The greatness of humility.

At a dinner to celebrate the work of a communal leader,

the guest speaker paid lavish tribute to his many qualities,

his dedication, hard work and foresight.

As he sat down, the leader leaned over and said,

you forgot to mention one thing.

What was that, asked the speaker.

The leader replied, my humility.

Well, quite so. Great leaders have many

qualities, but usually humility is not one of them. With rare exceptions, they tend to be ambitious,

with a high measure of self-regard. They expect to be obeyed, honored, respected, even feared.

They may wear their superiority effortlessly. Eleanor Roosevelt called

this wearing an invisible crown. But there's a difference between that and humility. This makes one provision

in our pasha unexpected and powerful. The Torah is speaking about a king. Now, knowing as Lord Acton put it, the power

tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It specifies three temptations to which

a king in ancient times was exposed. A king, it says, shouldn't accumulate many horses or wives or wealth, the three traps into which

centuries later King Solomon eventually fell.

Then it adds, when the king is established on his royal throne, he is to write for himself

on a scroll a copy of this Torah.

It's to be with him and he's to read it all the days of his life

so that he may learn, to be in awe of the Lord His God and follow carefully all the words of

this law and these decrees and not feel superior to his brethren. Or turn from the law to the right

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