Hashem as King | Imamother

amother

Sat, Aug 01 2020, 10:44 pm

Do any other Americans find it uncomfortable to relate to Hashem as King? Maybe it was my secular education but I personally feel like a king has negative connotations, like a despot. Hashem is not ever referred to as a king in chumash, I think the closest is "Hashem yimloch l'olam va'ed" in az yashir.

amother

Periwinkle

Sat, Aug 01 2020, 11:20 pm

Yes, my modern educated self has a hard time with these things. Over the past 2 years, I have improved in this aspect of faith greatly by working on my emunah and bitachon as well as keeping a gratitude journal.

I am much more comfortable accepting Hashem as my king through this work. As I have aged, I have found solace in accepting I am limited, but Hashem is not. He is our G-d, and my personal G-d as well, and my father and my king... and I trust Him and know that he loves me.

Thinking of G-d as "king of kings" also helps me accept that my understanding is limited, but so is the understanding of every other human on earth. G-d is greater than us all and the entire world. Nothing I fear or don't understand is beyond His power.

Especially during this incredibly uncertain time, it gives me great peace of mind and serenity to know that my King is behind all the other so-called kings, rulers and influencers.

PS: With regard to the concept of king as despot, I see despotic behavior in the views and actions of many important members of this democratic government, on both sides of the aisle.
Instead of a despot, I work on praying to a benevolent King.

zaq

Sat, Aug 01 2020, 11:22 pm

. Kingship is not evil in and of itself. There are excellent kings and there are dreadful kings and there are useless kings, just as there are excellent presidents and dreadful presidents and useless presidents, and utter disasters of presidents such as the one we have now who is gunning to declare himself king.

What does that have to do with Hashem? He’s not human and has no human failings. I have zero problem with Hashem being addressed as King.

PinkFridge

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 9:50 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Which is significant. Tehillim 93 and others.
Ideally, a human king, as outlined in Devarim, should help us relate to Hashem as King. The human king always carried a sefer Torah with him. As a child of Yehuda, he had integrity, modesty, could admit to have done wrong and commit to repairing.
We haven't had too many good role models since Tzidkiyahu at his best.

I was just thinking about malchus. Because in davening, we relate to Hashem not just as King but as loving Father, yet in Aleinu, which is what we really need to focus on as we end davening and start taking on the day, we focus on His malchus. So that is what we have to remember as we go through the day.

If you read Yishtabach, you read about a number of expressions of power. And we say, lech, to You, these are appropriate. We trust Hashem to be able to use power appropriately, not vindictively. This is life's challenge: to relate to Hashem as we are supposed to. It really is an avodah.

amother

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 10:18 pm

Yes, I just meant that personally, as an American, "king" has a negative connotation for me and if you look at chumash all the kings mentioned by name are enemy kings which deepens the negative association for me.

Cheiny

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 10:37 pm

avrahamama wrote:

But in all fairness having grown up without a father ... I have had to work hard in relating to H as my father.

That’s totally understandable. We learn that Hashem gives a person parents precisely so they will be able to relate better to Hashem as a loving parent.

Cheiny

Sun, Aug 02 2020, 10:38 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

What about Dovid Hamelech?

PinkFridge

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 8:43 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

We learn a lot about the ideal king in Devarim.
And leadership from the Avos, shevatim, Moshe, Aharon, others.

(ETA to restore missing bracket.)

Last edited by PinkFridge on Mon, Aug 03 2020, 9:21 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Gold

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 9:13 am

I translate "melech" as ruler. Rulers can be kings or presidents or prime ministers. These are weak analogies anyway. You cannot compare the limited power of a king or president or prime minister to Hashem's power. When as a child you are first trying to grasp the concept of G-d it is helpful to think about a king. If now the limited and flawed nature of kings does not fit with your concept of Hashem just drop the notion. Think of Hashem as absolute ruler and drop the negative connotations.

malki2

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 9:17 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Most real kings are not brutal despots. They are benevolent and love and protect their subjects. It happens to be that they also have absolute power.

PinkFridge

Mon, Aug 03 2020, 9:23 am

amother [ Gold ] wrote:

There's a lot we can and should learn from leaders. Like I said, in Yishtabach we talk about all sorts of power, and ascribe them all as being used by Hashem the way they're supposed to be.
But instead of dropping the idea of king, why not work on developing a more sophisticated outlook? We really don't want to stay stuck in preschool.