Parashat Shoftim is concerned with the question of authority. It introduces judges and officers, priests and Levites, prophets, and finally the king. In each case, the Torah is not merely interested in creating effective institutions. It is concerned with a deeper question: How can human beings exercise power without becoming corrupted by it?
The Torah’s answer is striking. Even the king—the nation’s most powerful political figure—must remain visibly subject to a power beyond himself.
The king under the Torah
The Torah anticipates that Israel will one day ask for a king:
“When you come into the land… and you say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you…”
(Devarim 17:14–15)
The Torah does not present monarchy as inherently forbidden. Indeed, Jewish tradition debates whether appointing a king is an obligation or a permission. But the Torah’s formulation is notable. The people’s desire is expressed as a wish to be “like all the nations around me.” That desire—to imitate others rather than to ask what is faithful to our own mission—already contains a spiritual danger.
Then the Torah sets firm limits on the king. He may not accumulate excessive horses, silver and gold, or wives, “lest his heart turn away” (17:16–17). These are not random restrictions. Horses represent military power; wealth represents economic power; wives can represent personal indulgence and political alliances. The Torah recognizes that the greatest danger facing a leader is not simply making a mistaken decision. It is allowing the privileges of office to reshape his heart.
Yet the most remarkable command comes next:
“When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah… It shall remain with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God… so that his heart not become haughty over his brethren.”
(Devarim 17:18–20)
The king must have a Torah scroll written specifically for him, and he must read it every day. The Torah does not say that he should bring it out for ceremonial occasions, or quote it in public speeches. It must accompany him throughout his life.
Why? Because the person with the most authority requires the strongest daily reminder that he is not the highest authority.
Not above his brethren
The Torah’s phrase is exceptionally powerful: levilti rum levavo me’echav—“so that his heart not become elevated above his brethren.”
A king may live in a palace. He may command an army. He may oversee the affairs of an entire nation. But he is never to imagine that he stands above the people he leads. He is one of them—bound by the same covenant, answerable to the same God, and obligated by the same Torah.
The Jewish ideal of leadership is therefore not unlimited power. It is accountable power.
The king is not meant to use Torah as a tool to legitimize whatever he has already decided. Rather, the Torah is meant to limit him, challenge him, and remind him of who he is. He must read it precisely when success, wealth, influence, and public honor tempt him to believe that normal standards no longer apply.
Samuel’s concern
This helps us understand the painful episode in the Book of Samuel. The people come to Samuel and demand: “Set a king over us, to judge us like all the nations” (I Samuel 8:5). Samuel is upset, and God tells him, “It is not you they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as king over them” (8:7).
But why is Samuel distressed? After all, the Torah itself provides laws for a king.
The problem is not that Israel seeks leadership. A people needs institutions, justice, defense, and public responsibility. The problem lies in the people’s motivation. They do not ask for a king who will help them fulfill their covenantal mission. They ask to be “like all the nations.”
They seek security in a political structure rather than in their relationship with God. They want a king not as a servant of Torah, but as a substitute for trust, responsibility, and faith.
The Torah allows a king—but only if the king knows that he is not God.
Solomon’s tragic lesson
The life of King Solomon demonstrates why these limits matter. Solomon was gifted with extraordinary wisdom, immense wealth, international influence, and a magnificent kingdom. Yet the Torah had warned that a king should not multiply wives “lest his heart turn away.” The Book of Kings tells us that Solomon accumulated wives and concubines, and eventually “his wives turned his heart after other gods” (I Kings 11:3–4).torah+1
The language is not accidental. The Book of Kings echoes the warning of Parashat Shoftim. The Torah had identified the risk; Solomon’s life became the fulfillment of that warning.
Perhaps Solomon thought that his wisdom made him an exception. Surely a king renowned for wisdom could maintain political alliances, great wealth, and many marriages without losing his spiritual center. But the Torah never says, “Do not multiply wives unless you are wise enough to handle it.” It says that unchecked accumulation can turn the human heart.
No one—not even the wisest of kings—is above the disciplines that protect humility and faithfulness.
Our own Torah scroll
Most of us will never be kings. But every one of us holds some measure of authority: at home, at work, in our communities, and among those who look to us for guidance. The temptation of power is not limited to monarchs. Whenever we possess influence, we may begin to believe that we are less accountable, less in need of correction, or entitled to be treated differently.
Parashat Shoftim offers a different model. The greater the responsibility, the greater the need for humility. The greater the authority, the more essential it is to remain connected to Torah, to conscience, and to those who can hold us accountable.
The king’s personal Torah scroll teaches that leadership is not freedom from obligation. It is a deeper obligation to live by it.
May we merit leaders—public, communal, and personal—whose strength is tempered by humility, whose authority is guided by justice, and whose hearts remain open to the Torah that stands above every throne.
