It’s good to be king

First came the judges, then came the cops. Then came the schools. Then came the rules. Finally, the Jews wanted a king, just like everybody else.

This is probably the only commandment in the Torah in which G-d appears to succumb to the will of the Children of Israel. Jacob Ben Asher, known as the Baal Haturim, says the verse in our weekly Torah portion of Shoftim, or Judges, marks a prophecy. Five generations after the Jews settled in the Land of Israel they asked the prophet Samuel for a king. Funnily enough, none of the countries around Israel had a king.

Why a king? Drawing on their experience in Egypt, the Jews found the king, or pharaoh, powerful. For hundreds of years, their ancestors were comfortable obeying his law. The king is also rich and can reward as well as punish. Sounds an awful like a human version of G-d.

And that’s where the Torah draws the line. The Jewish king must not become omnipotent. He must be accountable to G-d and the people. First of all, G-d will appoint the king, and He will do so among the tribe of Judah. Like his subjects, the king will be restricted — whether in his wealth, wives or behavior.

The first thing is the king must limit the pomp and ceremony to no more than absolutely necessary. That means his honor guard must be modest; his stable must contain a few rather than numerous horses. He is allowed modest riches. He can marry up to 18 wives, but no more.

Finally, the king must be no different from any other Jew — if anything more so. His subjects are commanded to learn Torah. The king is commanded to make the Torah literally part of him.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, to keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes, to perform them… [ [Deuteronomy 17:19]

Does this sound like any king you know?

The difference between the Jewish kings and others stems from the previous verse: That is the king will write two copies of the Torah before the Levites and the Kohanim, or priests. In other words, the king will be monitored, even supervised, by those from the priestly tribe. The Levite tribe will not be given a portion of the land, whether in Canaan or on the eastern bank of the Jordan. Thus, they will have no conflict of interest in telling the king what to do.

Not being afraid of the king can constitute a double-edged sword. Some 2,200 years ago, the priests led a revolt against ancient Greece and its Jewish quislings that led to the liberation of the Land of Israel and the purification of the Second Temple. Then, the priests, called Hashmonaim, did something deadly. They decided to usurp the Jewish kingdom from the House of David and become the new rulers. Perhaps, they justified it by saying, “Well, we know the Torah better than the corrupt Davidites, who lost the First Temple because of their sins. We’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Guess what? The Hashmonaim rulers turned out to be just as corrupt as their predecessors. But the newbies were worse because to ensure domination they clung to the new world power — Rome. At first, Rome was friendly and even helped the Hashmonaim win regional wars. Then, the Hashmonaim demanded total obedience from the rabbis. When one sage questioned the usurpers, he and his colleagues were executed.

With the rabbis gone, Rome finally made its move. The empire engineered a revolt by Herod and the entire Hashmonaim family was wiped out. Herod rebuilt the Temple into one of the most beautiful edifices in the world, but it was empty of G-d, prayer and truth. The High Priest was usually an ignoramus who bribed the authorities for his job. For many of the young Jews, it no longer mattered: Rome was pushing a new religion that promised easy rewards and no responsibility.

Still, the kings kept coming. Eighty years ago, Chaim Rumkowski was a Zionist leader and insurance agent in the Polish city of Lodz. In October 1939, some six weeks after the German invasion of Poland, Rumkowski was appointed chief of the Judenrat, the quisling council of Jews who followed what would become the Nazi strategy of segregation, isolation, starvation and extermination. He replaced the rabbis and even changed the traditional Ketuba, which defined the terms of Jewish marriage. He harassed and molested the young girls in his office. He printed currency and postage stamps with his image. Soon, he let it be known that he wanted to be called “King Chaim I.”

The puppet monarch was desperate to become useful to the SS and Gestapo. He converted Lodz into the most productive ghetto in occupied Europe. The starving Jews toiled more than 12 hours a day to make weapons, ammunition and uniforms for the Wehrmacht. SS chief Henrich Himmler was so impressed that he visited Lodz and wished Rumkowski well. Then, the Nazi made the decision to destroy all the Jewish ghettos in Poland.

To stay in power, Rumkowski would do anything. Despite his promises, he sent at least 70,000 Jews to the gas chambers of Chelmno and Auschwitz in 1942 alone. Tens of thousands of others died of starvation and disease. On Sept. 4, 1942, the king pleaded with his subjects to give up their most valuable possession — their children. It would be their turn to die. Rumkowski’s words, coming from a man who had headed an orphanage for 14 years, might have sounded heartfelt. His intention, however, was ruthless.

“I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters! Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers: Give me your children!”

Like Rome, the Germans turned against Rumkowski the moment his job was done. The king was sent to Auschwitz in August 1944 and he was killed by the Jews, perhaps including those he had sent to the death camp during the previous two years.

But that didn’t stop the Jews from loving royalty. At campaign rallies in the Jewish state, the masses would proclaim such politicians as David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, David Levy, Ariel Sharon and Binyamin Netanyahu kings of Israel. And all of them lapped it up. As Tom Petty sang, “It’s good to be king, if just for a while. To be there in velvet and give them a smile.”

The Torah warns the kings: You did not achieve this post on your merit; I gave it to you. You are not to use the monarchy to enrich yourself, to hurt your subjects or deny the Torah. You might violate G-d’s word, but you will never forget it.

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. [Deuteronomy 17:20]