Sons of the King: A Story Cycle for the Yamim Nora'im
Polish, Daniel
SONS OF THE KING A STORY CYCLE FOR THE YAM1M NORA'IM DANIEL POLISH Sometimes, in trying to resolve a paradox, we add confusion to complexity. Such is the case with a phrase that is emblematic of...
...Pesikta Rabbati) The storyteller'of Prague related a nightmare about a royal messenger who was charged with a special mission—to bring a message to you: The messenger immediately sets out on his journey...
...That is why on the Yamim Nora'im we have to say A vinu Malkenu—to remind ourselves...
...After he had hired out as a shepherd, he was no longer in need because he needed nothing...
...and if he succeeded in that nothing would be gained...
...He forgot that he was a king's son and all the pleasures that he had been used to...
...and once more stairs and courts...
...if he encounters resistance he points to his breast, where the symbol of the sun glitters...
...still he is only making his way through the chambers of the innermost palace, never will he get to the end of them...
...He waits for them to remember—and to come home: A king's son was at a distance of a hundred days' journey from his father...
...Rabbi Daniel Polish is Associate Director of the Synagogue Council of America...
...and if he succeeded in that nothing would be gained...
...What can be the meaning of the seeming contradiction Avinu Malkenu—our Father our King...
...How far we have fallen from our royal estate...
...Especially on the Yamim Nora'im, when we examine our actions and ourselves...
...The prince began to weep...
...And His compassion is not diverted by their meager and pitiful requests...
...And, yes, we forget that we are princes...
...There will be enough time to respond to Him, before the gates close...
...We are princes...
...As long as he was near his home, people knew he was a king's son, and befriended him, and gave him food and drink...
...Our sages tell us that the two titles are joined together at this time when the world's fate is in the balance, to invoke the Holy One in both of His aspects...
...See, that is how we whimper for the small needs of the hour and forget that the Glory of God is in exile...
...And when we call Him our King, we acknowledge the midat hadin...
...When we call Him our Father, we appeal to the midat harachamim, His quality of mercy—for if He were to recompense us in strict justice for our acts, the world would be sunk by the weight of our iniquities...
...the courts would still have to be crossed...
...Similarly the Holy One, praised be He, says to Israel: "Return to me, and I will return to you...
...If he could reach the open fields how fast he would fly, and soon doubtless you would hear the welcome hammering of his fists on your door...
...He began to sell his clothing to buy food...
...Once the king happened to be passing through that province...
...But perhaps such elaborate interpretation is not necessary...
...and once more another palace...
...But the King does not forget...
...Why did the Chassidim choose to dress themselves in the round fur shtreimel and the long black kapote of Russian nobility...
...Now it is the custom of the shepherds to make themselves small roofs of straw to keep out the rain...
...But he answered them: "I cannot...
...For, as Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin taught, "What is the worst thing that the yetzer hara can achieve...
...He wants more than to supply His children with straw or shoes...
...The king's son wanted to make such a roof too, but he could not afford one, so he was deeply grieved...
...Was it not to remind everyone who saw them that they too were descended from royalty...
...We are entitled to say A vinu Malkenu...
...and after the courts the second outer palace...
...He would sit on the hills, tending his flocks and singing like the other shepherds...
...Such is the case with a phrase that is emblematic of the Yamim Nora'im...
...How trivial our aspirations—like Bontsche who asked only for a hot roll and butter when he could have demanded that the Messiah come...
...His friends said to him: "Return to your father...
...Princes may forget who they are and who their father is...
...and so on for thousands of years...
...a powerful, an indefatigable man...
...Nobody could fight his way through here____(Kafka, "An Imperial Message," Parables and Paradoxes) And so the word he carried was never heard...
...To make a man forget that he is the son of a king...
...He was at a village inn, dancing barefoot and in a torn shirt in the midst of drunken peasants...
...But as the days passed, and he got farther and farther into his father's realm, no one knew him, and he had nothing to eat...
...He even comes forward to meet us...
...After a time, the king was moved to pity for his fate and bade messengers go in search of him...
...The king's son came with the other petitioners, and threw his note, in which he petitioned for a small straw roof such as shepherds have...
...His father expelled him from his house...
...Whatever it may be, he is prepared to grant your wish...
...Then his father sent a message to him: "Come as far as you are able, and I shall come to you the rest of the way...
...The king recognized his son's handwriting, and was saddened to think how low his son had fallen, that he had forgotten that he was a king's son, and felt only the lack of a straw roof...
...How fortunate we are...
...He calls us to return to Him...
...he must fight his way next down the stair...
...The courtier bowed and said: "Your father has sent me to ask you what you desire...
...A vinu Malkenu waits for us...
...the way, too, is made easier for him than it would be for any other man...
...Buber, Ten Rungs) How easily we forget who we are...
...There were princes who forgot, who actually didn't remember, like us, that they were sons of a king: Once a king's son sinned against his father, the king...
...But the multitudes are so vast...
...their numbers have no end...
...So we join attribute to attribute to preserve the world, just as one would pour both hot water and cold water together into fine crystal so that it should not be shattered by the extremes of either one or the other...
...When he had nothing left to sell, he hired out as a shepherd...
...Oh," said he, "if only I had warm clothing and a pair of stout shoes...
...There are those whose fathers are kings...
...For we are, after all, princes...
...Now it was a common practice in that kingdom for those who had petitions to the king to write out their petitions and throw them into the king's chariot...
...It was long before one of the messengers found him—far from home...
...After all, there are those who could legitimately use both terms together...
...But instead how vainly does he wear out his strength...
...now pushing with his right arm, now with his left, he cleaves a way for himself through the throng...
...Agnon, Days of Awe) Martin Buber tells a similar tale about another royal son: A king's son rebelled against his father and was banished from the sight of his face...
...and if at last he should burst through the outermost gate—but never, never can that happen—the imperial capital would lie before him, the center of the world, crammed to bursting with its own refuse...
...Our messengers are the YamimjNora'im themselves, and they carry their message through to us...
...His attribute of justice—for were He to show us love alone, the world would be thrown from its orbit by the ferocity of our unbridled evil...
...And not just some king of flesh and blood— but the King of Kings Himself...
Vol. 4 • September 1979 • No. 8
