[Avodah] Love of Israel

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, March 23, 2007 1:23 pm, Chana Luntz wrote:
: And of course the principle of giving kovod to a King is learnt out from
: Eliyahu running before Achav (see Menachos 96a) and Achav was, as we
: know, involved in Avodah Zara, among other things - so not exactly the
: most dedicated of shomrei mitzvos.  Nor was he a melech of beis David.

: And R' Mike writes
:> >From a strictly halachic perspective, obviously all those cases were
:> >cases of melachim, which is the only halachic government. Clearly, the
:> government nowadays is not a malchus

: That is in fact not so clear at all....

Just to connect RnCL's dots... Since Achav was not mibeis David, we are /not/
only talking about halachic government. Achav, an idolatrous king who ruled
despite "lo yasir sheivet miYehudah" sets a pretty broad precedent.

I therefore would think that her speculation about whether Medinat Yisrael
qualifies as malkhus is a tangent. It's irrelevent if we have a maqor for
showing respect for someone who is outside of "som tasim alekha melekh".

Or would one argue that a non-Davidic king is a qiyum of som tasim even while
being assur? I think it be mitzvah haba'ah ba'aveirah. You can't claim it's
asei docheh lav, as otherwise there is nothing left of giving the melukhah to
beis David.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter