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Section XII. Chapter Nine: Leadership.
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Others held that the greatest thing a person can pursue in the abode of this world is pride, self-aggrandizement, and leadership. They said: the soul inclines toward honor; you see that it finds submission and yielding to another person and acknowledging him very difficult.
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And leadership pleases the soul, elevates it, and increases its energy and ease; and command and prohibition delight it. Without leadership the world would not be ordered and its interests not fulfilled.
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Kings conduct wars and defense; judges rule on disputes among people's hidden affairs; commanders maintain their quarters through it.
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And among its praiseworthy aspects: the righteous desired it for others, as it says: 'Peoples shall serve you and nations bow to you; be master over your brothers and your mother's sons shall bow to you' (Gen. 27:29).
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As for what they said about ordering the world through defense, judgment, and governance — this is not deniable; it is in fact what we say and what we intend. They merely borrowed it as a support for their position. For the world's ordering comes through wisdom — yet they transferred wisdom's excellence to leadership itself.
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I must establish what they overlooked — the harms of pride and self-promotion. Among them: when a person is arrogant and his self-estimation is exalted, he trespasses his limits and becomes tyrannical toward near and far alike.
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He views himself as though he alone matters; he dismisses everyone else's opinion and rejects and contradicts every statement — as it says: 'He who pursues his desires separates himself and quarrels against all sound judgment' (Prov. 18:1).
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He rejects what the elders have tested over long years, dismisses their proven path, and refuses their counsel and guidance — as it says: 'The way of a fool is right in his own eyes; but he who listens to counsel is wise' (Prov. 12:15). And so corrupt
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— the affairs of this world; and whatever goes well in them he attributes to his own cleverness, strength, planning, and discernment — as it says: 'I will call to account the fruit of the arrogance of the king of Assyria and the glory of his proud looks — for he has said: By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; I have removed the boundaries of peoples and plundered their stores and brought down the enthroned as a mighty one' (Isa. 10:12–13).
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From this he proceeds to opposing craftsmen in their crafts — and they find him ignorant and dismiss him — then to objecting to scholars in their scholarly disciplines and attempting to undermine them; though even a fool who holds back is more hopeful than him — as it says: 'Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him' (Prov. 26:12).
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He then moves on to criticizing kings and ministers — satisfied with none of their views, finding no good in any of their plans — as it says: 'The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven who answer sensibly' (Prov. 26:16).
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He goes so far as to attack the Creator's wisdom and knowledge — denying much of it and finding it ugly — as it says: 'And they say: How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?' (Ps. 73:11).
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And that leads him to enter every dangerous situation, trusting that his planning will save him — yet that is precisely what ensnares him — as it says: 'He frustrates the devices of the crafty so that their hands achieve no success; He catches the wise in their own craftiness' (Job 5:12–13).
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When leadership and kingship are actually established for him, at that very moment his enviers emerge and his enemies multiply — even if he has done nothing to them, even spontaneously — as it says: 'Without cause they run and make ready; they are awake to come against me; look upon it' (Ps. 59:5).
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Indeed from the very first moment it becomes apparent that he will lead them, they plot to kill him — like those who said: 'Come now, let us kill him and throw him' (Gen. 37:20).
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So he always eats in secret and drinks under guard; it is as though he sits beneath a drawn sword and his life hangs by a hair — as it says: 'For only a step is between me and death' (1 Sam. 20:3).
And the entourage intervenes between him and ruling with justice,
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— introduced upon him suspicion and doubt; and people's opposition to him intensified, and his Master's demands upon him became harder — as it says: 'Hear this, O house of the king, for the judgment pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor' (Hos. 5:1).
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The Creator implanted in the soul love of honor and self-elevation only that it might yearn with that yearning for the reward of the next world — as it says: 'He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; He sets kings on thrones and raises them forever' (Job 36:7).