In his brocho to Yehudoh, Yaakov identifies Yehudoh as the one who possesses malchus. What is the definition of malchus and how is it distinguished from memsholoh? A melech is someone whose leadership qualities are recognized by the people and they willingly accept his leadership. Memsholoh is where one person takes control regardless of the will and the recognition of the people he is ruling.

The Torah viewed the ideal government as one of malchus. Why? Because the idea of a human malchus—with all its severe limitations of being subject to the Sanhedrin and the Novi—is supposed to reflect in some way, the malchus of HaShem. When Shmuel confronts Shaul Hamelech, he complains that Shaul displayed a level of inferiority to Agog that was not appropriate for a melech. For even if you are low in your own eyes, you are still the leader of Klal Yisroel chosen by Hashem and you represent Hashem through your position of authority over Klal Yisroel. Although people today try to live their lives without having an authority over them, Hashem says authority figures are necessary. And the reality has to be kept in mind that this authority is coming from Hashem—not from the person himself.

A teshuvoh of the Maharam explains the difference between a father and a rebbe who can be mochel on their kovod but a melech caanot. Malchus belongs to Hashem Hashem is the only source of genuine, justified authority. He is the only being who has a right to assert authority. All human beings who possess authority are only able to do so in their function of representing Hashem. These people have no ownership over their authority.

Certain people have natural qualities of leadership—like Yehudah. The brother recognized this and accepted Yehudah as their leader—which started the whole problem between the brothers and Yosef who also was given a role of leadership in Klal Yisroel which had to be balanced with Yehudoh’s.

The necessity for human authority figures in Jewish life is undeniable. The mishna in Ovos—aseh lechoh rav—is a halacha- it is a chiyuv. The Rambam says it is necessary to have a rav even if he is less than you. The idea is that everyone has to have someone to whom he is answerable to—to whom he is held accountable by.

We spoke last week about the failing of the shvotim and how Yosef confronted them with their failure. People often find themselves in situations where they feel they have to make compromises or cut corners on their standards and morals. Once they decide to make those compromises, they then come up with all kinds of rationalizations and reasons to justify their decline. That is what Yosef confronted his brothers with when he asked them if their father is still alive. He revealed to them how they were really fooling themselves and couldn’t confront their own jealousy of Yosef. This is what all of us need—someone who has the authority to hold us to a higher standard and confront us with our shortcomings and not be fooled by our rationalizations and excuses.

There are objective rules in Yiddishkeit. We are all subject to those objective rules. As important as it is to do things leshem shomayim and not out of fear, the fact is that when there is someone who will hold you accountable, your commitment to keeping your level becomes more real and more tangible.

When Yosef was sitting in Potifar’s house faced with that overwhelming nisayon as Chazal describe, there was no shortage of rationalizations that Yosef could have come up with on the spot to justify going through with it. But he saw that image of his father and he saw clearly that there is someone that he will have to answer to. That is what stopped Yosef in his tracks. Even though he hadn’t seen Yaakov in many years, his image was very real to him. He knew he would have to answer to him. This is what kept him within bounds.

The necessity for an authority figure to be answerable to is the way the Torah viewed the ideal Jewish society. The authority figure in Yiddishkeit isn’t only a melech—it is asei lechoh rav--every individual has to chose someone above him that he needs to answer to if he fails to live up to his level.

In the modern world, democracy has shattered this concept. There is no authority figure to whom I have to answer.

The truth is that the absolute greatest authority in Yiddishkeit is the Sanhedrin. But who are the Sanhedrin answerable to? How do we know they won’t abuse their absolute authority? The Rambam writes that Hashem guaranteed us that the Sanhedrin will be honest and incorruptible. The melech is subject to the Sanhedrin and to the novi. This is why Shmuel Hanovi was able to give mussar to Shaul Hamelech and replace him with Dovid. This is why Achav had to get rid of the nevi’im and Eliyahu because they could criticize him. They were higher than the melech.

Authority is necessary in Jewish life. This is why malchus is the ideal form of government—with all the strictures and limitations set up by the Torah upon the melech. Without authority, you just to what you want and you are answerable only to yourself. That is why we find so many aberrations and deviations going on in human society today. But we have a concept of Malchus.

In Parshas Vayeishev, after the brothers sold Yosef into slavery, we have the story of Yehudoh and Tomor. At the end of the story, Tomor says “To whomever these items belong is the father of this unborn child.” She does not reveal Yehudoh’s identity. She leaves it entirely up to Yehudoh to admit, and when he does, the bas kol rang out declaring that Yehudoh is fit for malchus.

Yehudoh was faced with a difficult nisayon. He personally condemned Tomor to be burnt to death for what he assumed was a breach in morality. Tomor refused to embarrass Yehudoh, but she was letting him know that he is the real guilty party. He has to choose between retaining his position, his power, his prominence by remaining silent and going through with the execution, or publically humiliate himself by admitting the truth and losing everything. He chose the truth and was therefore zoche to malchus. Absolute authority demands a tremendous capacity to acknowledge the truth. Despite Yehudoh’s deep capacity for emes, Yosef was still able to reveal a hidden agenda that he wasn’t consciously aware of.

Yehudoh is malchus and authority figures are necessary. People resent authority figures because they prefer to do what they want to do. But Chazal tell us “Asei Lechoh Rav”. Without having someone above you that you have to answer to, you naturally wind up crossing many different boundaries.

Yehudoh is compared to a Gur Aryeh. Dovid Hamelech descends from Yehudah where malchus Yehudah began in history. Let us analyze who Dovid Hamelech was. He composed the Tehillim. People always associate him with the incident with Bashevah. But people forget that the novi testifies that aside from that one incident, Hashem declares that he had no other aveiros. He was a tremendous tzaddik.

Initially, when Shmuel Hanovi anointed him, Dovid was not such an impressive person. Shmuel himself was skeptical that Dovid was actually the chosen son of Yishai. He had all the character traits that made him a leader of Klal Yisroel because he lived his life on the highest level. Shaul was on the same magreigoh of Shmuel Hanovi in Shomayim.

Dovid and Shlomo were able to lift the entire nation to a higher standard by modeling their behavior which was on a superior level.

This idea of a society having an authority figure to whom we have to answer to and could demand more from us, was always how Klal Yisroel functioned in every era of history. This was the function of the shoftim in their time, nevi’im, and Sanhedrin. They set a standard and made the people feel they needed to live up to their expectations. When the population of Klal Yisroel became de-centralized this concept lived on with the institution of the community rav. The function of the Rav was not just to teach Torah and pasken sheilos. He also served as a standard-bearer for the demands of Yiddishkeit that everyone was expected to strive for. The leader of the community needs to be a Torah individual who made demands on his community and the community accepted his authority. It goes back to the same idea. If someone acted improperly, he would have a talk with the Rav to set him straight.

The Jewish community during the 20th and 21st century is radically different than it was in this respect. Now you can be anonymous in your Jewish neighborhood without belonging to any community and without accepting any authority figure to whom you have to answer. A lot of the problems result from this situation. People learn in yeshivos among thousands of other anonymous talmidim—lost in a sea with no anchor and no guidance—where everyone does what they want. But that is not the Torah approach to learning Torah. It used to be you identified yourself as a talmid of a rebbe. Nowadays you can simply say I went to such-and-such prominent yeshivah and that is supposed to suffice.

It is a sad and tragic situation.