"Every Man Did What Was Righteous in His Eyes"

I read something that Rabbi Miller zt”l said contained in the

Parsha mailing (Toras Avigdor) for Ki Savo that is so timely

to the dribble filling up the media for the past couple weeks.

* * * 

Now, if we’ll seek an illustration of how our people practiced this principle of

fearing Hashem baseiser, we don’t have to go far. We find an especial book of the

Tanach devoted to that subject, an entire sefer called the Sefer Shoftim. […]

When we study this sefer of Shoftim, we note a recurrent phrase and it’s

exactly this phrase that has misled people and has caused them to misunderstand

the entire sefer. The phrase goes as follows: בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל– In those days

there was no king in Yisroel, אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה – every man did what was right in

his own eyes (17:6).

And so here is one historian – I won’t say his name – he wrote a thirteen

volume Jewish history and he said like this: “The generation of the Shoftim was one 

of the lowest eras of our people; like it states openly, ‘Every man did what was right

in his eyes.’”

This writer learned pshat like this: he said that in those days there was no king

in Yisroel, no one to enforce the Torah laws, and therefore each man did whatever

he wanted. “Every man did what was right in his own eyes!” So here you have it

black and white, he says; they were a lawless people and the entire era is therefore

stamped as a most disorderly era

However, daas Torah is not so. Now when we say daas Torah, it doesn’t

necessarily mean the daas of the lamdanim because there aren’t many Torah

scholars today who are informed on the subject. Actually many are severely

misinformed because they followed the simple meaning of a number of statements

which they learned in their childhood and they came to the same conclusion as this

no good historian who said that it was a very low generation.

And therefore instead of making our own opinions which could mislead us,

we ought to listen to the words of the Chachomim about this statement אִיש הַיָּשָׁר

בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה . After all, the Sages of the Talmud were much closer than the modern

historians to these events. And besides, the Chachomim are the only ones who are

truly capable of assessing, gauging and explaining these events. So let’s see that era

through their eyes.

There’s a possuk in Shmuel Beis (1:18) that states, הִנֵּה כְתוּבָה עַל סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר – It is

written in Sefer HaYashar, The Book of Righteousness ... And the Gemara (Avodah Zarah

25a) says סֵפֶר הַיָּשָׁר זֶה סֵפֶר שׁוֹפְטִים – The Righteous Book is the book of Shoftim. And

why is it called The Righteous Book? Because it says there אִישׁ כָּל הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה

– every man did what was righteous in his eyes.

So it’s an upside down world! Here is a verse that people cite as a proof of the

lawlessness of that generation – “Each one did what is right in his own eyes” – and

the Gemara tells us, “No! That exact verse is the one that tells us that it was the

most righteous era because every man did what was right in his eyes!”

That changes everything. It’s an eye opener because now we have to read the

possuk all over again. This time we read it the way the Sages read it: ביַּמִָּים הָהֵם אֵין

מלֶךֶ ביְּשִ רְָׂאלֵ – In those days the Jewish people did not need a king. They wouldn’t

stand for a king who would force them to do certain things because they didn’t

require it! אִישׁ כָּל הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה – Every man was loyal to the real King, Hashem,

and everyone did what he considered right!

NOW THAT WAS THE PREFACE TO WHAT I WANT TO EMPHASIZE 

THAT YEHUDIM WERE ON A VERY HIGH (SPIRITUAL) LEVEL:

Why did Sedom need a king? Why did Yericho need a king? Because אִלְמָלֵא

מוֹרָאָהּ שֶׁל מַלְכוּת – if not for the fear of a government, אִישׁ אֶת רֵעֵהוּ חַיִּים בְּלָעוֹ – 

a man would devour his fellow man alive (Avos 3:2). 

If there’s no king, no strong authority, people go wild.

EVEN THE KINGS ALSO CAN BE VERY EVIL AND CORRUPT!

You know, in some countries in the olden days, when the king died they had

to choose a new king – they didn’t have a law that the children inherited – and

sometimes it took months before a new king was chosen. That’s how it used to be

in Poland once upon a time. What happened? In the times of interregnum (it means

the period between the kings) there was all kinds of disorder, all kinds of crime and

tzaros. […]

It’s a blessing to have law and order. You see what happens today when the

government is weak and the streets are frequented by criminals. That’s why we like

policemen who carry *billy clubs. We like that they should build big jails. […]

And therefore, since the function of a king was to maintain and to enforce the

Torah, in the times of the Shoftim the Bnei Yisroel didn’t need it because everybody

strove to do what he thought was right in the Eyes of Hashem. They were a great

nation, capable of governing themselves. It would have been an insult to them to

have a king. “I’m on the job!” That’s what every individual was thinking – he was king

of his own behavior. He was a government who enforced Torah righteousness on

himself [….]

*imagine the dichotomy between “those days” when police carried “billy clubs” and today 

 they are carrying more apparatus as if doing into war (star wars).

WE HAVE A KING, AND ON ROSH HASHANA WE WILL DECLARE OUR ALLEGIANCE TO THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE, THE ONLY ONE

THE POINT BEING THAT OUR HOLY TORAH IS ALL WE NEED TO LIVE PROPERLY.

AT ONE TIME “KINGS” KEPT THE LAW & ORDER IN THEIR FEIFDOMS, BUT TODAY

THE ‘KINGS’ (leaders of countries) ARE DEGENERATE. 

NOW-A-DAYS, PRIME MINISTERS AND THEIR GOVTS ARE EVEN MORE CORRUPT 

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ON SUCH A LEVEL, THAT EVEN RABBIS SLIGHTLY BOW THE HEAD TO A KING OF FLESH

WE JEWS BOW ONLY TO HASHEM

MORDECHAI HATZADIK DIDNT DO THAT