I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership. And in this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shoftim, we are taught about a certain kind of leader the people have not yet experienced: a king. Should the people one day decide to appoint a king for themselves after they settle in the land of Israel, they are allowed to.
Teaching about the king, the Torah instructs:
רַק לֹא-יַרְבֶּה-לּוֹ סוּסִים וְלֹא-יָשִׁיב אֶת-הָעָם מִצְרַיְמָה לְמַעַן הַרְבּוֹת סוּס וַיהוָה אָמַר לָכֶם לֹא תֹסִפוּן לָשׁוּב בַּדֶּרֶךְ הַזֶּה עוֹד וְלֹא יַרְבֶּה-לּוֹ נָשִׁים וְלֹא יָסוּר לְבָבוֹ וְכֶסֶף וְזָהָב לֹא יַרְבֶּה-לּוֹ מְאֹד
He shall not keep many horses or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since God has told you, “You must not go back that way again.” And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).
The midrash (interpretation) in Sifrei Devarim teaches that the phrase “lo yarbeh lo”, meaning “he should not increase for himself,” repeated three times in these two verses, comes to show that the king may not personally benefit from amassing great wealth. He may not have many horses for himself. It is okay to have large quantities of horses for his army, but the horses are not for him to personally enjoy or show off with. Similarly, says the midrash, he should not amass for himself much silver and gold, but it is okay to use wealth to provision the army, as King David did. Great numbers of horses and wealth are only acceptable if they are to support the nation’s well-being.
The Torah is very clear that the king is not to live in excess, as we know kings often do. Why? For one, those things are distracting. He may not have many wives for himself because they may incline his heart in the wrong direction and lead him astray, the Torah says. The moral and the ethical character of a king is essential.
Secondly, money and power are not inherently bad, but they have the ability to corrupt those whose ethical backbone needs to be strongest of all as they lead nations, and, maybe most importantly, lead armies.
And third, the Torah seems clear that the king is not to be above the people. The king may lead the people, but there is something about the society the Torah wants us to build that means that the king should not have way more women, fancy vehicles, and money than others.
Next, the Torah gives one instruction of what a king must do:
וְהָיָה כְשִׁבְתּוֹ עַל כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ וְכָתַב לוֹ אֶת-מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת עַל-סֵפֶר מִלִּפְנֵי הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם וְהָיְתָה עִמּוֹ וְקָרָא בוֹ כָּל-יְמֵי חַיָּיו–לְמַעַן יִלְמַד לְיִרְאָה אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיו לִשְׁמֹר אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת-הַחֻקִּים הָאֵלֶּה לַעֲשֹׂתָם
When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by the levitical priests. Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere the Eternal his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching as well as these laws (Deuteronomy 17:18-19).
There is nothing here about what kind of power or responsibilities the king holds in society. Instead, the Torah paints a picture of a king who is studious, knowledgeable, in relationship with Torah and the laws within it, and in awe of God.
The Talmud teaches (Sandhedrin 21b) that the king was to have Torah with him really wherever he went—when he went out to war, when he went to judge cases, even when we went to eat. Rashi, a rabbi and commentator in medieval France, explains the phrase “mishneh haTorah” and understands the word “mishneh” as repetition, a copy. The king was supposed to have two copies of Torah, one that stayed safe at home and one that went with him wherever he went. It’s important to have a back-up copy, I imagine Rashi saying. What if he lost it one day or it got ruined somehow in all of his traveling?
And not only that, the king was supposed to read Torah ALL of the days of his life. The midrash teaches that ALL the days also includes the nights! This is a king who hopefully sleeps sometimes, but maybe who reads Torah before he goes to sleep, or when he can’t sleep at night, or perhaps who appreciates the mystical learning that comes only at night.
A king who walks through the world with a physical Torah, both has Torah easily accessible to consult, but also has a tangible, constant reminder that he is not the originator of the law. Like a kippah (head covering) or a mezuzah (parchment on doorposts of Jewish homes) that reminds us of God’s presence, the king’s Torah reminds him that God is the one who is really in charge. It reminds him that he himself is not a god, nor is he above the law. The Torah obligates everyone to the same guiding principles, whether one is a commoner or a king.
May we aspire to become such leaders and set upon ourselves such leaders. And regardless of whether we consider ourselves to be leaders in any way, may we all be in relationship with a Torah that reminds us of our obligations to each other and of God’s presence in our lives.
Shabbat shalom,
Rav Leah