Did we Jews destroy our Temple, or did our Temple destroy us? (Parshat Shoftim)
עַל־פִּ֨י הַתּוֹרָ֜ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר יוֹר֗וּךָ וְעַל־הַמִּשְׁפָּ֛ט אֲשֶׁר־יֹאמְר֥וּ לְךָ֖ תַּעֲשֶׂ֑ה לֹ֣א תָס֗וּר מִן־הַדָּבָ֛ר אֲשֶׁר־יַגִּ֥ידֽוּ לְךָ֖ יָמִ֥ין וּשְׂמֹֽאל׃
You shall act in accordance with the instructions given you and the ruling handed down to you; you must not deviate from the verdict that they announce to you either to the right or to the left.
Devarim/Deuteronomy 17:11
Parshat Shoftim begins in Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:18 and concludes with 21:9. Chapter 17 is especially interesting as it makes an ironclad stipulation against any deviation from the Torah’s instructions. Indeed, it makes it incumbent on all future rulings to be consistent with the Torah’s dicta.
And in this very same chapter (verses 17-20) the Torah reluctantly acquiesces to the idea of a human Israelite king who would then be subjected to draconian restraints and limitations:
כִּֽי־תָבֹ֣א אֶל־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ נֹתֵ֣ן לָ֔ךְ וִֽירִשְׁתָּ֖הּ וְיָשַׁ֣בְתָּה בָּ֑הּ וְאָמַרְתָּ֗ אָשִׂ֤ימָה עָלַי֙ מֶ֔לֶךְ כְּכׇל־הַגּוֹיִ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר סְבִיבֹתָֽי׃
If, after you have entered the land that the Adonai your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you will say, “I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,”
שׂ֣וֹם תָּשִׂ֤ים עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ מֶ֔לֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֥ר יִבְחַ֛ר יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ בּ֑וֹ מִקֶּ֣רֶב אַחֶ֗יךָ תָּשִׂ֤ים עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ מֶ֔לֶךְ לֹ֣א תוּכַ֗ל לָתֵ֤ת עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ אִ֣ישׁ נׇכְרִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־אָחִ֖יךָ הֽוּא׃
you shall be free to set a king over yourself, one chosen by the Adonai your God. Be sure to set as king over yourself one of your own people; you must not set a foreigner over you, one who is not your fellow Israelite.
רַק֮ לֹא־יַרְבֶּה־לּ֣וֹ סוּסִים֒ וְלֹֽא־יָשִׁ֤יב אֶת־הָעָם֙ מִצְרַ֔יְמָה לְמַ֖עַן הַרְבּ֣וֹת ס֑וּס וַֽיהֹוָה֙ אָמַ֣ר לָכֶ֔ם לֹ֣א תֹסִפ֗וּן לָשׁ֛וּב בַּדֶּ֥רֶךְ הַזֶּ֖ה עֽוֹד׃
Moreover, he shall not keep many horses or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since GOD has warned you, “You must not go back that way again.”
וְלֹ֤א יַרְבֶּה־לּוֹ֙ נָשִׁ֔ים וְלֹ֥א יָס֖וּר לְבָב֑וֹ וְכֶ֣סֶף וְזָהָ֔ב לֹ֥א יַרְבֶּה־לּ֖וֹ מְאֹֽד׃
And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess.
וְהָיָ֣ה כְשִׁבְתּ֔וֹ עַ֖ל כִּסֵּ֣א מַמְלַכְתּ֑וֹ וְכָ֨תַב ל֜וֹ אֶת־מִשְׁנֵ֨ה הַתּוֹרָ֤ה הַזֹּאת֙ עַל־סֵ֔פֶר מִלִּפְנֵ֖י הַכֹּהֲנִ֥ים הַלְוִיִּֽם׃
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 kohanim.
וְהָיְתָ֣ה עִמּ֔וֹ וְקָ֥רָא ב֖וֹ כׇּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיָּ֑יו לְמַ֣עַן יִלְמַ֗ד לְיִרְאָה֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֔יו לִ֠שְׁמֹ֠ר אֶֽת־כׇּל־דִּבְרֵ֞י הַתּוֹרָ֥ה הַזֹּ֛את וְאֶת־הַחֻקִּ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לַעֲשֹׂתָֽם׃
Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere Adonai his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Torah and to observe these laws.
לְבִלְתִּ֤י רוּם־לְבָבוֹ֙ מֵֽאֶחָ֔יו וּלְבִלְתִּ֛י ס֥וּר מִן־הַמִּצְוָ֖ה יָמִ֣ין וּשְׂמֹ֑אול לְמַ֩עַן֩ יַאֲרִ֨יךְ יָמִ֧ים עַל־מַמְלַכְתּ֛וֹ ה֥וּא וּבָנָ֖יו בְּקֶ֥רֶב יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left, so that that he and his progeny may reign long in the midst of Israel.
Devarim 17:14-20
Clearly, any king which the Torah is willing to accept would, unlike other kings, be an exemplar of modesty, faith and adherence to the letter and spirit of the Torah’s explixit laws – עַל־פִּ֨י הַתּוֹרָ֜ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר יוֹר֗וּךָ וְעַל־הַמִּשְׁפָּ֛ט אֲשֶׁר־יֹאמְר֥וּ לְך “in accordance with the instructions given you and the ruling handed down to you” (17:11)
Now let us examine the description of King Shlomo’s monarchial style (and for the sake of brevity, I am bringing here only several of the descriptive verses:
וַֽיְהִי֙ מִשְׁקַ֣ל הַזָּהָ֔ב אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֥א לִשְׁלֹמֹ֖ה בְּשָׁנָ֣ה אֶחָ֑ת שֵׁ֥שׁ מֵא֛וֹת שִׁשִּׁ֥ים וָשֵׁ֖שׁ כִּכַּ֥ר זָהָֽב׃
The weight of the gold that Solomon received every year was 666 talents of gold,
וַיַּ֨עַשׂ הַמֶּ֧לֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹ֛ה מָאתַ֥יִם צִנָּ֖ה זָהָ֣ב שָׁח֑וּט שֵֽׁשׁ־מֵא֣וֹת זָהָ֔ב יַעֲלֶ֖ה עַל־הַצִּנָּ֥ה הָאֶחָֽת׃
King Solomon made 200 shields of beaten gold—600 shekels of gold to each shield—
וּשְׁלֹשׁ־מֵא֤וֹת מָֽגִנִּים֙ זָהָ֣ב שָׁח֔וּט שְׁלֹ֤שֶׁת מָנִים֙ זָהָ֔ב יַעֲלֶ֖ה עַל־הַמָּגֵ֣ן הָאֶחָ֑ת וַיִּתְּנֵ֣ם הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ בֵּ֖ית יַ֥עַר הַלְּבָנֽוֹן׃ {פ}
and 300 bucklers of beaten gold—three minas of gold to each buckler. The king placed them in the Lebanon Forest House.
וַיֶּאֱסֹ֣ף שְׁלֹמֹה֮ רֶ֣כֶב וּפָרָשִׁים֒ וַֽיְהִי־ל֗וֹ אֶ֤לֶף וְאַרְבַּע־מֵאוֹת֙ רֶ֔כֶב וּשְׁנֵים־עָשָׂ֥ר אֶ֖לֶף פָּרָשִׁ֑ים וַיַּנְחֵם֙ בְּעָרֵ֣י הָרֶ֔כֶב וְעִם־הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ בִּירוּשָׁלָֽ͏ִם׃
Solomon assembled chariots and horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he stationed in the chariot towns and with the king in Jerusalem.
Melachim 1/1 Kings 6:14,16,17,26
And, then of course, there is the whole matter regarding Shlomo’s wives and concubines:
וַיְהִי־ל֣וֹ נָשִׁ֗ים שָׂרוֹת֙ שְׁבַ֣ע מֵא֔וֹת וּפִלַגְשִׁ֖ים שְׁלֹ֣שׁ מֵא֑וֹת וַיַּטּ֥וּ נָשָׁ֖יו אֶת־לִבּֽוֹ׃
He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. (11:3)
With the predictable, indeed inevitable denouement :
וַיְהִ֗י לְעֵת֙ זִקְנַ֣ת שְׁלֹמֹ֔ה נָשָׁיו֙ הִטּ֣וּ אֶת־לְבָב֔וֹ אַחֲרֵ֖י אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֑ים וְלֹא־הָיָ֨ה לְבָב֤וֹ שָׁלֵם֙ עִם־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהָ֔יו כִּלְבַ֖ב דָּוִ֥יד אָבִֽיו׃
In his old age, his wives turned Shlomo’s heart after other gods, and he was not as wholeheartedly devoted to the Adonai his God as his father David had been. (11:4)
That Shlomo’s royal behavior violated EVERY SINGLE detail of the Torah’s mandates regarding an Israelite monarch is absolutely clear.
However, Shlomo’s penchant for unlimited gold, horses and women wasn’t his only flagrant violation of God’s will. For just prior to spending 13 years building his grandiose palace, he first invested a more paltry seven years in building the first Beit HaMikdash/Temple in the backyard of his far grander future domicile.
Now, in fairness to Shlomo, by this time the Mishkan/Tabernacle had been languishing in Shiloh for 369 years. This was inexcusable. The very purpose of the Mishkan was to serve as an itinerant Sanctuary that would, upon crossing into the Land of Israel, make regular visits to each of the tribes thereby fulfilling God’s expressed desire of וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם “And they shall make for me (note ‘make’ not ‘build’) a Sanctuary and I shall dwell among them” ( Parshat Terumah, Shemot/Exodus 25:8).
NOWHERE in the Torah is there any talk of Jerusalem or, indeed, any one place where the Sanctuary should have a permanent home. For all those hundreds of years the Mishkan should have been fostering unity within Israel by sharing itself with all the tribes, and giving each Israelite a regular opportunity to interface with the kohanim and participate in the rituals that were the patrimony of all. Each tribe would have its own designated place where the Mishkan would make its encampment. This was vital to the spiritual health of both the ordinary Israelite, and to maintaining the vitality and motivation of the essentially landless kohanim and leviim.
One can only imagine how disenfranchised most people felt while the Mishkan was mothballed in Shiloh, rendered virtually inaccessible to anyone living at any distance from it. Because it was not the Jew’s job to go to the Sanctuary, it was the Sanctuary’s function to go to the Jews.
Instead of correcting this situation, Shlomo decided to make the problem permanent by building a fancy temple in his own backyard. Not as fancy, perhaps, as the palace he planned for himself and his gold and his wives and his horses, but certainly fancy enough to deflect from the excesses of his planned personal domicile. And rich as he was, he determined to place the burden of financing his Temple (and likely his palace as well) on the People through highly organized and no less onerous taxation (See Melakhim 1 /1 Kings 4-7-19.)
As one might expect, the populace didn’t take too kindly to the new situation. This new Temple, this uncalled-for edifice, really had nothing to do with them. It was too distant, it was too ornate, and the price of admission was too prohibitive. No wonder we, in short order, lost ten out of twelve tribes forever. No wonder hardly any Israelites could muster any sense of connection to this vatican.
The introduction of the Temple spelled doom for the Jewish commonwealth. It immediately created a self-serving, utterly corrupt oligarchy of priests and royalty, and eventually (after the Maccabean revolt) they became one and the same.
The excesses of the Second Temple are hardly a secret. The corruption was bone deep and proportionate to the material excess of its dimensions and embellishments. That both Temples would self-destruct was inevitable. There was nothing spiritual going on, nothing holy, nothing precious to be shared by all Israelites, nothing that most Israelites would ever get to see during their own lifetimes.
Clearly, when the Second Temple was destroyed, it was not the result of any of the fables we are fed by our rabbis. It was destroyed because it had no business existing in the first place. It was destroyed because edifices like this will always be the breeding grounds for corruption, conspiracies and self-enrichment by the self-anointed few.
Herod’s Temple, like Shlomo’s, had little if anything to do with the adoration of God and everything to do with the self-aggrandizement of its builders. One might have thought the lesson had been learned after the first exile, but clearly it hadn’t. Consequently, the runaway egos of kings and priests led to a far greater exile in 70 CE.
Stepping into the vacuum were the Pharisees who re-invented Judaism into a legalistic construct that would be scrutable only to its self-anointed rabbis, and the Christians who took it in a whole opposite direction and found a susceptible market among the Gentiles. One can argue that neither was ultimately any great blessing to the Jewish People.
