A Thought On Parshas Shoftim
A Thought On Parshas Shoftim
"...ki savo el ha'aretz v'y'rishtah v'yoshavtah..."
"...when you will enter the land and acquire and settle in it..." (17:14)
The Torah introduces the commandment to appoint a king upon settling the land of Israel. Chazal include this commandment within the three mitzvos which are incumbent upon us once we enter the land. The other two commandments are vanquishing the nation of Amalek, and establishing a central shrine or Bais HaMikdash. When we study the move to initiate a monarchy later on in the Book of Shmuel, it seems that we were reprimanded by the prophet for emulating the ways of the nations by wanting a king. Is it a mitzvah or is it a lapse in our sovereignty as G-d's people that we sought to imitate the other nations?
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel observes that the last verb cited in the above verse closes with what would be a superfluous "hae". It would have been fine to write v'yoshavta without that letter at the end (I have omitted the English "h" here and the word is still pronounced the same. In Hebrew too the pronunciation will not change with or without the hae and in fact, the word is generally written without a hae.)
Clearly, he reasons, the letter must hint at something, and he uses its numerical equivalent of five to see an allusion to the five generations which passed from the time of our entering Israel until we appointed a king. He then suggests that the admonishment for "trying to imitate the nations" was actually a reprimand for waiting five generations, rather than doing the mitzva of appointing a king sooner.
However, he ponders, the allegation should have been that we waited, and not that we sought to imitate the nations. How are the two faults related?
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel answers with a close analysis of the scriptural passages. When we look in the books of Yehoshua (13:3) and Shmuel (1 7:7), we see that in the early days,
our "Palestinian" foes (the Plishtim) did not have kings. Rather, their leader was referred to as a saran, similar to a sheik or emir. Only in the days of Shaul and Shmuel did those foes transform their sheiks into kings (see Shmuel 1 21:11). That was also five generations from the time we entered the Holy Land. If so, going back to our own parsha where the verse writes "and you will say 'let me appoint over me a king like all the nations around me' ", we could not have implemented the step of appointing an imitative king as long as there were in fact no "kings" to be found in those nations around us!
Until there was a melech among our enemies, we did not seek to appoint one over ourselves. We waited until the nations did so. That took five generations. This is hinted at, then, in our verse. A combination of reality, of fear and of seeking to imitate the nations was part of the saga. We waited and we imitated.
We are still waiting. Let's cease imitating, and in fact, as we labor and yearn to establish claim to our historical homeland once again, perhaps one day the world will catch on that it is our surrounding Plishtim who are trying to imitate us in that claim, just as they moved from sheikdoms and emirates to kingdoms with kings and presidents. Imitatio roi must become imitatio Dei once again. Good Shabbos. D Fox
"...ki savo el ha'aretz v'y'rishtah v'yoshavtah..."
"...when you will enter the land and acquire and settle in it..." (17:14)
The Torah introduces the commandment to appoint a king upon settling the land of Israel. Chazal include this commandment within the three mitzvos which are incumbent upon us once we enter the land. The other two commandments are vanquishing the nation of Amalek, and establishing a central shrine or Bais HaMikdash. When we study the move to initiate a monarchy later on in the Book of Shmuel, it seems that we were reprimanded by the prophet for emulating the ways of the nations by wanting a king. Is it a mitzvah or is it a lapse in our sovereignty as G-d's people that we sought to imitate the other nations?
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel observes that the last verb cited in the above verse closes with what would be a superfluous "hae". It would have been fine to write v'yoshavta without that letter at the end (I have omitted the English "h" here and the word is still pronounced the same. In Hebrew too the pronunciation will not change with or without the hae and in fact, the word is generally written without a hae.)
Clearly, he reasons, the letter must hint at something, and he uses its numerical equivalent of five to see an allusion to the five generations which passed from the time of our entering Israel until we appointed a king. He then suggests that the admonishment for "trying to imitate the nations" was actually a reprimand for waiting five generations, rather than doing the mitzva of appointing a king sooner.
However, he ponders, the allegation should have been that we waited, and not that we sought to imitate the nations. How are the two faults related?
Rabbeinu Chaim Paltiel answers with a close analysis of the scriptural passages. When we look in the books of Yehoshua (13:3) and Shmuel (1 7:7), we see that in the early days,
our "Palestinian" foes (the Plishtim) did not have kings. Rather, their leader was referred to as a saran, similar to a sheik or emir. Only in the days of Shaul and Shmuel did those foes transform their sheiks into kings (see Shmuel 1 21:11). That was also five generations from the time we entered the Holy Land. If so, going back to our own parsha where the verse writes "and you will say 'let me appoint over me a king like all the nations around me' ", we could not have implemented the step of appointing an imitative king as long as there were in fact no "kings" to be found in those nations around us!
Until there was a melech among our enemies, we did not seek to appoint one over ourselves. We waited until the nations did so. That took five generations. This is hinted at, then, in our verse. A combination of reality, of fear and of seeking to imitate the nations was part of the saga. We waited and we imitated.
We are still waiting. Let's cease imitating, and in fact, as we labor and yearn to establish claim to our historical homeland once again, perhaps one day the world will catch on that it is our surrounding Plishtim who are trying to imitate us in that claim, just as they moved from sheikdoms and emirates to kingdoms with kings and presidents. Imitatio roi must become imitatio Dei once again. Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 7:53 AM
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