From Nimrod to Gideon
The first appearance of kingship is in parashat Noach. The Torah describes Nimrod, the king of Babylon, who was utterly wicked. Kingship is a central concept in Torah and the fact that its inception is one of the worst examples illustrates the principle that many concepts follow the order of, “darkness precedes light.”[1] Creation too began with a state of “the earth was chaotic and void,” a shattered reality, and then man was created to pick up the pieces and put reality back together again. In fact, there are innumerable examples of how chaos precedes order and darkness precedes light in the Torah. When the first appearance of a concept is negative, it will usually be followed by someone who is tasked with remedying the situation and transforming the darkness into light.
Specifically regarding Nimrod, who was the king of Babylon, the sum of his name (נִמְרֹד) and the name of his kingdom (בָּבֶל) is “darkness” (חֹשֶׁךְ).
Let’s continue with a bit more numerical analysis. One of the ways to calculate the value of a word is to use “primordial numbering” (מִסְפַּר קִדְמִי), which means that the value of each letter is set to the sum of all the letters up to and including that letter. The value of alef remains 1, but the value of yud (אבגדהוזחטי) becomes 55, and so on. The primordial value of both Nimrod (אבגדהוזחטיכלמנ אבגדהוזחטיכלמ אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקר אבגד) and Babylon (אב אב אבגדהוזחטיכל) is 1256, which means that the primordial part (1256 minus 328, the normative value of Nimrod and Babylon, as above) is 928, which is the value of “A new Torah” (תּוֹרָה חֲדָשָׁה), “A new Torah shall issue forth from Me”; revealing that sequestered within their darkness is a great and innovative light waiting to be revealed. This principle is described by the verse, “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” and demonstrates that there is a special advantage and superiority to light that comes out of darkness.
A Nation of Priests Does Not Need a King
Let us give one more introduction on this matter: one of the most righteous of the Judges, if not the most righteous, is Gideon. After he was victorious, through miracles and abundant Divine assistance, over Midian, the Israelites wanted to crown him as their king. This was the era of the Judges that came before the time of Saul and David and is a story of the pre-request for a king made by the people. In the period of the Judges, the people were ripening toward a king, and one of the main milestones in this process is the story of Gideon. Gideon himself refused to be crowned, but his wicked son Avimelech seized upon the opportunity, and something quite bad came out of it. When something that is not ripe yet is called upon, the result is entirely spoiled. The next attempt at crowning a king was with Saul, who despite being described as innocent as a “one year old, when Saul began to reign,” and despite being at root a tzaddik, he collapsed, another example of “first darkness.”
It was only when David was anointed king—David who came dragging a “box of vermin” behind him, symbolizing his flaws and failures—that something successful and positive was born from kingship.
The first attempt was with Gideon, and he refused—not I shall rule over you, and not my son shall rule over you; Havayah shall rule over you. What does this teach us in general? There are commentators who explain that as a first-principle, the Jewish people are not supposed to need the institution of the king at all. It is supposed to be, as God says at the Giving of the Torah, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” meaning a kingdom led by priests. If the people accept the priesthood—that is, the teachers of the spirit—as their leadership, they can become “a holy nation.” That is God’s original intent.
The mitzvah of appointing a king applies only when “and you shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations.” With Saul it was even worse for the people’s request led to God telling Samuel, “it is not you they have rejected, but Me they have rejected.” It is said that the mitzvah of appointing a king is, like the law of the beautiful captive woman, “only in deference to the evil inclination.”
God yields to the evil inclination when the nation is not holy causing everything to deteriorate. This might be because of corruption among the priests or among the rabbis, or because the people are not willing to yield to authority. This leads to a negative form of anarchy. But our real goal is that when Mashiach comes, we will ultimately merit a rectified form of anarchy, which will not require guardians of the law, only advisers. For us, this ideal state is called natural consciousness. The moment the first-principle desire for “a kingdom of priests” fails, it turns into anarchy, and God prefers the rule of a king to destructive anarchy. Thus, appointing a king is a non-ideal situation, one that is necessitated by reality.
[1]. Shabbat 77b.
