What visual image comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘King’? Caligula? Henry VIII?
Do you view kings as self-indulgent tyrants who rule by virtue of their respective births?
If so, that can present a problem with relating to our High Holiday liturgy. Our prayers are consistently referring to G-d as our ‘King’; in fact, the Holiday is framed as a Coronation of the Almighty.
So how do you squeeze G-d, the pinnacle of Holiness, into such an inadequate metaphor?
At one level, I can understand that a King represents the highest level on the human-authority totem pole. So, our Sages, looking for an earthly metaphor to portray a Divine concept (known as an anthropomorphism), framed G-d as a ‘King’. At the same time, if we – especially us Americans who ejected King George - presently see kings in a less high-minded light, one might contend that this is a metaphor which has outlived its usefulness.
Our liturgy was devised by holy people with profound spiritual insight, and their liturgical choices contain countless of levels of mystical depth. So, let’s stick with the word our Sages chose: ‘King’, and just redefine the term king to meet their intent.
Getting past history’s caricatures, what is a genuine King? A King is someone who occupies an elevated place because he is an elevated person. An authentic King has character that is head and shoulders above the crowd, and someone whose focus is singularly attuned to the needs of his people. In fact, he is one with his people.
Hebrew has two words to describe a sovereign leader, ‘Moshel’ and ‘Melech’. The former translates as ruler, the latter as king. Ruler describes someone who governs irrespective of the people’s will; the people are responsible to serve their monarch. Aside from their surrender, their opinions are irrelevant.
A king isn’t just a monarch. He’s someone who the people willingly accept, someone to whom people surrender with safety and joy in their hearts. That level of commitment on the part of the governed reflects the intimate connectedness between the two parties.
Indeed, the Rosh Hashana liturgy makes many references to ‘Our Father, Our King’. The King is also a parent, and we are the children. Even as we recognize Divine authority’s awesomeness, we feel the deep embrace, love and concern of our King/Parent.
So, yeah, I’ll stick with King.