Haftorah This Week
Welcome to Haftorah This Week, the place where you will find thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on this week's Haftorah.
HAFTARAT KORACH
(I Samuel 11:14-12:22)
In the first edition of Sacred Times, David Elcott wrote of parshat Korach that we can find in it "...principles of democracy hidden in...revolution." Of Korach's challenge to Moses, he says, "[it] may be heresy for an embattled people in the desert, but ring[s] truer at the latter part of the twentieth century." He concludes, "The word of God can be located in the democratic decisions of the Jewish people if we actualize our potential for sacredness, and allow God to reside in our midst." Our love for, and trust in, democracy as the best form of government are supported, even by words which the Torah, the rabbis and God then condemn.
The Haftarah, however, rings with Samuel's dire warning. From the beginning, he has opposed the people's desire to have a king. Now that they have one, he proclaims that by insisting on a king, by exercising their need for self-determination, the people has committed a grave evil. Awed by Samuel's words, the Israelites confess, "We have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king!" (I Sam. 12:19).
The text warns us not to forget that the fact that the people has made a decision, developed a policy, or chosen a leader does not place the decision, policy, or leader above question, or even condemnation. As a society, we have taken to heart Churchill's pronouncement that "democracy is a terrible form of government, except when compared to all the others." The temptation to assume that the will of the people is always right, just and true is powerful. To this temptation, Samuel responds: "Do not turn and follow worthless things!" (I Sam. 12:21). To make an idol of the democratic process, to worship the collective will independent of the values embodied in that will, is to risk yet another form of idolatry.
(David Nelson)
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