Rabbi Yonason Johnsonis the founder and director of the MAOR Centre, Melbourne, dedicated to spreading Torah learning and the wellsprings of Chassidus through innovative Shiurim and written and video content www.maor.com.au
No leader is perfect. Since he is a human being, every leader is fallible. And because we don’t all think alike, a leader can never satisfy the will of all of the people all of the time. Not everyone will agree with the decisions being made and we will always find things to criticise about their decisions and how they handle matters. But the alternative is far worse.
In discussing the reason behind the Torah’s prohibition against cursing the leader, the Sefer Hachinuch gives a fascinating insight on the fundamental need for democratic leadership and how dangerous undermining this authority and process can be.
The Sefer Hachinuch writes that it is not possible to have a functioning society of people, without appointing one of them to be the leader and to follow their laws and directives. The reason for this is because by nature, everyone has different views and opinions, making it impossible for there to ever be consensus on any matter. This would paralyse the society, because they would never be able to make decisions or act.
Therefore, he continues, it is necessary to appoint and accept a leader and to accept to follow their decisions, whether we agree with them or not. Sometimes the decisions will be good and beneficial and sometimes, in hindsight, they may be bad decisions. But this situation is better than Machlokes—fights and division, that would result in nothing getting done at all.
In addition to this benefit, the leader is responsible for making decisions to ensure the protection and safety of the population, from both internal threats of violence and external threats from hostile neighbours.
As such, the Torah prohibits us from cursing the leader. We need to respect the position and responsibility that they carry and the fundamental benefit that the institution of leadership provides. Otherwise we undermine the fabric of a productive, unified society, leading to stagnation, civil breakdown and anarchy.
In the Holy Land, in recent years, we have witnessed first hand the paralysis of the country that ensued from the inability to govern and run the country, as we went from one election to the next. Budgets were held up, decision making and the strength of the army and security institutions were hampered. And ultimately there was no leadership to allow the very real (including life-and-death) issues facing the country and its population to be addressed. Surely even a “bad” government is better than the situation of having no functional government at all.
Then, even after a strong coalition that could finally govern the country was formed, there were agitators that sought to undermine the democratic process that reflected the will of the majority. The democratically-elected government, reflective of the will of the majority, made decisions to institute judicial reform. But those who did not agree with the decisions, turned on the government and brought paralysis to the country with the protest movement shutting down civil services and transit and weakening the army with calls for service refusal.
In no small measure, this destabilising led to the breakdowns that allowed the Simchat Torah massacre to occur. Our enemies saw a fractured nation, a weakened ability for the government to lead and make decisions, weakened morale and spirit and a compromised security institution. Don’t take my word for it, listen to the words of our enemies who have stated this openly.
Tragically, after the initial months of unity where we rallied together behind the army and the government’s decision-making, we are right back where we were 12 months ago.
Now, in the midst of an existential war against those who seek to destroy us, is not the time to undermine those who carry the awesome burden for the security and safety of 8 million citizens and have to make daily life-and-death decisions that none of us could envy having to make. Now is certainly not the time to destabilise and paralyse the country.
Instead of turning on the Hamas murderers who killed the six hostages הי“ד last week, a loud minority has turned on the government instead. They have undermined the democratic process turning to outside nations to pressure the government to make decisions that are not in the national interest. They have once again shut-down civil services, blocked roads and weakened the nation. This only rewards the terrorist organisations and G-d forbid encourages more terror.
This is the message of the verse in Parshas Shoftim that in matters of doubt on what to do, we must go to and follow “the judge who is in those days”. Why does the Torah add “who is in those days”, which other judge could we go to? The sages teach that Yiftach in his generation is like Shmuel in his generation and Moshe in his. Even if we dislike our leaders and disagree with their decisions, even if they are not like the great leaders of the past, they are the leaders
There will come a time of reckoning, where the leadership should be held to account for failures and bad decisions. There will be elections where the will of the people will be voiced. But do not “curse the judge” and paralyse the country with a breakdown of leadership.