In Part 1, I focused on the actual wording of the leaders of the 12 tribes when they first came to the prophet and judge Samuel to ask him to find them a Divinely approved king (1 Samuel ch 8).
Their two reasons were:
1.
Firstly, to have an ultimate legal
adjudicator who would be incorruptible and fair – unlike Samuel’s two sons whom
they accused of corruption (1 Samuel 8:5).
Just think of King Solomon deciding
over the newborn two women each claimed as her owe (1 Kings 3: 16-28 ).
A king would have a police force and army
to enforce his decisions and his and Torah laws: thereby ending the anarchy and
evil lamented in the Book of Judges:
Judges 17: 6 (create own idols)
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ו בַּיָּמִים
הָהֵם, אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל: אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו,
יַעֲשֶׂה. |
6 In
those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in
his own eyes.
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Judges 18: 1 (robbery and idols)
Judges 19: 1
(city acting like Sodom)
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א וַיְהִי בַּיָּמִים
הָהֵם, וּמֶלֶךְ אֵין בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיְהִי אִישׁ
לֵוִי, גָּר בְּיַרְכְּתֵי הַר-אֶפְרַיִם, וַיִּקַּח-לוֹ אִשָּׁה פִילֶגֶשׁ,
מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה. |
1 And
it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of
the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem in
Judah. |
Judges 21:25 (civil war and kidnapping wives)
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כה בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם, אֵין מֶלֶךְ
בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל: אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו, יַעֲשֶׂה. |
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in
his own eyes. |
2.
Secondly, a king (with a standing
army) would be able to always and instantly respond to any enemy invasion or
threat. A problem the 12 tribes had
regularly faced for some 350 years.
King Saul and King David spent much
of their lengthy reigns doing just that.
Here, in Part 2, the focus is on Jewish tradition and Halacha
re: having a king at all.
The
Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 20b, section
11, cites Rabbi Yosei that having a king
was one of three (positive) commandments God the Eternal gave to the children
of Israel as part of their inheriting the Holy Land.
תניא רבי יוסי אומר שלש מצות נצטוו
ישראל בכניסתן לארץ להעמיד להם מלך ולהכרית זרעו של עמלק ולבנות להם בית הבחירה
ואיני יודע איזה מהן תחילה
It is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei says: Three mitzvot were
commanded to the Jewish people upon their entrance into Eretz
Yisrael: To establish a king for themselves,
and to cut off the seed of Amalek in war, and to build for themselves
the Chosen House in Jerusalem...[i]
Deut.
17: 14-15 is the basis of this view re: kings.
Maimonides,
in his Mishnah Torah, lists having a
king as a mandatory Positive Commandment -- #175,[ii]
and in his section on Kings and Wars
repeats Rabbi Yosei’s three commandments with having a king as priority number one.[iii]
However,
Sanhedrin 20b, section 9, also cites
the alternate view of Rabbi Nehorai.
רבי
נהוראי אומר לא נאמרה פרשה זו אלא כנגד תרעומתן שנאמר (דברים יז, יד) ואמרת אשימה
עלי מלך וגו'
The baraita continues: Rabbi Nehorai says: This biblical passage
about appointing a king was stated only in response to the Jewish
people’s complaint, as it is stated: “When you come unto the land that
the Lord your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and
shall say: I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around
me” (Deuteronomy 17:14).
The verse indicates that appointing a king is not a mitzva and
that when Samuel spoke to them, he intended to frighten them so that they might
regret their complaint and retract their request for a king.[iv]
Jewish
Halacha follows Rabbi Yosei and the Rambam, but Rabbi Nehorai’s view is not
without valid basis and has been supported by some rabbinic commentaries over
the generations.
In
light of the restoration of the State of Israel as a democracy with a
nationally elected government led by a party leader Prime Minister – i.e., no
king -- the view of Rabbi Nehorai is well worth examining.
Rabbi
Nehorai is correct in his reading of 1
Samuel ch 8 and ch. 12.
Twice
Samuel tries to dissuade the tribal leaders from having a king.
I
have listed his arguments in Part 1, and here just need to note that God the
Eternal also was ‘upset’ by this proposal.
1
Samuel 8:[v]
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ו וַיֵּרַע
הַדָּבָר, בְּעֵינֵי שְׁמוּאֵל, כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמְרוּ, תְּנָה-לָּנוּ מֶלֶךְ
לְשָׁפְטֵנוּ; וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל שְׁמוּאֵל, אֶל-יְהוָה. {פ} |
6 But
the thing displeased Samuel, when they said: 'Give us a king to judge us.' And Samuel prayed unto
the LORD. {P} |
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ז וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה, אֶל-שְׁמוּאֵל, שְׁמַע
בְּקוֹל הָעָם, לְכֹל אֲשֶׁר-יֹאמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ: כִּי לֹא אֹתְךָ מָאָסוּ,
כִּי-אֹתִי מָאֲסוּ מִמְּלֹךְ עֲלֵיהֶם. |
7 And
the LORD said unto Samuel: 'Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that
they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but
they have rejected Me, that I should not be king over them. |
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ח כְּכָל-הַמַּעֲשִׂים
אֲשֶׁר-עָשׂוּ, מִיּוֹם הַעֲלֹתִי אוֹתָם מִמִּצְרַיִם וְעַד-הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה,
וַיַּעַזְבֻנִי, וַיַּעַבְדוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים--כֵּן הֵמָּה עֹשִׂים,
גַּם-לָךְ. |
8 According
to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up
out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they have forsaken Me, and served
other gods, so do they also unto thee. |
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ט וְעַתָּה, שְׁמַע
בְּקוֹלָם: אַךְ, כִּי-הָעֵד תָּעִיד בָּהֶם, וְהִגַּדְתָּ לָהֶם,
מִשְׁפַּט הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר יִמְלֹךְ עֲלֵיהֶם. |
9 Now
therefore hearken unto their voice; howbeit thou shalt earnestly forewarn
them, and shalt declare unto them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them.' |
The
Deuteronomy text, although it goes into details of what an Israelite king is to
do and not to do (Deut. 17:16-20), when it raises the idea of an Israelite king in
the opening verses 14-15 it is NOT as a direct, emphatic commandment, but in a form
that says, “if X happens, then Y is allowed”.
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יד כִּי-תָבֹא אֶל-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ,
וִירִשְׁתָּהּ, וְיָשַׁבְתָּה בָּהּ; וְאָמַרְתָּ,
אָשִׂימָה עָלַי מֶלֶךְ, כְּכָל-הַגּוֹיִם, אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתָי. |
14 When thou art come unto the
land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt
dwell therein; and shalt say: 'I will set a king over
me, like all the nations that are round about me'; |
Also,
Rabbi Nehorai’s reading or understanding of the wording is supported by a
number of leading rabbinic commentators.
Ibn
Ezra (12th cen.) agrees that a king is optional.[vi]
Sforno
(16th cen.) in his length commentary to Deut. 17: 14 notes God was
opposed to any hereditary leadership or kingship, and only ‘allows’ it if the
people so demand. He even quotes the
prophet Hoseah 13:11 that God allowed this as a ‘punishment’ in His anger at
the proposal.
The prophet Hoseah 13,11
describes G’d granting the people’s wish as stemming from the fact that He was
angry at them. Summing up, we may view the permission to appoint a king as
being in the same category as the permission for a soldier to marry a
physically attractive prisoner of war. G’d, the master psychologist, knows that
sometimes in order to become wise enough to appreciate the Torah’s
prohibitions, an individual, or even a whole nation, must find this out by
having chosen in their own wisdom to ignore the Torah’s preferences. [vii]
Haamek
Davar (19th cen.) similarly argues the extended wording of Deut.
17:14 shows it is not compulsory but optional, and subject to a demand from the
entire people in unison.[viii]
Or
HaChaim (18th cen.) states in his very lengthy argument that it is
not a mandatory decree from God but conditional on meeting certain Divine goals
and criteria. [ix]
Rabbeinu
Bahya (14th cen.) in his detailed analysis states:
This commandment is an example of G’d
accommodating Himself to the wishes of the Jewish people. G’d knew that in the
foreseeable future the people would demand to be ruled by a king of flesh and
blood; although, basically, G’d prefers to be the direct king of the people of
Israel. Seeing that only He can traverse all their camps and benevolently supervise
the fate of every individual, there certainly is no objective need for a king
of flesh and blood whose reign, however well intentioned, cannot match that of
G’d Himself.
This feeling that the wish of the people to have a king of flesh and blood was
perceived by G’d as an insult directed at Him rather than at the prophet
Samuel, was made clear to the prophet in Samuel I 8,7. Although G’d did give
the people (through His prophet Samuel) King Shaul, this did not represent
G’d’s first choice. In the event that we do not realise this, read Hoseah 8,4:
“they have made kings, but not with My sanction; they have made officers but
not of My choice.” We have an even more outspoken verse on the subject in
Hoseah 13,11: “I give you kings in My anger, and take them away in My wrath.”
The word באפי, “in My anger,” refers to King Shaul the first king, whereas the
words ואקח בעברתי, “and I will take away in My wrath,” refer to Tzidkiyahu,
last King of Yehudah. He was taken into captivity by Nevuchadnezzar who was
granted permission to do that only because G’d was angry.
It would do well for us to study our history and to learn what happened to the
Jewish people during the centuries when their political system was headed by a
king of flesh and blood.
Devarim Rabbah 5,11 sums it up in these
words: the Jewish kings caused many of their people to fall in battle because
of their faulty policies. Shaul caused many casualties at Gilboah (Samuel I
31,1) David caused a plague (Samuel II 24,15). Achav, King of Israel, became the
cause of the three year famine (Kings I 17,1). Tzidkiyah’s policies became the
immediate cause for the destruction of the Temple.
In brief, then, Rabbi Nehorai’s
understanding of the Deut. 17:14-15 is correct based in the wording of
the verse 14, is corroborated by Hoseah
8:4 and 13:11, and acknowledged as valid (fully or in part) by major rabbinic
commentaries.
Most
importantly, it was the view of the prophet Samuel: who twice advised against
it, and, most importantly, it was upsetting to God the Eternal when the
Israelites asked for a human king and ruler.
While
Rabbeinu Bahya cited as historical evidence military
failures and defeats, and the loss of the First temple, he could have cited as
historical evidence against kingship the numerous times throughout our history
WHEN our kings have violated this ‘prime directive’ -- both passively and too
often actively. The most fundamental of all commandments.
At Mount Sinai God the Eternal spoke and etched
into the stone tables the following primary directive:
King
Saul, to his credit, never worshipped any pagan god(s) and even systematically
expelled all those who divine by ghosts and spirits (but for one) (1 Samuel
28:9). King David was similarly faithful and even brought the holy Ark to
Jerusalem and made all kinds of preparations of vessels and construction
material for the Temple (2 Samuel ch 6, 1
Chronicles ch 22). And Solomon in the 4th year as king began its construction
and consecrated it thereafter when completed after 7 years (1 Kings ch 6)
But Solomon strayed in his later years.
Not only did he have 1000 wives (contrary to Deut. 17: 17)
but he built pagan alters and shrines so these pagan wives could worship their
gods; and he also joined them in such ceremonies (1 kings 11: 3 -10, 33).
When Jeroboam ben Nevat was made king
of the 10 tribes on the splitting of the kingdom, he immediately built two
temples: at Dan and Beth-el, so the people need not go to Jerusalem and
Solomon’s temple.
He created a new class of temple
officials who were not of the ancestral Kohanim and Leviim and instituted many new,
parallel holy days (Jerusalem Talmud, Avoda Zarah 1:1,5)[x]
beginning with a new, Succot-like
festival at the very end of the harvest season, i.e., the 15th of
the 8th month (1 Kings 12: 26 -33). And, most notably, he placed in each temple an
idol of a Golden Calf!
1 Kings 12:28
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כח וַיִּוָּעַץ
הַמֶּלֶךְ--וַיַּעַשׂ, שְׁנֵי עֶגְלֵי זָהָב; וַיֹּאמֶר
אֲלֵהֶם, רַב-לָכֶם מֵעֲלוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַם--הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲשֶׁר
הֶעֱלוּךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם. |
28 Whereupon the king took
counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said
unto them: 'Ye have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' |
Yes, the Sin of the Golden Calf (Exod. 32) was
revived!
Only Torah scrolls were preserved and
used from the authentic ancestral tradition (while probably modified for the
above)[xi].
And so the 10 tribes continued in
this bastardized version of Judaism until their expulsion by Assyrian in 722
BCE.
In addition, King Ahab (early 9th
cen. BCE)[xii]
introduced the worship of Baal and Asherah (called Ishtar in Gilgamesh Book 1, dated c. 2700 BCE [xiii]):
the ancient Husband and Wife duo from ancient Mesopotamian (1 Kings 16: 32-33) and
allowed his pagan Phoenician princess bride, Jezebel, free reign.
She ordered the prophets of God the
Eternal to be killed (though the royal servant, Obadiah, was able to hide many
in caves (1 kings 18:13)) and actively promoted the pagan worship of Baal and Asherah
– leading to the epic confrontation with Elijah at Mount Carmel (1 Kings ch 18:
19-40).
On learning of Elijah’s success and
the death of her Baal priests, she was so enraged she ordered his death—forcing
Elijah to flee to Judah (1 Kings 19:1-3).
As
for the kings of Judah, those who reigned after Solomon, too regularly violated
the stone commandment of monotheism – even while residing in Jerusalem by the
Holy Temple.
The
chart below tracks those who were faithful to God the Eternal and those who
were unfaithfulness as recorded in 2
Chronicles.
There
were twenty-one (21) monarch of Judah from Solomon to the last king, Zedekiah, and the destruction of Solomon’s
Temple and Babylonian Exile in 586 BCE.
Of
these, eight (8) never followed God the Eternal and, instead, worshipped pagan
gods: leading the people astray.
This
included the murderous , Baal worshipping Queen Athaliah (2
Chronicles 23:17)
Ann
additional four (4): Solomon,
Rehoboam, Joash and Amaziah started loyal to
God the Eternal but later abandoned monotheism and also worshipped idols.
King Manasseh also was unfaithful at the
start, but returned to the one true God in the later years of his 55 year
reign.
So, in brief, the rulers of Judah ‘more honoured
the 1st stone tablet commandment in its breach than in its
observance’.[xiv]
Kingship delayed some 350 years
Rabbi Yosei and the Rambam stress the commandment to select a king and hereditary dynasty was to be the very first priority of the three commandments to be fulfilled after the conquest.
Yet, it was almost 350 years after Joshuas’s death and the end of the Conquest before the people asked Samuel for a king.
Why
the delay?
Why have just ‘judges’ for 3½ centuries?
I suggest the following answer.
Before Joshua’s death, when the Conquest was essentially complete and a lottery was used to divvy up the land to the various tribes and households (Joshua 14-21), the national army from all 12 tribes disbanded and every man headed home to wives and family and daily tasks of civilian life (see Joshua 22: 4, 6, 8-9).
And
the unity of the people as one nation dissolved.
Stilled
linked by the common ancestry of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their common history
in Egypt and its servitude, and the 40 years in the wilderness, after the Conquest ended, each tribe withdrew to focus on itself.
Only
their common religion: the belief in God the Eternal, the Torah and the tabernacle,
remained as a uniting element (Joshua ch 23).
But
too often this too was breached as pagan gods would be worship as regularly
recorded in the book of Judges.
God the
Eternal would punish the straying after other gods with invasion by adjoining
nations and tribes, and requiring a heroic ‘judge’ to arise and ‘save them’
once they returned to God and monotheism.
So,
rabbi Yosie and the Rambam were right in that to maintain a unified nation – to
prevent the splintering of the Children of Israel into 12 separate tribes and
entities – a human king was needed.
To
prevent the deterioration into 12 separate tribes once the unified
effort of the Conquest was completed.
This
is the unspoken ‘imperative’ not mentioned in Deut. 17: 14-15 nor 1 Samuel ch 8.
·
Kingship is the binding glue. It
turns people and clans and tribes into a unified nation.
In
the ancient and medieval worlds, only
the city-state of Athens and Rome ever expelled their kings and governed
themselves in one form or another of ’rule by the people’ -- called democracy.
All
other countries had kings. Kings believed to be ‘divinely chosen’ and with
‘absolute power’. The Divine Right of
Kings.
It is this latter world view that seems to be behind Rabbi Yosie and Rambam’s thinking.
Kingship
was for millennia the key to national survival: in times of war and to maintain
law and order.
No
more tribalism and no more “In those
days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own
eyes.” (Judges 17:6)
The
Bible in Deut. 17: 18-20 specifies a king ruling over of the children of Israel
must be a Torah scholar:
How
often this requirement of having a self-written Torah or daily Torah study was
ever kept is an open question.
Certainly
not by the kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel nor by at least half the
monarchs of Judah who also strayed from monotheism totally or in part.
Plato,
the great Greek philosopher, advocated for kingship, the kingship of a Philosopher
King: one who had mastered all philosophy and science: thereby becoming
the most knowledgeable and wise of men.[xv]
But finding such a ‘perfect leader’ or ensuring his descendants act accordingly has not worked out well. Historians cite only at best some 14 such great men in all of human, world-wide history.[xvi]
As
for the modern world’s preference for democracy, the Athenian system in which Plato
was born, Plato believed democracy was a recipe for disaster: of rule by fools
elected by the foolish masses.[xvii]
But there
is a famous quote from Churchill:
“Democracy is the worst form of
government – except for all the others.” [xviii]
Today, absolute monarchs are no longer deemed essential and definitely not desirable.
The ballot box has allowed the ‘will of the people’ and democracy to thrive.
So, for
all the longings for centuries for a return of the Davidic line of kings as voiced
twice in the key Shemoneh Esrai prayer
– three (3) times every weekday[xix] -- in line with Rabbi Yosei’s
view, it may be time to recognize the validity of Rabbi Nehorai’s view shared by Samuel the prophet and God the Eternal himself:
that only God the Eternal should be our king.
[vi] Deuteronomy
17:15 with Ibn Ezra (sefaria.org) in right sidebar
[x] I
Kings 12:32 with Jerusalem Talmud Avodah Zarah (sefaria.org) in the right
sidebar
[xi] We know this because when the Samaritans were
installed into Samaria by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, they asked for a priest and
the holy text used by the expelled Israelite tribes (2 Kings 17: 24-33) to, as per pagan custom,
also worship the god of that land properly. See also Samaritan Pentateuch - Wikipedia .
[xii] See Ahab -
Wikipedia as archaeologist disagree
on his exact regnal dates.
[xiii]
https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/103/gilgamesh.htm For dating see https://webpages.uidaho.edu/engl257/Ancient/epic_of_gilgamesh.htm#:~:text=An%20epic%20poem%20concerning%20or,2000%20BC%2C%20in%20Sumerian%20cuneiform
.
[xiv]
Well known adage, here pparaphrased
from Hamlet, Act 1, scene 4, line 18.
[xvii]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_democracy#:~:text=Plato%20rejected%20Athenian%20democracy%20on,voices%20heard%2C%20and%20that%20such
[xviii]
https://www.maine.gov/sos/kids/government/path/student/quotes#:~:text=Democracy%20is%20the%20worst%20form,tried%20from%20time%20to%20time.
[xix] אוֹתָהּ בְּקָרוֹב
בְּיָמֵֽינוּ בִּנְיַן עוֹלָם וְכִסֵּא דָוִד מְהֵרָה לְתוֹכָהּ תָּכִין: בָּרוּךְ
אַתָּה יְהֹוָה בּוֹנֵה יְרוּשָׁלָֽיִם:
And return in mercy to Jerusalem, Your city, and dwell
therein as You have spoken; and rebuild it soon, in our days, as an everlasting
structure, and may You speedily establish the throne of
David therein. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Builder of Jerusalem.
Weekday, Shacharit, Amidah, Kingdom of David
אֶת־צֶֽמַח דָּוִד עַבְדְּ֒ךָ מְהֵרָה תַצְמִֽיחַ וְקַרְנוֹ תָּרוּם
בִּישׁוּעָתֶֽךָ כִּי לִישׁוּעָתְ֒ךָ קִוִּֽינוּ כָּל הַיּוֹם: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה
יְהֹוָה מַצְמִֽיחַ קֶֽרֶן יְשׁוּעָה:
Speedily cause the sprout of
David, Your servant, to flourish and exalt his power with Your deliverance.
We hope all day for Your deliverance. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Who causes the
power of salvation to sprout.
