TOO MANY HORSES

                      It is written in the Torah that “When you come into the Land… set a king over you; only he shall not have too many horses for himself, so he will not return the people to Egypt in order to increase horses, for Hashem has said to you, you shall no longer return on this road again. And he shall not have too many wives, so that his heart, not turn astray; and he shall not greatly increase silver and gold for himself. (Shoftim 16-17)

A Jewish King is not permitted to indulge in too many horses or too many wives nor to greatly increase his stores of silver and gold.  We may well understand the warning given with respect to the accumulation of wealth because of the challenges this poses and the warning against too many wives because of the complexities it creates within royal household. But it is far more difficult to fathom why our holy Torah has chosen to create a separate and distinct warning about having too many horses.  Are they not merely another form of wealth?  Why horses more so than any other possession?

Our Torah explains that it is specifically the accumulation of horses that would cause the people to return to Egypt (Mitzrayim). Why?  On a pragmatic level, Mitzrayim is the primary breeding ground for the Arabian horse, considered to be the most magnificent of all of the breeds. These horses have long commanded huge sums of money and are sought after and praised for their prowess and strength. Therefore, it would seem that if the king of the Jewish nation were to collect vast numbers of these horses, the Torah’s warning could well have practical consequences in that the king would set the direction for commerce and trade towards Mitzraim.

While this approach to an understanding of these verses may have practical appeal, there are other explanations which we will now explore. To better understand  this section fo the Torah and how they relate to our personal lives, we should first consider the teaching of our Sages that each of us rules over the “small kingdom” – that is oneself.  It may be helpful to visualize this “small kingdom” as  a small “nation” whose resources flow from three major centers corresponding to three major organs – the brain, the heart and the liver whose roles are crucial to the development of the mind, emotion and physical energies.

And who is the king of this microcosmic kingdom?  That is ideally the soul (neshoma) – the leader within us that governs and directs our inclinations – Thus the word  king (melech) is an acronym  for the three major organs: The (m)em corresponds to the (m)oach/mind; the (l)amed corresponds to the (l)ev/heart; while the (k)af corresponds to the (k)aved/liver.

The mind (moach) is the throne of the intellect which governs the thought processes. Its two upper faculties are wisdom and understanding. When these faculties are properly balanced they coordinate synergistically to produce knowledge (da’as).  The lev/heart is the pump that circulates life sustaining blood throughout the entire body. To nourish our spiritual existence the heart, as the seat of the loftier emotions, propagates those motivating forces which consist of a range of  moods and dispositions, from inspiration and joy to fear and sorrow.   The third of these essential organs is the liver (kaved) that filters and purifies the blood on the physical level, while on the spiritual level it ideally refines and sanctifies the physical desires for use in the service of Hashem.

With this introduction we can now infer that the Torah’s reference to the Jewish king is also a beneficial prescription for every individual for establishing the proper balance in life.

 

Horses, particularly those connected with Mitzrayim, epitomize the symbol of strength and prowess on the physical level. These qualities parallel the attributes of the natural instincts of man (nefesh behamis). This potent nature if harnessed constructively can be a tremendous asset in the pursuit and fulfillment of one’s goals in life. However, such an energy must be used judiciously, avoiding “racing” too fast or recklessly. Thus the Torah has provided a “warning sign” not to acquire too much , so to speak, “horse-power” in order to stay safely within the spiritual “speed limit.”

Next, the Torah commands the king not to have too many wives. The husband-wife relationship belongs to the heart (lev), because it is motivated by the loftier emotions that emanate from the heart such as love, loyalty and devotion.  Too many wives symbolizes a lack of this unity.

Then the king is warned that he “shall not greatly increase silver and gold”. Besides its monetary value, silver corresponds to chesed which is rooted in wisdom whereas gold symbolizes gavurot whose roots are in understanding. Wisdom and understanding are crucial tools for positive growth, however, the single-minded accumulation of intellectual assets or material wealth without a corresponding accrual of humility and submissiveness in the acknowledgement of the Source of these blessings can lead to an unbalanced portfolio with insufficient resources allocated to spiritual values.

Ironically, the Torah permits the establishment of a king and yet almost at the same time warns against the possible consequences. Now perhaps we can better understand the meaning of this seeming dichotomy by noticing the inverted order that is written in the Torah. Horses listed first, correspond to the liver (k)aved; then wives are listed paralleling the heart (l)ev; and finally silver and gold relating to the attributes of the mind (m)oach. The Torah is thereby teaching us that living a lifestyle that pursues “too many and too much”, chas vi-shalom, inverts/transforms the power of the kingship (m)e(l)e(k) to the state of  humiliation and disgrace k)e(l)e(m).

To avoid this and dedicate his thoughts, words and actions purely to the service of  Hashem,  the king is commanded to write two Sefer Torah: “It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so he will learn to fear Hashem his G-d, to observe all the words of the Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren and  (so that he will) not turn from the commandment right or left, so that he will prolong his years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel.” (Shoftim 17:18-20)

Through following this prescription we coronate Hashem as the King of kings thereby bringing closer the geula and the rebuilding of the holy Temple (Beis HaMigdash), may it be soon in our days.

 

AN IDEAL TIME TO ENHANCE OUR INVESTMENTS

                  

            “When a man departs from this world, neither silver nor gold, nor precious stones nor pearls escort him, but only Torah study and good deeds…” . “…Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold, says Hashem, Master of Legions.”  Avos 6:9

                         

                 Like someone who counts and recounts their most valuable financial holdings, the Almighty counted and then recounted us again in the Torah, as Rashi reveals to us: that because of G-d’s love for our nation, He counted us frequently. The Ramban says: it was also a great honor for each person to give their name as an individual to Moshe and Aharon. The Sforno adds: that everyone’s name was Divinely inspired to indicate each person’s personal virtues. Let us attempt to derive from the census taken three times in the midbar of the shevatim, together with the names of their princes and the position of each shevet in relationship to each other, a paradigm of our Nation as the Creator’s most valued “asset”.

Taking the liberty to use investment parlance in parallel to our Nation will make more visceral our comprehending the uniqueness of our role in this life. It is generally recognized that in order to maximize one’s investment returns, a preferred strategy is to diversify one’s assets. This is achieved by choosing a wide variety of stocks and bonds from various  economic and geographical  sectors. Many financial institutions have created  “fund families” that do this for the investor by buying  stocks, bonds and other assets that correspond to the various  goals  of  the investor to increase his holdings, maximize future potential and minimize risk. An individual portfolio is the sum total of his or her financial investments.

Just as proper financial investing needs structure and diversity, so we clearly find with the Torah’s delineation of each the various Shevatim. Each Shevit can be seen as corresponding to  a specific “fund sector” with all of the Shevatim together making up the entire gamut of a potentially perfect supernal “investment portfolio” for the Creator. The princes of each Shevit/fund therefore can be seen as corresponding to the “fund managers”, while the members of each Shevit corresponding to the individual “shares of stock” allocated to each of the funds which, B’H, split many times over the ensuing centuries. The marching positions of each Sheivet could be seen as parallel to the various “economic sectors” in which each fund is invested and the resting position corresponding to the “geographical  market” in which the fund is located.

And now let us ask how is the  value of these “funds” measured? – It is through the “production” of  mitzvoth and ma’asim tovim that the value of  the  “stock”  increases and the overall Heavenly “portfolio” grows.

Unfortunately at various junctures in the historical road map for “investment strategy” parts of our nation’s performance was not always sterling causing our “assets” being downgraded. This has in turn caused a weakening in some of our investment “sectors” due to our inability to fulfill certain mitzvoth while in galus.  However, fortunately the “C.E.O” of the entire creation has never “sold us short” and even as we function with a less than ideal portfolio – ie. without our Beis Hamikdash with its many precious mitzvoth – causing our “financial statements” to be less than ideal, we have remained the Creator’s chosen possession and  with His help there is always the opportunity for us to make good our loses and thereby regain our previous spiritual  “market position and value”.

Armed with these “investment” strategies, we can use our distinctive capabilities to maximize our spiritual assets and thus enhance our “global position” with the goal of restoring the crown of Torah soon to its proper position.

True, as the pesukim quoted above state: the silver nor gold and other treasures of this world do not accompany us to the next, but the Creator’s most precious treasure – our mitzvoth performed with ahavas Hashem, together with His  gold which we acquire through adhering to the mitzvoth of restraint demonstrating our yerias Hashem do in fact accompany us.      

   May we all merit to “invest” all our energy and capabilities profitably at each stage of our journey through life.

CONQUERING ERETZ CANAAN … AND OURSLVES

 

This week in Parshas Eikev there is a very interesting Torah portion in which Hashem promises to drive out the nations that lived in Eretz Canaan as it is written: “Hashem, your G-d will thrust these nations from before you little by little; you will not be able to annihilate them quickly, lest the beasts of the field increase against you”(Devarim 7:22). It is also written in Parshas Mishpatim (23:29-30) “I shall not drive them away from you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the wildlife of the field multiply against you. Little by little shall I drive them away from you, until you become fruitful and make the land your heritage.”

We are aroused to ask a few interesting questions of how we can possibly understand the simple reading of these pasukim which implies that the wild animals, as threatening as they can be, could be considered more of a danger to us than the well fortified, strongly armed calculating Canaanite nations? After all don’t we find that throughout history enemy nations have always posed a much greater threat than any type of wild animals? What therefore are these “beasts of the field” that are so dangerous that the Torah announces that it is seemingly preferable to allow the potentially hostile Canninite nations to continue dwelling in the land temporarily until we “become fruitful and make the land our heritage”?

 

Perhaps these Torah sections can be understood in the following way that will teach us a wondrous lesson:    Eretz Yisrael can be seen to correspond to the body for our nation and we are its soul as is alluded to within the name of Israel which is the name of both our nation and our land. How do we see the spiritual DNA of this connection?  The letters yud, shin, reish, alef and lamed which form the word “Yisrael” are amazingly the exact acronym for the names of the Avos and Imahos of the Jewish people: Yitzchak, Yaakov, Sara, Rivka, Rachel, Avraham and Leah (according to the Ari HaKadosh, Likutei Torah, Kisvei Ari, parashas Vayishlach, d’h, Vayikra es shemo Yisrael).

If this is so, then let us ask if we are the soul and Eretz Israel is the body then what do the Canaanite nations and the beast of the field symbolize?

Perhaps we can venture to say that the powerful “Canaanite nations” can be understood to correspond to that part of human intellect which views life only through a lens of intellectual understanding of ephemeral values, while the “beasts of the field” can be seen to represent those baser emotions which are concerned with corporal pleasure seeking.

The Torah is therefore perhaps giving us an awesome teaching that when a Jewish neshoma begins its entry into the realm of mitzvos, as expressed in our nations entering the land of what will become Eretz Israel, there will be waiting for us two fierce adversaries which have to be subdued and controlled or expelled: One is the powerful, well fortified intellect which uses its powers of subjective reasoning and rationalization to ratify and justify its lifestyle choices, while the other even more potentially licentious adversary is here referred to as the “beasts of the field”.

Therefore the Torah is informing us, that because the self willed intellect and the unbridled emotions will not meekly yield to this yoke without a struggle, that only as quickly as we “increase” our levels of Torah and yerias Shamiem, will Hashem correspondingly help us to safely remove “little by little” the influence of those foreign ideologies that up until now “inhabited the land”. [Of course when referring to those kinds of thoughts allowed to temporarily remain, we are only referring to only those kinds of thoughts that are in the permissible range.] From here we can derive awesome lesson in life that human mind, like the land, is never a vacuum and therefore if the intellect is not occupied with some kind of mindful thoughts it will easily become inundated with an onslaught of corporeal desires as is so evident especially in these last few generations.

May we, the Bnei Israel, all merit soon in our days to reach the ideal level of Eretz Israel, as our Avos and Emos did, where our minds and hearts will only yearn to be constantly filled with the will of Hashem.