Are you a
Chief or are you an Indian?©
Parashat Shoftim, 2015/5775
Rabbi David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh
David, “Are you a Chief or are you an Indian?”
I remember that question like it was yesterday. I was asked this question years ago,
during my time in high school when I applied to be part of a highly coveted
group called the Executive Board of Student Government.
Keep in mind, the mascot of our school was a Confederate Colonel
so it wasn’t the most politically correct question.
Nevertheless, they were asking me – do you see yourself as a
leader or a follower?
There are a couple of ways to answer the question – one can
say, there are times when I am a Chief, there are times when I’m an Indian,
meaning, I’m not always a leader, sometimes I follow. You can say, I’m an Indian, but then you’ll never get the
job. Or, you can say, I’m a chief,
I’m a leader; which might have been what they wanted me to say. Kids think leaders have confidence –
they tell their people what to do because they know best. I don’t know what I answered – but I
didn’t get the job.
What does it mean to be a leader in our eyes? Right now, we are in an interesting
time when politicians are vying for the ultimate ‘king’ position – the
presidency.
So what qualities should we be looking for in the ultimate
leader? And, what qualities should
we emulate in ourselves? Should we
be ‘Indians’ or ‘Chiefs’?
Here is what I’m advocating for: We need a Chief who thinks he’s not worthy to be a Chief,
but is a Chief in Indian’s clothing.
Today, I’d like to look at the qualities of a leader from
our parashah as we learn about the first Jewish King.
Shofteim 17:15 – 16:
"If,
after you have come into the land that the Lord your God is going to give you,
and taken possession of it and settled in it, you say, 'I will set a king over
me, like all the nations that surround me,' you may certainly set a king over
yourself, one whom the Lord your God chooses" (Deuteronomy 17:14-15)
Something interesting I noticed right away is that the Torah
is saying, if you want to be like the other nations, when the Torah, on so many
occasions says, we are different.
How different will we be if we have a king like everyone else?
When we think about kings in the ancient world, we think
figures with unbridled power, almost touched by God. Here we see that God will choose the king, but the Torah
goes in a very different direction – it tells us how we are going to be
different, how our king will not be like the others. Rather than say power the king will yield, what they could
do, the Torah tells us three things that the king cannot do: the king cannot not “acquire great numbers
of horses,” or “take many wives” or “accumulate large amounts of silver and
gold” (17: 16-17). And the Torah
adds something really interesting, the one thing he should do: he has to have a
copy of the Torah next to him whenever he sits on the throne, and he has to
read it, and observe the teachings and laws.
Let me first talk about the things he cannot do: get lots of horses, take many wives,
and accumulate massive amount of wealth; and why.
“16Moreover, 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.”’
Dr. Jeffrey Tigay comments that this regards the king’s
personal entourage representing royal self-aggrandizement, and he points to
David’s sons, Avshalom and Adonijah’s use of them. He writes, “In war, reliance on them encourages the king to
feel that he is self-sufficient and not dependent on God.”
“17And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go
astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess.”
Deuteronomy worries that vast numbers of wives will
undermine the king's loyalty to God.
The reader of Tanakh thinks immediately of King Solomon, the wisest of
men who nevertheless lost his way:
"He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines; and
his wives turned his heart away" (1 Kings 11:3)
These three restrictions guard against a king becoming too
self-sufficient and thinking that he is like God.
So he must do the following to guard against this:
“18 When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a
copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by the Levitical priests. 19
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 as well as these laws. 20 Thus he will not act haughtily toward his
fellows (m’eichav) or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left,
to the end that he and his descendants may reign long in the midst of Israel.”
The Torah, or the law book, is not there for the king to be
a judge, but to remind the king that he can be judged, that is not above the
law. This is how we are different
than our neighbors - Jeffrey Tigay notes that "in Mesopotamia the monarchy
was viewed as an institution created by the gods early in human history and
practically indispensable for the welfare of society. The king was the lawgiver. He was inspired by the gods with the wisdom to make laws,
but the laws themselves were his.
In Egypt, the king was believed to be a God, and he was the law."
Finally, the Torah states, “Thus he will not act haughtily
toward his fellows (m’eichav) – literally, his brother,” and the king does not
rule above Israel, Al Israel, but B’Kerev Israel, the midst of Israel. In other words, he is one of them, like
an ordinary citizen: even though
he sits on the throne, he must remain humble.
Finally, the Jewish king doesn’t know it all – the text
states that the King must read the Torah all the days of his life, not just for
laws, but for knowledge. The Torah
admits here, the king is not perfect, the king is not the smartest man in the
world, but the king strives to learn everyday.
The Jewish king is not untouchable, far from it; the Jewish
king is humble, realizes his place, and is constantly striving for perfection
through learning and self-reflection.
This week, the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Shultz, wrote an
editorial titled, America Deserves a Servant Leader. In it, he addresses the rumors about him running for
President, saying that they are untrue, but he states what he feels our country
needs: Our country deserves a
president humble enough to see leadership not as an entitlement but as a
privilege.
He ends with a story: “A decade ago, I visited the Western
Wall in Jerusalem with Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the former Rosh of the Mir Yeshiva
in Jerusalem, a widely respected rabbi in Israel. As we approached one of the
holiest sites in Judaism, the rabbi halted about 10 yards away as a crowd of
admirers gathered nearby. I beckoned him further. “I’ve never been closer than
this,” the rabbi told me. Astounded, I asked why. “You go,” he said. “I’m not worthy.”
We can only have one king, only one president, but all of us
have the ability to be leaders.
The Jewish king teaches us that to be wealthy does not mean that one
must have a harem, horses and wealth – a true leader is Sameach B’Helko – is
content with his share. The Jewish
king teaches us who is wise – HaLomed M’kol Adam. The Jewish king teaches us how he is honorable, because he
honors his brother.
May we all has a piece of the Jewish king in us, so we can
become better Chiefs and Indians.
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