On the festival of Shavuot, we connect to the figure of King David, “David, King of Israel, lives and endures.” David was born and died on Shavuot, the 6th of Sivan, and on this day, it is customary to read the Scroll of Ruth, which deals with David’s lineage and ends with the verse, “And Boaz begot Oved, and Oved begot Yishai, and Yishai begot David.”
King David received from God the crown of kingship, for him and for his descendants, forever. The faith and the anticipation of the true and complete redemption, which accompanies the people of Israel throughout all generations (a hope thousands of years old), is bound together with the renewal of the kingdom of the house of David. These are captured in various statements that have become staples of Jewish faith: “I believe in the coming of the Mashiach,” “Speedily cause the offspring of David Your servant to flourish” (the King Mashiach is from the seed of David, and within him rests the soul of David himself), and as we welcome Shabbat every week, “Shake yourself from the dust, arise. Don your garments of splendor, My people. By the son of Yishai of Bethlehem. Draw near to my soul, redeem it [alluding to the imminent redemption of each individual soul, and the redemption of all Israel and the entire world].”
Rectifying the State of Israel Following the Path of the Son of Yishai
It is incumbent upon us today to rectify the State of Israel following the path of King David. Even before we merit the actual revelation of the King Mashiach, we must strive to place the son of Yishai in the lead. This is an allusion to a passage from the Talmud that states that God said to Yerovam ben Nevat. Yerovam was a dissenter from the House of David, who was originally tasked by the prophet Achiyah with founding the Northern Kingdom of Israel that included 10 of the 12 tribes. However, to cement his sovereignty and sever the people’s dependence on the unifying Holy Temple in Jerusalem, Yerovam built centers of idolatrous worship in his territory. As a result, the sages describe the following interaction between God and Yerovam:
“Repent, and I, you, and the son of Yishai will stroll in the Garden of Eden.”
He said to Him [Yerovam to God], “Who is at the head?” “The son of Yishai is at the head!” “If so,” he responded, “I do not want [it].”
Yerovam had good qualifications for leading the Northern Kingdom of Israel; he could be a successful administrator—but only on the condition that “the son of Yishai is at the head.” Today too, the rectification of the “State of the Jews” in the Land of Israel can only happen through a shift in mindset leading to the appointment of leadership (the head) with a rectified consciousness (head, thought, and worldview). By correcting the head, the entire people and the entire state are rectified, as the Talmud states, “the whole body follows the head.”
What is the path of “the son of Yishai”? What are the primary traits of the desired leader? He is filled with utter faith in God and in His Torah. As King David says, “I have chosen the way of faith; I have set Your judgments [before me]” (דֶּרֶךְ אֱמוּנָה בָחָרְתִּי מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ שִׁוִּיתִי). He “contemplates the Torah and performs its commandments” with all his heart and always prays for God’s salvation: “For I am prayer” (וַאֲנִי תְפִלָּה). He is full of trust in God alone: “I have placed my trust in Your kindness” (וַאֲנִי בְחַסְדְּךָ בָטַחְתִּי), and from all these he is filled with self-sacrifice for his people seeking to meet all their needs, physical and spiritual. He unifies and binds the entire nation together: “When there was a king in Yeshurun, when the heads of the people gathered, the tribes of Israel unified together” (וַיְהִי בִישֻׁרוּן מֶלֶךְ בְּהִתְאַסֵּף רָאשֵׁי עָם יַחַד שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל), where the initials of the words “the tribes of Israel unified together” spell “Yishai” (יִשַׁי). He is the king referred to as “one of the people” (אַחַד הָעָם) who makes the people one. Of course, he is not immune to mistakes, but he is a master of teshuvah and knows how to confess his sin and repent by openly stating “I have sinned before God” (חָטָאתִי לַה') as dictated by the Torah’s description of the expected conduct “When a king sins” (אֲשֶׁר נָשִׂיא יֶחֱטָא). Happy is the generation whose leader confesses his sins and repents, with humility and lowliness that finds favor in the eyes of all: “And I will be lowly in my own eyes” (וְהָיִיתִי שָׁפָל בְּעֵינַי).
The rectification of the State cannot be achieved only through changes in the systems of government; it must start with adopting an inner spirit of return to God: “The people of Israel will ultimately do teshuvah at the end of their exile, and immediately they will be redeemed,” both personal return to God and a collective one, together. Following the return to the Land of Israel in recent generations, its resettling, and the beginning of the ingathering of the exiles—we must now reach the essential point: “And He [God] gave them [the Jewish people] lands of nations… so that they might keep His statutes and observe His teachings” (וַיִּתֵּן לָהֶם אַרְצוֹת גּוֹיִם… בַּעֲבוּר יִשְׁמְרוּ חֻקָּיו וְתוֹרֹתָיו יִנְצֹרוּ), and to place at the helm of our collective a figure of truth and faith who expresses the connection to God—“a king from the house of David who contemplates Torah and engages in the commandments”—who leads the redemption forward. This must be a figure whom all desire to emulate, for the king is “the heart of the entire congregation of Israel,” and within the heart of every Jew there is a longing to be like him.
“For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, and they will dwell there and possess it. And the seed of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will dwell in it. For the conductor, of David, for remembrance” (כִּי אֱלֹהִים יוֹשִׁיעַ צִיּוֹן וְיִבְנֶה עָרֵי יְהוּדָה… לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד לְהַזְכִּיר). The true leader aspires “to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty” (לְתַקֵּן עוֹלָם בְּמַלְכוּת שַׁדַּי) and lifts his eyes today toward the future vision of, “They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God, just as waters cover the ocean. And on that day the root of Yishai, which stands as a banner for the peoples, to him the nations shall seek, and his resting place shall be glorious” (לֹא יָרֵעוּ וְלֹא יַשְׁחִיתוּ בְּכָל הַר קָדְשִׁי כִּי מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ דֵּעָה אֶת ה' כַּמַּיִם לַיָּם מְכַסִּים. וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא שֹׁרֶשׁ יִשַׁי אֲשֶׁר עֹמֵד לְנֵס עַמִּים אֵלָיו גּוֹיִם יִדְרֹשׁוּ וְהָיְתָה מְנֻחָתוֹ כָּבוֹד).
Four main areas within the government and state systems currently require fundamental changes at the root-level: the government leadership, the army, the judicial system (the Supreme Court), and the media.
In each of these four areas, we must place “Ben Yishai at the helm,” meaning a change of mindset and of leadership—one that will lead the people in a path of righteousness. When, with God’s help, we succeed in rectifying them, we will find that things fall into place peacefully, that the disputes between us will end, and that HaShem will help us overcome our external enemies and bless us in all our endeavors.
The Four Heads of the Year
These four areas of government and state are alluded to in the opening Mishnah of Rosh Hashanah. In fact, in Hebrew Rosh HaShanah literally means a change of head, or a change in mindset:
There are four New Years: The first of Nissan is the New Year for kings.
The first of Elul is the New Year for the tithing of animals. The first of Tishrei is the New Year for [reckoning] years. The first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree.
Let us elaborate on each according to the order in which they appear in the Mishnah.
A New Head/Mindset for the Government
The first of Nissan is the New Year for kings and for festivals: this refers to the rectification of the government and its leadership (the king in the literal sense). The king leads the people toward their destiny. As the Zohar states, “When the head of the people [the leadership] is rectified, the entire people is rectified.”
In today’s reality, we must strive to appoint a prime minister (whose duties are similar to those of a king) who openly follows the path of the Torah and enjoys the trust of the broader public—“Your people Israel” (עַמְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל) who are all “believers, children of believers”; a leader who acts as an agent of God—“Who crowns kings, and sovereignty is His”—and who is entirely devoted to the welfare of the people.
A New Head/Mindset for the Security Establishment
The first of Elul is the New Year for the tithing of animals: this hints at the rectification of the army (and the entire security establishment), since Rosh Chodesh Elul is the time when the king would go out to war, as in the verse, “At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go forth.”
It must be clearly recognized throughout all levels of the army that “Ben Yishai is at the helm.” Military leadership must be subordinate to the Prime Minister in every fateful decision.
The spirit of the commander in the IDF and the rules of conduct both in bases and on the battlefield (the so-called ethical code) must all follow the path paved by David the son of Yishai, the Sweet Singer of Israel, who fought the battles of God. Then we will see the fulfillment of the words, “For Havayah your God walks in the midst of your camp, to save you and to deliver your enemies before you.”
When this spirit guides the army, the issue of yeshivah student enlistment is naturally resolved. Under the inspiration of “Ben Yishai at the helm”—a leader who goes out to war and also meditates on the Torah day and night (as per the requirement that the king keep a Torah scroll with him all his life), a leader who is a “man of war” when confronting the enemies of Israel and also engages in the so-called “[intellectual] war of [comprehending] Torah”—the brave men of Israel will enlist willingly when needed to fight and willingly enlist into study halls when needed for the “war of Torah” (which protects the people), with a sense of unity (“the tribes of Israel together”) and mutual responsibility.
A New Head/Mindset for the Judicial System
The first of Tishrei is the New Year for years: this hints to the rectification of the judicial system. The first of Tishrei is simply called “Rosh Hashanah,” the Day of Judgment for the individual and the collective: “For it is a statute for Israel, a judgment for the God of Jacob” (כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב).
In the governance of the state, the righteous king must ensure that the entire judicial system in the land operates according to the laws and ethics of the Torah of Israel, whose supreme goal is “to do justice and righteousness” (לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה)—and even the king himself is subject to the same laws as the sages rule that the kings of the House of David judge and are judged. The rectification of the judicial system is the most important rectification of the state, for the Hebrew word for “state” (מְדִינָה) derives from “judgment” (דִּין). “And I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the inception” (וְאָשִׁיבָה שֹׁפְטַיִךְ כְּבָרִאשֹׁנָה וְיֹעֲצַיִךְ כְּבַתְּחִלָּה).
A New Head/Mindset for the Media
The first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree, according to the words of Beit Shammai; Beit Hillel say, on the fifteenth of it: this fourth New Year alludes to the rectification of communication. The tree is the figurative “speech of the field” (שִׂיחַ הַשָּׂדֶה), the conversation of the trees and the conversation of animals. The Torah likens man to a tree: “For man is the tree of the field” (כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה). Man is described as a “speaker” (מְדַבֵּר) because of his singular faculty of speech, which makes conversation and communication possible. This is especially true of the Jewish people, whose “strength lies only in their mouth.”
The tree is also the Tree of Life (עֵץ חַיִּים)—the rectification of speech through words of Torah. Indeed, when the Torah is involved then even “the casual conversation of Torah scholars requires study.” Their casual conversations are likened to the leaves of the tree, about which the verse says, “its leaf shall not wither” (וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא יִבּוֹל).
Rectifying communication—on all official media platforms—demands that everything should be conducted according to the values of the Torah of Israel—speech that is relevant and focused, without slander or other vilifying or denigrating use of language. Official discourse should promote the true goals of the people of Israel according to the Torah. This is the way of the son of Yishai, like the Book of Psalms, where even the most difficult events described are permeated with faith and prayer.
Let us conclude with a beautiful allusion: “Rosh Hashanah” (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה) has a gematria of 861. Since there are four “Rosh HaShanah,” the total value is 4 times 861, or 3444. This is also the numerical value as the primordial value of the Torah’s first word, “In the beginning” (בְּרֵאשִׁית). Using the primordial value, in which each letter is set equal to the sum of letters from alef to that letter reflects the secret of “the primordial beginning of His works” (קֶדֶם מִפְעָלָיו מֵאָז).
Thus, the Torah’s very first message is that we are called upon to rectify the reality of the world that God created for His glory: “to make for Him a dwelling place in the lower realms,” through the revelation of God's sovereignty over the Kingdom of Israel on earth—arising from the clear awareness that: “Who is at the head? Ben Yishai is at the head!”
If we have faith and we truly want it, it is not an unachievable dream. “Who is at the head? Ben Yishai is at the head” has the same value as the product of “David” (דָּוִד) and “faith” (אֱמוּנָה).
