The story of Korah is an opportunity to reflect on ideas of leadership. The additional reading is by Debbie Perlman, a psalm for the month of Tammuz. The song is an old Bobover melody that feels unfortunately contemporary in its words.
This week's newsletter will be the last before I take a break for the summer. Check my website for updates of book events and see below info about a class on Teshuvah I'll be teaching before High Holidays. Put the dates in your calendar.
Michael (michaelstrassfeld.com)
A word of Torah:
This week’s Torah portion focuses on leadership, as Korah and his followers challenge the authority of Moses and Aaron. As we now gear up for the next presidential election campaign, we are once again confronted by issues of leadership and the limits of presidential power.. I thought it would be interesting to look at Maimonides’ laws about kings in his major work, the Mishneh Torah (excerpts from Book of Judges ch. 2 &3), even while acknowledging that kings and presidents are not the same.
“The king is to be accorded great honor. The attitude of his subjects toward him should be one of awe and reverence…All the people come before him when he is disposed to see them, they stand in his presence…even the prophet stands in the presence of the king. The High Priest, however, comes before the king only when he is disposed to do it; he does not stand in his presence, but the king stands before him…Nevertheless, it is the duty of the High Priest to give honor to the king, to ask him to be seated…So too, it is incumbent upon the king to give honor to students of Torah.”
“Just as Scripture accords great honor to the king…so it bids him to cultivate a humble and lowly spirit…He should deal graciously and compassionately with the small and the great, conduct their affairs in their best interests, be wary of the honor of the lowliest.”
“As soon as the king ascends the throne, he must write a Torah scroll for himself…it is to be with him all the time…When he goes to war, it shall be with him; when he sits in judgment, it shall be with him.”
Maimonides goes on to say that the number of wives, horses, and wealth (symbols of status and power) are specifically limited. The wealth shall only be for the common good, not his pocket. Any violation of these rules is punished by flogging. The concern about the king being too powerful or corrupt is clearly evident here. While flogging is a general punishment in the Torah, I wonder whether it is particularly humiliating for a king.
Like our system, there is a balancing of various sources of authority—king, prophet, High Priest and Torah scholars. Most striking is that the king has to be knowledgeable of the law and keep his Torah scroll with him at all times—the Law is the ultimate power.
Mark your calendars for a class I am teaching:
Change through acceptance: the Hasidic notion of Teshuvah
The rabbinic notion about teshuvah can be summed up as: “Just say no". Hasidism suggests a different path, where we acknowledge our mistakes, accept the truth about ourselves, and work to transform who we are. In three sessions, we will explore this Hasidic notion of change.
9/5;9/12;9/19 at noon on line sponsored by Ritual Well.
In person at the Manhattan JCC evenings, dates TBA
Song
mikdash melekh ir melukha kumi tzi'ee mi-tokh ha-hafekha
Images of a city in ruins and hopes for a better day from the hymn Lekha Dodi
appropriate for Tisha be-Av, for the Ukraine and for our world in general.
