Israel's Only Constitution

And there was a king in Yeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.   Deuteronomy 33:5

          The late Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, in the introduction to his work “Hilchot Medina”, quotes the comment of Dr. A. H. Freiman (professor of Jewish Jurisprudence at the Hebrew University Law School, murdered in the Arab ambush of a convoy to Mount Scopus on April 13, 1948):

Each of the three phrases of our verse presents a different form of administration of state: the first phrase “And there was a king in Yeshurun“, refers to monarchy; the second “when the heads of the people were gathered” refers to aristocracy, and the final phrase “all the tribes of Israel together” to democracy. The preceding verse “Moses commanded us Torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”, teaches that no matter what the form of government Israel has, the Torah remains its one and only constitution.

          Many of our classical commentators note than often a portion of Torah ends with the same theme with which it began. Rashi, in his initial comment on the Torah, explains that the Torah commences with Genesis, as opposed to the first mitzva given to the People of Israel [Exodus 12:1-2], in order to demonstrate that the Land of Israel was divinely given to the Children of Israel. Many Biblical verses stress that Israel’s possession of its Land is dependent upon fulfilling the mitzvot. Thus, Parashat Zot haBracha, the final portion of the Torah, indeed ends with the theme with which the Torah began.