Parshas Shoftim: Exploring the Mandates of Jewish Monarchy and Deepening Connection with Hashem in Elul

The Jewish monarch, an individual who is invested with the full powers of royalty. He really sits at the top of the food chain, of the hierarchy of the Jewish society. And we have a commandment here, in the beginning of the second Aliyah I share I will finally conquer the land and divide it up, set up the Commonwealth that Hashem gives to us. The rich, the shavd above, and the people. Well then, say, hey, we want a king. K'chol ha'gleh ma'sh'erh s'e v'voi sa'i, like all of the other nations that surround us, they have a king. We want a king. So the Pentecost tells us well, if that, in fact, is what you want, an emissary, that may at times be an unnecessary conduit between the Jewish people and Hashem, for perhaps it's better, in a perfect society, just to turn straight to the Almighty, for he is our eternal king. But now that you want a king, s'om t'hosim alecha me'lech, thou art surely to set a king over thee? A'sh'erh yivchar. Ha'shem me'lo kech'a boh mi'ker v'chech'o. Pick a Jewish person. T'hosim alecha me'lech lo tuch ha'los is alecha ishnachri. Don't pick a Gentile to rule over you. A'sh'er lo ach'ichahu, he is not your brother. And here some extra halachos that a person of this stature must abide by. These are halachos, not for all of the population, but just for the me'lech R'ak. Lo yarba lo susim, make sure that he not acquire for himself too many horses. Lo yashv'es a'amit sraimah l'mahar boh sus. Don't go back. Don't make the people, it seems like from the psochim, return to the ways of the amassing of wealth and power, like the Egyptians. Ha'shem me'loch am lososim lo shod b'derech ha'zahod, forget this old path. This is a new commonwealth, a new life, a new society and therefore a king. Set the good example and protect yourself. Do not have too many horses. Further another prohibition lo yarba lo nashim, not too many wives. Lo yasir lo vavov v'kesav isov. Lo yerba lo mo'od. Do not just start amassing such great wealth. That is the ultimate evil. And also a prohibition not to have too many wives. This definitely was an Achilles heel for even one of the most holy Jewish monarchs ever, and even with the right intentions, too many wives was something violated that ended up ending the rulership of this one monarch. Allah, be careful, do not have too many women. Another prohibition lo yah keshiv to al-kizay mamlachto, because of lo yasim mishneh ha'zahod, make sure that you have a separate safer Torah. Al-safir ma'lifna yakka'yim halavim. Make sure it's like this pocket-sized, travel-size Torah, something that will always keep the melech focused on what his job and role is. He should make sure to read it, to learn it. And the vilti room, lo vavvo, that he not become haughti. May Allah be more haughti than his to rule himself over in his heart, over his brethren. Or God forbid surman am mitzvayyaminu smol to go off the path, left or right. It's interesting to note, actually, that Ramam finds the prohibition of haughtiness for all Jewish people, from the comparison from this pasak to a king, that you cannot be Ramavavvo, cannot be a Balgaiva, feel too self-centered, self-absorbed. But when you really get into the depth of what it is that these prohibitions represent to the melech the hindering, the being mitzvam same, the being very exacting in his social life, with his money and his possessions and his conjugal relationships, think that this is part of his greatness, this is what his life is and therefore make sure at your level, see to it that these Special mitzvoss are kept. We don't have the same mitzvoss that he has. These are, in fact, just for the mellach. You're so holy, so here, make sure to do this, don't do this, and Then you find Rabbi Ruch Melavivis is really stark, starkly different approach to the topic, with many different psuchim and Proving this point, he really flips the entire topic on its head, shows us what the mellach is really about, gives us an approach that we should be taking in our lives, and Perhaps we will be so good to finish it off with a piece of Chachma from the great rabbi Chach burkowitz that will help us in our mindset during the days of Elul. See, the truth of your ruchum says, is that you'll find that everything that's going on in the Torah about the mellach Are not based on his myloce, they're not based on why he's so great, but in fact the high. Same way the caraboy call yom of high of. Make sure that you Specifically not become haughty because of your position of power. They're really all about his chesronos, his shortcomings, because of who you are. Be careful not to be haughty because of who you are. Be careful not to start amassing wealth. All the different specific pitfalls, chesronos, shortcomings that a mellach may feel trapped by. The om din anu mizal yusai chadosh. We have a whole new way of Looking at the topic, a new, novel idea from the great maschkeach that, even though all of these prohibitions for the king are truthfully given because of his Genusso they're given kind of. It's embarrassing. This is where the King may fall prey to certain Prohibited actions. Protecting against them, leshomro mekilkel, protecting from haughtiness, protecting from indulging in certain pleasures and protecting from the amassing of wealth. The sore may raw, the refraining from evil. Zahuu, that is exactly his myla. The mellach is someone that the chesronos and the staying away from them are his mylos. Truthfully, and every single Individual role that we may play in our lives, everyone has certain mylos and we may look at them and say this is my greatness and we have to develop them. And that's true. But really, with this approach, we're able to see that the proper way to develop a myla, the way that the Torah speaks about Developing your opportunities and your unique, unique co-host or potential, is by way of Setting up safeguards around them, protecting from impending doom and disaster. It comes to a mind someone who's working on a large project, a huge undertaking. Is is Meeting problem after problem and he said you know what? It seems that just the problem solving, even though I don't feel like I'm developing anything, is Bringing this entity into fruition. It's making me matzliah. It feels like that's a good explanation of this idea. The mellach is told, these are your Cheseronos. You could become haughty and therefore protect against that. And when you protect against it, that is the Milah of the king. He walks with a safer Torah, always to protect against a shortcoming of perhaps him falling in pray to haughtiness. Make sure not to have too much money, not to have too many wives, protectors of that is the developing of your cocos. Truthfully, the memches, kenyan him, shaatayah and Niknes Bohem, the 48 pascha wisdom for all of us. These are described by Rashi as to be the Milo's, but further examination of Many of the different approaches are actually protecting against forgetting Torah, learning, protecting From certain ways that you will mess up in your styging and the protection. Protection against any sort of going off script and Not maximizing how to learn and to find these 48 paths to wisdom. That is considered a Mila. It's one of the 48 gateways, one of the keys and, like Rashi said, these are the Milo's of how we can acquire the Torah fully. Think about it a coin, what is it that are his halachos? That he cannot become impure. If he should become a balkeri Impure, the base on make does. He must run to the make, for he should protect himself, never to go in the place of a dead body inside Of the oil, of a dead body inside of a graveyard. Protect your kadusha for the Milo that he has the inherent intrinsic Devecos in connection to usm. His job is not to further develop that, but it's to protect from ever squandering that kadusha to be Shoimer me, kill cool. Protect from disaster. And that is Hain Hain Hamilos, the devorium Atsman. Even though they don't seem like much, they're just protection from a Subtraction of your Mila. That is the development of your Milo. You can almost visualize it as if you have this big bonfire. It's blazing and those are our Milo's, but you don't need to develop the fire further. You just need to protect that the fire stay lit. You need to Make sure to build walls that the wind doesn't get to the fire and scoop out the ashes and make sure that everything is the wood Is built in the like a proper pyre. That is how you Protect your Milo's, by getting rid of the shortcomings. Perhaps we can conclude that the best I say to have the best doing of good, according to this is the Suramera. It feels like the verse would read Suramera. That is how you are. I say tov, just putting out fires, problem-solving, protecting from disaster shall more me kill. Cool Hain Hain Hamilos. That is how you develop your each an individual potential and role. Now, over the past couple days, something very exciting happened in my life. I was had the opportunity to, I guess, bother or have the ear of repeats hook Berkowitz for a couple minutes. It's an Asia Torah here in Yerushalayim. I'm just going to be going back to America before the beginning of Ellsman on Sunday, but to have some mazletovs here To be in the Holy Land, it's really palpable. It's exciting. Here people are fired up about everything and it has a certain Spiritual potential and you really feel the tumble in a Hashem that the eyes of Hashem are always on the Holy Land Be gracious at Akhris. The whole year they're here. It's very exciting. And I went over to her be its hook Berkowitz and he was Walking out to his driver and I had an opportunity to ask him a couple questions, of one of which I asked him. I said what should be our approach during L? And he's brilliant and he's methodical and he seems to have a grip on all of Torah and A knowledge of himself. And then somehow we also somehow seemed to know me, even though I never knew him until this moment and he said you know, each person has tremendous mylos, and during at low, you. It seems very important that a person figure out why it is that those mylos, those certain pieces of greatness that he has, aren't coming to fruition. He isn't maximizing them. El is a time to be Shomer Mikilkel. He said very much to the same tune of this idea figure out why it is that your biggest mylos aren't becoming massive bonfires of success. Protect yourself and get rid of what's holding you back. During El, he said it's done by thought, thinking about it for a second Alimud and learning about that topic and then giving it your all to see to it that you can remove all of the dams that get inside, that get in the way. Very much it seems like this idea, shomer Mikilkel, heyn, heyn, hamilos, just like the melloch. And then I really have no sources for the following idea, but it was exciting, it came to me, it feels true and it also, I think, further develops this topic. So hear me out. The trip to Eretz, yisrael, was rather uneventful, except for in Newark Airport. There was hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of people all trying to push their way through security to make a couple different flights and there was some shouting at times and of course, the TSA individuals were, with their normal jolly personalities, making sure that every individual take out their laptops and tablets and watches and just kind of just a mess. It's just further interesting that we have such unbelievable technology to do some of the craziest things, but we still need to take off our watches and belts and tablets, so whatever. Anyway, and then as I was getting closer to it being my turn to walk through the metal detector, they stopped everything and made a person go one by one. And when I tried to walk towards the metal detector, when it wasn't now my turn, someone else was walking towards a. Hey, it's not your turn yet. And then when it finally was my turn, the friendly African American fellow there reached his handout, motioned for me to come forth and checked me. There was the metal detector patting me down to see why my tzitzis was showing up on the thing. And eventually I went on and I was thinking you know, clearly, doveton melech, or the ball peat, the python, the one who authored, perhaps on Jake and Aziz Hagedola, the diving on Rosh Hashanayim Kibir, when we say the words of Kivakarasaraya Edroy, that every person comes underneath Hashem's staff, like an animal going underneath the shepherd's staff. It's clearly being something delivered to us. They chose the words of the pia to not just be that people are going to be checked by Hashem, but there's something further trying to be conveyed in the fact that there's a shepherd and we are nimshild. There's a parable here with an animal and how it was done. Perhaps it was like the mycer or deal and Revolva, citing Madrash Mengemaras. He builds the topic with these words to say because the idea is is that we try to blend into society to make many of our shortcomings okay while everyone else is doing it. Everyone else wakes up late. No one else learns exactly all the time that they're supposed to know when else is dressing like this or doing like this, and when we blend into society, we're able to permit certain behaviors. But Kivakarasaraya, Edroy, each person goes inside of the metal detector on Rosh Hashanayim Kibir by himself. Your own myelos that you were given will be examined. Did you use this great attribute that you have? Did you prevent yourself from this sin which is written inside of my holy Torah? And the answer of I'm just one in a crowd will not work, because it is one by one that we go underneath the staff, underneath the microscope, inside of the metal detector Kivakarasaraya. Edroy and I was thinking this works as a good muscle for it and our own, each individual melech kingly status that we all have, that which makes us Kha'dush. Perhaps the Avaida is to see to it why it is not going according to plan, why it's not perfect, why it's not working out so well, to figure out what's hindering us and to scoop those stumbling blocks away. To be sho'ma'er me kilkel ze'hu ma'alusso, protecting from disaster, problem solving will help us to reach our success. And the last source it's really something that is so important and perhaps because of its importance, it's why it's not talked about so much. Perhaps the Yates of Heart don't want us to talk about it and therefore it's overlooked. But the G'mar tells us in Brakhos that anyone who sets up a mak'im tefila, a place that he dive in a sho'a set spot this is my standard, this is my area he's aichetah, some fantastic things, one of which is el-ekai av-roham be'ezro, the God of Hashem. The God of Av-roham av-inu is uniquely helpful to you. You have them on your side, on your team, just from having a mak'im tefila. Rabbeinu Yonah explains that this is a way to see to it, with proper preparation, with proper mukhan-nis, to be in the right head space for tefila and all of the different pitfalls that may happen, and diving hard enough to stake focus and concentrated, concentrating the entire time. Becoming early, a mak'im kevua setting up, says Rabbeinu Yonah. This is a protection from a distraction and you, arcana, you acquire, yes, the myla of tefila. This is a myla of tefila, this is one of the great aspects of tefila and you have acquired it by taking the necessary precautions to prevent any sort of misstep and mishap. Protection from disaster is how we develop Problem solving, removing the stumbling blocks and preventing those dams from emerging and removing the ones that are already there is what makes the water flow. During elul, there are times of rutsun, yumei rutsun, there are times of a certain closeness to Hashem, and the great shlul points out the famous acronym for elul is anil adodi, v'dodi li, and I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. But in order for the beloved to be to us, the shlul tells us a very brutal reality we must first be anil adodi. It is first, when we initiate the relationship, that we are anil adodi, then it is ladodi li. It is then, and only then, that Hashem reciprocates. We must look for Him, we must search for Him, and definitely that happens at a time when Hashem is close, and that is the time of elul. The days only get holier from here, and the keen and discerning eye of Hashem, the knower of our hearts and the grantor of our milos and chesronos, is watching. So, with this idea, let us see to it that we think about why it is that we are not fully maximizing the gifts that Hashem has given to us to make the necessary steps to remove them, just like the melach has given His commandments to prevent any stumble. And if we can follow the ways of the melach in preventing our shortcomings from emerging, well then perhaps we will be zoche to maximize our koach that Hashem gave us and turn it into poel, into kinetic energy, and we will be meritorious in judgment.