From the battlefield to the halls of government, Parashat Ki Tetzei offers an ancient warning for Israel and America today, one that Locke and Montesquieu would articulate centuries later: power may be necessary, but without limits, it can corrupt the very people and societies it was meant to protect

Parashat Ki Tetzei begins with war:

When you go out to war against your enemies…” (Deuteronomy 21:10).

When you go out to war against your enemies…” (Deuteronomy 21:10).

Not if. When. The Torah knows that there are enemies who must be confronted and wars that must be fought. Yet while most theories of war ask how to win, the Torah asks a different question: How do we exercise power without being corrupted by it?

This question extends far beyond the battlefield. Armies need power to defend a country, governments need power to govern, and judges need power to enforce the law. The Torah’s concern is not power itself, but power without limits. And that concern feels strikingly contemporary at a moment when both Israel and the United States are wrestling, in very different circumstances, with the same fundamental question: Who limits those who hold power?

The Torah’s answer begins with the biblical king. It permits monarchy, but seems almost anxious about what monarchy can do to the person who occupies the throne. The king may not accumulate unlimited horses, wives, silver or gold, and he must keep the Torah beside him and read it throughout his life. Why?

So that his heart may not be lifted above his brothers.” (Deuteronomy 17:20)

So that his heart may not be lifted above his brothers.” (Deuteronomy 17:20)

That may be one of the most radical political sentences in the Bible. Public authority does not elevate a leader........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)