THE KING OF ISRAEL: with Rabbi Yisroel C. Blumenthal
Why was the tribe of Judah chosen for the Monarchy and The Messiah?
Why not one of his other brothers, like Joseph, who was the Viceroy of Egypt, the second most powerful person in the country?
The Monarchy in Israel is historical part of the legacy of the tribe of Judah in Israel. This is significant because the Jewish Messiah, who will be a remarkable human being, will also be a direct descendant of King David and his son King Solomon, and he will restore and assume the throne of Monarchy as King in Israel in the near future.
Why was the tribe of Judah chosen to produce the kings of Israel—and why will the future Messiah also come from Judah?
What will be so special about the personal character of the Messiah, King of Israel? Is this a character trait that we should all try to emulate? Or is it impossible to attain this quality?
Discover the Torah's profound insight into kingship, leadership, humility, and the unique character that defines the future King of Israel. Judaism teaches that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David, restore the Davidic monarchy in the near future, and inspire the world through righteousness — not through supernatural miracles and claims.
Rabbi Yisroel C. Blumenthal is an Educator and the Director of Judaism Resources (hosted at https://judaismresources.net/ and associated with the project 1000 Verses) which is an educational non-profit website designed to explain traditional Jewish beliefs and respond to Christian missionary arguments from a traditional Jewish perspective.
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This video explores the spiritual and psychological connection between the tribe of Judah and the quality of leadership. It examines how the act of admitting mistakes—the core meaning of the name \"Judah\"—is the essential foundation for true royalty and effective leadership.
Monarchs, kings in Israel come from the tribe of Judah, Yehudah.
King David comes from the tribe of Judah.
The Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah.
Our patriarch, our forefather Jacob, in his blessing to his children,
Genesis 49 tells us that kings will come from the tribe of Judah.
We understand, our teachers taught us,
that the name Judah, the Hebrew name Yehudah,
is associated with this quality of royalty, of kingship.
What does Yehudah mean?
Well, Yehudah's mother, Jacob's wife Leah,
she gave him this name by saying,
This time I will thank the Lord.
This is in Genesis 29, Chapter 29, Verse 35.
Thanking, in Hebrew, the word for thanking is admitting, acknowledging.
Because when you thank someone, you're admitting and acknowledging
that you benefited, that you were blessed from this person,
that you got something from this person.
So when Leah said,
This time,
means to acknowledge and admit she's thanking Hashem,
she's thanking God, she's thanking the Lord.
And this is the name of Judah.
Somehow this is associated with royalty.
Our teachers, our sages took this one step further
and they taught us that the point in history,
the point in time when Judah became the father of kings,
was in a situation where he admitted a wrongdoing.
In Genesis, Chapter 38, Verse 26,
Judah admits a wrongdoing,
it was embarrassing for him to admit that wrongdoing,
but he did so anyways.
And at that point, our sages teach us,
that's when he became the father of kings.
Now what does admitting a wrongdoing,
what does admitting a mistake have to do with royalty?
And perhaps we can understand it this way.
A king, a leader, needs to have two qualities,
two character traits,
which seem to be opposites of each other.
They seem to be diametrically opposed.
On the one hand, a king, a leader,
needs to be someone who knows how to ignore
the opinions and the talk of other people.
Let's use Abraham Lincoln as an example.
During the Civil War in the United States,
Abraham Lincoln, he understood
what the United States stands for,
what the experiment of democracy is all about,
and he felt and he understood
that if he'll just allow a bunch of states
to secede, to leave the Union,
then the experiment of democracy failed.
Throughout the years of the Civil War,
he kept on being criticized
by people from close to him
and people from far from him.
What's the big deal?
Let these people, let these states go away.
Let them ignore about this.
What's the point?
In order to be a good leader,
he had to ignore the criticism,
ignore the talk,
ignore the quote-unquote advice
that he was receiving from people around him,
and stick to the cause,
put in front of his mind
the good of his country,
the good of his nation,
and ignore the criticism.
On the one hand, a good king
has to be someone who knows how to ignore.
He's not going to be swayed by the pain
of changing the course
just because people are talking to him
and people want him to change course.
On the other hand,
a good king, a good leader,
has to value every one of his subjects.
He has to value every citizen in his country.
If he sees no value in people,
he's going to be a cruel monarch.
He's going to be stepping on people.
Who is this person?
Why should I care for him?
On the one hand,
he has to have deep value
for every citizen of the country,
for every subject of the monarchy,
of every subject of the king.
On the other hand,
he has to have basically no value for their opinion.
He can't value only on the merit
of the opinion itself,
but not because that person said it.
So on the one hand,
he is giving, attributing value to people.
On the other hand,
he's not attributing value
to the opinions of people.
But in order to be a good king,
good monarch, a good leader,
he has to have value for himself.
Now let me explain.
Why do we have difficulty admitting a mistake?
People, even when they admit a mistake,
they say but with an excuse.
They try to find mitigating factors.
Why is it so hard to admit a mistake?
And the reason it's so difficult
to admit a mistake is
we have this need to see ourselves
as valuable and significant
and producing and important.
And we tend to associate
our importance and our value
with our deeds, with our words.
So if we admit a mistake,
we say something that I did yesterday,
something that I said yesterday is wrong.
That's minimizing our integral value.
Our intrinsic value goes down.
If you made a mistake,
that means you're not valuable.
But that's a wrong way of looking at life.
It's a wrong way of looking at yourself.
The correct way to look at yourself is
you're valuable because you're valuable,
not because of what you said,
not because of what you did.
You're valuable simply because
you were a child of God.
You are valuable and significant
and important regardless of what you said or did.
What you said or did
is a different story.
So if a person sees himself in that light,
that he values himself for himself,
not for any reason,
not because of anything he said or did,
such a person has no problem
admitting a mistake.
Okay, I made a mistake.
I did something wrong.
I could have done something very wrong
and extremely terrible.
But that doesn't change who I am.
I am valuable because I am valuable.
So a person who has this quality,
that he's able to admit a mistake,
truly admit a mistake,
without any excuses,
say, I did that,
is someone who knows how to value himself
for no outside reason
but the fact that he is a human being
created in the image of God
and at the same time,
not value his actions.
If his actions are deserving of criticism,
let them be criticized.
If they're deserving of being pointed out
as wrong and as evil, let it be so.
Such a person could be a king
because if a person looks at himself that way,
he's able to look at other people that way.
He's able to see the intrinsic value of people
and not attach value to the deeds
and to the words of people
simply because the people said it
or the people did it.
That is the quality of a leader.
A leader needs to be someone
who's not swayed by the opinions of people.
He's not swayed by the words or the deeds of people.
At the same time, he has to be someone
that values people.
So yes, Yehuda, admitting mistakes,
acknowledging is an integral part
of being a king.
That is why Judah is the father of the kings
because admitting mistakes,
which is what the word Judah means,
the ability to admit and acknowledge,
that is the core of what it is
to be a good leader and to be a good king.
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