[Avodah] Parshat hamelech

[Michael Makovi]

> I was struck by (Rashi's explanation of) Rav's statement (Sanhedrin 20b)
> that parshat hamelech was to scare the people but that the king did not
> really have the power to do these things.  It's hard to understand how
> Shmuel Hanavi could have said these things to the people if they weren't in
> the king's power. Has anyone heard anything on this (e.g. why this qualifies
> for mshaneh mpnei hashalom)
>
> KT
> Joel Rich

These things aren't in the kings power? I was under the impression
that they most definitely were. After all, our kings did have royal
staffs and the like, no?

But if this isn't the case, then it would seem to me that Shmuel was
telling the people what the king would do - regardless of permission
to do so. I.e., this is what will happen, stam. And we see that our
kings did far worse than what Shmuel said (but not as bad as other
kings of their time - Ahab for example refused to take the plot of
land illegally - a very un-despotic thing to do - until his wife
convinced him). Prohibitions didn't seem to stop them.

Mikha'el Makovi