B"H
Friday, Elul 3, 5784 / September 6, 2024
This Shabbat we read Parshat Shoftim. Of the many commandments in the Parsha is the commandment to appoint a Jewish king. The Torah states: “When you will come to the Land, which G-d your G-d is giving you… and you will say, ‘I will appoint upon myself a king, like all the nations around me.’ You shall appoint a king over you, one that G-d your G-d chooses. The king you appoint over yourself must be from among your brothers. You may not appoint a stranger over you, one who is not your brother.”
The Torah then has special commandments which apply to the king: “He many not acquire many horses, so that he will not bring the people back to Egypt, in order to get more horses, for G-d said, to you, ‘You shall never return on that road again.’ He shall not take too many wives, so his heart will not be led astray. He shall not acquire an abundance of silver and gold for himself.”
The Torah also commands that the king should have two Torah scrolls written. One should remain in his treasury, while the other one “shall be with him and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he shall learn to fear G-d all the days of his life... his heart shall not be arrogant over his brothers.”
In the Torah we have 613 mitzvot (commandments). Yet, for very few mitzvot did the Torah give us their reason. We observe the mitzvot not for their reasons, but because G-d told us so.
Q.Why didn’t G-d give us the reasons for the mitzvot? Wouldn’t that help us observe them better?
A.The Talmud explains that the opposite is true. Had G-d given us reasons for the mitzvot, we probably would have found selfish personal reasons why certain mitzvot do not apply to us.
This is what the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yitzchak says regarding this matter in Tractate Sanhedrin: “Why weren’t the reasons for the commandments revealed to us? It is because with the two commandments (to the Jewish king) where the reason was revealed, King Solomon, the wisest of all men, faltered.”
Rabbi Yitzchak explains, “The Torah states, ‘he shall not take too many wives, so his heart will not be led astray,’ King Solomon said, ‘I will have many and not turn aside,’ yet, it says about King Solomon, ‘In his old age his wives made his heart go astray!’”
A Rabbi was asked, “The Torah prohibits a king from having many wives; from acquiring too many horses and from amassing too much personal wealth. Why does the Torah give the reason only for the first two, but not for the prohibition to amass too much wealth?”
He replied, “The lust for money is one which everyone has and everyone knows the great dangers and pitfalls to which it can bring. Thus, the Torah does not have to elaborate on the reason!”
SHABBAT SHALOM & SHANA TOVA – A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR
Montreal candle lighting time: 7:04 / Shabbat ends: 8:05
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