You shall not have many wives, you shall know amass silver and gold in excess, he shall have a copy of the teaching of the Torah written for him on a scroll, and he shall read it regularly. And then it goes on to further limit what the king can do, you shall not keep many horses, or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since the Lord has warned you, you must not go back that way again. It says, "If after you have entered the land, that the Lord your God has assigned you and taken possession of it, and settled in it, you decide, I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me, you shall be free to set a king over yourself, one chosen by the Lord your God, be sure to set as a king over oneself one of you own people, you must not set a foreigner over you who is not your kinsmen. So again, we start almost like last week, trying to put it in the context of entering the land. kingship is not that much emphasized throughout the Bible till now. Because this is the first time that not only is the Jewish people asking for a king, but frankly, we'll see in our discussion. And so I'm just going to go ahead and read Deuteronomy 17. And it is the first time that the Jewish people ask for a king. Link to Sefaria Source Sheet: Transcript: A live recording of Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz as they explore the Torah’s visceral disgust for the monarchy and how this rejection sheds light on the New Year Festival and it’s powerful message.
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