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What
is the Role of a Monarch in the Western World?
I’ve never experienced having a king.
Actually, that’s not exactly true, as King Frederik IX passed away when I was
12 years old. He was the son of the legendary King Christian X, king of Denmark,
who used to ride through the streets of Denmark on his horse and wave to the
people. One day, a German soldier remarked to a young boy, that he found it odd
that the King would ride with no bodyguard. The boy replied, “All of Denmark is
his bodyguard.” This is reportedly a true story, unlike the legend about the king
wearing the yellow star in order to support the Jews during the
German occupation of Denmark (9 April 1940 - 5 May 1945). This story was
invented to disprove the slander that the Danish King was afraid to oppose the German
occupation with arms (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum). In an attempt to prove the contrary, Danish
Americans made-up several stories in defense of the Danish Monarch, the
yellow-star-story being the most successful. King Christian X was among the last
generation of kings who attempted to exercise legislative power. This happened
in 1920, during a conflict between the king and the cabinet over the
reunification with Denmark of a city in south Jutland which had been lost
to Prussia. When King Christian X asserted his royal power to dismiss part
of the Danish cabinet and replace it with his chosen officials, it created an almost revolutionary atmosphere in Denmark. Faced
with the potential overthrow of the Danish crown, Christian X stood down and accepted
his drastically reduced role as a symbolic head of state. This was the last
time a Danish monarch attempted to take political action without the full
support of parliament. Since then, the monarchy in the entire Western world has
been reduced to a mere puppet, whose main tasks are to represent the Kingdom
abroad and to be a unifying figure at home. I recall Queen Margrethe, who
inherited the throne of Denmark in 1972, as a beloved traditional figure giving
a yearly New Year’s speech, which we all watched on T.V.
Replacing
the Parliament with the Sanhedrin and the Prime Minister with the King
Today we hardly have any models of the
awe-inspiring kings of generations bygone. This makes it harder to foster the required
feeling of awe of the King of Kings, especially as we approach the Days of Awe.
Since the main role of the king is to unify the people, without a true king, we
suffer from the lack of unity among our people. Confusion and disunity reigns
everywhere as political parties split up into fragmented fractions. I felt this
strongly during the Israeli elections in April this year. Sadly, the two main
leaders of HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home), Naftali Bennett and
Ayelet Shaked left the mainstream religious party – that defends the rights of
Jewish settlers – to establish their own new splinter party. I knew then that
they were doomed, and so it happened. The party that achieved 12 mandates in
the 19th Knesset elections in 2012, didn’t even get enough votes to
enter the 21th parliament. The breakdown of democracy was also
experienced in that election, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to
form a governing coalition, the first such failure in Israeli history. While
I’m happy that Bennett and Shaked have learned their lesson and rejoined the Union
of Right-Wing Parties for the repeat elections to be held on 17 September 2019,
I feel that we are getting more and more ready to replace the parliament with
the Sanhedrin and the Prime Minister with the King.
The Last Prime Minister in Israel
We live in a time that very
much echoes the bleak period of the Judges, about which it states, “In those
days (there was) no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his eyes” (Shoftim 17:6).
Just as in the times of the Judges, when the judges judged one another (Babylonian
Talmud, Baba Batra 15b), so do we hardly find a politician today, who
doesn’t have a criminal case open with the Supreme Court. Yet, this is only a
sign that we are ripe for the coming of a true Jewish king, that will not only
command the respect of all of us, but, moreover, will unify the entire world to
serve Hashem. Shmuel, the Prophet, and the last of the Judges played a key role
in the transition from the period of the Judges to the institution of the
kingdom in Israel. He anointed the first two kings, first Shaul and then David,
the sprout of the Messianic dynasty. Likewise, today, it seems that we are at
the brink of Mashiach times! Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, one of the most influential
Sephardic spiritual leaders of the century, who passed away in 2006 at the age
of 106, met with Netanyahu in 1997, during his first term as prime
minister. Rabbi Kaduri whispered a long
message into Netanyahu’s ear. Rabbi Shmuel Shmueli, a follower of Rabbi Kaduri,
revealed that Kaduri had always maintained that Netanyahu would serve a very
long time and after his term in office, the Messiah would arrive. It’s
interesting to note that his name, Binyamin may allude to King Shaul from the
tribe of Binyamin who preceded David, the forefather of the Mashiach!
The
Eternal King of Israel
Parashat Shoftim teaches us the mitzvah to appoint a king. The
king of Israel must differ from all other kings, by living by the Torah and
following its every word. His kingdom will only endure as long as he keeps all
the mitzvot of the Torah (Rashi, Devarim 17:20).
ספר דברים פרק יז
פסוק יד-כ כִּי תָבֹא אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר הָשֵׁם אֱלֹהֶיךָ
נֹתֵן לָךְ וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְיָשַׁבְתָּה בָּהּ וְאָמַרְתָּ אָשִׂימָה עָלַי מֶלֶךְ
כְּכָל הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתָי:(טו) שׂוֹם
תָּשִׂים עָלֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר הָשֵׁם אֱלֹהֶיךָ בּוֹ מִקֶּרֶב אַחֶיךָ תָּשִׂים
עָלֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ לֹא תוּכַל לָתֵת עָלֶיךָ אִישׁ נָכְרִי אֲשֶׁר לֹא אָחִיךָ הוּא...
(יח) וְהָיָה כְשִׁבְתּוֹ עַל כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ וְכָתַב לוֹ אֶת מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה
הַזֹּאת עַל סֵפֶר מִלִּפְנֵי הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם: (יט) וְהָיְתָה
עִמּוֹ וְקָרָא בוֹ כָּל יְמֵי חַיָּיו לְמַעַן יִלְמַד לְיִרְאָה אֶת הָשֵׁם אֱלֹהָיו
לִשְׁמֹר אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת הַחֻקִּים הָאֵלֶּה לַעֲשׂתָם: (כ) לְבִלְתִּי רוּם לְבָבוֹ מֵאֶחָיו וּלְבִלְתִּי
סוּר מִן הַמִּצְוָה יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול לְמַעַן יַאֲרִיךְ יָמִים עַל מַמְלַכְתּוֹ
הוּא וּבָנָיו בְּקֶרֶב יִשְׂרָאֵל:
“When you come to the land Hashem, your G-d,
is giving you, and you possess it and live therein, and you say, ‘I will set a
king over myself, like all the nations around me,’ 15)
you shall set a king over you, one whom Hashem, your God, chooses; from among
your brothers, you shall set a king over yourself; you shall not appoint a
foreigner over yourself, one who is not your brother… 18)
It will be, when he sits upon his royal throne, that he shall write for himself
two copies of this Torah on a scroll from [that Torah which is] before the
Levitic kohanim. 19)
And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so
that he may learn to fear Hashem, his God, to keep all the words of this Torah
and these statutes, to perform them, 20)
so that his heart will not be haughty over his brothers, and so that he will
not turn away from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, in
order that he may prolong [his] days in his kingdom, he and his sons, among
Israel (Devarim 17:14-20).
Electing
the Mashiach
The King of Israel must be extremely
humble as it states, “…so that his heart will not be haughty…” through his
humility he will be able to connect everyone to their Father in Heaven. Due to
his humility he will inspire true honor. I imagine that when we will encounter
our king, the Mashiach, even if it might only be through seeing him on the computer
screen, our heart will be opened and filled with both awe and love which will
spill over to one another. When we finally have a King of Israel, we will know
our true place, and be happy with our portion. Jealousy, anger and depression will
melt away, as we take part in the rebuilding of the Temple under the directions
of Mashiach. By cleaving faithfully to the Torah, our king will be imbued with
the Divine spirit, conducting our country in the pleasant and peaceful ways of
the Torah (Mishlei 3:17). I can’t wait for the time when all the Arabs
living in Israel and those surrounding us will pay tribute to the Mashiach and
hand in all their terrorist weapons. Instead, they will assist the Jews in
cultivating our land (Yesha’yahu 2:4). I am only hopeful for the upcoming
elections. If Benjamin Netanyahu fails again to form a governing coalition,
with Hashem’s help he will be able to hand his keys over to Mashiach!
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