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This week’s Torah portion contains Thirty-Eight commandments and one of them is to appoint a king.
Interestingly, this was supposed to have been done upon entering Israel but the Jews did not actually do it until 400 years later when they asked the prophet Shmuel to pick a king! And surprisingly when they did, Shmuel (and G-d) got angry and almost refused! (Samuel 1:8:5)
At first glance this is not understood.

Why did the Jews wait so long? And why, when they did pick a king, did it anger G-d? On the other hand, if choosing a king is so aggravating to G-d then why did He command it?
Also, we see that the Jews got along fine for 400 years in Israel without a king. So why was a king necessary at all?
Finally, what does this mean to us now? Are we really supposed to pick a king?

To understand this here are two stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe. (Sipurim M’Cheder HaRebbe pgs. 128 and 236)
Sam (fictitious name) was a young upcoming businessman who, in his travels through Europe, met an attractive young businesswoman who found favor in his eyes.
At first their only connection was business, but eventually they began to really enjoy each other’s company, realized they had a lot in common; similar interests, opinions, humor, goals in life etc. and began to consider marriage.
But there was one obstacle: religion.
She was a devout, church-going Catholic and marrying ‘out’ was unthinkable. Not only would her parents disown her but she would lose her place in heaven and be eternally damned! The only solution, she told him, is that he had to change his religion.
But Sam wouldn’t hear of it. True he wasn’t particularly observant. But he was a proud Jew and not only would never deny it, he knew that marrying a gentile meant trouble. Even if he remained a Jew the children wouldn’t be Jewish, the house wouldn’t be Jewish, his parents would be heartbroken and, most important of all … Judaism was important to him.
So they separated on friendly terms, each continuing in their own direction threw themselves into their work and other interests and forgot all about what had happened.
But, because they were in the same general line of work, as ‘fate’ would have it a year later they again met and their attraction was rekindled. But this time things were different. First of all, it was in New York, Sam’s home ground, and second, Sam was much more to the point.
He told her firmly and finally that, despite his feelings for her, if she would not be willing to convert this would be their last conversation.
The girl was beside herself; conversion was out of the question… but she liked him. She explained her dilemma; they exchanged phone numbers and again parted.
A few days later her phone rang. It was Sam. He had decided that it was unfair of him to expect her to convert when she knew nothing about Judaism. He told her that in another few days would be a festive Jewish holiday called Simchat Torah. If she wanted, he had spoken to a family of Chabad Chassidim in an area of Brooklyn called Crown Heights who agreed to take her as a guest. There she could ask questions, learn and see what real Judaism was.
She agreed. She spent two days of the Holiday there and she enjoyed it. It was wonderful. The family, the Chassidim, the joy but most of all, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. As soon as she saw him enter the synagogue, she felt that if anyone could help her solve her problem it was him.
The family she stayed by made a few phone calls and, got her an appointment (called ‘Yechidut’) to speak to the Rebbe and a few days later she entered his office and poured out her heart.
She explained that she was a Catholic and Sam was Jewish and he wanted her to convert but she had doubts. Her parents would never agree and what about losing heaven and being cursed? But she didn’t want to lose him. She was torn. Should she leave him? Should she convert? She asked the Rebbe to decide.
The Rebbe was silent for a few seconds and said, matter-of-factly, “You don’t need to convert.” She looked at the Rebbe bewilderedly and the Rebbe continued. “You are not a gentile. You are a Jew.”
She couldn’t believe her ears, this was crazy. She? A Jew?
“But you don’t know me.” She blurted out. “How can you say that? You don’t know me! I’ve been in this room only two minutes. You are wrong. I’m Catholic! I was born and raised a Catholic. I go to church with my parents every Sunday. What do you mean I’m Jewish?!”
The Rebbe just looked at her, smiled and said, “Speak to your mother and ask her if you’re Jewish or not.”
That evening she asked her host if she could use the phone to call her mother long distance. When her mother lifted the receiver and said hello she said, “Hello Mother. Can you tell me …. am I Jewish?”
She figured that her mother would simply answer ‘no’ and that would be the end of it… but to her surprise her mother slammed the phone down.
‘Strange’ she thought to herself. Two days later she flew home and as soon as she entered the door she took her mother aside and asked the same question. “Shhhhh” Her mother whispered. “Tomorrow we will take a walk in the park and I’ll explain. Don’t talk about this when your father is here”
The next day after her father left for work, they went to the park and, when her mother was sure they were far from any human ear, she turned to her and said,
“My dear daughter, it’s true. You are Jewish. And so is your father, and so were our parents and their parents before them. But before your father and I met we went through the camps. The holocaust. We saw very terrible things. We survived, but barely. Then, when we met and got married, we decided that we had suffered enough because we were Jews. Your father said he didn’t want his children to suffer like that. So we changed our religion and when you were born we never told you.”
Several days later the girl returned to the Rebbe to give him the good news and the Rebbe replied.
“Congratulations, But because you entered and prayed in a Church, you must immerse yourself in a Mikvah… not for conversion but to remove the defilement of idolatry. Then you must learn the laws of Judaism.”
Today she and Sam are married, live in Haifa and have a Chassidic family with children and grandchildren making the world a better place.

The second story is about Rabbi Shalom Ber Gansberg who worked as the Rebbe’s personal helper, mostly in the Rebbe’s home.
One of the major holidays in Judaism is called ‘Succot’ The Festival of ‘Booths’. For over three thousand years Jews have celebrating this by eating all their meals for seven days in Succot which are booths with only foliage as a roof.
The Succa in which the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his wife ate their Holiday and Shabbat meals was at the Rebbes house near to his headquarters and Rabbi Gansberg’s job was to make sure everything was ready and then be on call during the meal.
After the first meal of the holiday (Jewish holidays begin at sunset) after the Rebbe left, the Rebbe’s wife, Rebbitzen Chaya Mushka, told Rabbi Gansberg that because it was cloudy outside and looked like it would rain, he should cover the Succa after they left (There was a plastic cover that could be rolled over the Succa to prevent rain from falling in) and then open it before the morning meal the next day.
Rabbi Gansberg replied that he was afraid to do so because he might forget to remove the covering (while covered the Succa was invalid). But the Rebbitzin assured him that he had an excellent memory, was very devoted, and assured him that would not forget. In any case she wanted the succa to be dry before the meal.
So, he did as he was told and pulled the plastic covering over the foliage.
But the next day Rabbi Gansberg got so busy with other duties that, as he feared, he forgot to remove the covering and only remembered when the Rebbe and his wife were seated in the Succah and the Rebbe took the wine to make ‘Kiddush’ before the Holiday meal.
He slapped his forehead in dismay and yelled “OY! Rebbe, wait!!” ran outside, rolled the plastic covering back, re-entered, apologized and announced that the Rebbe could begin the meal.
But he was heartbroken. Even though it was a small thing and nothing really bad came as a result, he felt terrible. He had let himself and the Rebbe down.
Two days later the Rebbe, noticing he was still dejected from his mistake, whispered in his ear.
“Gansberg, you can’t fix one ‘sin’ with another ‘sin’”.
He stepped back, saw the Rebbe was half smiling and understood. True, forgetting to open the covering was a ‘sin’ but being depressed about it was just ADDING another ‘sin’ ….. not correcting the first one.
The Rebbe was telling him that the only way to really fix mistakes is through joy.

This answers our questions about why appointing a King is important and why did G-d get mad when the Jews did it.

The Rebbe explains (Lekuti Sichot vol. 24 pg 104) that the purpose of a King to connect the Jews to G-d. And this is done in two ways:
The first is from ‘above’; to force the people to manifest their potential. Something like in our first story when the Rebbe revealed the girl’s true identity as a Jew.
The second is to motivate the Jews to new levels of service from ‘below’. Something like how the Rebbe inspired Rabbi Gansberg to be happy in the second story.
This is why G-d got mad when the Jews asked for a king; because they wanted only the first type of king that would not demand that they serve G-d from their own volition but would decree from ‘above’.
But really both are necessary.
That is why G-d did not mind the four hundred years they were without a King. Because He gave them time to realize the necessity of a king to bring them to the second level; serving G-d with joy and awareness.

That is the lesson for us today.

We are all impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Moshiach. Who will be a king (Melech HaMoshiach) that will accomplish what all the previous Jewish kings did not achieve; to inspire and raise the Jews (and through them the entire world) to recognize the infinite greatness, goodness and closeness of the Creator and fill the world with the joy and awareness of G-d like water fills the ocean.
But it all depends on us. We have to work on ourselves, learn Chassidut, think about G-d do as many good deeds as possible. We are standing on the merits and self-sacrifice of thousands of years. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring… Moshiach NOW!!
Wishing all our readers a Ktiva VChatima Tova. A good sweet new year!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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