I’ve long been fascinated by the Queen.
With the sad news of her passing yesterday, I did some thinking as to why.
Maybe it was the way she represented stability in a constantly changing world.
you know there is even a special bracha you say when you meet a non-Jewish Queen or a King?
But reflecting deeper, I came to this:
Think about Queen Elizabeth. For 70 years, she couldn't take a stroll in the street without being followed by photographers. People would scrutinize every statement she made. Simply put, she always needed to be on her best behavior.
If she was a human like all of us - and she was - she would wake up some morning, "not in the mood." Maybe she was just tired of all those meetings and events. Perhaps all she wanted was to stay in bed for another few hours.
But you couldn't tell.
She always looked elegant and graceful. She fulfilled her role as a monarch, day after day. How did she do it?
One answer lies in a speech she gave on her 21st birthday:
"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service."
Despite turmoil and upheaval, both in the world, in the UK, and even in those around her, she remained a rock of stability, an example of dedication and service.
Service is about a cause greater than oneself. By definition, it therefore transcends a person's moods. In a world where people typically act "based on how they are feeling" there's something special about being dedicated to something no matter what is going on.
Here's a lesson we can all take as Jews:
When G-d gave us the Torah on Mount Sinai, He devoted our lives to a life of service. In fact, the Talmud even writes we Jews are "compared to royals." He gave us the task to be a light unto the nations.
To be clear, this is not a royalty that leads to arrogance. On the contrary, it’s a royalty that leads to humility.
- It’s a royalty the stems from the belief that I am no more than a G-dly soul, a reflection of Hashem. This is a royalty without an "I."
- It’s a royalty that is about service. It is when we believe that I am an ambassador of the Divine.
- It’s a royalty that gives confidence. It makes a person not afraid of what others will say or do.
- We are never a victim. I am a Divine agent sent to bring light, meaning, and goodness into every situation I find myself in.
and our Soul's mission at the center. It's when we say "Hineni, what Hashem do you need from me? What does my family need from me? what does my community need from me? I am ready to serve."
PS.
1) Here is a picture from the year I was in London of the queen adoring Rabbi Nachman Sudak OBM, the head of Chabad in England, with "order of the British Empire"
2)Allow me to share one more memory of the Queen that I heard from Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks:
It happened in St James Palace on 27 January 2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Punctuality, said Louis XVIII of France, is the politeness of kings. Royalty arrives on time and leaves on time. So it is with the Queen of England, but not on this occasion. When the time came for her to leave, she stayed. And stayed. One of her attendants said he had never known her to linger so long after her scheduled departure time.
She was meeting a group of Holocaust survivors. She gave each survivor – it was a large group – her focused, unhurried attention. She stood with each until they had finished telling their personal story. One after another, the survivors were coming to Rabbi Sacks, saying, “Sixty years ago I did not know whether I would be alive tomorrow, and here I am today talking to the Queen.” It brought a kind of blessed closure into deeply lacerated lives. Sixty years earlier they had been treated, in Germany, Austria, Poland, in fact in most of Europe, as subhuman, yet now the Queen was treating them as if each were a visiting Head of State. That was humility: not holding yourself low but holding others high.