I received an email from my colleague in Malibu asking me to weigh in with a Kabbalistic perspective on the royal wedding.
Here's what he wrote:
Mazal tov Prince and Princess!
“ROYAL Wedding fever swept the nation - and the world today - as more than TWO BILLION people across the globe tuned in to watch....
- The Sun
The Holy Baal Shem Tov teaches us:
1. Everything is by Divine Providence.
2. Everything that a person sees or hears, is an instruction to him in his conduct in the service of The Divine.
In reading todays news about the royal newlyweds I could not help myself from asking, what is it about this event that made two billion people stop what they were doing and participate in this wedding?
So I decided to write to my dear friend Rabbi Yossi Marcus from Chabad of S. Mateo, and I share his answer with you:
***
Okay, so here's what I (YM) replied:
We are fascinated with royalty. For all its faults -- and they are many -- the notion of monarchy continues to hold some power over us. Kabbala teaches that terrestrial kingship is a reflection of Divine kingship. This can be a complicated concept, since many a terrestrial king has engaged in very un-Divine activities. Be that as it may, Kabbala teaches that the power of kingship and thus its allure, has its root in Divine kingship.
This has some interesting ramifications. For example, our tradition tells us that Moses treated Pharaoh with deference and respect because the latter was a monarch. Yes, despite Pharaoh's evilness, it was still proper Moses to treat him in a certain way.
Many centuries later, the Kabbalist known as "the Alter Rebbe", founder of Chabad, was imprisoned by the Czar, who came dressed in plainclothes to visit the Alter Rebbe. As soon as the incognito Czar entered the Alter Rebbe's prison cell, the Alter Rebbe arose out of respect and intimated he knew of the Czar's identity. Because terrestrial kingship is a reflection of the Divine attribute of kingship, and because the Alter Rebbe was the type of person who was in tune with the spiritual worlds, he was able to sense kingship when the Czar entered his room.
So what does this all have to do with us? Aside from being interesting and enlightening (and a little puzzling, maybe), there must be something we can take from this as a life-teaching. Here's one possible take-away:
Despite all protestations to the contrary, deep down we are looking for a monarch, a higher power. This is our nature. And it makes sense that we should be attracted to that which is greater than us. Yet we also have an attraction to that which is beneath us.
This schizophrenia is of course caused by our two souls, Animal vs. Divine. Animals are generally looking downward at the earth. Human beings stand upright, and are much more likely to look upward at that which is above them. Our animal is attracted to that which is lower than us. Our humanness, our Divineness, yearns for what is above us.
Let's keep looking up, to that which is above us spiritually--to our Creator, to righteous men and women; let's follow the eyes of our Divine soul. Instead of enslaving ourselves to the material, the shallow and the transient, let us bow to the holy, the good, and the eternal.
Shabbat Shalom.