Before Am Yisrael settled in Eretz Yisrael, Hashem told them, “You may appoint a king, but with the following conditions …” and the Torah goes on to list what kind of person the king must be, things he is not allowed to do: have too many horses, wives, money, etc. Then the Torah tells us that the king has to write “Mishneh Torah.”
According to the Gemara (Sanhedrin 21b), a king is obligated to write two Torah scrolls. The first is kept in storage in the king’s treasury, and the second functions as an “accessory” to the king, attached to his arm and accompanying him wherever he goes (except to unclean places) as a constant reminder to unswervingly adhere to the laws of the Torah.
This model of the “King-Torah duo” can be found elsewhere in the Torah. The Mishna (Avot 4:13) and the Gemara (Yoma 72b) say that three vessels in the Mikdash have crowns: the Mizbeach HaKetoret (Incense Altar), the Aron (Ark of the Covenant) and the Shulchan (Showbread Table). The crown on the Mizbeach belongs to Aharon and his descendants; the crown on the Shulchan belongs to King David and his descendants, and the crown on the Aron can be claimed by anyone who wishes to study the Torah.
The Aron in the Holy of Holies was a repository for the luchot, among other things – a jar of mann, the flowering staff of Aharon, and a Torah scroll. The Aron is the “treasury” of the Torah which has no familial or royal claims; anyone who wants to delve into the Torah and study it can claim the crown. The Aron (in the first Beit HaMikdash at least) did not budge, like the first Torah scroll the king is commanded to write and store in his treasury.
There was a second “Torah scroll” in the Heichal (Sanctuary) that was not a permanent fixture – the Menorah. The purpose of the Menorah, symbolic of the Oral Law, was to radiate the light of the Torah from the Aron out to the rest of the world. Alongside the Menorah was the Shulchan, a symbol of royalty linked to King David. Both the Menorah and the Shulchan were mobile, not permanent fixtures like the Aron. On Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot the Kohanim would bring out the Menorah and Shulchan to show to all of Am Yisrael.
This is the same model of the King-Torah duo described above in this week’s parsha. – The king (Shulchan) with the Torah accessory attached (Menorah), and the second Torah scroll in the Treasury (the Aron).
To better understand the symbiotic relationship between the king and his Torah “accessory,” we need to examine the relationship between the Menorah and the Shulchan.
The Menorah and the Shulchan stood alongside each other in the Heichal, just in front of the Parochet (Curtain), behind which was the Aron. The Menorah was at the southern end and the Shulchan at the northern end (Bava Batra 25b). The question is which vessel served which? Did the Menorah serve the Shulchan or vice versa?
One would think that the Shulchan, a symbol of royalty and material wealth, is there to serve the Menorah, the light of the Torah. However, this is not what the Torah tells us. In Beha’alotcha (Bamidbar 8:2) it says “Speak unto Aaron and say to him, when you kindle the lights, the seven lights should illuminate the ‘face of the Menorah.'” Rashi (ibid.) says that the “face of the Menorah” is the central stem and the thee wicks on either side pointed towards this central stem. But this commentary is problematic, because the verse says that all seven wicks illuminated the “face of the Menorah.'” The Rashbam (ibid.) says that all seven wicks were tilted to light up the Shulchan, which is the “face of the Menorah.”
The relationship between the Menorah and the Shulchan was not that of one being subservient to the other but rather that they serve each other. The Menorah shone its light onto the Shulchan. The Shulchan reflected this by “lighting up” its panim (face). The shape of the Lechem Hapanim was a smile (Meir Panim). The spiritual Menorah shone the light of the Torah onto the Shulchan and gave it direction and purpose. The Shulchan in return fed the Menorah from its material produce with oil to produce light.
This world cannot exist on spirituality alone; it has a material component, and for the two to exist in the service of Hashem they must work symbiotically with each other. Both the Shulchan and the Menorah faced the Aron. Their symbiosis is channeled to serving Hashem.
Appointing a king was not an idyllic situation. The true and only King is Hashem. The initiative to appoint a king comes from Am Yisrael, but the Torah recognizes that this world requires materialistic leadership – someone to build roads, someone to wage war, etc. Therefore, the Mikdash and the royalty must contain both a spiritual and a material element working together in tandem.
The king had to have two Torah scrolls, one stored for safekeeping in the treasury “on a pedestal” as it were, like the Torah scroll in the Aron. This symbolized the purpose and the ultimate direction. The second Torah scroll, like the Menorah, was a “traveling” Torah scroll. It accompanied the king wherever he went (as the Menorah was displayed together with the Shulchan to Am Yisrael on the three Festivals). This was a mobile, living Torah that was not only physically attached to the king’s arm but was “plugged in” to his soul, guiding his every step and radiating Torah out to the rest of Am Yisrael through his leadership.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: The verse says, “Justice, justice you shall pursue (Devarim 16, 20). Why does it say the word “justice” twice?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: The parsha tells us, “You shall rejoice in your festivals” (Devarim 16:14). What does “rejoice” mean? The Sefer HaChinuch (488) connects this with the mitzvah of bringing a Korban Shelamim (Peace Offering) in the Mikdash and involves eating meat, drinking wine, wearing new clothes, giving fruit and “sweets” to the children and the women and, when the Mikdash existed, also playing various musical instruments in the Beit HaMikdash, specifically mentioning Simchat Beit Hasho’eva on Sukkot. Now that the Mikdash no longer exists, the meaning of “joy” is for the men to drink wine and for the women to dress in nice clothes. The Sefer HaChinuch ends with the Torah warning us to also include and look out for the poor, the converts and the weak.
