{"id":50933,"date":"2019-03-07T12:35:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T10:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=50933"},"modified":"2022-09-29T08:22:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T05:22:35","slug":"to-be-different-like-everybody-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/to-be-different-like-everybody-else\/","title":{"rendered":"To Be Different – Like Everybody Else"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[402,503,354],"acf":{"old_id":"50933","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"170","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Judaism is an argument for the limitation, secularisation and transformation of power","content":"

From a Jewish perspective, is having a king a good thing or a bad thing? It turns out, to be almost unanswerable.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the one hand, the Torah does say, \u201cset over you a king.\u201d This is a positive command. Maimonides counts it among the 613. On the other hand, of no other command anywhere does it say that that it is to be acted on when the people say that they want to be \u201clike all the surrounding nations.\u201d The Torah doesn\u2019t tell us to be like everyone else. The word <\/span>kadosh<\/span><\/em>, \u201choly\u201d, means, roughly, to be set apart, singular, distinctive, unique. Jews are supposed to have the courage to be different, to be <\/span>in<\/span><\/em> but not entirely <\/span>of<\/span><\/em> the surrounding world.<\/span><\/p>\n

If having a king is a good thing, why does God say that it means that the people are rejecting Him? If it is a bad thing, why does God tell Samuel to give the people what they want even if it is not what God would wish them to want?<\/span><\/p>\n

Judaism is not an argument for powerlessness\u2026.Instead, Judaism is an argument for the limitation, secularisation and transformation of power.<\/span><\/p>\n

Limitation<\/span><\/em>: Israel\u2019s kings were the only rulers in the ancient world without the power to legislate. For us, the laws that matter come from God, not from human beings. To be sure, in Jewish law, kings may issue temporary regulations for the better ordering of society, but so may rabbis, courts, or local councils.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secularisation<\/span><\/em>: in Judaism, kings were not high priests and high priests were not kings. Jews were the first people to create a \u201cseparation of powers,\u201d a doctrine normally attributed to Montesquieu in the eighteenth century. When some of the Hasmonean rulers sought to combine the two offices, the Talmud records the objection of the sages: \u201cLet the royal crown be sufficient for you; leave the priestly crown to the descendants of Aaron.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Transformation<\/span><\/em>: fundamental to Judaism is the idea of servant leadership. There is a wonderful statement of it in our chapter. The king must have his own sefer Torah<\/em>, \u201cand he shall read from it all the days of his life \u2026<\/span> not considering himself superior to his kinsfolk<\/span><\/em>, or straying from the commandments to the right or to the left\u201d (17:19-20).<\/span><\/p>\n

Humility is the essence of royalty, because to lead is to serve.<\/span><\/p>\n

From:\u00a0<\/span>To Lead is to Serve (Covenant & Conversation, Shoftim 5778)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Limits of Power IV","main_caption":"To Be Different - Like Everybody Else","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Judaism is an argument for the limitation, secularisation and transformation of power","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50933"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108266,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50933\/revisions\/108266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}