Dear Rabbi.  Is Judaism pro- or anti-monarchy?  Yours, Debra.

You ask a good question which is not simple to answer!

This week’s parasha sets out the mitsva to appoint a king. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 20b) lists it as one of the three mitsvot (along with eradicating the seed of Amalek and building a Temple) incumbent upon Klal Yisrael on entering the Land. And Rambam lists it as Mitsva #173 of the 613 mitsvot of the Torah, while also expressing the ultimate hope in the arrival of the Messianic king, scion of David, at the end of days (Hilkhot Melakhim 11)

Yet we find the prophet Samuel  (I Sam. 12:17)  inveighing against the nation, declaring “great is your wickedness that you have perpetrated in the eyes of G-D to ask for yourselves a king!”

 Of one other mitsva do we also see an ostensible discrepancy between the Torah and a prophetic stance, namely the offering of korbanot.  In the Torah it is called rei’aikh nikhoakh laShem, “a pleasing aroma to G-D” while Isaiah (1:11) rails: “why do I need the multitude of your offerings, says G-D”. The reason for the discrepancy is the same.  Temple rituals had become mere empty status symbols. In the same way, Am Yisrael’’s request to Samuel for “a king to judge us like all the nations” was precisely what Moses had warned the people not to demand (Deut.17:14-15):  When ….you will say “I shall set a king over myself like all the nations that are around me ….”, [no, instead] you will surely set over yourselves a king that G-D will choose (based on the commentary of Malbim)

The kings of other nations were not selected according to Godly rules. They were........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)