There are different kinds of leadership outlined in our tradition. Not just different styles but also different roles. This section of Deuteronomy, in the third of Moses’s long speeches to the assembled Israelites, deals with not just the judiciary (shoftim are judges) but also prophecy (true and false) and the monarchy.
Deuteronomy emphasises that the people as “a kingdom of priests” all have access to God, to understand God’s will, and authority comes not simply from God but also from the people. “You shall appoint for yourselves…” the portion begins when describing the system of justice that we are to pursue.
The monarchy itself was a concession to the people, as described in the Book of Samuel. But even the King ruled only by permission of God and the people – often held to account by the prophets. As a “constitutional monarchy” the constitution was the “Torah”, though in this we must be especially careful in what we understand “Torah” to mean.
Here in the Torah (Deuteronomy 17:18) “Torah” clearly can’t mean the Torah (the Five Books of Moses, the first part of the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible) as we often use the term today. We still speak of the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, encompassing far more, and at the same time, in the Torah itself, the word can refer in its narrowest sense to a specific law.
The root meaning of the word is not just “law” but more fundamentally “direction” or “instruction”. The word moreh/morah for a teacher comes from the same root.
For the King, seated on his royal throne, mishneh Hatorah, a copy of the “Torah” may in fact mean the Book of Deuteronomy. But the image is so evocative. In exercising power, we are reminded that instruction, wisdom must always be a companion and guide. Power is not an end in itself, or its purpose. And even “Torah” may mean more than the written word.
There is a grammatical subtlety that is lost in translation. “Let it (feminine) remain with him and let him read it (masculine) all his life.” The Torah (feminine) and the scroll (masculine) are not the same “it”.
Even the scroll that we read needs care and humility as we understand the “Torah” it contains. The enduring leader, in reverence, “will not act haughtily”. Ultimately, “Torah” is what God requires of us, even – especially – in leadership. The prophet Micah reminds us that essentially this is simply “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God”.
Image: Prince William is shown a Torah scroll during a visit to Western Marble Arch Synagogue (photo:Getty Images)
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