Mishlei 21:1 - Mishleic Fatalism

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Mishlei 21:1 - Mishleic Fatalism

משלי כא:א

פַּלְגֵי מַיִם לֶב מֶלֶךְ בְּיַד יְיָ עַל כָּל אֲשֶׁר יַחְפֹּץ יַטֶּנּוּ:

Mishlei 21:1

The heart of a king is like streams of water in the hand of Hashem: wherever He desires, He will incline it.

The major questions on this pasuk are: 

(1) What is the nimshal (meaning of the metaphor)? And what about free will? This pasuk seems to suggest that Hashem controls the heart of a king. Although it is certainly possible for Hashem to take away a king’s free will – as He did in the case of Paroh – we know that this is the exception, not the rule. What, then, does our pasuk mean by this metaphor? In what sense is the heart of a king like streams of water, and how does Hashem incline it wherever He desires? 

(2) What does this have to do with practical decision-making? This pasuk doesn’t conform to the typical Mishlei structure of: “The wise man does such-and-such and gets such-and-such benefits, but the foolish man does such-and-such and gets such-and-such consequences.” It’s not clear what practical decision-making lesson we’re supposed to derive from this pasuk. 

[Time to think! Hint: remember what we wrote about acts of Hashem in Mishlei.] 

Here's my four-sentence summary of the main idea: 

On its surface this pasuk might seem to imply that a king is nothing but a puppet controlled by Hashem, without any free will, free agency, or free choice of his own. Although Hashem certainly can take away a king’s free will – as He did in the case of Paroh – it is not reasonable to assume that this is the meaning of our pasuk, which is talking about all kings. Rather, our pasuk comes to teach us that although it may seem like a king is the freest person in his kingdom and is able to do whatever he wishes, the reality is that his free will is severely compromised by his very position of leadership; the king’s heart and mind are at the mercy of a myriad of forces beyond his control, and, like streams of water, they will have no choice but to flow wherever they are directed. The purpose of this pasuk is to remind the king, his subjects, and his enemies that despite what our fantasies and fears might lead us to believe, the more powerful a person is, the less freedom he has; those who seek this type of power, those who have achieved it, those who seek to curry favor with those who have achieved it, and those who fear the ones who hold this power – all of them must remember the extent to which the freedom of those in power is limited, and should act accordingly on the basis of that recognition. 

I was raised in a Republican family and community. Throughout my years in yeshiva, all of my friends became Libertarians. It wasn't until I learned this pasuk that I became what I call “a Mishleic fatalist” in my view of politics and history. 

My dictionary defines “fatalist” as “anyone who submits to the belief that they are powerless to change their destiny.” Fatalism is profoundly anti-democratic. Democracy is founded on the conviction that people can alter their political destiny. While I do believe that this is possible, and that it has happened every so often over the course of human history, I do not think that this is the norm. I agree with Shlomo ha’Melech in our pasuk that kings – a Mishleic designation which includes all political leaders – have only a minimal freedom of choice, and the more powerful they are, the more enslaved they are to external social-political forces and internal psychological forces beyond their immediate control. 

Look no further than the current president of the United States: Donald Trump. Never have I seen a political leader with less free will. It is abundantly clear that Donald has no self-control in his personal conduct. His reactions and responses can be predicted and mapped with a Pavlovian degree of precision. B.F. Skinner would hail him as a paragon of operant conditioning. Temperance, equanimity, patience, deliberation, forbearance, introspection, humility – these self-regulating qualities and behaviors are simply not in Trump’s repertoire. He is a man whose internal world is a raging psychodynamic tempest over which he is powerless to exert any control. He is not the master of his fate. He is not the captain of his soul.

This is manifest in Trump's personal and political interactions with other people. Whenever he encounters another person, the interaction between them is preprogrammed by his personality. Threaten his power or authority? He’ll insult you and reassert his dominance. Praise him? He’ll laud you and advocate on your behalf. Criticize him? He’ll mock you and aim to delegitimize you. Betray him? He’ll cut you off and throw you under the bus. Present him with feminine sex-appeal? You know what he’ll do ... It’s all there, hardwired into his psyche, and he is absolutely helpless to resist. 

And yet, Trump’s supporters and his detractors continue to view him as a free leader of the free world. Republicans and Conservatives hail him as America’s wise savior, hoping he will single-handedly “make America great again.” Democrats and Liberals fear him as the architect of the Apocalypse who is set on willfully, consciously, and systematically spreading his wickedness and corruption with the aim of destroying our country. Both sides view Trump as an independent force of will. 

I disagree. I see Trump as a slave to his own personality, and by extension, to all of the social-political forces and circumstances which surround him. Those who praise or condemn Trump as “unpredictable” only do so because they lack sufficient knowledge of psychology, or because they underestimate how consistent he is with his own psychological script. 

This, I believe, is what Shlomo ha’Melech would mean if he applied our pasuk to our president: “The heart of Trump is like streams of water in the hands of Hashem: wherever He desires, He will incline it.” The decisions made by Trump are entirely in the “hands of Hashem” (i.e. determined by factors beyond his control). Like streams of water, which follow the pull of gravity down the path of least resistance, Trump’s views, feelings, behavior, and decisions all flow merrily down the stream on whatever path is carved by the interaction between his psyche and his circumstances. 

The same is true for the majority of political leaders throughout history – the good, the bad, and the grotesquely abhorrent. Occasionally there will arise a few leaders who exercise their free will for good or for evil, like many of the Founding Fathers, or Hitler, or King David, or King Menashe. But for the most part, the political leaders who move mountains and shape history are, themselves, nothing but the byproducts of a sea of influences to which they are subordinate. 

When I say that I am a Mishleic fatalist in my view of politics, I do not mean that I believe in absolute fate or irrevocable destiny. People can change the course of history through the exercise of their free will. History can be written by those who choose good and those who choose evil. I just don’t think that this happens very often. Most of history is written by mediocrity: the masses who follow their personalities, and the leaders who are beholden to the will of the people. 

For this reason, I have a dim view of the extent to which any individual can actually influence social-political trends and policies – especially (and ironically) in a democratic society, in which the masses have more of a direct say. To those free-willed agents of progress who devote their lives to changing the will of the people, or to playing the politics game with the "kings," I applaud you, and wish you the best of luck in turning the tide (or the streams of water) in favor of the good and the just. 

But to those of us who recognize the difficulty of this uphill battle and prefer to expend our energy on those who are already within our daled amos (four cubits) of influence, I say: let the streams of politics take their course, and whatever happens, happens. The heart of a king is like streams of water in the hand of Hashem: wherever He desires, He will incline it.