Limitations of the King's Power

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  1. Eliyahu in Horev (Part 2)

    Eliyahu's Flight (Part 1)

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    It is unlikely that Izevel sends a warning to Eliyahu about her intention to kill him in order to provide him with an opportunity to escape. Rather, it appears that Izevel, recognizing the limitations of her power, begins a process of a public trial for Eliyahu, similar to the case of Navot.

  2. Navot's Vineyard (Part 1)

    The Episode of Navot and the Rights of the King

    Rabbi Elchanan Samet

    This shiur focuses on the legal and cultural background of the King’s request for Navot’s vineyard, Navot’s refusal, and the need for an orchestrated trial in order to kill Navot.

  3. Shlomo’s Sins

    Rabbi Alex Israel

    Three broad approaches exist to explain the jarring discrepancy between the love and dedication that Shlomo displayed towards God and His Mikdash and his love towards foreign women that led to idolatry.

    1) The approach adopted by the majority of traditional commentaries posits that Shlomo himself did not partake in idol worship but facilitated his wives’ idolatry and it is therefore attributed to him.

    2) A careful read of chapters 9 and 10 points to a wide range of failures, a sense of spiritual disorientation identified by Shlomo's overconfident abrogation of the Torah's restrictions for a king.  All these lead in a direct line to the more serious offenses of chapter 11. 

    3) Shlomo's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter at the very outset of his reign is a competing love to his love for God as is subtly described in the text and more explicitly described in the Midrash. Shlomo is caught ideologically between competing worlds.  Bat Pharaoh represents Egypt, the power and trade, the skills and crafts, wealth and international control that appeal to Shlomo's imperial mind.  These come along with a religious worldview that is polytheistic and pagan.  On the other side is the Torah, the Mikdash, the path of David Ha-Melekh.  Shlomo is committed to both.  He seeks to balance the two, but he fails.

     

  4. The Will of the People and the Authority of the King: A Study of the Biblical Text

    Rabbi Dr. Yoel Bin Nun

    The Torah tells us to “appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God shall choose” (Devarim 17:15). The verse seems to indicate clearly that the king is chosen by God and not by the people. However, when we read how the process actually unfolds, as described in Sefer Shemuel, we find that the decisive factor in the choice of the king is in fact the will of the people. 

    We look at the descriptions of Shaul, David (and Avshalom) being crowned as kings, and we examine different opinions about the laws of appointing a king.

    We find that the system of ruling in the Torah entails two centers of power, each comprising two authorities. One center is the religious authority, consisting of the Kohanim and the judges. The other center consists of the political leadership, combining the king and the prophet – who are sometimes at odds.

     

    Translated by Kaeren Fish