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Why do we need to show honour for royalty?

Written by daniel fine

The crux of our sedra involves Yaakov’s rather cryptic and deep/prophetic blessings to the tribes before his death. Yosef and his brothers then go and bury Yaakov in Eretz Yisrael, and return to Egypt (that was the deal with Pharaoh). The final few psukim entail Yosef’s assurance to his brothers that HaShem will take them out of Egypt, and then Yosef’s death. We are going to focus on a concept that does not seem to be very well known (at least I did not know it before having seen it in writing).
When Yaakov is lying ill on his death bed, Yosef goes to visit his father with Ephraim and Menashe. When Yaakov is told that Yosef is arriving, he strengthens himself and manages to pull himself up to sit up on his bed (48:2). Why did he make a special effort to sit up? Rashi cites the Midrash, which notes from here that one is to bestow honour upon members of the royalty and treat them with utmost respect (even if the member of royalty in question is your son). Sitting up was a sign of honour to the royalty. Why is it so important to give honour to the king – remember, we are not exclusively talking about a Jewish king or a Jewish kingship/kingdom – so why are the royalty due an extra show of respect and honour? Let’s make the question a bit more precise. Obviously, one is obligated to follow the laws of the land of any country that they are in (dina de’malchusa dina), and one should treat every person (from any religion) with basic respect. But it seems ‘uncharacteristic’ for our definition of someone who should command respect (which is someone of spiritual importance and someone who has developed and refined themselves spiritually) that we should be told to go out of our way to show special respect to royalty; even if the individual monarch in question is not a spiritually refined peerson. Why the extra respect/honour? [And it cannot be one of these ‘show respect to them because they might kill/harm you otherwise’ ideas, for there was no danger of such a thing happening between Yosef and Yaakov.] There are two levels of answer; a basic level and a much deeper level – both of which have sources and both are true.
The basic level is that which the Mishna[1] teaches us ‘daven for the peace of the ruling power (royalty), for if it were not for people’s fear (of the rulers), people would swallow others’ lives (I.e. kill them).’ In other words, there is a basic element of gratitude (hakaras hatov) for the royalty, for they keep the country running along basic societal and moral rules; they keep everything running smoothly and keep law and order.
However, the gemarra[2] reveals that bestowing honour to the royalty is not all about gratitude; there is more to it. The gemarra tells us that Kohannim (who are normally not allowed to come into contact with any dead body due to the spiritual impurity embedded therein) are allowed to run through graveyards to greet arriving kings (Jewish or non-Jewish) – even though this would make them spiritually impure (on a Rabbinic level) as a result, and the Rambam[3] cites this as halacha. If respect for the king was based solely on gratitude, there are other ways to show gratitude which do not involve the need for giving special permission to push aside a Rabbinic law. The secret seems to be in the gemarra’s explanation for such a halacha, which is rather enigmatic. It says (regarding the reason for running to greet kings) ‘for if one merits, he will distinguish between Jewish kings and non-Jewish kings.’ What does this mean; if one merits what, and what does this have to do with greeting kings?
Fortunately, Rashi[4] tells us what this is all about. He explains that the idea of running to meet the king is to get a picture of the king’s honour (the honour accorded to him) in one’s head, for then one will understand an important thing if one merits to see the Moshiach. Upon seeing the Moshiach and the true honour accorded to him, one will realise how much more reward and honour there is for those who perform mitzvos than the honour for any king. In other words, the greeting and honouring the king should provide you with a picture (a mashal) of what honour and glory is in this world. And this should be a picture that will allow you to understand that true honour is reserved for those who perform mitzvos. The same idea can be seen from another gemarra. The gemarra[5] reveals that Rav Yosef son of Rebbi Yehoshua lost consciousness and managed to get a peek into the Next World. When he came to it and ‘returned/landed’ back down in our world, he reported that ‘I saw a world which was upside down; those who are given honour in this world are low in that world, and those who are not honoured in this world (I.e. religious people) have a high place in that world.’ When something is turned upside down, the result is not an entirely new thing/picture; it is exactly the same thing; just inverted.[6] Thus, when Rav Yosef tells us that the Next World is an inversion of this world, it means that the honour received by those who do not deserve it in this world (we have plenty of examples) is connected to the level of honour received by those who do deserve it in the Next World. Again, the idea is that honour for physical achievements/prestige in this world gives us an idea of honour for spiritual achievements in the Next World. Honour in this world is a parable (mashal) to the true honour in the Next World. There are a few practical ideas to take out of this gemarra about greeting a king and the theme in general…
First, it is interesting to note that we allow the Kohannim to forgo a rabbinic prohibition (to become impure via rabbinically-instituted impurity) to run through a graveyard to catch a glimpse of a king when they will only grasp the message in full with the arrival of Moshiach (for only then will we realise what true honour is to be able to compare it to the king’s honour). How can we allow any Kohen to forgo such a prohibition when most Kohannim will not see the Moshiach in their lifetime? We see from here the immense belief and reality that Moshiach can come any day; for it is due to this real chance of Moshiach coming each and every day that we can allow a Kohen to become impure – for we sincerely believe that this Kohen will see Moshiach in his days. [Remember, it is one of the fundamentals of faith to believe in the imminent arrival of Moshiach, and one of the six questions one is asked at the start of one’s judgment is ‘did you look/yearn for redemption?’[7]] Secondly is an overall message of fixing a picture/image of something in one’s mind to make a message real. Witnessing the honour bestowed to a king and keeping it in one’s mind is one example of this. Another example is the face of Yaakov appearing to Yosef just as he was about to commit the act with the wife of Potiphar; the picture itself added to the impact and made Yosef refrain and run away at the last moment. Similarly, Tosafos[8] comments that the reason why they originally established education for Jewish children to be specifically based in Yerushalayim was due to the fact that the child would see great holiness there (e.g. the sight of Kohannim doing the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash) – and such images would make an impression on the child and make him develop a greater sense of yiras shamayim. Again, the idea is the preserving of a mental image which will inspire you from time to time. In fact, a friend of mine who was leaving yeshiva in Israel for England was advised to go to Yeshivas Mir on his last day and just take a mental snapshot of a full beis hamedrash with hundreds of people learning at full blast, intensity, and excitement – to keep that mental image to inspire him whenever necessary. And he later confirmed that this advice had turned out to be very useful and inspiring.[9] The final message to be gleaned here is that awesome and huge reward there is for performing mitzvos. If the honour bestowed on any king is but a mashal for true honour and reward, then imagine how great such true, spiritual reward is. As Rav Dessler explains, when the gemarra says ‘there is no reward for mitzvos in this world,’ it means that every moment of enjoyment in this world experienced by everyone throughout history put together is not enough to match the reward which is given in the Next World for a mitzvah. This physical world is insufficient to contain such a reward. Indeed, Rav Dovid Kaplan notes that when Moshe was about to battle Og, Moshe was scared of Og’s merit in telling Avraham that Lot had been captured,[10] even though the reason Og had told Avraham this was in order that Avraham get killed in battle and Sarah would be free for Og[11]. We see the immense reward of any mitzvah, even if its motives are not wholly genuine.
So, in summary, we have learnt that the principal reason to accord extra respect and honour to royalty is in order to be able to realise (and compare) what true honour is in the days of Moshiach. And via this we have learnt a) the importance of Moshiach coming each and every day b) the importance of taking mental snapshots, and c) the vastness of reward for mitzvos.
Have a great Shabbos!

[1] Avos 3:2
[2] Gemarra Brachos 19b and 9b
[3] Rambam hilchos Avel 3:14
[4] Rashi Brachos 58a ‘she’im yizkeh’ and ‘yavchin.’ The above Rambam seems to say a different explanation hinging on realising the difference between a Jewish and non-Jewish king when the kingship and sovereignty returns to the Jewish People in the future (have a look).
[5] Gemarra Pesachim 50a
[6] Rav Moshe Shapira expressed this principle in explaining how, though Chazal tell us that Bilam’s curses were inverted and turned into brachos, this does not mean that the curses had no effect whatsoever – for an inversion of something is not a completely different thing than that intended to be created.
[7] Gemarra Shabbos 31a
[8] Tosafos Bava Basra 21a ‘ki’
[9] Rav Brevda and Rav Binyomin Finkel have described and painted a picture of aliyah leregel at length to give the audience one of these mental snapshots of inspiration. Rav Brevda said that this is the way to counteract the less-than-inspiring images which stick in people’s heads from TV.
[10] Rashi Bamidbar 21:34
[11] Rashi Bereishis 14:13

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