Judges
Authority Figures
What seats of authority do we see in the parashah?
What limits are set on their power?
Where is the central seat of authority in the parashah?
In this class, we discussed three ideal types of legitimate political leadership/authority: rational (legal-rational), traditional, charismatic. Thanks to Ellen LeVee PhD for sharing this model from Sociology (Max Weber; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_classification_of_authority.)
Guess who - or what - is the center of political gravity in the book of Devarim?
(1) Right or left: "Even if he tells you about the right that it is left or about the left that it is right" - [that is] the language of Rashi. And its matter is that even if you think in your heart that they are erring, and the thing is simple in your eyes - [just] like you know [the difference] between your right and your left - do like they command. And do not say, "How can I eat this completely forbidden fat" or "How can I kill this innocent man," but rather say, "So did the Master who commands command me to do with the commandments, that I should do His commandments, according to all that those that stand in front of Him - 'in the place that He shall choose' - instruct me; and He gave me the Torah upon the understanding of their minds, even if they err." And this is like the matter of Rabbi Yehoshua with Rabban Gamliel about Yom Kippur that fell out according to the calculation [of Rabbi Yehoshua] (Rosh Hashanah 25a). And the need for this commandment is very great, since the Torah is given to us in writing, and it is known that the opinions are not [all] the same concerning all of its implications. And [otherwise] the disagreements would grow and the Torah would become several Torahs. And the verse set forth that we should listen to the High Court that stands in front of God 'in the place that He shall choose,' about all that they tell us concerning the understanding of the Torah - whether they received its understanding, one witness from the mouth of another, and Moshe from the mouth of the Omnipotent; or they say thus according to the meaning of the Scripture. Or its intention is that in accordance with their opinion does He give them (other [variants of the text]: us) the Torah: even if it is in your eyes like the replacing of the right with the left; and all the more so, when they say about the right that is right - that you must think that the spirit of God is upon the servants of His Temple, 'and He will not leave His pious ones, they will always be protected' from erring and from stumbling. And the language of Sifrei on Shoftim 154 is "Even if they show to your eyes about the right that is the left and the left that it is the right, listen to them."
Justice from the perspective of the ruling (din) itself, which should conform with the rules of the Torah, and justice from the perspective of the claims of the litigants. [A judge] should know with certainty that their claims are not misleading. (DR)
Kings
אברבנאל:Abravanel
ולפי זה יהיה עניין המלך מצות עשה תלויה בדבר הרשות כאמור, כאשר תרצה לעשות כן, עם היותו בלתי ראוי, אל תעשה אותו כי אם בזה האופן. והוא דומה לפרשת "כי תצא למלחמה על אויביך וראית בשביה"... (דברים כ"א י') שאינו מצוה שיחשוק בה ויבעלנה כמו שהיא, אבל הוא דבר הרשות ומפעל היצר הרע...
ודומה לזה גם כן פרשה "כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים ונושנתם בארץ והשחתם ועשיתם..." (דברים ד' כ"ח). שאין זה מצוה, כי אם עוון פלילי אבל תלויה בו המצוה "ושבת עד ה' אלוקיך" שכאשר יהיו חטאים ישובו אל ה', וכן בעצמו עניין המלך, שאין שאלתו מצוה כי אם רשות ומפעל היצר הרע, עם היות שנתלית בו המצוה שישימו המלך ההוא בבחירת ה' מקרב אחיו ולא באופן אחר.
Abravanel on Deut 17:14-15
Accordingly, the subject of the king is a positive commandment that depends on the exercise of an option. If you should choose to do so, even though it is inappropriate, do not do it other than in this manner. This is similar to the section "when you go out in battle against your enemies...and you see among the captives [a beautiful woman]." One is not commanded to desire her and cohabit with her as she is. This is an optional matter, the work of the evil inclination.
Also similar to this is the section of "When you have begotten children and children's children and are long established in the land, should you act wickedly..." (Deut 4:25). This is not a commandment but rather a heinous sin. However, the mitzvah of "you shall turn back to Hashem your God" is connected to it. When they become sinners, they must return to Hashem. Similar is the matter of the king. The request for a king is not a commandment but a permitted thing, the work of the evil inclination, even as there is linked to it the commandment to appoint a king chosen by Hashem, from the people, and not in another manner. (DR)
וכן היה רבי יהודה אומר ג' מצות נצטוו ישראל בכניסתן לארץ להעמיד להם מלך ולהכרית זרעו של עמלק ולבנות להם בית הבחירה
רבי נהוראי אומר לא נאמרה פרשה זו אלא כנגד תרעומתן שנאמר (דברים יז, יד) ואמרת אשימה עלי מלך וגו'
The baraita continues: And so would Rabbi Yehuda say: Three mitzvot were commanded to the Jewish people upon their entrance into Eretz Yisrael, which apply only in Eretz Yisrael: They were commanded to establish a king for themselves (see Deuteronomy 17:14–15), and to cut off the seed of Amalek in war (see Deuteronomy 25:17–19), and to build the Chosen House, i.e., the Temple, in Jerusalem (see Deuteronomy 12:10–12).
[Note: See Rambam, Laws of Kings and their Wars 1:1]
The baraita continues: Rabbi Nehorai says: This biblical passage about appointing a king was stated only in response to the Jewish people’s complaint, as it is stated: “When you come unto the land that the Lord your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say: I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me” (Deuteronomy 17:14). The verse indicates that appointing a king is not a mitzva and that when Samuel spoke to them, he intended to frighten them so that they might regret their complaint and retract their request for a king.
Prophets
Armies
Limits on Power - or, the Torah is the seat of power
(2) למען יאריך ימים TO THE END THAT HE MAY PROLONG HIS DAYS [IN HIS KINGDOM] — From the positive statement you may derive the negative (that if he does not fulfil the commandments his kingdom will not endure).
And so, indeed, do we find in the case of Saul that Samuel said to him, (I Samuel 10:8) “Seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come unto thee” to offer burnt sacrifices, and it is written, (I Samuel 13:8) “and he tarried seven days”, but he did not keep his promise to wait the whole of the seventh day and had scarcely finished offering the burnt offering when Samuel came (I Samuel 10:10) and said to him (I Samuel 10:13-14) “Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept [the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee; for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever;] but now thy kingdom shall not continue”.
Thus you learn that for the neglect of an unimportant [DR: minor, "kalah"] command given by means of a prophet he was severely punished.
Bernard Levinson to 17:18 (in The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford))
The law requires the king to be subject to the law, not above it. The common status of the monarch throughout the ancient Near East as promulgator of the law (as in the Laws of Hammurabi) and as enjoying a special relationship with the divinity...might suggest that the king would be exempt from the law's requirements. To emphasize its rejection of that norm, Deuteronomy requires the king to have a copy of this Teaching written for him: The king must daily read the law that limits his powers.
In Devarim, Torah establishes the shape and limits of authority for judges, priests, prophets, military leadership, and kings.
Torah is the constitution of the Jews in Devarim. Torah, as the wisdom of God, represents God in the community.