Washington Post Awakenings: Amid No Kings Protests, I Celebrate a Different Kind of Kingship, by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer (President & CEO, Yeshivat Hadar (New York)):

I’m a rabbi, and in a few weeks, Jews in my community and around the world will observe Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and ten days later, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. At the emotional center of both holidays is a word that recurs in their liturgies: king. We will crown God, ceremonially, as ruler of the universe. We’ll recite a prayer called Avinu Malkeinu — “Our Father, Our King” — numerous times.

To modern ears, especially American ones, this language may sound strange. We are suspicious of kings. Now we’re asked to bow before one all over again.

But 2,000 years before anyone printed a protest sign, the ancient rabbis who composed these words wrestled with the same discomfort we feel today.

Indeed, the rabbinic approach to God as King can be summed up simply: Whatever you think a human king is, God is the opposite. …

Americans are understandably wary of kings. On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it may seem downright strange to celebrate a king during the most important Jewish holidays. But God’s kingship serves to highlight the insufficiency of any human king. His justice is a rebuke to every form of oppression. Long before crowds shouting “no kings” conflated kingship with tyranny, the rabbinic tradition proposed the opposite: that the true king was the furthest thing from a tyrant. Rather than mistreat his people, he draws close to them. Instead of ignoring their distress, he looks on them with kindness and mercy.

That’s a strange kind of king. It might also be the only vision of power worthy of respect.

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