As we just heard, tonight's shiur is on מלכות בית דוד, on the dynasty of דוד המלך. And anytime we talk about malchut, any type of malchut, any type of kingship, the first source would be, obviously, the Rambam. So the Rambam wrote Hilchot Melachim. Amongst his halachot that he wrote in all subjects, he also included Hilchot Melachim, the laws of kings, which actually is the last set of halachot in the Rambam's whole, whole sefer, whole book. But before we get to the actual halachot and discussion concerning what מלכות בית דוד is all about, first just a little introduction concerning the general concept of malchut, the general concept of having a Jewish king. Actually, it's one of the mitzvot. You know we have תרי״ג מצוות, we have 613 mitzvot. One of the mitzvot is למנות מלך, to appoint a king. The pasuk says, \"שום תשים עליך מלך.\" It's a mitzvah commandment. Hashem says you shall appoint a king. And not only that, since it says, \"שום תשים עליך מלך, you shall appoint a king on you,\" the Gemara says it means שתהא אימתו עליך, his fear should be on top of you, upon you. That means that not only shall there be a king, but there is a commandment that the אידן have to actually have the proper respect and fear, using the term of the Gemara, the fear for the king. And the question that's asked is, why would there be a mitzvah that Hashem should want us to have a king? And not only that, we should have fear of the king. As far as we know, we have to have yirat Shamayim, we have to have fear of Hashem, not fear of a king, which is a human being. So why would there be a mitzvah of having fear, yirah of the king? And not only that, we find that people would bow down to a king. Even by the Jewish king, they would bow down. Now, why would Hashem want we should bow down to a human being? What's the idea behind it? On the other hand, since it is a mitzvah to have a king, to appoint a king, why is it that when Jews requested from Shmuel HaNavi that they want a king, Shmuel HaNavi was upset? And not only was he upset, Hashem was upset, and Hashem said, \"כי לא אותך מאסו כי אותי.\" Don't think that they are rejecting you, Hashem said to Shmuel, they're rejecting me. I'm their king, and they don't want me as king, they want a human being as a king. Now if Hashem made a mitzvah of having a king, then why was this wrong? To this question, there are many answers. Actually, the Rambam himself asks the question and gives an answer. But the answer that is given in Chassidus is that there are two reasons for having a king. One reason is a technical one. As we say in Pirkei Avot, \"אלמלא מוראה של מלכות איש את רעהו חיים בלעו.\" If we wouldn't have the fear of the government, of a king, people would swallow each other alive. So you have to have a king who should actually run the country. So you have to have a person who should take care of everything, make sure that people don't kill themselves, people behave properly, and there is a order of things that take place, and that's the purpose of a king. But then there's another reason to have a king, and that other reason is a more spiritual reason. The king that the Torah talks about actually is a holy, holy person. The king is supposed to be a person who is very close to Hashem. As we takeh find when Hashem appointed the first king, who was Shaul Hamelech, the pasuk says that his greatness was that משכמו ולמעלה גבוה מכל העם, from his shoulder and up, he was taller than everybody. The pasuk describes Shaul Hamelech as a very tall person, and the question is asked, so big deal, why is that such a great maalah? Why is that such a great specialty, a great quality of the king that he was so tall that everybody reached his shoulder? And the answer Chassidus gives, it doesn't mean physically. Probably that too, not probably, for sure! But that's not the maalah. What it means is that Shaul Hamelech was such a great tzaddik, his level was so high that what other people had in their mind, by him it was in the shoulder. And you can imagine his head, which means his mind and his deeper כוחות הנפש were much beyond what most people had, and therefore he was chosen to be king. It says when Shaul was chosen to be king, \"בן שנה שאול במלכו.\" Shaul was a year old. A year old when he was king? So what the Chazal says what it means is that Shaul was so pure from any sin like a one-year-old child. So a king that we talk about is a great tzaddik, a person who is very, very close to Hashem. And by the Yidden being batel, give themselves over to the king, and the king is very close to Hashem, this makes the people closer to Hashem. And that's the reason why Hashem wanted the Yidden to have a king. Not for the first reason, which is a reason, the function of a king just to run a country, but it is for the spiritual reason, to bring Yidden closer to Hashem. By being batel to the king, by having fear of the king, who has fear of Hashem, this makes the Yidden closer to Hashem and have fear of Hashem. And therefore, when the Yidden came to Shmuel Hanavi and they said, \"We want a king,\" Shmuel heard in their voices, in what in their tone, that the reason they asked for a king was for the first reason. They wanted a king not because of the second reason. And that's why Hashem was upset, Shmuel was upset, because that's not the reason a Yid should have a king. You should have a king because you want to be closer to Hashem. And that's why he said that's not what they want, so אותך מא- אותי מאסו, Hashem said, they're they're rejecting Me, they don't want Me, they don't want to be close to Me. That's not the reason they want a king. The real reason, as I said, was to be closer to Hashem. We know a king, I think I mentioned it Shabbos in shul, that a king, halacha is that when you daven Shemoneh Esrei, you daven, so there are certain parts that you have to bow down. It says a king, when he would start the Shemoneh Esrei, would have to bow down and stay that way throughout the whole Shemoneh Esrei. And the reason was not only, some say the reason was because he needed more to be careful more of, because he was the king, so it was very possible he should become a בעל גאוה, he should become arrogant, he should become, you know, a person with ego. So therefore, they had to make him bow down. But it's not only for that reason. It was because a king was a person, this expressed his level, that he was actually batel to Hashem, so he constantly stood bowing down to Hashem. And by being batel, self-nullified to the king, this would make a Yid closer to Hashem. This is the job of a king the way the Torah wants. Now, concerning kings itself, we find within this job itself, we find two types of kings. We find the regular king, and then we find a king from מלכות בית דוד, a king that would come from the dynasty of Dovid Hamelech. And in order to understand the difference between a king that came from Dovid Hamelech and a regular king, we have to learn the Rambam. That's why I said we'll start. And we'll start just, I'll just read the Rambam here from Hilchos Melachim, the laws of kings, first chapter, and we'll start with הלכה ז׳, the seventh halacha.

The Rambam says like this, and we will read a few halachos. כשמעמידים המלך, when they appoint the king, מושחין אותו בשמן המשחה, they would anoint him with the שמן המשחה, was a special oil, anointment oil, that משה רבינו made. משה רבינו made, it was never made again. And that oil lasted, was put in the בית המקדש, and it lasted, it says it's going to last forever, לדורותיכם, it was never made again. Actually, it was one of those five things that were missing in the second בית המקדש, שמן המשחה. But it says when they appointed the king, they would anoint him with שמן המשחה, and he quotes a pasuk. Then the Rambam says, ומאחר שמושחין המלך, and after they would anoint the king, הרי זה זוכה לו ולבניו עד עולם. He would זוכה, merit, he would get the right of the kingship for himself forever, because המלכות ירושה, because kingship is an inheritance. And he quotes a pasuk. הניח בן קטן, if he left a small child when the king died, משמרין לו המלוכה עד שיגדיל, they would hold the kingship for him until he would grow up. וכל הקודם בנחלה, לחלו, קודם לירושת המלוכה, whoever is first in inheritance, whoever is next of kin would be the first to inherit the מלכות. והבן הגדול קודם לקטן ממנו, and the older one would come first. The Rambam says, ולא המלכות בלבד, אלא כל השררות, כל המנויים, not only the kingship, all kinds of jobs, appointed jobs, is a yerushah, is an inheritance. Just skipping. Then the Rambam continues: כיון שנמשח דוד, after David Hamelech was anointed, זכה בכתר מלכות, he was zocheh, he merited the crown of kingship. והרי המלכות לו ולבניו הזכרים עד עולם, and the malchut from then on was for him and his children, the males, forever, שנאמר, and he quotes a פסוק, כסאך יהיה נכון עד עולם, your chair will be steady forever. And then he says, ולא זכה אלא לכשרים, he only was zocheh for the kosher ones, means people who followed the right path. And then he says, אף על פי שלא זכה אלא לכשרים, even though he was zocheh only for the kosher ones, לא תכרת המלוכה מזרע דוד לעולם, the the kingship will never be taken away from David forever. הקדוש ברוך הוא הבטיחו בכך. ה promised it, שנאמר, it says: אם יעזבו בניו תורתי ובמשפטי לא ילכו, and if your children, his children will leave my Torah, and will not go in my mitzvot, and then he continued, I'll punish them, but חסדי לא אפיר מעמו, I will never take away the chesed. In other words ה promised that David and his family, the dynasty of David, will stay forever. Then the Rambam continues next halachah: נביא שהעמיד מלך משאר שבטי ישראל, if a navi, a prophet, appointed a king from another shevet, from a different tribe, והיה אותו המלך הולך בדרך התורה והמצוה ונלחם מלחמות ה', and that king followed the walking of Torah, mitzvot, and he fought the proper wars for ה', הרי זה מלך, he is a king. וכל מצות המלכות נוהגות בו, and all the rules of a king apply to him. אף על פי שעיקר המלכות לדוד, ויהיה מבניו מלך, even though the real, the main rulership, malchut, is for David, and from his children will be a king, nevertheless another king if he follows the right way, also is zocheh with the inyan of malchut. Then the Rambam says the next halachah: מלכי בית דוד הם העומדים לעולם, the kings from the family of David, they will be the ones to last forever. שנאמר, he quotes the same pasuk, כסאך יהיה נכון עד עולם, your chair will be there forever. אבל אם יעמוד מלך משאר ישראל, but if the king, if if there will be a king from another part of the Yidden, other שבט, תפסק המלכות מביתו, it'll stop from his, from his house. Then the next halacha: אין מושחין מלכי ישראל בשמן המשחה אלא בשמן אפרסמון, when they anointed a king not from David's house, they wouldn't use the same שמן המשחה, they would use different type of oil. ואין ממנין בירושלים לעולם אלא מלך ישראל מזרע דוד, in Yerushalayim they would never have another king but from the house of David. ואין מושחין אלא זרע דוד, and they would only anoint the children of David. Then he says, כשמושחין מלכי בית דוד, when they anointed from the kings of דוד, אין מושחין אותם אלא על המעיין, they would do it by a well. And the reason is, so just like a well continues and continues, so this was supposed to be a siman, a sign that his malchus will continue. These are the halachot that I read in the Rambam. Now we have to learn through a little bit of what the Rambam means here. After the Rambam says that the malchus is a yerushah, that the kingship is an inheritance and it goes over from father to son to son to go, etc., etc., the Rambam says then, that after כיוון שנמשח דוד, after David was anointed, זכה בכתר מלכות, he was zocheh, he merited the crown of מלכות, והרי המלכות לו ולבניו הזכרים עד עולם, and the malchus will be for him and his children, the males, forever. What does the Rambam mean with that? The Rambam had already said before that any king, when he becomes a king, he gets the kingship for himself and for the later generations, and I'll read the words again: מאחר שמושחין המלך, after you anoint the king, הרי זה זוכה לו ולבניו עד עולם, he's zocheh for himself and for his children forever. שהמלכות ירושה, because the malchus is a yerushah, is a inheritance. So then why does he repeat himself when he says when David became king, he was zocheh in the crown of kingship, and the malchus is for him and for his children? Well, every king we just said that becomes a king, automatically it's for him and for his children. Then why would we think David would be different? So why does the Rambam have to repeat himself? Now at first glance the peshat could be like this: When we say that malchus is a yerushah, that the kingship is an inheritance, it means that if he has a child, then then it'll go on. Sometimes you don't have a child, you have another next-of-kin, but he has to be deserving. As the Rambam says, it's only if the child is deserving. But it's possible that for some reason it won't continue. Even though the right is there, but if there is nobody for whom it should continue, then it won't continue. Concerning David Hamelech, Hashem promised, he said, I'm telling you, it will always continue. It'll never stop, because there will always be a child and there will always be somebody to continue. But that's not what the Rambam means. I'll tell you why: Because that, the Rambam says separately. The Rambam says, that's why I read all the halachot, the Rambam says in הלכה ט', מלכי בית דוד הם העומדים לעולם. He states a fact. The fact is that the kings from the house of David are going to be forever. אבל אם יעמוד מלך משאר ישראל, תפסק המלוכה מביתו. If from other kings, other families, it will not necessarily stay. From David it will stay. So the Rambam makes a separate halacha where he states the fact that the kings from the house of David will last forever. So the fact behind it that it will continue, like foretelling the future, That you should know that there will always be somebody from מלכות בית דוד, that the Rambam says here. What does the Rambam mean when he says before that the malchut that after, כיון שנמשח דוד as soon as David is anointed, he was זוכה בכתר מלכות in the crown of kingship, and the malchut is for him and for his children forever? What does the Rambam mean with these words?

The peshat in the Rambam here is in the, exactly in this, in these two words: when David was anointed, he was זוכה בכתר מלכות. David got the crown of malchut. And the Rambam is trying to tell us here something special concerning what מלכות בית דוד is. We see another expression similar, it says in the next halacha here that any king from any shevet, if he follows the path of Torah, he is a king, אף על פי שעיקר המלכות לדוד, even though the main kingship belongs to David. So the Rambam is trying to make a difference here between the king, any other king from any other shevet, and what happened after David HaMelech became king, because Hashem promised him something and there is something special that took place. And the Rambam says what took place? David was זוכה in כתר מלכות. He got this concept of the crown of kingship. The peshat is, the meaning is like this, and this gives a deeper insight in what מלכות בית דוד is all about. There are two two concepts concerning a king. One is the tafkid of the king, the the job of the king. And that job is gashmiyut and ruchniyut, as we said before, physical and spiritual, but it's all included in the job. The physical one is to run the country, to make sure everything goes fine, people shouldn't hurt each other, people shouldn't steal, etc., etc. And the ruchniyut part, like we said before, to make the Yidden become closer to Hashem, which includes to teach them the right ways, etc., etc. But that's all one thing, the job of the king. Then you have the idea of a מלך בעצם, the fact that this person is a king essentially. There is something essentially in this person that he is a king, regardless, and not because of his tafkid and not because of his job. And that is hinted in the word כתר מלכות. Similar we find or it says in Pirkei Avot and we find other places also, that it says Aharon HaKohen was zocheh for כתר כהונה. Aharon got the crown of kehunah. And it says David got the כתר מלכות, the crown of מלכות. What do we mean Aharon got the crown of kehunah? In the kehunah we find the same thing. There is the job of a Kohen, and the job is to serve in the Beit HaMikdash, to bring the korbanot, then also the job of the Kohen is to teach the אידן, יורו משפטיך ליעקב ותורתך לישראל, they are the leaders and the teachers of the Yidden. But that's not the כתר כהונה. כתר כהונה there is something essential in a Kohen, that regardless, not looking at his job, he is a Kohen. Anybody who is not from the family of kehunah is called a זר. He's called a stranger, because he is missing this essential thing. Which is to a certain degree similar to the difference between a Yid and a non-Jew. There is a tafkid, there is a job that a Yid has to do. A Yid has Torah and mitzvot and Hashem gave him a job. But in in addition to that, or on top of that, besides that, there is something in every Yid that he is a Yid. Now some Yidden do their job, thank God, and some people unfortunately don't do their job. But it doesn't take away from the fact that he is a Yid and that's an עצמיותדיקע essential thing. And so too is כתר כהונה. A Kohen is not only a person who does his job. Now that we don't have a Beit HaMikdash, and the kohanim don't have that special job, they're still kohanim. Okay, they have other things: they have the halachot they can't become טמא, they still have other things they do: pidyon haben and then they duchenen, but even if not for that, there is a concept of a חלל, but that's because the Torah said who is a Kohen and who's not. So you could have a Kohen that his father is a Kohen, but if his mother was a divorcée, for instance, and he was born accord- against the halacha, then the child loses his כהונה. But if everything is kehalacha, the child, the person is a Kohen, and that can't be lost, because that's something essential, not connected to the job. We use the same term concerning מלכות, that David was זוכה in כתר מלכות. That means that David was not only a person who became a מלך, and that is a job that was given to him. That's concerning every other מלך. A king from When the Rambam says that כהונה, that מלכות is a ירושה, it's like an inheritance. Just like concerning property, property is an inheritance. Now, we don't say that the property that a person owns became the מהות, the the the essence of the person. There is a person, and a person owns property, and the property is his, 100%. And after he passes away, that property continues to his children. And it goes on and on and on, there's no end to it. It says ירושה אין לה הפסק, there is no end. It could go on and on, unless it's sold in the middle. Well nowadays you could sell land, time of the בית המקדש, you couldn't even sell land in ארץ ישראל, because after 50 years it would come back. So, it would go on and on and on. But the concept of ירושה is that there is something that the person owns. You have the person, and he owns something. And the same thing would be with מלכות concerning every מלך. The מלכות is a ירושה. He has a certain responsibility given to him, which is his, he owns it, and he passes it down to his children. But David Hamelech, Hashem chose him and put a certain essential concept, like like putting into a Jew, putting into a Kohen, and that became his essence. And that's why the Rambam says, זוכה בכתר מלכות, with the crown of מלכות. The Rambam says in Perush Hamishnayot, an interesting thing, that any person who's not from מלכות בית דוד is called a זר, is called a stranger. Just the same expression we use concerning a non-Kohen compared to a Kohen. Now this is something new to say that you're called a זר. A person who is not a king from other שבטים is not called a זר. He is a king, and you're not a king. But you don't have the concept of זר, because his kingship is only something in addition to him. But by מלכות בית דוד, זכה בכתר מלכות, this is the concept of כתר מלכות, the crown of מלכות. And even physically it's interesting, it says that when they had a question which one of the children from מלכות בית דוד, from David's descendants, would have to become king and they couldn't always decide, they had the crown, they had David Hamelech's crown, and if it fit the size of the head of the person, they knew that this person was the king, because this is the concept of כתר מלכות, the crown of of of מלכות. And we find other places that the expression crown, even though crown seems to be something aside of the person, it's not part of the person, it's on top of the person, like a hat. Here we're trying to say that crown, כתר מלכות, means that this is his מהות, this is his being. But we find in a different place where the Rambam explains the crown the same way. In Hilchot Teshuvah, when the Rambam talks about what the נשמות, what the Yidden do in Gan Eden, so he quotes the expression from the Gemara: צדיקים יושבים, the צדיקים sit, ועטרותיהם בראשיהם, and their crowns are their are on their heads, and they sit ונהנים מזיו השכינה, and they have hana'ah, pleasure, from this glory of Hashem. And the Rambam explains: what do you think, they have a crown? Crown is a physical thing, they don't have a crown. And what do you think, they sit? They sit on a chair? We're talking about נשמות in Gan Eden, souls, which is spiritual. The Rambam says these are all expressions to show a certain concept. And concerning the crown, he says, what does that mean? It means it becomes part of them. It surrounds them, and the Rambam says it means it becomes part of their da'at, part of their understanding, that they become united with what they see, with what they feel, and that is referred to as the crown. And the same thing here, when it says כתר מלכות, it means that this becomes part of David. So now when we look at it, there is a complete difference between other מלכות, we're talking about Jewish king, not only lehavdil goyishe king, that's a complete different story, Jewish kings, but other מלכות and מלכות בית דוד. Other מלכות, it's since it's not part of the מהות of the person, then it's not eternal. It could be continued, and could not be continued. But since this became the מהות, then this is something that can't stop. Just like the concept of a Yid is something that goes on forever. A Kohen, Kehunah, is something that can't stop, because this became an essential thing. So too מלכות בית דוד, the pasuk says, he quotes the pasuk here: חסדי לא יופר ממנו, He'll never take it away, because it became an essential concept which became the מהות of the family of David. When did this start, the specialty of מלכות בית דוד? So it starts that dates back all the way to the time of Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov Avinu, in his bracha that he said to Yehudah, he said like, לא יסור שבט מיהודה ומחוקק מבין רגליו, that the ruler should not be taken away from the house of Yehudah, which meant, as the Ramban says, that Yaakov gave a צוואה, Yaakov gave a will, this was right before he passed away to his children, that the מלכות should always be in the family of Yehudah. And it then later it pinpointed to David Hamelech, but it started all from Yaakov Avinu yet. There is actually an argument here. The Ibn Ezra and the Abarbanel, they learn that it wasn't a צוואה, a ציווי, it wasn't a command, it was just an expression of hope. But the Ramban says no, the Ramban says that it wasn't, it was a ציווי. And the Ramban explains that in that case, how could there be other kings if Yaakov Avinu commanded that there should only be kings from Yehudah, how could there be other kings? And he says other kings didn't really, weren't really kings. The other kings from other שבטים were only like rulers, like a president, like somebody who a governor, but not the הלכה of a king, which is definitely not the opinion of the Rambam, because we learned before that the Rambam says that a king from any שבט is a king. But nevertheless, there is a difference between the king from מלכות בית דוד and the king from other שבטים, but it all dates back to Yaakov Avinu. There's another place where it says the Gemara in Sotah says where this why Yehudah and later on it pinpointed to David, why they were zocheh to the מלכות, because by קריעת ים סוף, it says the שבטים, all other tribes, were afraid to go into the water. They came to the water and Hashem said, \"Continue,\" but the water didn't split. So we know who was the first one that jumped in: Nachshon ben Aminadav. He jumped in and went into the water, and it came till his neck, and he continued. And that's when the water split. So Hashem said Yehudah, Nachshon ben Aminadav was the nasi, the prince of שבט יהודה, so since שבט יהודה was the one that went into the water, so Hashem said, \"That's why I will give him the balebatishkeit.\" Later, that time it still didn't come out בגלוי, it wasn't revealed because it didn't happen yet. You had other נשיאים, you had Moshe Rabbeinu who was not from שבט יהודה. By the time it came to David, that's when Hashem said, \"Now it will come into reality this idea that the real malchut is by only from שבט יהודה, only from David.\" This explains a a question that we find concerning מלכות בית דוד. When we learn Tanakh, we find that there there was the revolt that Adoniyahu made against his father, and really what he really wanted was to take away the malchut from Shlomo. Shlomo was supposed to be the king after David, so still in David's lifetime, Adoniyahu got people together and he proclaimed himself as king. Then the whole story, we have it even in the Haftarah, the Navi, Natan HaNavi came to David and then Bat Sheva, the mother of Shlomo, came afterwards to speak to David: \"Didn't you say that Shlomo will be king?\" And he said, \"Yes.\" And the end was they crushed, so to speak, the revolt, and he said Shlomo would be king. And the Tanakh continues and says that he appointed Shlomo as king already. In other words, it seems from the Tanakh that Shlomo became king in the lifetime of David. And that's not understood at all. We have a rule: אין שני מלכים משתמשין בכתר אחד. You can't have two kings wearing one crown. In other words, you cannot have two kings. Now, sometimes we do have a king and an assistant, a משנה למלך, or a second to the king, or sometimes the Gemara calls it קיסר ופלג קיסר, a king—קיסר is from the word Caesar—king ופלג, and half a king. The Gemara even has an idea concerning Mashiach: when Mashiach will come, Mashiach will be the king and David HaMelech will be his assistant. So we do find a concept of two kings, but that's a case where one is king and the other one is not; he's just second. But here, Shlomo HaMelech actually became king, it seems. He called him king; it didn't say, \"You're second in command.\" So how could you have two kings at the same time: David and Shlomo? And the question is even stronger: Because we find that when the time for David HaMelech came to pass away, David begged Hashem, 'Please let me continue to live.' And Hashem said, 'The time for your son Shlomo's kingdom came, and therefore you have to leave this world.' And the Gemara says Hashem said to him, 'אין מלכות נוגעת בחברתה אפילו כמלא נימא.' One מלכות does not touch, does not interfere with the second one's מלכות, even a thread, a hair, and therefore the second he is supposed to be king, that second you're supposed to leave. In other words, what we're saying here that you cannot have two kings at the same time. And concerning the same two people we find that David Hamelech appointed Shlomo as king in his lifetime. How does that fit? And the answer is, based on what we said before, when we're talking about not having two kings, that's when we're talking about the תפקיד. That's talking about the job of the king. You can't have two people running a country, and the moment the time for one to run, the other one has to leave. But here we're talking about something else. The מלכות בעצם, the essential concept of king, which was in David, and then it continued into Shlomo, that could have been told and given over to the world even before David Hamelech passed away, and for that you could have two people at the same time. You can't have two people running the country, but you could have the גילוי, the revelation of who is the next king, who continues the מלכות, as far as מלכות בעצם, the essential part of king, that could be. By other kings, that can't be, because by other kings there is no such thing as a מלכות בעצם, as an essential concept of king. A king is a job. You're appointed to be king, and that's it. And if not for the job, there is nothing behind it, nothing in a king. But concerning David and Shlomo, there is. Why? Because we're talking about the עצם, the king בעצם. And being that, like we said before, it's an essential thing, therefore, this is something that is eternal. And for that reason, we find another difference that I read before in the Rambam between the kings from מלכות בית דוד and other kings. The Rambam says מלכות בית דוד they would anoint with the שמן המשחה. Other kings they anointed with simple oil, שמן אפרסמון. I don't know the English word for it, in Yiddish it's balsam oil, English is also balsam like balsam oil. Another difference, from מלכות בית דוד they would do it by a מעין, by a well, and not regular מלך. And the reason is, because only by מלכות בית דוד is it something that's eternal and has to be. And therefore it was by a מעין, just like a מעין flows and is supposed to flow forever, so too the מלכות of David flows forever, but other kings, it wasn't by a מעין because it doesn't have to go forever. And the same thing is concerning שמן המשחה. שמן המשחה is something that lasts forever. It says in the Torah, when Hashem said to Moshe 'Make the שמן המשחה,' He said, 'This will be לדורותיכם, this will be for all generations.' It was never made again and never will be made again. What they were they're going to use for the kings that will come, and I assume, not I assume, for sure, the one that's going to be anointed with that שמן will be Mashiach, and that's why he's called Mashiach. The word Mashiach means the one that's anointed. So they'll use the same שמן המשחה. So שמן המשחה represents eternity, and therefore, only for מלכות בית דוד did they use the שמן המשחה, not for other melachim.

This is the reason we find concerning David Hamelech the expression that Hashem chose David. Now we're used to the term choice, when you choose somebody for a certain position, we also use the term choice. But we know that in the Torah, when it says the word ואבחר, בחירה, choice, that is something that's very essential. When we talk about the Yidden, the connection between the Jews and Hashem, we always use the term bechirah. Hashem chose us. אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, You chose us. ובנו בחרת, You chose us. And we always use that term to show that it's something beyond limits, beyond reason, it's choice that comes from the essence of the one that chose. I don't want to go into that subject, I think we spoke about it once in one of the the classes here. But choice always represents the essence as beyond all other limitations that are details from the side. And concerning David Hamelech, it says ואבחר, השם says, 'I chose David.' We find that term concerning the בני ישראל as a whole, Hashem chose us, because it's something that's eternal forever. We find another place where it says Hashem chose, it says Hashem chose Eretz Yisrael for the Yidden. The expression in the Midrash is, Hashem says, I chose a nation, I chose a land, let Me give the chosen land to the chosen nation. So He gave us Eretz Yisrael. But more than that, we find the word choice concerning Yerushalayim. It says Hashem chose Yerushalayim. And therefore Yerushalayim is holy forever, forever. The Rambam says that even while the בית המקדש is destroyed, nevertheless, the kedushah of Yerushalayim, and mainly Yerushalayim we talk about the מקום המקדש, the place of the בית המקדש, is still there. And that's why we're not allowed to walk up the הר הבית, not allowed to walk on the mountain now because we're tamei, and all the laws apply even after it's destroyed. We do find the expression choice also concerning משכן שילה, which was the mishkan that they put up after came into Eretz Yisrael, and for 14 years they still used the mishkan of the desert, and then they put up משכן שילה. It stood for 369 years. But there it also said a choice. But there's a different choice. There are two concepts in choice. Sometimes you choose, like I said before, the simple meaning of choice, which is choosing for a purpose. And then you have choice which expresses the essence. When Hashem chose Shiloh, it was for a purpose. And therefore, after the בית המקדש left Shiloh, there is no more kedushah in the place of Shiloh. It doesn't say any halachah that now, when we come to Shiloh, we can't walk on the place where the Mishkan stood. I don't know if they know where it is or not, but even if you would know, just like there's no halachah that when you walk to the desert now, to Sinai Desert, and let's say we would figure out a place where the Mishkan in the desert stood, it was there for 40 years, so it stood many places, and let's say we find out where it stood, there is no prohibition in standing on the place. And the same is with Shiloh, even though it does use the term bechirah. Because that's bechirah we would call בשם המושאל. בשם המושאל means a borrowed term. What's another word for it in English? A term which is not not a שם התואר, not a description, a real description, but it's a term that we use. So we use bechirah. But the real bechirah, which expresses the an essential concept, that is only concerning Yerushalayim, and that is concerning David Hamelech. And that's why we see an interesting thing: when David Hamelech when Shlomo finished building the Beis Hamikdash and he davened, so he started saying that Hashem thought of a place and He chose my father David to build His house. And the mefarshim ask, he's talking about the Beis Hamikdash, why does he mention the choice of his father David? But the answer is, what he wanted to show is that when did the Beis Hamikdash get its real choice, which means that there is an eternal kedushah in the Beis Hamikdash? Only through Hashem choosing David Hamelech. When Hashem chose David Hamelech and that brought the kedushah into David, which is an eternal thing that goes off from generation to generation and it's forever, through David came the kedushah to Yerushalayim, whatever reason Hashem had that it should be connected to David. And this is the kedushah of of of the concept of מלכות בית דוד. We say it in the haftarah. Look if there is a siddur. Well, here is a siddur. We say in the berachah of the haftarah that we say every Shabbos. So here we say: שמחנו השם אלקינו באליהו הנביא עבדך, make השם us happy with אליהו, meaning bring אליהו, ובמלכות בית דוד משיחך, and with the malchut of David. And then we continue, כי בשם קדשך נשבעת לו, because You swore with Your holy name, שלא יכבה נרו לעולם ועד, that his candle will never be extinguished. And when you say a shevuah, what's the idea of a shevuah? What's the idea of swearing? Everyone knows even legally, if you're under oath, you're more careful what you say. Why? If a person could lie, what's the difference if he swore? But it says that swearing is something that touches the עצם הנפש. For some reason, it says when Hashem said in the עשרת הדברות, in the Ten Commandments, לא תשא שם השם אלקיך לשוא, don't mention Hashem's name in vain, that means don't swear false, it says the world trembled. It's something that's something special. So it says that shevuah always is connected to the essence of the person. When Hashem swore in His holy name that the candle of David will never be extinguished, that means that it's from the essence of Hashem, and it brought an essential thing into the world of this מלכות בית דוד.

And this is one of the things that Mashiach will accomplish. When Mashiach will come, this will show that the bechirah, the choice that Hashem had in David Hamelech continues. Even though we don't have a king from the dynasty of David as a physical king throughout the generations, but being that we said that there is the מלך בעצם, it's not מלכות בית דוד is not only the job, so the job wasn't there, but there was definitely in every generation a person who is that מלך בעצם, but it's not revealed. Sometimes we could pinpoint that this person who the leader, he didn't have a din of a melech, but he's from the family of David and he is that מלך בעצם. But when Mashiach will come, that will be revealed and we will see the king Mashiach. And that's why the Rambam in Hilchot Melachim here, when he talks about Mashiach here at the end, he connects Mashiach with David Hamelech. And he says that we have two meshichim, two Mashiach's. Now, at first, if someone would hear of two Mashiach's, who would you imagine would be the two? I would imagine Moshe Rabbeinu and Mashiach. Because Moshe Rabbeinu took the Yidden out of the first galut, and Mashiach will take the Yidden out of the last Galut. So, he's also Mashiach. The Rambam doesn't say that. משיח הראשון, the first Mashiach, is David HaMelech. And משיח האחרון, the last Mashiach, is משיח צדקנו. Because this is all one המשך. And when we see the beginning even when the Rambam talks about Mashiach, it's interesting how the Rambam starts off. The first words about the laws of Mashiach, the last two chapters of Hilchot Melachim talks about Mashiach. In some prints, in the first print of the Rambam, in some manuscripts they'll also be found that the title of these two פרקים is called Hilchot Mashiach, laws of Mashiach. I'll read you the first line. המלך המשיח עתיד לעמוד, the king Mashiach will in the future will come, will be, he will get up, ולהחזיר מלכות בית דוד ליושנה, he will bring back מלכות בית דוד to its original state. As if this is the main thing of Mashiach, he will bring back מלכות בית דוד. Because מלכות בית דוד is an essential thing, it has to continue and has to be, because Hashem said so. Just like Klal Yisrael has to continue, and the Beit HaMikdash has to continue, and Eretz Yisrael is an essential thing, מלכות בית דוד, and this happens through Mashiach. And therefore all other kings in between, even if they had a halacha of a king, but they didn't have the כתר מלכות. And just to touch upon one point just for a second, something that we always talk about, what were the Chashmonaim? After they conquered Eretz Yisrael again, they took it away from the יוונים and they established the מלכות, the Jews had a king again, but they were not from מלכות בית דוד. They were Kohanim. They were from Levi. So according to many opinions, they didn't have a halacha of kings. Besides the point, the only way you could be a king על פי הלכה is if a navi participates in making you a king. There was no navi at that time. It'd be interesting that there are some mefarshim that say that this was the reason why, some say this is the reason why later on they were all killed. Herod killed the whole family of the Chashmonaim. Some say another thing, this is the reason why we don't find in the Mishnayot, it's an interesting thing, in the Mishnayot we find a a masechta, a tractate, on Pesach, on Shavuos—okay, it's not exactly because there's nothing really talk about Shavuos—on Shabbos, on Yom Kippur, Sukkos, Rosh Hashanah, Purim, Megillah, every Yom Tov has a whole Gemara. Not Chanukah. So the Chatam Sofer says that the Rebbe who was who wrote the Mishnayot was upset. The Rebbe came from מלכות בית דוד. He was upset at the Chashmonaim why they took the מלכות. They should have helped the Yidden and then given the מלכות over to מלכות בית דוד, they didn't. So he was angry at them, and therefore he didn't, he left them out, he just mentioned them by the way. In the Gemara we find two daf, but that was it. Now, other mefarshim say it's not so. The Rebbe once spoke by a farbrengen, and he says he doesn't accept that teirutz. What do you mean, they did something wrong, they were great tzadikim. So the truth is, they weren't מלכים. That's the the accepted answer. They weren't, they didn't have an halacha of king. Because the real kings was מלכות בית דוד. Even though we said before, if there would be a navi, there could be a king from another shevet also. But the bottom line we're trying to bring out here is that there is something special in מלכות בית דוד as there is something special in a Yid, as there is something special in kehunah, there is a atzmusdike essential thing in the dynasty of David, and this is going to be revealed when Mashiach will come. And we don't have to wait much longer, soon he'll be here and we'll be able to see it with our own eyes. Any questions? Yes. In different parts of different Yidden, different parts for different shevatim. So the real king is David, and then for other shevatim, which would be similar to a governor, things like that. Another question: you said about Kabbalah, you know, chochmah. So, if the essence of the כהונה is being a child, even though they can't perform the job, they'd all have the essence even because he's not considered a child of כהונה. No, געטשקעס, no, not to make him to a god. Is there any limit of how much respect or how much kavod you should have for the king? But not, chas v'shalom, to make him for a, to a god, because that's avodah zarah. But to to respect him because of his kedushah, and through him to get more kedushah, get closer to Hashem, that's a mitzvah. That's what the mitzvah was. This is the basic idea of chasidim and a Rebbe. In the class we had on the role of a Rebbe, I explained based on the for the מלך. It's not a halachah of a מלך, but the idea is the same. That you have to have a person who is very close to Hashem, and through him you can become closer. Not that he is, chas v'shalom, God forbid, an intermediate that is in between us and Hashem. Contrary, he brings us closer to Hashem. It's not that he blocks, separates us from Hashem, but he, through his being close, makes us, if we're close to him, and he's close to Hashem, he teaches us and shows us, and through, we become close to Hashem ourselves. So, he is what we call a ממוצע המחבר, a ממוצע in between which connects, rather than a ממוצע המפסיק. Sometimes in between separates, you have no connection to the top. You connect to him, and he connects to the top, but you have no connection directly. By a king, of מלכות בית דוד or any other king, it connects, he helps you to become close to Hashem. kings, in this way, we're takeh lacking something. But there's always something similar: גדולי ישראל, the צדיקים, the נשיאי ישראל. And we see takeh that the נשיאים, the leaders for many, many years were all from מלכות בית דוד. Even in Bavel, the ריש גלותא'ס who were the leaders were מלכות בית דוד, also came from Yehudah. So Right, right, so truth is we are missing something, yes. We're missing a lot of things. We're missing the Beit Hamikdash, and we're missing this, too. Right, right. Well then, David Hamelech, the father, the king himself would appoint. He said. What made Shlomo king? Okay, he was told by Hashem, but what the people knew because because David Hamelech appointed him. That's already a different thing. That's not so much the halachah of a king. Then you have to see the qualities of the person, and you have to decide for yourself if the person has the qualities that you expect in a leader, then you expect accept him as a leader, and if he doesn't have the, then it's takeh, this is a very, very hard decision to make. Usually, if Yidden accept somebody, Hashem makes that they should follow the right way. It says a lashon in Gemara: הנח להם לישראל, אם אינם נביאים הם, בני נביאים הם. Leave the Yidden, if they're not נביאים, they're children of נביאים. That means they always, we say טרעפט צו צום אמת, they always know how Hashem makes it so that they should find the right person. I don't know where it says, but it seems it seems as if this was on David Hamelech's shield. It does seem that there is a source for this. That there is that it was on his shield. This was the symbol on on his shield. I don't know if it says in a Midrash or All I know is that somebody once came to the Frierdiker Rebbe in Russia, a professor, and he asked the Frierdiker Rebbe to explain to him על פי קבלה what is the meaning of the Magen David. And the Frierdiker Rebbe said, \"I have no idea. I don't know anything about it. There's nothing that I know.\" And he didn't leave him alone. He says, \"No, I know that there is, and there definitely is, and please tell me.\" And he started nudging him. So, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, \"You know what? Go to my son-in-law.\" So, he sent him to the Rebbe. And I don't think the Rebbe was married even yet. He was just a chassan, or maybe if he was married, it must can't be in Russia. I think he was still a chassan, or maybe it was a little, but it was still in Europe. And the guy came to the to the there and told him that the Frierdiker Rebbe, your father-in-law, sent me to you, you should explain על פי קבלה the Magen David.\" So the Rebbe wrote six pages על פי קבלה to explain the meaning of the Magen David, and he gave it to him. Now we don't have it, we don't know what happened to it. So there is an explanation על פי קבלה. The reason we are now not so keen on the Magen David, putting it lightly, is because it became the symbol of the State of Israel, who use it sometimes for their secular reasons rather than for religious things. And then it became secularized and so we don't want to have anything to do with it because we can't, you know, secularize certain holy things. And also became a symbol of people who you know don't respect the Torah, so it's a different story altogether. But as far as being original originally it was, it seems like it was something special. We find other things like that too. Certain songs that Lubavitch used to sing and stop singing after other people took it over because of that same reason. We find in the Torah, there was something Hashem loved, and then he says, \"Now I hate it,\" because the goyim took it over: a מצבה. Hashem wants korbanot to be brought on a mizbeach. A mizbeach is made from many stones. But there used to be, some used to make one big rock. Now Hashem said, \"Now I don't like it.\" Why? Because the goyim started bringing korbanot to their idols on a מצבה. So Hashem said, \"I change. Now I don't want it.\" So certain things like that. So the Magen David also I'm not comparing, it's not an idol, but I'm just saying that's why we're not so keen on the Magen David, but there might I think there is some kind of source for it. Well, he definitely had the same qualities as Shaul Hamelech, and one of the main qualities he had was that always the halacha was like him. Whenever he had an argument in halacha with others, he was always right. Yeah, yeah, אדמוני, it says. The pasuk, it says, אדמוני עם יפה עינים. אדמוני means red. Yeah, that means he had red hair or or blonde hair, but there's much more to it. This is just gashmiyut. The Gemara explains what it means. It's all kinds of good middot. Then it says, השם עמו, שהלכה כמותו. So the pasuk describes exactly what he looks like, but this is not to be taken literally. It means he was a very great tzadik. Actually, it says that the neshama of David HaMelech was supposed to come down to this world to live only for a few hours. He wasn't supposed to live for long. That's how great the neshama was. And it says that Adam HaRishon gave him a present, 70 years from his life. That's why he lived for 70 years. Also it says other tzadikim gave him a present. I think it says, Yosef I think gave him a present also, 70 years. The same but it's the same 70 years. That's why David HaMelech is called a guest in this world. It says when Mashiach will come and they're going to have the big party, and they're going to serve the שור הבר and the Livyatan, the meat and the fish from the שור הבר from the big ox that is going to shed that the Livyatan will shachat, and that big fish, the Livyatan, that famous Livyatan, and they're going to give the יין המשומר, the wine that's waiting there. So it says when they're going to come to bentsh, who should bentsh? They're going to ask Avraham, he's going to say, \"I don't want to. I have a son, Esav.\" Yitzchak's going to have \"I had a son Yishmael,\" and Yaakov said, \"I'm married to two sis-\" Finally it'll come to David. David says, \"Yes, I'll bentsh.\" The custom is that when you have a guest at your meal, you give him to bentsh. \"I'm a guest,\" he says, \"in this world.\" So he's going to bentsh. There's a pasuk, it says, אשרי הגבר הוקם עול, that the person who picked up the yoke, elevated the yoke, so the Gemara said the yoke of teshuva. He brought the concept of teshuva into the world. He did teshuva for his aveirot. Besides that, he was the one that not only chose the place for the Beit HaMikdash, he actually laid the foundation and built the gates, the sha'arim. So that the the Beit HaMikdash is called on his name. It says when the the Beit HaMikdash was finished and the doors did not open, and Shlomo HaMelech davened to Hashem, nothing helped till he mentioned his father David, that \"My father David is the one that made it.\" That's when they opened. It was in the zechut of his father David. So David really built the Beit HaMikdash. And it says had David himself built the whole Beit HaMikdash, it wouldn't have been destroyed. It couldn't have been destroyed. It says Moshe would, if Moshe would have built it, it wouldn't have been destroyed, or if David would have built it. Because whatever David did was נצחי, was eternal. And it's all based on the idea that his מלכות that was given to him is eternal, so he is like an eternal person that whatever he did is eternal. And that's the reason we say דוד מלך ישראל חי וקים. We say David, he's alive. Now we know every tzadik after he passes away, is called alive. צדיקים במיתתם קרויים חיים, why do we say it on David? Because David was the beginning of this dynasty which is eternal, and therefore it's living forever. Yes. Could you identify סוכת דוד הנופלת? Why does it say sukkah? On Sukkos we say הרחמן הוא יקים לנו את סוכת דוד הנופלת, השם should pick up the sukkah of David that fell. Simple pshat, that means the Beit HaMikdash, because the Mikdash is called סוכת דוד. It's called, we say it in in Tehillim it says also it's called a sukkah, the Beit HaMikdash is called a סוכה, סוכת, ופרוש עלינו סוכת שלומך, anyway, so that's what the simple pshat is. It also has other meanings, ברוחניות, but the simple pshat is the the Beit HaMikdash. Somewhere it gave to say this, David made gates. They were never destroyed, they sank into the ground, right. Yes. Rabbi Schochet, didn't they also say that David HaMelech was not permitted to build the Beit HaMikdash or to complete it, because דם רב שפכת. Because of the blood. Hashem said, you will not build it because you spilled a lot of blood. Even though he had to, it was, but still, you can't. Your son Shlomo, who will be a ish shalom, a person of peace, and that's why his name was Shlomo, from shalom, he will be the one to build, right. Okay, one more question, I guess we'll finish, yeah? You mentioned that everything with David was נצחי. It makes me think of the the son that he had that died early on, the baby that died. Bat Sheva's first child? Avshalom? Yeah. How would how would that look in the the part of, I guess it's really What's the difference if he died young or died old? How would How is How is that not Why, is he not נצחי? And he himself died, he's not נצחי? We don't mean physical life, it means the inyan, is the ruchniyut the ענין נצחי. Also it's a part of teshuvah, yeah. But it doesn't mean בגשמיות, because if נצחי, it makes no difference if you die, a person a child is young or a child is person 70. Part of it is teshuvah, it's also teshuvah. All right. Thank you very much