Kommentar zu Dewarim 17:16

לא ירבה לו סוסים HE SHALL NOT MULTIPLY HORSES TO HIMSELF — but he shall have only what is sufficient for his carriages, in order that he shall not cause the people to return to Egypt, because horses come from there, as it is said in the history of Solomon (1 Kings 10:29) “And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty” (Sanhedrin 21b).

HE SHALL NOT MULTIPLY HORSES TO HIMSELF — “except what he needs for his carriage, in order that he cause not the people to return to Egypt, because horses were obtained from Egypt, as it is said, And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty.”¹¹¹I Kings 10:29. This is Rashi’s language. But I have this difficulty regarding it, for the Rabbis have said in Yerushalmi at the end of Tractate Sanhedrin:¹¹²Yerushalmi Sanhedrin X, 9. — On Yerushalmi see Leviticus, p. 192, Note 44. “You may not return there for settlement, but you may return for business, for goods, and for conquest of the land.” And so, if the king should send men and buy horses and chariots there, it would be considered “trading” and would be permissible! It is then possible that Scripture admonishes [the king] not to increase his numbers of horses even from his own Land, or from the land of Shinar, or by way of permissible trading, in order that he should not put his trust in his chariots, because they are many, and in his horsemen, because they are exceedingly mighty,¹¹³Isaiah 31:1. but his trust shall be in the Name of the Eternal.¹¹⁴See Jeremiah 17:7. Then he admonishes the king not to cause the people to return to Egypt, to have his servants and people there as overseers of cattle dwelling in the cities for the chariots¹¹⁵I Kings 9:19. On Solomon’s conduct in this matter see “The Commandments,” Vol. II, p. 330. to the end that he should multiply horses, similar to what is said of Solomon, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots etc.¹¹⁵I Kings 9:19. On Solomon’s conduct in this matter see “The Commandments,” Vol. II, p. 330. And thus he had in Egypt, as it is said, And the horses which Solomon had, were brought out of Egypt; also out of Keveh, the king’s merchants buying them etc.¹¹⁶I Kings 10:28. for no one was allowed to export horses from Egypt without permission from the Egyptian king and they paid him a tax for them. To Solomon, however, Pharaoh gave the right to export horses, meaning that he could take them out at will, and he could transfer that right to whomever he wished and keep the tax. He also had merchants stationed in Egypt buying all horses and sending to their lord [Solomon] those that he wanted and selling the others to kings of other countries. Thus it is said and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Aram, did they bring them out by their means,¹¹¹I Kings 10:29. that is to say, they took them out through Solomon’s merchants, and it was to him that they gave the tax.

רק לא ירבה לו סוסים, “only he shall not acquire for himself too many horses, etc.” The meaning of the restrictive word רק is inserted to teach that although by adopting the monarchy as your mode of government, something which makes you more like the nations of the world, and I have given My approval, there are certain tools used by monarchs the world over to reinforce their power that such a Jewish king must not use. They are: 1) not to amass too many horses. It is a boast of gentile kings to view their military strength in the number of horses and chariots they own. Nachmanides questions this rationale, basing himself on the Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 10,9) in which possible return by Jews to Egypt is discussed and the prevailing view is that whereas it is forbidden for Jews to settle in Egypt, if they visit there as part of their business dealings this is quite in order. Therefore, if the king sends a delegation to Egypt to acquire horses, this is viewed as a commercial activity, and is permitted. He adds further, it is possible to explain our verse as a warning for the king not to amass too many horses even if they have been born and bred in the land of Israel. The definition of the words דרך סחורה, “a commercial transaction,” in Nachmanides’ view, means that the king must not acquire these horses because he considers himself armed superbly by owning a cavalry, but that the purpose in acquiring them is not for war but for peaceful commercial pursuits. The king’s actions must reflect that he places his trust in Hashem, not in man-made defensive or offensive weaponry. Moses follows the warning about the amassing of horses by the king, by a warning not to lead his people back to Egypt (already mentioned in Exodus 14,13), i.e. he is not to employ Egyptian servants at his court, in his army. The thrust of the whole paragraph is that Jews, who when first in Egypt were discouraged by Joseph to serve as officers in Pharaoh’s army, should retain their primary vocations, just as then they had been cattle-herders, now they would become farmers on their own land.