Today in class we discussed the difference between the laws in the Torah and the constitution. This idea made me think of the general differences and similarities between the secular and Jewish world. This week in class we also talked about what the king had to do and could not do back in the times of the Naviim. The King was not allowed to have too many horses, wives, or money. The wives might lead him astray, the horses might bring them back to Egypt (where G-d did not want them to go), and the money might make haughty (as would the other two). These restrictions were mainly for the purpose of keeping the king grounded. The King cannot forget that G-d is the one in control; the one he must follow. He must understand that his mission as king is to direct the people to follow the ways of G-d and to act as a role model for the people. To help make sure the king does not forget this, he is obligated to write a Sefer Torah (must have two) and he must read from it everyday. If he follows these rules then corruption can be prevented and all will be well.
Shlomo did not follow these rules. He broke them all. He had tons of money and horses and way too many wives. These wives even influenced him to worship their gods. His punishment caused a great amount of corruption; what G-d's rules for the king were meant to avoid. Shlomo's precious kingdom was split into two and the stories of sins and corrupted kings begin from there.
If Shlomo had followed these simple rules then all of this could have been avoided. Even in the secular world today, these rules could have come in handy. This very week Prince Harry (yes, he's not a king but he's still royal) was caught partying and inappropriate pictures of him from that night ended up on the Internet for all to see. This was a great embarrassment for not only Prince Harry, but for the entire royal family. Many English citizens and people from all over were appalled to see P. Harry acting in this reckless manner. It's hard to view Harry as a role model now that he is known as a partying playboy. So too, when the people of Bnei Yisrael saw Shlomo doing whatever he wanted with numerous different women, it was probably hard for them to view him as a role model who was supposed to be helping them get closer to G-d. Dictators all over the world have been recently fighting wars against their people because the people are displeased with them. They have taken too much money from their people causing not only angry citizens but the existence of corruption in their country as well.
I would have liked to find an example where a leader having too many horses these days would cause problems but that is proving to be a little difficult…
Basically, the rules G-d gave the kings make sense. They would even help out nowadays. It's a shame that Shlomo could not follow them because it would have made the book of Malachim a lot more pleasant.
I totally agree with you, Alyssa. I just want to add that the reason Shlomo thought he would not fall into the usual traps of man (greed, haughtiness, lust) was because G-d blessed him with a good sense of judgement and he was very intelligent. The fact that Shlomo thought he was enlightened was a trap in itself. If the rules of the king could be slightly modified where they are written in Parshat Shoftim, and maybe a commentary mentions this somewhere, I think they should be rewritten with extraordinarily intelligent kings in mind. It is a proven fact that too much intelligence in one person (that goes unchecked) can lead to haughtiness and corruption. It should be a law that kings are required to have spiritual and political advisers so that they do not fall into the traps they thought they would be invincible to because of their intelligence.
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