The Kabbalah teaches that the purpose of the universe is that God wants to be a King. The whole judgment of Rosh HaShana is all about how well we are doing our job in building this world into a kingdom for God
God wants to be a King? Sounds pretty egotistical to me. How can we understand the profound depth behind this teaching?
The problem is that most people have over personified God. They think God is like one of us just infinite, eternal and perfect. But when Torah says “God” it means absolute goodness; the epitome of goodness. In other words, God is the personification of all good. Hence the name God. According to Torah God is not less than a person, rather He is infinitely more than a person. God the Absolute Good.
God wants to be a King means “Good” wants to be a king and not a tyrant. Good wants us to freely choose to obey the rules of good rather than be forced against our will to be good. When we choose to make Good Almighty our King we turn this world into a kingdom where the greatest good rules and resides. Without choice we would only be good animals and this world would be a good jungle but not a kingdom of good by choice.
Imagine someone who is good, was good and always will be good. If he is compulsively good he can’t choose. The concept of Yirat Shamayim – “reverence of heaven” is that we choose to do good. When you love good you naturally want to do good but when you revere good you do good even when you don’t feel like it.
This is what we are judged on. Each and every one of us embodies a certain kind of goodness. And we are all responsible to choose to good that good. How can I know what my good is? Ask your evil inclination. It’s the good you don’t feel like doing.
To be inscribed in the book of life means that you want to be a player in the story of life. The story of life is the story of choosing good. When people don’t choose good, then they inscribed themselves in the book of death.
The kingdom of God means that good wants to rule over us through our choice and reside amongst us. Our goal is to build the kingdom of God which is synonymous with building the kingdom of good. We want to worship good, serve good and choose to be dedicated to only the good. When we make good our king and freely choose that good rule our lives then we are inscribed in the book of life.
To love God, worship him and serve him means loving, worshipping and serving the ultimate good. And then life, of course, is good when we are living in service of the good.
Wishing you a good and sweet New Year!