Parashat Shoftim presents the laws relevant to the Jewish king, imposing on the king three restrictions: 11) לא ירבה לו סוסים – he may not own too many horses; 22) לא ירבה לו נשים – he may not marry too many wives; 33) וכסף וזהב לא ירבה לו מאד - he may not amass too much wealth. As we know, King Shlomo married many wives, despite this prohibition. The Torah forbade a king from marrying too many wives because of the possibility that his heart would turn away from Hashem ( ולא יסור לבבו ), and Shlomo was confident that this would not happen to him, and so he felt he was allowed to marry a large number of women. The Midrash tells that the Hebrew letter י' , the first letter in the word ירבה in this pasuk , came before Hashem to protest what Shlomo did. It said, “Didn’t You promise that not a single letter from the Torah will ever be erased? And now Shlomo took me out of the Torah!” What does it mean that the letter י' complained to Hashem? Why was it specifically this letter that decided to voice a protest? The Ateret Mordechai commentary explains that the letter י' is significant because of its grammatical function. When this letter is placed before a verb, it transforms the verb from the past test to the future tense. To take a simple example, the word אמר means “said,” but if we place a י' before it, we get the word יאמר , which means “will say.” The י' came before Hashem to protest because it was worried about the future. It understood why Shlomo did what he did – because he felt confident that he would resist the temptation to turn away from Hashem. But the Midrash is telling us that Shlomo should have been concerned about the future generations. People who are much less righteous than Shlomo would follow his example, and get themselves into trouble. This Midrash, then, is warning us about how our priorities affect our future – our offspring. When we place too much emphasis on materialism and physical indulgence, this is going to impact our children and grandchildren. After issuing these three prohibitions, the Torah commands the king to write a sefer Torah which he must carry around with him wherever he goes – והייתה עמו וקרא בו כל ימי חייו . Instead of prioritizing indulgence and money, he should prioritize Torah learning and Torah values. This is a lesson not only for the king, but for all of us. Children notice their parents’ priorities. They notice if the father makes a point never to miss minyan or his shiur , or never to miss his favorite show or sporting event. They notice if their mother spends more time involved in chesed projects or getting her nails done. They are very perceptive, and see exactly what’s important to their parents. Parents bear the obligation to have their priorities straight, as their children learn from them what’s more important and what’s less important. I once heard a disturbing conversation in shul after the end of the prayer, between a grandfather and his teenage grandson. The grandfather said to his grandson, “In this community, the only thing that matters is money. The important people here are those with money. If you have money, then you’re successful. That’s what you need.” I shudder to think what effects this conversation would have if it remained reverberating in the child’s mind. I would imagine that if a child grows up with this message, then he will do anything necessary to attain wealth, ignoring Torah and ethics. And if he can’t attain wealth, then he will feel like a failure, and suffer depression and inferiority, which, as we all know, can be exceedingly damaging and destructive. We have to be so careful in developing our children’s priority scales. We need to make it clear to them that adhering to our Torah values is the highest priority, and is far more important than wealth. Of course, there is nothing wrong with making money and enjoying it. The problem is when we make this pursuit the most important thing in life. The way we give over these priorities to our children is by setting our own priorities straight. When we ourselves emphasize Torah commitment over everything else, then our children will absorb this message, and they will grow with this same commitment, this same emphasis, and these same priorities.