Royal Messages: The Hearts of Kings
Royal herald
We can examine and even comprehend the glory of kings, but not their hearts.
We cannot comprehend the glory of the Lord. The Vilna Gaon explains, based on the Talmud (Chagigah) and Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 9:1) that the ” glory of the Lord” refers to the creation story, which may only be studied with one student at a time. The “glory of kings” refers to the stories beginning with Genesis 5:1: “This is the book of the generations of man”, who are described in this verse as kings because of their potential greatness.
It is striking to recall a verse that describes human beings as royalty during this month of Elul, in which we prepare for the Coronation.
Jewish law takes this so seriously that we are granted the status of royalty on Shabbat: we are permitted to have elephants as pets.
Our status will change on Rosh Hashana. We are the children of the King. Although we cannot comprehend the “glory of the Lord”, we can and must examine the “glory of the kings”, our glory as royalty: how are we using it? Do we merit the status?
Yet, “the heart of kings” is beyond our ken. Our hearts are compared to the highest heavens and the deepest earth. We cannot fully understand how our hearts function, because, as the Gra continues, our hearts, when we act as kings, are boundless.
It is worthwhile to recall that if we truly believe that we are as royalty, we must act as royalty and treat others with the respect due to royalty.
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Especially our spouses. For example – husbands – stand when your wife comes in, pull out her seat and then push it in for her as she sits down. Serve each other first. Clear each other’s plates first.
With regard to children, I think Reb Shlomo Carlebach ztllh’h – y’hee zeechro baruch – said it best in the following excerpt from teachings for Chanukah – which together he says are the (a) the strongest holidays for children and (b) that it is the children who celebrate the *future*:
Reb Shlomo:
“I have seen so many places where children walk through the door, and there is no one to open the door for them, to bless them with honor. If the President was at the door, knocking to enter, someone would be waiting by the door to greet him, to usher him through. But you don’t wait for your own child, your own life. Who told you that
you have the right to not stand by the door?
For me personally, when I wait for my daughter Neshama to return home from kindergarden, it feels like the waiting during Yom Kippur. What a blessing and what an honor to open the door for my child. Can you imagine what it means to know that a child is standing by the door, to know that his or her parents are also standing by the door with the same fervor.”
“Do you realize how deep it is to draw light upon each other? Can you begin to imagine how much everyone needs just a little bit of light? Just one drop of light is so deep.”
Instead of speaking royally to our children…
“Sometimes the way parents relate to children, they think: I’m so great, I’m older than the baby, which is a stupid baby, what do I have to talk about to the baby? So when the children grow up and let the parents know: I remember how you spoke to me when I was little, and to tell you the truth, right now you look little to me and I don’t want to talk to you.”
And instead of resenting taking care of each other, why don’t we treat each other and our children in this light?:
“… Imagine that my daughter says to me, “Can you get me some apple juice?” I jump up to get it. My face is shining from one corner of the world to the other. I think to myself, “There will be a time when she won’t ask me for juice anymore. How precious is every time she still asks me for something!” …
If I am connected to her in the deepest way, then I am filled with joy when I can do something for her. If I am not connected that much, I wish that I didn’t have to do anything for her even as I am doing it.”
A human king feels his position requires all else to be subservient to him and grovel before him.
The Ba’al Shem Tov on the phrase in Nishmat Col Khai “v’chol komah l’fanecha tishtakhaveh”-and all noble bearing will be subservient before You, says that G-d’s People (Ahm Yisrael) show their subservience by standing tall. R’ Shlomo expanded on this as an outgrowth of ‘ma hu rakhoom, ahf ata rakhoom’that Ahm Yisrael should emulate G-d’s attributes and this is the greatest honor we can show towards G-d.
Similarly, as opposed to the human king who is mostly ‘on the take’, G-d, our Heavenly King is mostly ‘on the give’.Therefore, in emulation, we should hone our sensitivities to hearken to others’ needs, thus bringing greatest honor to G-d.
The heilige Alexandr Rebbe , the Yismakh Yisroel says the most awesome torah as to why Aharon merited to be the Kohein Gadol: In Pirkei Avot (1;12) Hillel says” be a disciple of Aharon’s, lover of peace chaser of peace, oheiv et habriyot and brings them closer to The Torah” The Alexandr Rebbe asks – what is oheiv et habriyot lover of creatures?It should be lover of his fellows!!The rebbe says that Aharon was in such wonderment of all of G-d’s creation that he loved them all without any feelings of superiority and gave so much honor to all.
Aharon didn’t stand on ceremony and figure who was deserving of what level of honor => he just dispensed honor freely, for that was who he was and that was why he merited to be Kohein Gadol.
During Elul, when The King is in the field, and we have perhaps a better opportunity to have a glimpse, we may gain a better understanding of G-d’s Kingliness and better be able to incorporate some semblance of these traits into our own behavior.