August 15, 2026|ב' אלול ה' אלפים תשפ"ו Shoftim 5786 - Our Two Torahs By Rabbi Beni Krohn

Dr. Yael Ziegler told the following story: "This morning I was in a bakery in Jerusalem when I noticed that I was standing behind Natan Sharansky. I summoned up my courage and told him that I had just cited from his book this week in a class I was teaching on Sefer Tehillim (Psalms). I explained that I told my students the inspiring story of how he had kept a tiny book of Tehillim with him at all times, even when he had to struggle with the authorities to get it back. At that point, Sharansky smiled, reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a tiny (palm-sized) tattered book of Tehillim. I was stunned, and I asked him, 'Do you carry that wherever you go?' Sharansky didn't even pause and he replied, 'Actually, it carries me!'"

This week we are introduced to the idea of a Jewish King. And even as the Torah authorizes Am Yisrael to elect a King, there are a few halachos that are put in place in order to make sure the King doesn't allow his power to go to his head, making sure he remains grounded.

One such halacha is that the King must have his own personal Sefer Torah:

(יח) וְהָיָה כְשִׁבְתּוֹ עַל כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ וְכָתַב לוֹ אֶת מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת עַל סֵפֶר מִלִּפְנֵי הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם:

He should write for himself this Mishneh Torah.

(יט) וְהָיְתָה עִמּוֹ וְקָרָא בוֹ כָּל יְמֵי חַיָּיו לְמַעַן יִלְמַד לְיִרְאָה אֶת יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהָיו לִשְׁמֹר אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת וְאֶת הַחֻקִּים הָאֵלֶּה לַעֲשֹׂתָם:

And it should be with him and he should read from it all the days of his life in order that he should learn to fear Hashem his God, to keep all that is in this Torah.

Rashi, quoting the Gemara in Sanhedrin 21b, notes that the language the Torah uses of Mishneh Torah, a double Torah, implies that it is not enough for the King to have one Torah, but rather he must have two: one that he takes with him everywhere it goes – it was extremely small so he could wear it attached to his arm – and the other that he would leave back at home in the palace.

But the question still remains: if the King was supposed to have a Torah with him wherever he went, I understand that he needs that personal, mobile Torah that he can take anywhere. But what was the need for a second one that he kept at home? He could have just used his mobile Torah at home too!

Before we answer this question, I want to add another layer: there is an interesting idea found in the Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer, one of the Midrashim, that "Chosson Domeh L'Melech," a groom is similar in many ways to a King. We have a similar teaching that the Kallah is compared to a Queen. This is why the common minhag is that when the Chosson and Kallah each walk towards the chuppah, the tzibbur stands in reverence, as they would for a King or Queen.

And the medrash notes a number of ways in which a King and a Chosson are similar:

• A King is praised by all who see him. A Chosson during sheva brachos is constantly being praised by others.
• A King wears special clothing, so, too, a Chosson.
• A King is not supposed to go out into the street alone, same for a Chosson.

Medrash Talpiot adds another similarity: just as a King has two Sifrei Torah, so, too, the Chosson receives two aliyot, the Shabbos before his wedding and the Shabbos after his wedding.

And in fact, the Magen Avraham in his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 282) notes that common practice is to make sure to offer a Chosson an aliyah both the Shabbos before and after his wedding.

This leads us to question #2 – what does it mean that the Chosson receives two aliyot, just like the King who has two Sifrei Torah? What's the connection?

I want to share with you a beautiful answer from Rabbi Dr. Zvi Ron.

Let's go back to the first question: if the King has his own personal Torah, why does he need to keep one back at home?

Rabbi Ron argues that the simple explanation, and this is found to a certain extent in the writings of Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch as well, is that the main goal was for the King to keep the Torah with him at all times, as the pasuk continues:

לְבִלְתִּי רוּם לְבָבוֹ מֵאֶחָיו וּלְבִלְתִּי סוּר מִן הַמִּצְוָה יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול

In order that he shouldn't become arrogant, lording himself over others, and in order that he shouldn't sway from the Torah either to the right or left.

The simple goal was that the Torah should keep the King grounded, even as he goes out into the world and is treated, appropriately, as royalty, to remind him of who he is and what his values are.

But a Torah that goes out into the world every day will start to wear away. It will be exposed to the elements, it could start to fade. And, of course, we know that a Torah in which even one letter has been erased, has cracked, is pasul, is no longer a kosher Torah.

So, every so often, this Torah which was taken out into the world on a daily basis would need to be checked against the pristine Torah which was left in the King's home, the Torah which wasn't being exposed to the elements of the outside world. And this would allow the Torah which was taken out to be corrected accordingly.

And so, the King absolutely needed two Torahs:

• The one he took with him everywhere he went.
• The one that could be used as a touchstone, a place to come back to, to make sure the Torah that had been taken out into the world was still pure and accurate.

And, argues Rabbi Ron, this also explains why the medrash connects the King's two Torahs and the Chosson's two aliyot, one before the chuppah and one after.

The aliyah before the wedding is represented by the Torah that stays home and will always remain in its pristine state. It represents the ideals, the hopes and dreams of the young couple before their marriage. In this moment, the couple have all kinds of big ideas and dreams for what they foresee as the goals of their relationship with each other, how they will be caring, thoughtful, giving, patient, and attentive spouses to each other. They consider the broad goals and aspirations they have for the kind of family they will build and the impact they plan to have on the world.

The aliyah after the wedding is reflective of the Torah that goes out into the world. It is reflective of what happens when life begins and all kinds of challenges and opportunities come our way, when we have to struggle to maintain our ideals in the face of the realities of everyday life.

Those ideals, those hopes and dreams, as they head out into the real world, will also get chipped away – they can start to fade and get rubbed out. And so, it is critical that the couple keep stored away in their homes that second, pristine Torah, a reminder of the values and ideals that drive them every day, even if at times they can get worn down out in the realities of life.

There is an idea that is shared by many of the Baalei Mussar when it comes to Elul. We read just a few weeks ago in Parshas Ekev in regard to Eretz Yisrael:

(יב) אֶרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֶיךָ דֹּרֵשׁ אֹתָהּ תָּמִיד עֵינֵי יְקֹוָק אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּהּ מֵרֵשִׁית הַשָּׁנָה וְעַד אַחֲרִית שָׁנָה: ס

It is the land that Hashem is constantly seeking out. Hashem's eyes are on her from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.

But the language in the pasuk is inconsistent. It tells me Hashem's eyes are on Eretz Yisrael from Reishis Hashana, the beginning of the year, ad Acharis Shana, until the end of year. It should say Acharis Hashana!

And the Baalei Mussar explain that every year, as we approach Rosh Hashana, we say "this year will be the year!" - a year where I finally accomplish the things I've always dreamed about. But by the time we approach the end of the year, those goals faded away, we got busy, and it just became shana, another year.

So, the classic approach to this idea is to say, "OK, but this year can really be the year!" And I, of course, agree with that.

But sometimes we hear an idea like this, and it can be depressing "I'm going to go through this all again?"

But it shouldn't be, because now we're really saying something much more powerful. The gift of Elul is that it allows us to return back to ourselves, to that pristine version, that Sefer Torah that remains deep inside ourselves that hasn't been damaged by its exposure to the realities of life. It reminds us that if we refuse to let go of those ideals, of that version of ourselves that we see every so often, or that we felt more strongly at another stage in our life, then we still have that opportunity to tap into the power of that Sefer Torah in the palace of our hearts, to touch base with ourselves, and to use it to correct that Torah that has gone out into the world, to make some edits, some improvements, to strengthen its binding, and then send it back out more resolute than ever before.