Shnayim Yomi - Shoftim - Sheni - #2

[Music] the second aliyah of parsha shelton deals uh primarily or really exclusively with the laws having to do with the appointment of a king the torah tells us that in a situation where the jewish people request a king the torah tells us that this is considered to be a midst of the appointment of a king now what's a little ambiguous and the subject of discussion which we are not going to go into right now was whether or not this is a an obligation or this is something which is permitted when prompted by the people or maybe some sort of combination of both we generally assume that this is uh an obligation in the sense it's one of the tayag midsoles and upon entry to the land of israel there are different types of jewish leaders we have of course navi cohen goddall and a king is one of them now there's some very very important aspects to the manner in which a king is elected first of all there is no election in the sense that there's no democratic process that's followed there is no um there are no elections the people don't choose the king god chooses the king and he's appointed through the instructions of a navi nevertheless the torah does give us some definition since who may be qualified and most importantly the torah spends most of this parish over here in this second aliyah talking about the limitations of a king it's clear that the king has tremendous power the king has authority and he has the right to go ahead and to execute justice in a way which i'll say sort of bypasses the normal judicial process but at the same time the torah really tries to keep his power in check by limiting the amount of material uh possessions that he may acquire by limiting the amount of um the number of wives that he can marry and the torah emphasizes repeatedly that this is being done so that he not uh get too into himself that he not imagine for a moment that his power that his authority is somehow independent of of god that's absolutely not so and the torah says that it is necessary as incumbent upon the king to remain focused at all times the fact that he is a servant of god and that and that ultimately he has to maintain a personal and sort of a professional awareness of all time le mans um and it is perhaps for this reason that the torah emphasizes that it is a mitzvah for the for the king to carry uh to have two cifrato in his possession one of them is something which is kept in his uh basa ozar where he would keep all other uh prized uh possessions and another one is going he's going to carry it with him at all times he's going to have it with him it's unbelievable that the king has to carry us a futura with him and this is on the surface again a way of of emphasizing how important it is that the king at all times remembers who really is the boss [Music] you