September 5th: Shoftim
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
King Solomon, I am afraid to say, was a bit of a problem. Yes, he shored up the united monarchy after this father David’s death. He built the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem—a magnificent facility that was famous the world over. He wrote the Books of Proverb and Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. He was known as the wisest of men.
And, yet, his regime was not without foible or criticism. First, his building program included not only the holy Temple, but also a more ostentatious palace for himself—and he conscripted labor from the Israelites to build it. (Some speculate that the ancient story of slavery in Egypt—a story that has no historical proof—was concocted to object to the corvee labor that Solomon required of thousands and thousands of Israelites. The theory—and it is only a theory—suggests that the southern area of the Negev, around Timna, was a place of mining and hard labor, and, being “Egypt adjacent,” it is the basis of the story of Egyptian bondage.)
Second, the lavishness of Solomon’s lifestyle—paid for by taxes levied on everyone in the kingdom—led to criticism and dissatisfaction. His palace was extravagant. Taking care of his 300 wives and 700 concubines in style was expensive. And, he had a thing for horses: according to the Bible, he had 12,000 horses, and archeological evidence has revealed stables from his reign that could accommodate hundreds of horses at his palace in Megiddo. This all seemed to be a part of a very high international profile, but the expenses involved put a real burden on the people. While there was murmuring during his lifetime, it reached its apex after he died. One of his officials, Jeroboam, wrested the Northern Ten Tribes from Solomon’s heir Rehoboam and established an independent kingdom. Thus were there two “Jewish” kingdoms, Judah in the South and Israel in the North.
Third, and this is perhaps the most troublesome theologically, Solomon’s foreign policy involved pagan worship in Jerusalem. Dignitaries expected to be able to worship their gods when they came to the very cosmopolitan Jerusalem. And, many of those wives and concubines—married as part of political alliances—were allowed to set up temples for their gods and bring in both idols and their priests. Though Solomon’s power was great, this affront to Israelite monotheism did not go without notice, and zealots for the Israelite religion were outraged.
Solomon died around 927 BCE, and the book we are now reading, Deuteronomy, was apparently authored/edited three centuries later—around 620 BCE, during the reign of King Josiah. It was a time of religious revolution—or, as they saw it, religious purification, and many long-standing and problematic traditions were eliminated. Among these were the various foreign/pagan temples still present in Jerusalem. And, when these purgers of ungodly outrages explained their religious purifications in the book authored as though Moses himself had written it, they included a warning about “out of control” kings. Here is what we read this week in Par’shat Shoftim:
“If, after you have entered the land that the Lord your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you decide, ‘I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,’ you shall be free to set a king over yourself, one chosen by the Lord your God. Be sure to set as king over yourself one of your own people; you must not set a foreigner over you, one who is not your kinsman. Moreover, he shall not keep many horses, or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since the Lord has warned 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 17.14-17)
That is what a king should not do, but the Torah also includes what a king should do:
“When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching / Mishnah Torah written for him 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 Lord his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching/Torah as well as these laws. Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction / hamitzvah to the right or to the left, to the end that he and his descendants may reign long in the midst of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 17.18-20)
Given his other ample credits, I believe that it is unfair to say that Solomon was not a godly man. He was a great man, but, like all great humans, he was not perfect. And, in the course of wielding power, he seemed to “deviate to the right or to left.” How are nations to be led and greatness achieved? How is the “game of nations” to be played? And, how can this be done with morality and piety?
Earlier in the parsha we read about the serious work of appointing leaders:
“You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just. Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16.18-20)
Choosing the right leader is no easy task. There are lots of problems and lots of ideas about how to solve them. There are also lots of loud voices trying to persuade us. Amidst this cacophony, we need to remember the importance of honesty and principle. We also need to remember that the people are important and worthy of respect: both the people making the decisions in our democracy and the people who will be affected by the solutions and policies. Remember, “The people shall be governed with true justice…Justice, justice shall you pursue.”