365 Names of God: King

KING A translation of the Hebrew word “melech” (מלך), this Name has fallen out of favor in Liberal Judaism circles due to two factors: 1) It’s male-gendered, and thus anthro/patriomorphic (and conceptually inaccurate); and 2) as people who live in a democratic republic, we’ve lost touch of what being a king entails: his word is law, he submits to no one, and he wields the power of life and death over his subjects. Since the word “melech” is present in all classical Jewish blessings and in many prayers, some Liberal siddurim (prayerbooks) substitute “Sovereign,” others “Source.” As my first philosophy professor was wont to say, “You pays your money, you takes your choice.”

Once upon a time, in 2011 in fact, The Metaphorager aspired each day to feature a different name for that-which-some-people-call-God. Some were creative, others traditional, each unique, all interesting; so we’re going to attempt that again (though not every day) until we run out of the more than 40 names we’ve managed to collect so far. If you want to see your favorite here, but haven’t, send it along with the subject line “365 Names” and let us know whether or not you want to be credited.

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