Washington Square, 2025: skull-capped activists scream “NO KINGS!” at a drone-camera sky. Fast-cut to Ziph, 1040 BCE: the Ziphites sprint to Saul’s camp. “David is hiding among us on the hill of Hachilah!” (1 Sam 23:19). Same impulse, 3,000 years apart: impatience with God’s king. One leaks coordinates to a tyrant; the other leaks theology to a hashtag. Both say, in effect: “Strike now. End the monarchy you don’t like. Install the one you do.” David’s answer then is Judaism’s answer now: Not yet. Not like this.
Judaism does not reject kingship; it rejects human scheduling of kingship. The Torah commands a king (Deut 17:15). David waited for HaShem to remove Saul. Today’s “No Father, No King” Jews do not wait. They Ziph. They counsel rebellion against the very throne they beg Mashiach to occupy. And when the sun rises tomorrow they march again, this time under Palestinian flags, demanding the dissolution of the one Jewish state that the Mashiach is destined to rule from Jerusalem.
Twice the Ziphites betray David’s location (1 Sam 23, 26). Twice Saul mobilizes. Twice David stands over the sleeping king, spear in reach, and refuses. “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord’s anointed” (1 Sam 24:7). Abishai whispers the Ziphite logic: “God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust.” David’s reply is a scalpel: “Who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s messiah and be guiltless?” The throne is not vacant just because the king is vile. The crown is not yours to yank. You wait. You sing. You sharpen your soul until HaShem changes the guard. The Ziphites wanted regime change on their timeline. David modeled the Jewish stance: divine timing over human tantrum.
Swap the wilderness for Washington Square. The Ziphites wear Keffiyeh-print “NO KINGS” tees. Their leak is a TikTok: “End monarchy now, starting with this one.” Tomorrow they will chant “From the river to the sea,” erasing the borders of the kingdom Mashiach will inherit. They counsel the same shortcut Abishai offered: Strike the king. Install justice. Never mind that the justice they await wears a crown in Jerusalem. Never mind that the siddur they’ll open in six hours begs: Avinu Malkeinu, katveinu b’sefer geula u’v’yeshua. Our Father, Our King, writes us in the book of redemption. The Ziphite impulse is bilingual: Hebrew in shul (“Reign over us speedily”). English on the street (“NO KINGS”). Arabic on Sunday (“Free Palestine”). Pick one. You cannot inform on God’s timeline, hand the keys to His capital to its enemies, and then ask Him to keep it.
Every Rosh Hashanah we chant forty-two times: Avinu Malkeinu, chaneinu v’aneinu. We address God with the exact titles the placards erase. To scream “No Father, No King” at noon, pledge allegiance to a flag that denies Jewish sovereignty at three, and plead “Our Father, Our King” at dusk is not sophisticated. It is spiritual Doegism. Doeg the Edomite stood in Nob and justified slaughter by “loyalty” to Saul (1 Sam 22). Today’s Doegs justify theological slaughter by “loyalty” to progress and solidarity. Both wield the knife of impatience. David laid his down.
Maimonides is merciless (Hilchot Melachim 11:4): the Messiah fights wars, builds the Temple, and sits on David’s throne as king in Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:9 is not negotiable: “The Lord shall be King over all the earth.” Ezekiel 37:24 is explicit: “David My servant shall be king over them.” If you await that day, “No Kings” today and “No Israel” tomorrow is not protest; it is prophetic malpractice. You do not storm the palace; you storm the heavens with prayer. You do not leak the king’s location; you guard the anointing until HaShem rescinds it. You do not hand Zion to Amalek and call it justice. Consider the irony of your target: the man you vilify as tyrant is the one who obliterated Hamas in Gaza, wiped out Hezbollah in Lebanon, struck Iran’s nuclear sites, and brokered the Abraham Accords to secure Israel’s peace with Arab nations. Like David, not perfect. Yet he is pushing a 20-point plan for Gaza’s reconstruction under Palestinian technocrats, excluding the militants you now champion, and eyeing Saudi and Iranian deals to expand that circle of peace. This is no Saul; he is advancing the very redemption you pray for, one treaty at a time.
Put down the placard, Ziphite. Put down the keffiyeh. Take up the siddur. If the king offends, follow David: hide in the cave, cut the tzitzit, wait. If you have abandoned the dream of a righteous Melekh ruling from a restored Jerusalem, delete Avinu Malkeinu from the machzor and stop pretending the Tanakh is your heritage. But you cannot betray God’s king on Saturday, liquidate His capital on Sunday, and coronate Him on Shabbat. The throne is occupied by a madman or a Mashiach. The city is contested by Jews or their foes. Either way, the spear is not yours. Baruch haba b’shem Adonai, Melekh HaMashiach. Wait for it.
