Musar zu Bereschit 49:10

The Sifri quotes Rabbi Nehorai as saying that the people's request for a king was only a pretext to enable them to worship idols. The author based his theory on the words (Samuel I 8,20): "and we shall then become like all the nations." Rabbi Abravanel challenges this statement saying that if this were true how could G–d possibly have concurred in providing a king for the people when He said to Samuel: (Samuel I 8,22) "Accede to their request and crown a king for them?" Why did G–d not at least warn the people not to make the incidence of monarchy a pretext for idol-worship? I believe that such a warning is alluded to in Samuel I 8,7, where G–d told Samuel: "It is not you they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as their king." Nachmanides, referring to Genesis 49,10, where Jacob assures Yehudah that the sceptre signifying royalty will not depart from his tribe, explains that the sin of the Jewish people at the time was that they rejected Samuel who was such an excellent judge. If that were so, why did Nachmanides single out Samuel? Did our sages not say that the authority of every judge in his period equalled that of Samuel? They even considered an ignoramus such as Yiftach as being Samuel's equal in authority (Rosh Hashanah 25b)! The clearest of all our early commentators is the Ran who appears to adopt the approach of Rabbi Eliezer when he distinguishes between two kinds of leadership. 1) Authority which is based on Biblical law. The Sanhedrin was appointed to ensure the proper administration of that law. 2) The second kind of authority, which usually expresses itself in rulings which contradict Biblical law, is called הוראת שעה, decrees promulgated in order to meet certain emergencies. Our sages have said that the reason Jerusalem was destroyed was because the judges insisted on applying Biblical law (Baba Metzia 30b) when they should have taken into consideration the circumstances prevailing at the time and have made allowances before convicting certain people. There is an allusion to this in 21,9: ואתה תבער דם הנקי, "You will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent." This verse could also be translated as "you are destroying the blood of the innocent," i.e. that on occasion innocent blood is spilled by inflicting punishment on the innocent due to prevailing pressures, such as in emergencies and in times of war. Appointment of a king enables the nation to be administered expeditiously during emergencies; the king has the right to ignore certain Biblical laws. This subject is meant in Psalms 122,5: "There the thrones (literally chairs) of judgment stood, thrones of the house of David." The "thrones of judgment" are the Sanhedrin, whereas the "thrones of the house of David" refers to the thrones of the dynasty of the house of David.

לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחוקק מבין רגליו עד כי יבא שילה . It is of the utmost importance to understand the true meaning of this verse in order to be able to refute apostates, Christians, etc. Nachmanides expresses himself as follows on this subject: The meaning of this verse is not that the kingdom will never depart from Yehudah. After all, the Torah writes very clearly in Deuteronomy 28,36: "The Lord will drive you and the king you have set over yourself, to a nation unknown to you or to your ancestors." If both Israel and its king will be in exile, then they will obviously not have kings or aristocracy. History has shown that Israel has been in this condition for many hundreds of years. No prophet has ever assured Israel that it would not be exiled so that the tribe of Yehudah could continue to rule over it. What the verse does tell is that the sceptre, symbolising kingdom, would not depart from the hands of Yehudah in favour of a member of another tribe. The same is true of the second half of the verse which discusses scribes. Any scribe in Israel who is authorised by the signet ring of the king will be so authorised by a king from the tribe of Yehudah. This state of affairs will continue until his son, the Messiah, will arrive, at which time the kingdom of Yehudah will extend over all the nations. The word שבט is an allusion to David, the first king from the tribe of Yehudah, whereas the word שילה, his son, is the Messiah around whom all the nations will gather. Thus far Nachmanides.

All this is alluded to in Psalms 39,3: נאלמתי דומיה, החשתי מטוב וכאבי נעכר. "I was dumb, silent; I was very still while my pain was intense." The word דום-י-ה must be broken up so that we see that G–d decreed dumbness on the speaker in the verse. Being "silent from טוב," is an allusion to not having Torah inspiration; the only true טוב is Torah. The end of the verse describes Moses' reaction to this diminution of his intellectual/spiritual powers. According to סדר הדורות, at the beginning of his career Moses' name was שממה; it subsequently became משה. This is what is meant by Isaiah 52,13: "Indeed My servant shall prosper," meaning that Moses will be the משיח, the numerical value of the letters משה=345 being equal to the numerical value of the letters in the name שילה (a reference to Genesis 49, 10 where the word is understood to refer to the Messiah). Our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 11,3 comment on the above that the first Redeemer will have the same name as the Ultimate Redeemer. The Ultimate Redeemer will be revealed to them only to be subsequently hidden from them, just as was the case with the first Redeemer. This is supposedly also alluded to in Kohelet 1,4: "A generation goes and a generation comes."