One of the great questions that the world has always grappled with is the limits of authority. Without authority, anarchy reigns, and therefore it is essential that there be an authority that will bind the public. However, here lurks the danger of exceeding authority and abusing authority in an inappropriate way.
This week's Torah portion deals with precisely these issues. It opens with the command, "You shall appoint judges and officers for all your gates," goes on to detail the authority of the Great Court, and states: "And you shall be careful to do according to all that they command you." We are commanded to obey the halachic rulings of the Court. But alongside the obligation to obey, clear rules have been established that define the limits of authority.
The Torah further details the obligation to listen to the voice of a true prophet. Here too, is this authority not limited? What protects us from impersonating a prophet? The Torah gives us rules on how to identify a false prophet, and instructs us to punish him with all the severity of the law and not to fear him – "You shall not turn away from him.".
The obligation to provide explanations
One of the principles of the Torah that protects us from the misuse of authority is the statement that a prophet or rabbi cannot abrogate a mitzvah from the Torah. Rabbis are often expected to change laws, abolish mitzvahs, and the like. And this is precisely where the limits of authority are crossed – if a prophet or rabbi were to abrogate a mitzvah, not only would the abrogation be invalid, but in doing so he would be testifying to himself that he is not worthy of being called a prophet or rabbi.
The obligation imposed on every Jew to study Torah also protects us from exceeding authority. The rabbi may be great in Torah, but there are also scholars in the public, and they too know how to open a book. If they recognize that the rabbi is, God forbid, departing from the Torah's precepts, they will demand answers and explanations from him, and the rabbi must reply, "Where did you get it from?".
A rabbi's authority does not derive from his personality, power, or status; it derives from the Torah. This is a huge difference. A person who says: "Thus I teach, and you must obey me" – puts himself at the center. In contrast, a rabbi who says: "Thus the Torah teaches, and I convey to you its rulings and laws" – puts the Torah at the center.
Furthermore: Maimonides states (Hilchot Shegagot 13:5) that if a court erred in a matter of law, and a Jew acted according to its instruction, even though he knew that it was an error, then if he is a native of the land, he is exempt; but if he is a "sage or a student who has attained to teaching" – he cannot blame the erroneous act on the court!
Beware of loss of trust
All of this illustrates the system of checks and balances established by the Torah, so that there is indeed authority, but that it is not abused. The rabbi himself is subject to the Torah. He is not the source of truth, but its messenger.
And if the Torah established such a precise system of checks and balances, how much more so must other authorities have them. We see what happens when judges and law enforcement officials place themselves above the law, thereby causing the public to lose faith in these systems. And perhaps all of this is happening so that we may pray from the bottom of our hearts for the "return of our judges as at first, and our counselors as at the beginning," in true and complete redemption.
