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In the ideal Jewish state, who would be allowed to vote and on what issues?

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edu:
In the ideal Jewish state, who would be allowed to vote and on what issues?
That is to say do we expect some type of righteous king to decide everything without input from the population?Or is the ideal to have some type of constitutional monarchy like in England, where the people decide more or less the direction of the country.
And if you believe the people should decide, which people? Everyone? Just Experts in Torah? Those that serve in the army? or some other litmus test of loyalty?
Or maybe in Economic Areas, you would like the people to have a say, while in other areas the King?
Also maybe someone would like to comment what method, we will use to pick a king? and will he serve for all his lifetime and pass the job to his children?

Harzel:
The fact of the matter is we never had an ideal Jewish state. We no longer have anyone with a valid claim for the throne anyway until mashiach comes, which is actually quite fortunate IMO. In any historical and any practical form of a Jewish state there is are civilian authority like a king, or president, with the ability to enact civilian law alongside the religious authority in the form of sanhedrin or knesset gdolah. I think the Sanhedrin is in any case not a ruling authority but a judicial and legislative authority. The king should rule under the religious guidance but he had all the powers (executive, legislative, judicial) and the licence to kill people. It is quite obvious that such absolute power is problematic and proved to be so in Jewish history and in general.

My assumption is that a Jewish state would have all the institutions of a modern republic alongside a Sanhedrin which would have the ability to overrule like a supreme court. The tricky part is how to install the mechanism that nominates the members of Sanhedrin.

Yaakov Mendel:

--- Quote from: Zelhar on June 21, 2011, 02:29:21 AM ---The fact of the matter is we never had an ideal Jewish state. We no longer have anyone with a valid claim for the throne anyway until mashiach comes, which is actually quite fortunate IMO. In any historical and any practical form of a Jewish state there is are civilian authority like a king, or president, with the ability to enact civilian law alongside the religious authority in the form of sanhedrin or knesset gdolah. I think the Sanhedrin is in any case not a ruling authority but a judicial and legislative authority. The king should rule under the religious guidance but he had all the powers (executive, legislative, judicial) and the licence to kill people. It is quite obvious that such absolute power is problematic and proved to be so in Jewish history and in general.

My assumption is that a Jewish state would have all the institutions of a modern republic alongside a Sanhedrin which would have the ability to overrule like a supreme court. The tricky part is how to install the mechanism that nominates the members of Sanhedrin.

--- End quote ---

I fully agree with your analysis.
It seems obvious that the members of Sanhedrin should not be designated by a civilian authority, both in a religious and in a political perspective (separation of powers). The Sanhedrin should be composed of the greatest rabbis in Israel. They should be our modern Sages, guiding us through difficult choices and making sure that the values and the principles of the Torah remain the ultimate source of decision-making at the state level, but without interfering in private affairs and liberties.
In this respect, I think that any new member of the Sanhedrin should be chosen in a spirit of consensus by the current members of the Sanhedrin, without a formal procedure such as a majority vote (that applies to the secular powers).
I think this combination of modern, democratic institutions and a Sanhedrin that has the authority to act a supreme court could be really awesome ! I look forward to the day when it becomes reality.

Kahane-Was-Right BT:
We do not have to wait for a moschiach to reestablish the throne of David.   In fact, it is known who is moschiach based on what actions one of those kings will take!    So we have to establish a Jewish govt first, then worry about who fulfills the criteria to be named moshiach.

muman613:
I don't really understand the question.

A King is a monach and is not voted on. Voting is a democratic principle and the Kingdom of Hashem is a monarcy...

So until Moshiach comes I don't know what the point of appointing a king would be. Unless you are just asking who should be allowed to vote in Israel...

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