascinating answers completely different answers answer number one by nature women are verbal communicators shmuel's question consisted of three words the answer consisted of around 30 or 40 words they like to share they like to discuss they like to explore they like to express they like to verbalize they don't run into caves they don't grunt they don't say i don't want to talk about it they say i want to talk about it i'm not sure that brownie is saying they like to share verbally so basically what is the gemara saying yeah for the men reading the story it sounds redundant it sounds superfluous you said it already you said it already you already told me you had a hard day right what happened that's the point but for the women for the women that might say it's a way of almost clarifying clarifying articulation as a way of clarifying the idea and and this has to be explained because psychologically this is a very profound observation it's so profound observation that it's often necessary for couples to understand this in marriages and it can be very helpful it's it's not a generalization in every case and there are always exceptions no question but it's a very common feature if it doesn't apply to every individual fine it's not the sakos of it's not a halal for every single person but it's a very common feature for many men speech is a phase which comes after he finished developing the thought in his mind and in his heart people often don't understand that speech comes after that i already made my decision i already know what my decision is i already know what my position is or i think i know what it is of course my wife will convince me that i'm wrong but at least i think i know what my position is and then i speak about it so if i said it once i don't have to repeat it and if you said it once you really don't have to repeat it for women speech is part of the thought process speech is part of the thought process it's part of the experiencing processes i don't just say to tell you what i decided the talking is part of the tactless it's part of working through the experience emotionally and intellectually and there's a reason for this kabbalistically because women are rooted in the sphere known as malhos royalty which is femininity in zarya it says represents the art of verbal communication so the verbal communication is part of identity it's not like i have a speech prepared and now i'm just saying it why are you saying it twice you said what you want to say the speech is part of the identity the speech is part of working through the very experience in other words the verbalizing of the idea is part of clarifying it it's part of the experience so of course you repeat it again and then again and then again just like if i'm rethinking some noise why are you thinking about it again because i have to think about it again afterwards it's through why are you feeling it again because i'm feeling it what should i do speaking is an extension of that so this inside by the gemara is not a small insight it's a very very important insight because it can explain to many husbands what's going on a lot of them often are perturbed they don't understand it it helps them understand why their wives don't particularly appreciate when they say you said that already you said that already in fact you told it to me yesterday in fact you said it last year i got it that's the first answer in gemara you have to understand this distinction so yes you're reading it the man is reading navi he says it's redundant the gemara says from their perspective there was no redundancy here they were working through the process number one now come to the second explanation um this is quite an explanation that hanak told us that show was absolutely beautiful head and shoulders above the rest of the people his features were dazzling the tanakh says you know what they wanted to keep show there as long as possible they enjoy talking to him they wanted to gaze at his beauty so they made sure that the conversation should not be to the point the conversation should not be short we all understand this sometimes i'm engaging in a conversation the conversation is not objective the objective is i don't want the person to leave that's what shmuel explains in the gemara this is this is one leader cannot touch the tenure of the other leader even by a strand of here which means every leader has his or her time ordained by heaven no kingship can touch another kingship before its time is up what's the connection was the leader of the jewish people up to this point now he was transmitting he was passing the baton to a new person but the time has not yet come for shawl to assume leadership shmuel's tenure shmuel's um time of leadership has not ended shmuel was destined to be the leader for another few minutes shall was not yet ready heavenly heaven decided it's not yet the time for shul to be the leader so what happens so the girls keep up they hold up show in conversation not for a long time maybe for a few seconds maybe for a few minutes because the length of this conversation was the time necessary to delay the monarchy to be given to shoal in the perfect time you'll say come on it's a difference of a few minutes does that feel like nima these things the details are very important now i feel like melanie minima is a strand of hair that means you're talking about a very small amount of time in malchus now it's not whether the question that the girls know this consciously or not know it consciously but somehow they felt this why they felt it you can explain it in many ways or god made it that way but the point is this long conversation was extremely precise and the tanakh wants us to know it so every detail recorded is essential to understanding of the narrative even this long winding response of the young women to shoal and the farm boy so we have three explanations one is it defines the tanakh is teaching you something about the chemistry of different genders you have to respect that you have to appreciate it trolls question is three words their response is much longer number two they were dazzled by show and they wanted to continue talking to number three they needed to do this because the malchus of shmuel was not over yet and the molecules of shoal can't begin if the gemara is so perturbed about these two verses about the girls what they said the question now becomes even stronger do i have to have a whole chapter about donkeys how is that relevant to the story even if it happened i have to know everything about the donkeys how is that relevant to the story of shaw being appointed to the king and here we see the precision the beauty and the holistic quality of torah and of yiddishkeit you cannot appreciate the story of shaolin the donkeys if you first don't learn empire should shift them what a king is everything entire is interconnected interlaced integrated in the edition it's called it says it's a scala it's all connected if you study partisan strength about the qualities of jewish leadership you could then appreciate every detail of the story about the first jewish king we started the class by reading a section from scheiften before he went to the navi hashem says they want a king they can have a king but there's legislation and if we remember essentially there were five demands made of every future king and by the way i should just say not just king but also queen because there were times in jewish history that the rulership was given to a female we even have him by the shaini there was the famous schlemter who was actually considered very righteous that's from the family of the kashmir so this legislation refers to any king the bottom line is that there are five demands one of the five demands if you go back again to the first source i'll just remind you the first thing he says is you have to appoint the king from among your brothers he can't be a foreigner somebody who's not your brother what does this mean even a guy somebody who came from outside and converted to the jewish people and we know that in many ways a convert is considered far holier and the tortoise 36 times tells us again be very respectful to the gay the rambam says all jews trades their lineage and the gay traces his or her lineage directly to hashem nonetheless malchus is something different the leader has to be what you call a homegrown tomato i don't know if i can express myself that way or a homegrown potato if you want by the way the united states adopted a similar law you probably know and remember the tension that was triggered between barack obama and donald trump the question was where was the president of the united states born just like the president has to be a certain age president has to be married why we don't respect young people we don't respect people who are not married there's a certain experience that you have after a certain aspect as you have when you're married somebody who grew up in a certain country a jew who grew up among jews you you just there's a certain if you're gonna be a leader you have to feel the people you have to understand the people it's not your good it's not that you're not good if you're a stranger you're a foreigner you shouldn't take it that way it's just a leader of that magnitude needs to come from among the people you have to know their pain you have to know their sensitivities you have to be empathetic that's why they haven't asked the famous question why may should abandon the first leader of the jewish people did not grow up among jews it's a very astonishing thing amelia has to be from your brothers now my show was obviously a full too but he grew up among non-jews and there have been ezra it's one of the secrets of creation and then he gives two reasons we once gave a class one reason is he said would have grown up among jews they wouldn't respect him everybody would tell him that they used to babysit for him and they remember him in their pampers and i was i was your first grade teacher and you used to cry when did you become a navi suddenly i remember when you were a little kid and you made trouble in shul you loved candies you still like candies hey navi biro you can't be a prophet in your own city moisture came from outside the second thing that heaven ezra says which is pretty haunting is if moshe would have grown up among jews he would have had a slave mentality he could have never staged a revolution because he would have grown up among uh slaves who were downtrodden and dejected and crushed not not not their fault but he wouldn't be able to have an expansive mindset to overthrow paris but that's a kiddish usually the king has to be from among your brothers that's rule number one rule number two the king may not acquire many horses from himself for himself so you shouldn't bring them back to egypt that's rule number two rule number three lawyer believe notion he can't take many wives for himself even in this time when polygamy was not forbidden more women than men and a woman voluntarily you can't force somebody into marriage but he can't take too many number four casa visa of lawyer believed he should not acquire excessive silver and gold and what was number five his heart shall not grow haughty arrogant over his brothers what's the common thread of all these five legislations all these five laws number one from among your brothers number two not many horses number three not much gold and silver not many wives and number five don't become arrogant don't become above either don't start feeling superior to your brothers and exploit them and manipulate them and don't go away from and the common denominator is as we said power is dangerous the first one to recognize this was the power is dangerous sometimes it's necessary a king has power a leader has power but you have to know that if power doesn't have limits it can be extremely dangerous so if a person's power increases their moral sense may diminish it's a fact of life why as i if my power increases my moral sense may actually decrease and almost in a way with power increasing and we've seen this in history over and over again so a jewish king who's given all this power has to remember that he is ultimately a servant he's a servant of the people and he's a servant of the rebel initial islam and therefore his power is limited and he is not above the law there's a book by paul johnson called the history of the jews paul johnson is not jewish he's what you would call a philosom he likes jews he's a christian he's a brilliant historian he wrote a book called the history of the jews paul johnson so i once read it i read the introduction and he said i asked myself what are some of the key contributions of the jewish people to humanity and he says some very interesting points and you hear it from an outsider's perspective so it's not like coming from you know from any bias point of view he's discussing it from a non-jewish perspective he has no skin in the game he's not a jew he's not talking about himself or his family or zayd or his bubba and he says that one of the contributions of judaism to civilization was introducing the idea that nobody is above the law he says that idea was completely foreign in the ancient world there was always a king who was a demigod and elena he himself is a little god of course i'm above the law the law doesn't apply to me the regular laws of justice tzedek you share doesn't apply to me he says in judaism that was gone is not above the law he's the greatest prophet the greatest of the great of the great and truly virtuous people but nobody is above the law nobody can say i decided i want to do it nobody tells me what to do i don't like you and he he he he he is in awe of that idea we take it for granted of course nobody mushroom is allowed to break the sulcanar because he feels like it there's no such a thing but you're going to tell me what to do the moment the greatest navi in the world violates god says to break them it's completely forbidden unless it's a hiroshi like he said if it's a temporary directive and even then can't be avoided there's a whole story of david and bashevi we spoke about it on schwarz nassen hanavi comes into david right and tells him the famous story with the sheep and the poor person and david says the one who stole the sheep should die and no you're the man think about in the ancient world somebody coming into a king and saying that you came out with a head shorter think about going into a person like stalin and telling him such things you didn't survive within the hour you were dead but in judaism it didn't work that way the speed this prophet could speak to the king you could speak truth to power so that's a very very powerful very powerful idea so there's a common denominator of all of these of all of these all of these features of all these laws that's why he can't acquire so many horses what's the idea of horses remember horses in the ancient world represented strength and represented power horses were the main one of the main animals mammals used in war in combat in ancient times not only in ancient times even in modern times and horses represented strength and ferociousness and also beauty and power and there was a connection between the the rider and the horse so since the king is not above the law he can just own scores and scores of horses to display his strength and power he can't just take all the women he has a liking to now contrast that with achashvarish you go to the megillah you read akashvirish and you see what happened with akhashverish you see the contrast very she wanted to kill vashti kills now every woman from the empire has to come see achar spanish that's why esther was taking the king can't own too much money he has to remain humble why because your power is not absolute your power was a gift it was given from hashem to serve hashem and to serve the people and the moment you lose sight of that you're not entitled to be a king there's a fascinating so every jubash when astra bows and by hashem you lift up your head and we do it in the beginning is different if you're darvaning with a king in shul kivan shakara the moment he kneels and bows down in the beginning he doesn't lift up his head till the end of schminacer it wasn't easy for a kingdom we go like this and then you stand straight the king was down the whole time if you wanted to throw lemons on him it was a perfect time he was down the whole time why i don't understand i'm a regular person we're all standing straight and governing and he's completely down the answer is exactly because he's a king he's going to be down all schminastra because he's a king it's not when you have power you have you you need to have humility it's much deeper than that his power comes because of the humility if you're truly humble you're entitled to have power because it's not your own that's the vision of leadership from a jewish perspective and then you can have absolute power because it's not yours then i'm not afraid salah these laws for a king in the ancient world were revolutionary even in today's world they're sometimes revolutionary because you really have to internalize this oh so now look at this in its own inimitable way as the tanakh starts to paint the profile of the first person who hashem chose to be the first king of claudius all of the jewish people shall hammer it tells us a story but it's not just a story if you focus on the story you will see how all of these qualities that are described in humish are now described in this person so every detail of the story is not just a detail of a interesting story about donkeys it's actually sketching the profile of soul through a story and this you have to understand about the tanath most other religions or philosophers or nations that have philosophical books it's books that are written in the form of philosophy the torah is written in the form of stories but the stories each story is really painting a picture of an idea of a perspective you always have to see the stories that way there's no story that doesn't have behind it the represent story is a representation of profound ideas here too it's not a story about donkeys it's a story about leadership it's a philosophy of leadership it's mentorship about leadership it's telling you what leadership is how through a story and we know why when it's told through a story it's integrated it's internalized so first of all it tells us that charles came from the tribe of binyamin that's how it starts off small aleph says there was a man from yemen his name was kitsch and he goes through his whole lineage and he has a strong show that's the first thing so we have the first quality of the king he's a home grown personality he could have a real feel for the people there's no outsider that's number one number two we read the story and we see that sean was broke the man had no money he didn't even have a shekel he didn't even have a fourth of a shekel to give a gift to alicia ironically the lad who accompanies him who's not from the family he's a farm boy he helps out on the farm he helps out in the field he is the one who appreciates the value of money more than show in fact he has some of it to spear and give to jamua when they want to ask him where the donkeys are so we can now appreciate the significance of this detail in the story it's not just the detail shows that we can go to schmuel we don't have any money i don't have anything i had a little bread i finished with my breath so why don't you have a little extra money come on that's his mindset he doesn't appreciate the value he doesn't have it the farm boy has more money than him even though he's not from the family and he's the one who talks about the money so basically such a type of person is likely not to get intoxicated by the royal treasury and that's extremely important now it becomes clear why it was so important it seems a little strange let's say the girls were dazzled by shovels beauty i get it so what's the tanakh trying to tell us number one you have to understand people you have to understand people you know sometimes when we're not when we don't address the real nature of people so when people experience that they feel you know i always tell teachers and yeshivas in girls schools parents there comes a point you have to have real conversations with your children because they're going to learn about these things but you want them to learn about it from sacred sources because if not their entire mindset could be misconstrued so refinement doesn't mean i don't talk about any facts of life because when somebody faces those facts of life they're often lost i deal with this with the tragedies of this situation so we see this very clearly in gemara is telling us yeah they were awestruck by show but there's something much deeper that is being told here it's not just a very fascinating fact of life they just wanted to talk talk and talk and talk and not let this boy leave that's one point but there's something else if they were so hypnotized by shaw's beauty to the point that they would invent anything they could in this conversation talk about obama talk about carbonis talk about brock is talking about coming and going he missed the flight he's going on a flight he bought a ticket pre-corona after corona you need mass there's lines in the airport there's no lines in the airport go catch him fast he's coming nobody eats before him whatever you can just to continue this conversation going and therefore they wanted to stay longer with them let's see what show's response to these girls you don't think about that they spoke and spoke and spoke and what's his response to the girls the tanakh says they finished answering his question and what's the next scene yo dallad he just left vayala that's important that's why the gemara tells the story yes there's a story about the birds and the bees but it's a story about show's response seoul didn't utilize his exquisite splendor to exploit people who don't belong to him he did not do that he would not exploit these young women in any which way even in conversation without action this is very very important for a king a king who has so much access look at kashmirish and understand how important this is you see the contrast this man can be trusted as a king so when the titus says he's not just here to have whatever he wants because he's the boss sho can be trusted with that again this was unheard of in the ancient world and sometimes even in today's world there's something else as they're traveling and they can't find the donkeys he's communicating with the farm boy but he's actually consulting him he speaks to this farm boy and says let's go back not only that he follows the farm boy's advice the farm boy says we're not going back he said we got to go back and he follows his advice usually this is not the regular relationship between the family prince and the slave here we see the humility for those who understand the institution of slavery or know anything about it in america or anywhere else you understand what that means showel is not a user scholar is not arrogant scholar is a person he's a human being there's a farm boy not only does he take counsel he consults him but he listens to and then there's a detail and you have to give i always you'll forgive me if i say this maybe it's not so respectful but you have to give credit to the ghazal how they stole this nuance when show wants to return home what does he tell the farm boy he says let us go you know why because my father is going to stop worrying about the donkeys as he's going to start worrying about i would expect him to say he's going to start worrying about me you're not a son i'm his son you're a farm boy you're an employee doesn't say that one word he says take a look at the word it's possible you're a part of the family that's one word but it's a word it shows a mindset he's going to worry about us he worries about me but he also worries about you now this doesn't mean to say that his father didn't have a different relationship with seoul than he had with him but it means you have value you have dignity you're not just a shemata in the family you do what we want the dog he's going to care about me and he's going to care about you together so this means that show has the qualities of a leader you're going to be able to trust the humility the sensitivity the dignity the empathy the morality the righteousness the virtue and take a look how the khazal put us in the next source the last source the servant became equivalent in the same scale like him the dog lano finally the entire story is about donkeys that are lost if you read through the tanakh and this is reality of course even if you don't read the most powerful animal that was used by people domesticated animal is always the horse the horse was used by mighty empires and armies in battle it was used in wars and in combat the horses were used to display their glory you look at paulo you look at sisra you look at akashmerish para is always with his horses called susrek of bakker and the shira we speak a lot about the horses ramavayam akashmerch the horse on which the king would ride and that's what human wanted to go on it ended up by murder sister with his horses why because the horse was the symbol of glory and power in ancient warfare in fact the horse is mentioned 137 times in the tanakh 137 times in tanakh the a hundred times a hundred times it's mentioned in the context of enemies of the jews employing their horses to destroy the jewish people a hundred times around or approximately of 130 times mentioned it's in war we say it into hilum capital everybody knows this passage they fight with chariots and with horses because the horse was the f-16 of your that's why the titan says the king should not own so many horses of course the king can buy horses for his military that's important but personally he can't own so many horses why what do i care we don't say he can't own so many donkeys we don't say elaborate what about the donkey the donkey is associated with one person skyr the prophet describes mashiach is a poor man how do you know he's a poor man he's running on a donkey why does it mean you're poor and today you'd call it an altar you know you look at the cars [Laughter] he won't be able to lease a new car not a bmw or not even a toyota and not even a lincoln come on an alta taranta as your grandmother would say or an altar shemata only virus is a humble donkey meshech is not coming on a horse not even a camel a gummel avraham was wealthy he sent he sent eliezer with ten donkeys the donkey is the humble animal it's the animal that accompanied the life not of para and sister and but of our forefathers of the others and the emojis with a donkey when yakov sons go down to egypt they don't have food what do they take they take donkeys and paratroopers takes his wife and two children back to mitsrayam by our kiwi not a horse he takes them on donkeys when the trainer in paris ki says next week speaks about hashavasa veda returning a lost item to its owner it mentions a lost donkey a hammer that's lost in fact the donkey is the only non-coach that has a special mitzvah that when a monkey owned by a jew gives birth to its first male calf there's something called pidya and peter you redeem it with a sheep and you give the sheep to the cayenne and then you can keep the donkey souls searching for the donkeys that belongs to the family is an important part of the story this is a humble family it's a family that has a few donkeys that's what it has they're donkey riders there is simplicity in this family there's humility in the family and they don't have a surplus of donkeys a few donkeys got lost next these are their donkeys they're lost we have to go find them we don't have anything left so here that is describing the profile of true leadership i should just add the parentheses everything is everything has a counterpart shows humility will also be his undoing because in a way he becomes too humble and as a result of that he's affected by the opinions of the masses when it comes to mullick he says i was afraid of the people i was afraid of the nation because the balance is a very delicate balance on one hand the king has to have ultimate humility but ultimate humility needs to translate also an ultimate confidence not confidence from my ego but confidence as an ambassador of the people and as an ambassador of hashem and that's where humility can become sometimes very lethal if it's misconstrued if it's misused so even though humility is such a powerful quality humility can also become the undoing of a leader when he cannot be decisive and take a position that sometimes extremely unpopular but knowing that this is the right thing to do but there's one more point which brings it all together and that is shoal's father's donkeys are lost could have just said they had donkeys and they're lost and show searches for them with a farm boy he could have told his father tati i have better things to do we see seoul was a great man he was the first mother that hashem chose he became a navi afterwards his father senators estati send another farm boy let them go search for the donkeys he doesn't he goes himself with the farm boy to search for the donkeys this too is the quality of a jewish leader because there are donkeys who are lost in la havdal there are people who are lost hashabas aveda returning a lost item exists with items if somebody loses a watch or a pen or a telephone or a donkey but there's also a deep rush of a saved somebody loses themselves if somebody loses their soul if somebody loses their identity people are also lost the gomorrah a fool of says who loses what you give him so the maggot of misreach says mem hey it's the gematria of adam ala of dallas mem is 45 al of dal admin 44. i lose my adam the adam inside of me i lose my ma sometimes a person loses their own spark their own core their own confidence people who are lost physically or mentally or psychologically or emotionally or spiritually if showel is ready to go himself and search for a lost donkey and not delegate it to another farm boy and he's going to go himself with a farm boys of a completely different caliber so to speak than him and equate himself to him then we know he won't compromise and won't forfeit his responsibility to find any lost person any lost jew so even a jew a person struggling with their identity struggling with themselves even if they may be completely lost to their family or to their people of their community seoul himself without sending people is ready to go on a search for them and the key is a donkey the gemara says something very very interesting about a donkey [Applause] a donkey is cold in july and august a donkey everybody there comes a point even if you're cold the whole year right july and august hopefully you're not cold ms nobody you're not cold certainly their condition is not working well it helps everybody is shivering everybody a donkey is called in thomas everybody is switzing give me the ac get me into the water and the donkey is cold it's freezing what does this mean spiritually the morale says the word hammer is the same letters like the word chemer materialism if i'm in such a materialistic state that i'm always cold the sun is shining there's so much light there's so much warmth shemesh um says in tehil and pedal hashem is defined as the sun but i'm cold i'm cold i'm detached i'm apathetic i'm indifferent and i can get lost to my coldness i can get lost to passion to warmth to vitality to relationships soul will not give up even on the lost donkey and here we see again how everything is connected how did hashem test moshe rabbenu for his leadership what did he tell you most was a shepherd so what does the madrid say he had all the flock of history and one goat escaped and what did moshe do he went searching for the goat so the first jewish leader and the first jewish king are introduced by searching for an animal that's lost and not an expensive animal a sheep and a goat is not the horse of a kazakh it's a sheep and a goat a donkey is uneven both of them went to search hashem said if this is how they treat animals i could trust them with my people my should put them on the shoulders put the goat on the shoulders and said i didn't realize you were thirsty let me bring you to the water at last we see one more very powerful message in the story and that is as follows in life we are sometimes summoned to a task that seems so menial so below my dignity like searching for lost donkeys do i have the time do i have the mental space is this my schlithas is this why man hashama came down to the world to search for a lost donkey i may tell myself leper i have nothing better to do with my life than search for forlorn female donkeys they're lost i'm sorry i feel bad but i was destined for better and greater spiritually as well a person says i have nothing better to do with my time than to reach out to this lost person and i have to go search one day and another day and the third day and the fourth day and go through this region and can't find in kensbury and kanva that's it enough my father's also gonna start worrying i wanna go back home i wanna go back to my natural enclave i really have to squander so much time and resources and money and mental energy to search for that lost soul who's lost let them not get lost it becomes my responsibility i shall be veda and i have to go down winding roads whether physically or emotionally or psychologically to search for a lost soul for a loss yiddish especially somebody who was as cold as a donkey even with kufistamas and has reached the level of hammer of humerus which is which is bruteness brutness and and dense physicality dedicate time and energy and resources to help this lost desperate soul i'm sorry it's a nice thing to do but it's not for me ask somebody else but wait as showel goes searching for these donkeys what happens in the process he becomes the king of the jewish people sometimes it's what i'm ready to embrace those tasks that seem so say it's beneath me it's below my dignity it's me neil it's not who i am it's in that search it's in that process that he actually becomes the melody the first king of the jewish people who was forever remembered as the first king of the jewish people despite mistakes that followed ben shaw son of a mulcher the gemara says he wasn't one years old when he became a king but he was as pure as a one-year-old but how did that happen through the search for the donkeys sometimes through this labor where i think i'm falling apart and i'm being disintegrated and i'm so being disloyal to who i really am and it's so humbling for me like the donkey is so humble it's not just he rides on a donkey he emerges through the donkey through the hammer through the humerus through elevating and sublimating those who have fallen into the depths sometimes of a spiritual or emotional descending into that space of allah through the hammer he himself is elevated sometimes through this labor i discover my real power my real dignity even my aristocracy my kingship my mouth was my royalty it's these efforts that allow me often to reinvent myself and allow me to realize my ultimate potential and allow a person to meet their true soul their true mission is fulfilled paradoxically shall would have remained home on his comfortable couch doing things that suited his unique handsome identity physically and spiritually because his physical beauty was a match for his spiritual beauty they weren't two separate realities he would have never discovered who he really is he would have never discovered as malchus but it was in that search for the donkey that at some point he came face to face with himself he came face to face with discovering his true position as a true leader as true malchus have a wonderful week you know he writes from his perspective but generally it's a tour de force it's a tour de for about the glory of claudius you know certain things he dismisses us he doesn't know everything but uh but generally speaking i would say that it's uh he's very very positive but it's from another perspective there's also another book it's called the gifts of the jews this is by an irish author his name is kohel i think an irish author called the gifts of the jews another masterpiece he basically shows how all the most important words that define humanity today and have brought humanity to a different level of enlightenment came from the jewish people he's irish if you look up the gift hail the the gifts of the jews the gifts of the jews awesome but again these are from non-jewish perspectives so obviously there's a certain objectivity they have that is very refreshing you know she casts her light on the environment listen we all have to know our boundaries in other words when somebody is lost you know i can reach out to them but they have to be able to come into my arms you know if the donkey doesn't want to come back to me there's only a certain amount i can do so right so what i have to do is i have to remain open with an open heart with an open soul with an open mind so you need us so you need a support system so you need your own support system everyone involved in people who are lost needs their own support system because if not you could fall apart you need a support system no no you need time for yourself any time of your own you know your own spiritual and physical rejuvenation you must time when you feed your mind your body your soul you must have that it's very important whatever that takes whether it's exercise um walking journaling you know physical physical treatments that could be helpful there's of course davening learning meditation whatever it is your own but your own internal well own internal wellness is the prerequisite if show wouldn't have energy you wouldn't be able to search for the donkeys he has to search you have to have the energy and you have to also know what you could do and what you can't do sometimes the people who are lost are within our dollardamas we don't have to go we don't have to go 10 years we don't have to travel for three days it's right there it's in my dining room it's in my kitchen with the husband and wife yeah you see avraham avenue he bought a plot for him and his wife he wanted to be buried near sora right but it represents something that there's a connection that remains because the connection between a husband and a wife is not only in body it's also in soul it's like two halves of one soul so that connection remains so there's a new connection it's not a contradiction our souls could be connected to different people there's still a connection there's always a connection but the connection is manifested in a different way for cat i once saw a letter there was a widow and she didn't want to remarry because she felt that it's uh it's uh it's it's an injustice towards her first husband it means that she didn't love him and it's like betrayal and i saw a letter she was a woman i think her husband was killed in israel and i saw a letter from the laboratory rabbit to her and he wrote to her that the nashama of her husband and granadan is hoping that she remarries so he says if you want to be nice to your husband and loyal that's what he wants doesn't want you to be lonely for the rest of your life that's not what he wants because he loves you so if you want to actually be loyal to your husband he says try to find somebody because that's what he wants that's going to be an his nashamah will have more peace if you're at peace because we have the spiritual relationships are not like physical relationships they don't have one dimension we're together we're married the same house whatever a spiritual relationship happens on different frequencies so he cares for you and he's connected to you and he wants you to remarry and it's not a contradiction then you show the connection that you had with a husband that remains on a certain level it remains the salsa answers with people asking about he is amazing right like sometimes if a woman remarries second husband and then years later everybody comes back to life so now she has two husbands right so i'm not talking about a situation where you know she didn't want the first husband and it wasn't but you know it was didn't work out she went to the second husband so then fine they move on but what if it was her first husband and they were very connected so you know i don't know exactly how it's going to work out in other words because marriage you know you're married to one person but the point is that whatever connection is important could be even without a physical marriage ah so they go back to the one that they that everybody will be in agreement in other words everybody will be in agreement that this is the best thing it's not going to there's not going to be any disappointment the first husband of the first wife everybody's intimate whatever happens is going to be in a way that everybody is happy nobody's going to be disappointed hashem will orchestrate in a way that all the men and all the women will be perfectly happy and those relationships that are real are going to be maintained because spiritual relationships are never destroyed we can't destroy them thank you for coming this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at www.theyoshiva.net donate