Dvarim

We will continue with what we discussed last week – why Hashem deemed David’s oldest brother unfit for kingship. We saw how Shmuel was criticized for thinking that he knew that Eliav was the proper candidate when indeed he had seen only superficially (on some level).

Our Parasha starts with halachot that come about by going out to war. It is the king who is involved in the decision to fight and leads the nation into it. Such power can lead its possessor to conceit. That is why the Torah dictates laws whose purpose is “so that his heart not be elevated above his brothers … and so that he shall have many years in his kingship, he and his sons in the midst of Israel” (Devarim 17:20). This shows that a candidate for kingship can fall if he is guilty of the sin of haughtiness.