Rabbi Dovid Meir Drukman, Chief Rabbi, Kiryat Motzkin 

In the days of Shmuel HaNovi (the Prophet Samuel) the Jewish nation requested to have a king.  The Novi was angered by their request. It is difficult to understand why he was angered, as it is a positive commandment to appoint a king, as it says: "Thou should put a king over thee," (Devorim, 17, 15). The Kli Yokor comments on this and explains that at the time of Shmuel the nation and the shakers and doers wanted a king, who will fawn over them, and dance to their tune and even breath according to the rhythm that would set for him. That is what angered Shmue HaNovi. 

This is not a strange phenomenon, certainly not in our day and age. We find our ourselves in the "heels of Moshiach" era about which Chazal say that the "face of the generation (the leaders of the generation) is like the face of a dog." 

The poodle always runs ahead of his master (as it is written, "his name goes before him…).  It seems as if the dog is the leader, the one who calls the shots.  But no, the dog only serves his master, and therefore, occasionally  he turns his head and looks back at his master (i.e. surveys, media, media advisors and other and sundry elements that have taken over our lives).  He turns back to see if he, the poodle dog, is going in the right direction….. 

Any resemblance to the leaders of our generation and the above is a pure coincidence, and if we insulted the dog by using him as a metaphor hinting to a few well known individuals that got under our common proverbial skin, we beg forgiveness of the poodle.  We surely didn′t intend to cause the poodle harm or hurt. The poodle is at least a warm loving creature, whereas the cynicism that has morphed into evil, expressed by pitying the cruel and being cruel to our compassionate Jewish brothers, has turned into a catastrophe by those who see themselves  as the leaders of the generation.