Supreme Ouster: May the People Depose Their Rulers?

Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman

March 20, 2026

On February 28, President Donald Trump released a prerecorded eight-minute address to the nation announcing that the United States military had begun major combat operations in Iran. Before concluding his remarks, he called the Iranian people to action:

Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.

When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

For many years, you have asked for America’s help. But you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.

So let’s see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.[1]

Generally speaking, does halacha provide the people with the right to depose their sovereign in the absence of a formal governmental framework for doing so?

One of the first to raise this question was R’ Yitzchak Abarbanel, who notes that he has not seen any previous discussion of the question. He reports that the sages of the nations had analyzed the matter and concluded that when a king is evil and wicked, it is indeed appropriate for the people to rebel against him and depose him. But he himself had expounded upon this matter “before kings and their sages” and demonstrated that the people have no authority to rebel against their king and remove him from office “even should he be guilty of every kind of sin.” He advances three arguments in support of his position:

1. When the people appoint a king, their covenant with him is absolute and unconditional.
2. A king on earth is analogous to Hashem in the universe, so raising a hand against the king to depose him is like raising a hand against the honor of Hashem.
3. With regard to a Jewish king specifically, because the selection of a king is not in the hands of the people but in those of Hashem, per the pasuk, “You shall surely set over yourself a king whom Hashem, your G-d, shall choose,”[2] the people do not have the power to depose the king.[3]

But the Keren Orah (R’ Yaakov Minkovsky of Karlin) maintains that the selection of a king is indeed the prerogative of the people, so it is their prerogative to depose him as well. (He makes no stipulation of any criterion of malfeasance or unfitness.) He derives this from the Yerushalmi, which says that during the entire period of Dovid Hamelech’s flight from his son Avshalom during the latter’s rebellion, he would receive atonement for any sin he committed that required a korban chatas (sin offering) through a goat—just like a commoner—despite his having initially been anointed king by Divine command.

Strikingly, the very next words of the pasuk that the Abarbanel adduces against the idea of popular sovereignty are adduced in its support by the Keren Orah, who argues that “from among your brethren shall you set a king over yourself” implies that the appointment of the king depends on the people.[4] The Abarbanel himself elsewhere explains this pasuk to mean that the king is to be chosen by both Hashem—via a navi—and the people.[5] His third argument above rejecting a right of rebellion must therefore mean that because the people do not have the sole authority to select the king, neither do they have the authority to depose him on their own.

This fundamental question of whether the Torah here is affirming or denying popular sovereignty is actually a machlokess among earlier sources. On the words “whom Hashem, your G-d, shall choose,” the Sifri comments, “via a navi.”[6] The Ibn Ezra similarly explains, “via a navi or the judgment of the Urim, i.e., not whom you shall choose.”[7] As we have seen, the Abarbanel also understands that Hashem’s choice is communicated via a navi, though he maintains that the people also have a role in the process.

The Ramban, however, cites Chazal’s interpretation, but then proceeds with the explanation of unnamed mefarshim that according to the pshat, the phrase “whom Hashem, your G-d, shall choose” is to be understood in the context of the continuation of the pasuk: “from among your brethren shall you set a king over yourself; you cannot place over yourself a foreign man, who is not your brother.” That is, we are to choose a king from among the Jewish people, the nation that Hashem has chosen.

The Ramban’s own understanding of the pshat of our pasuk is based on the principle that any ruler over a nation is assumed to have received his position from Hashem. Our pasuk, then, just means that Hashem is commanding us to choose a king, and our choice will then have been destined by Him to rule.

According to these latter two explanations of the pasuk, there is no mention here of Hashem’s direct involvement in the appointment of a king, which is left entirely up to the people, although only Jews are eligible for the position.

The Radvaz says that a legitimate king is either one who has been appointed via a navi or one who has been universally accepted by Klal Yisrael (as opposed to one who seizes power by force).[8] Accordingly, it would seem plausible that the people may depose a king whom they have installed (setting aside the Abarbanel’s first two arguments), even if they may not depose one appointed via a navi.

The Rambam rules:

We never remove someone from a position of authority within the Jewish people unless he has done wrong.[9]

The Chikrei Leiv (R’ Raphael Yosef Chazan of Izmir) inclines toward the view that doing wrong here includes both habitual sinfulness and abuse of power. He assumes that this rule applies to kings, and he wonders why the idolatrous kings of Yisrael and Yehudah were not accordingly removed from their positions; he suggests that the good people of the time may have been powerless to dethrone them.[10]

[1]Read Trump’s Full Statement on Iran Attacks. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/read-trumps-full-statement-on-iran-attack.

[2]Dvarim 17:15.

[3]Abarbanel to Dvarim, end of perek 17.

[4]Keren Orah Horayos 11a s.v. Yachol.

[5]Introduction to Sefer Shoftim.

[6]Sifri ibid. os 157.

[7]Ibn Ezra ibid. This is also the interpretation of Chizkuni ibid.

[8]Radvaz Hilchos Melachim 3:8.

[9]Hilchos Klei Hamikdash 4:21.

[10]Shu”t Chikrei Leiv O.C. cheilek 1 siman 124 s.v. Ve’od kasheh bedivrei haRambam.