When I was a kid, I remember watching Schoolhouse Rock. One of my favorite episodes of this fun, 1970s educational musical cartoon was “No More Kings.” I remember an effete foppish George II with a powdered wig and a caustic laugh like a diabolical dandy with absolute power. He sat sucking the shmaltz off his chicken legs as he giggled with glee, taxing the spent colonists into submission.
It was so pleasant watching the animated colonists rebel against the heartless monarch, culminating in the mass dumping of tea into the Boston Harbor. In short, from an early age, most of us kids learned that kings were not people we wanted to deal with.
Royalty in today’s world are no longer bastions of absolute power, but celebrities who are famous for being famous. In generations past, many a Jewish parable used a king, subjects and princes as stock characters because these concepts were part of general consciousness. Some have argued it is difficult for the modern person to really relate to such parables.
Editing out mention of kings from discussion of Jewish concepts poses a major problem. Jewish thought, particularly Chassidus, is replete with mentions of monarchy. Not only are we told int he Torah to appoint a king, but malchut, or kingship, is an attribute of G-d, an attribute we refer to in many of our prayers. On Rosh hashana, we sound the shofar to crown Hashem as king over us. So given our difficulty with kings, how do we relate to this process?
It is easy to see why monarchy has been rejected in the modern world. Most kings were not interested in the good of their subjects. But our souls are intrinsically linked with the Divine king. Acceptance of the ultimate monarchy is one of the attributes of the neshama, the soul, and every Jew is compared to the daughter and the son of a king.
We crown the king once again on Rosh Hashanah and we also commemorate the creation of the world. Rosh Hashana also marks the creation of man. How are these concepts related? When Man was created, he encouraged other created beings to bow and praise the king of the world. Since this happened on the day man was created and not before, the implication is that this is one of the purposes of mankind; to make the world aware of the King and the creator. At the same time, the world was created for the Torah and for Israel. They are called “reshit” or first in creation. This gives us close bond with the King, to the point where every soul of Israel is a part of the soul of the King. This bond is expressed in the covenant, the giving of the Torah, and can never be broken.
In fact, the rejection of false kingship in recent centuries might be another sign that we are at the threshold of the Redemption; As the truth shines forth, and the true king begins to be revealed, the falseness of the world is rejected. I think it is no coincidence that the printing of the Tanya, the seminal work in Chassidus occurred about the same time as the decline in monarchy in Europe and the beginning of concern for human rights and self-determination…
but that is a history lecture which I am not going to get into now…time to bake honey cake.
May you all be inscribed in the book of life for a good and sweet New Year!