In this week’s פרשה the תורה tells us about the command ה' gave to בני''י of choosing a king over the nation. In פסוק טו it says "שום תשים עליך מלך...", “place upon yourself a king…”. The next פסוק warns that the king should not take too many of the worldly things; horses, wives, silver, etc…
The Da’as Zikainim comes and explains that the reason that each one of these specific excesses is mentioned is because we want to be careful that the king will not even have the chance to become arrogant.
This Da’as Zikainim is difficult to understand. The Jewish people were OBLIGATED to treat the king with great honor. In order for a king to be effective in leading his nation, he needs to be respected and honored. It doesn’t matter what your status in the nation is, from peasant to the richest man, from simpleton to the biggest Talmud Chacham, EVERYONE needed to treat the king, well, like a king. They needed to bow down to the full extent when he was near; whenever they entered his chambers they needed to stand for the entire duration of their meeting. The king wasn’t even allowed to stand up for anyone in public. If someone disobeys they king’s wishes, even if he asks them to leave the room, the king could have them killed.
However, our king, the Jewish king is expected to be a humble person, and to remain humble. The Torah does not worry about him becoming arrogant because of all the situations I stated before. So, why is the Torah afraid that here, when it comes to wealth he will become arrogant. It seems to be saying that honor; the king is able to handle, but wealth? Forget it. Why?
One possible answer comes from the understanding of the human being. When someone is honored because of a position they hold above someone it is natural for them to feel different and above others. When someone feels that they are above the rest of the world they may begin to feel self-important, and may forget that everything they have is from ה'. However, all of that is something that man can fight by working on themselves. They can work on being humble and realizing that the only reason they have all that is honor is because ה'.
Wealth on the other hand is very different. Wealth brings a person to a much more dangerous sense of himself. It gives the person a sense of independence that he doesn’t need anyone else anymore. My wife, she didn’t do anything for me, I don’t need her. I don’t need my children; all they want is my money. I don’t even need ה', I have enough money to do whatever I want.
This seems to answer the question of the Da’as Zikainim. Because of the sense of independence is a natural outgrowth of wealth and power, the Torah warns a king of Israel not to amass to much of it. However great of a man he is, however he is able to keep his ego in check when it comes to honor, with wealth it is different. Even a man as great as the king of Israel is, wealth can destroy him.
This is a great lesson to all of us. Whether we are considered wealthy or not, we are blessed with living in the 21st century. We have wealth nowadays that cannot even compare with the wealthiest people in previous generations. We need to remember that everything we have comes from ה', and that ה' has a reason for giving us what we have. WE COULD NOT DO IT WITHOUT HIM. We need to be humble and remember where we come from.
Have an Amazing Shabbos
Yoni Spigelman
Adapted From: The Shmuz on The Parsha- Rav Ben Tzion Shafier
No comments:
Post a Comment