Disempowered King: Monarchy in Classical Jewish Literature

Description

Disempowered King studies the conception of kingship, and its status, powers and authority in Talmudic literature. The book deals with the conception of kingship against the background of the different approaches to kingship both in Biblical literature and in the political views prevalent in the Roman Empire. In the Bible one finds three (exclusive) approaches to kingship: rejection of the king as a legitimate political institution - since God is the (political) king; a version of royal theology according to which the king is divine (or sacral); and a view that God is not a political king yet the king has no divine or sacral dimension. The king is flesh and blood; hence his authority and power are limited. He is a 'disempowered king'. Disempowered King is the first book to offer a comprehensive study of kingship in Talmudic literature and its biblical (and contemporary) background. The book offers a fresh conceptual framework that sheds new light on both the vast minutia and the broad picture.

Yair Lorberbaum is Professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has served as a guest lecturer at Cardozo Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Princeton University, and Yale University. His most recent book, Image of God: Halakha and Aggadah, won him the prestigious Goldstein-Goren Book Award for 2007-2010; the award is bestowed once every three years to the author of the best recent book in the field of Jewish thought.