At first glance, it might seem that we have little to learn from kings in the ancient world when thinking about leaders in today’s democratic world. Ancient monarchs typically inherited their thrones, wielded unchecked authority to legislate, and were accountable to no one. By contrast, modern leaders rise to power through elections, are meant to represent the will of the people, and are restrained both by judicial oversight and by the ballot box every few years.
Yet a closer reading of the Torah’s laws regarding kingship in Israel, as they appear in Parashat Shoftim that we read this week, suggests that they remain strikingly relevant.
The Torah introduces the idea of kingship with these words:
“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’” (Deuteronomy 17:14).
Unlike Maimonides, who argues that appointing a king is itself a mitzvah, the plain sense of the Torah implies otherwise: the initiative rests with the people. Should they desire a king, his role would mirror that of other rulers of the time—primarily adjudicating disputes and defending the nation.
But once the people request a king, the Torah immediately imposes limits:
“Be sure to set a king over yourself one of your own people; you must not set a foreigner over you, one who is not your kinsmen” (Deuteronomy 17:15).
This requirement ensures that the king is not an outsider but one of the people, who listens to them, is attentive to their needs, and works for their well-being rather than his own self-aggrandizement.
More striking still, the Torah devotes more attention to constraining royal power than to describing it. Unlike monarchs elsewhere, the Israelite king is forbidden from amassing excessive horses, wives, or wealth (Deuteronomy 17:16–17). He may not legislate at whim but must keep a personal copy of the Torah, reading from it throughout his life so that he will:
“…learn to revere the Lord his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching… Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left” (Deuteronomy 17:19–20).
In other words, the king who was sought after by the people must remain rooted among them, attentive to their needs, humble before God, committed to Torah values, and constantly mindful of the boundaries of his power.
If this was the Torah’s expectation of an Israelite king thousands of years ago, surely we should expect no less from the prime minister of Israel today.
Israel now faces an agonizing test in its war against Hamas. I do not presume to know the right course of action in the extraordinarily complex and divisive arena of Gaza.
However, if I were convinced that our prime minister’s current plan for Gaza City was guided by the above principles of leadership—service to the people, humility, accountability, Jewish values and an awareness of the limits of power—I might support it, even in the face of the opposition from the IDF Chief of Staff and the entire military leadership.
Sadly, I am not convinced.
Are you?
