STACK 
 
 ANNbX 
 
 SERMON 
 
 n\ THE 
 
 nation of Their Gracious Majesties, 
 KING EDWARD VII. 
 
 AM) 
 
 QUEEN ALEXANDRA, 
 
 DELIVERED KY 
 
 Rabbi I. H. DAICHE5, 
 
 On Saturday, August 9th, 1902, 
 
 BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODEL, LEEDS. 
 
 [. POK'I''\ ! I : K.M !'R1SMN(, \V,,KKS. If, HnilK,!'. S'l'KKKI.
 
 SERMON 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Coronation of Their Gracious Majesties, 
 KINO EDWARD VII. 
 
 AND 
 
 QUEEN ALEXANDRA, 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 Rabbi I. H. DAICHES, 
 
 On Saturday, August 9th, 1902, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODEL, LEEDS.
 
 his Illajestp 
 King du>ard VII. 
 
 To a telegram he sent to the King and Queen, Rabbi 
 Daiches was honoured with the following reply : 
 
 BUCKINGHAM PALACE, 
 
 8.15 p.m. 
 
 To THE RABBI OF THE BETH HAMEDRASH HAGODEL 
 CONGREGATION, 3, WINTOUN STREET, LEEDS. 
 
 Am commanded by the King and Queen to thank you 
 for your kind telegram of loyal congratulations and good 
 wishes. 
 
 KNOLLYS.
 
 fier majesty 
 Queen Alexandra. 
 
 The following is the telegram Rabbi Daiches sent : 
 To THEIR MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTIES THE KING AND QUEEN. 
 
 On behalf of my congregation I humbly beg to express 
 our heartfelt good wishes on the occasion of the Coronation. 
 May the Lord grant the Royal pair long life and health to 
 reign for many, many years for the benefit of the great British 
 Empire. 
 
 As a token of gratitude to the Almighty for having spared 
 to the English people the dear life of His Majesty, I to-day 
 suggested in my sermon to my congregation to found a 
 charitable institution, and a resolution to create a fund to 
 assist necessitous people was passed and will be carried out 
 to-morrow. 
 
 ISRAEL DAICHES, 
 
 Rabbi of the Beth Hamedrash Hagodel Congregation 
 3, Wintoun Street, Leeds.
 
 Rabbi Simeon says : " There are three crowns : the 
 crown of the law, the crown of priestly office, and the crown 
 of royalty ; yet the crown of a good name is high above them 
 all." (Pirque Aboth. iv., 17.) 
 
 The commentators of the Ethics found some difficulty 
 in explaining why the sage at first says : there are. three 
 crowns, and afterwards enumerates four. 
 
 The following illustration will, I believe, justify this 
 saying : There are two ways in which a crown may be put 
 on: by right of descent and by right of merit. When one's 
 fathers have occupied a crown for generations, and afterwards 
 the crown passes over to their descendant, that is known as 
 hereditary right. But when a man is a distinguished character, 
 highly cultivated, in possession of brilliant qualities, and the 
 people put a crown on his head out of reverence and love for 
 him, and owing to the feeling that he is the man whom the 
 high position requires, then the crown is obtained by merit. 
 
 The difference between obtaining a crown by one way 
 or the other is this : When a person succeeds to the crown 
 by right of inheritance, then all classes of people recognise 
 his right, and there can be no dispute or quarrel about it, 
 and there is no fear of disturbance of the peace of the country ; 
 therefore the people may heartily rejoice and be glad that 
 they have got a King who is a descendant of their royal 
 house, and under the government of whose ancestors their 
 parents lived. But still there is a small cloud on the horizon 
 of the country's joy. For there arises some doubt whether 
 the reign of the new King will be a good one for the country, 
 if he will further its welfare, and if he possesses the character, 
 the -qualities which make a good King. Although his noble 
 descent, his high, princely education allow it to be taken 
 for granted that he is the most suitable man for the rank 
 which he is going to enter, and possesses all the qualities 
 that are required for the dignity which he is going to main- 
 tain, still one cannot get rid of a secret anxiety as to whether 
 the new reign will be a happy one, as to whether the new 
 ruler will take sufficient care of the country which is en- 
 trusted to him.
 
 When a crown is placed on the head of a man who has 
 not inherited it, but whom his own personal qualities, his 
 high-minded spirit, his capability of ruling, his righteousness 
 and integrity have elevated to this high dignity, then also 
 the country is rejoiced and glad, but still the horizon 
 of their joy is not quite cloudless. For there may be men 
 whom envy and hatred would stir up to act and agitate 
 against the newly-anointed King, and thus the peace 
 and with it the welfare of the country would be 
 disturbed. But when the crown is put on the head of 
 a person, whose fathers reigned over the country and 
 governed it with the utmost care and love, under whose 
 rule the country had flourished and become strong, wealthy 
 and prosperous, to whom the people were affectionately 
 attached, and in addition to that, he himself is so distinguished 
 a man, with such good qualities, that had he not succeeded 
 to the crown by heritage, he would have deserved to be 
 chosen King for his merits alone, then the joy of the country 
 is a true and perfect one, for the people are sure of good 
 government and of inward peace, and the King is sure also 
 of the love of his people, and of their readiness to offer their 
 property and even their life for his safety and honour, 
 and to fight for him to the last drop of blood. 
 
 This, as it seems to me, is the meaning of the words 
 of Rabbi Simeon : There are three official crowns : the 
 crown of the law, the crown of priestly office, and the crown 
 of royalty ; but if any of these crowns is to conduce to the 
 happiness of its bearer and of the people entrusted to his 
 care, then there must be high above this crown " the crown 
 of a good name," a crown which is obtainable only by good 
 character, by -high education, great qualities, by acting 
 justly and being merciful. Surely, when such jewels are 
 set in a crown, then the crown is a most valuable one. 
 
 My brethren ! To-day takes place the happy event 
 which the whole English nation has so anxiously awaited, 
 and which it welcomes with the greatest joy and happiness 
 the Coronation of our GRACIOUS KING EDWARD VII. 
 AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA. He is a King, not only by His 
 descent from the English Royal House, not only by the fact 
 of his being the son of the late Queen Victoria, whose memory
 
 is most dear to the English people, to whom the English 
 nation was devoted with heart and soul, but He is also King 
 by his merits, his generosity, his kindliness, his care for 
 and love to the country, his humane, high sentiments, of 
 which we have just had so splendid a proof. Indeed, the joy 
 and happiness are justified, when on the head of such a 
 King the crown of the country is put. 
 
 But let us see, is the Coronation of a King according 
 to our Jewish view a reason for special joy? And what is 
 it that makes this day a holiday ? My brethren ! A look 
 into the history of our own people will serve best to secure 
 enlightenment on this question. When the people of Israel 
 were yet in their own country, then they also had rulers and 
 kings. The appointment of a king was to Israel a Divine 
 command, which it received even before it had a land of 
 its own and before it required a ruler. 
 
 " Thou shalt set a king over thee," was said when Israel 
 was still in the wilderness. But the king of Israel was not 
 to be a tyrant who rules according to his own discretion ; not 
 a despot, who is independent of law or duty ; but more than 
 any other mortal was he to observe the laws and commands 
 which God had given to His people, more than any other 
 was he bound to engross himself in the Divine doctrines, 
 always to be mindful of them and to make them the motive 
 principles of all his thoughts and deeds. He was the 
 representative of God, and therefore he had to show himself 
 worthy of His the Divine confidence. He was a king 
 by the grace of God, and as such he deserved obedience 
 and high esteem. Supercilious, self complacent conquerors 
 like those whom we find in the heathen antiquity, and who 
 now and then appear also in modern times, figures like 
 Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, Caesar and Napoleon, were an 
 unusual appearance among the Jews, and the greatness of 
 the most famous of the Jewish kings, of the wise Solomon, 
 was on account of his wisdom, the Divine understanding 
 which he possessed and which enabled him to bring the welfare 
 and the prosperity of his people to the highest degree. 
 
 The view of the nature and the dignity of a king as 
 an agent of God has, with the gradual dissemination among 
 the European nations of the most important religious views
 
 of Judaism, passed over to the former, and to the present 
 day has remained prevalent. But not only has this view 
 alone been adopted from Judaism, but the solemn and holy 
 act of crowning a ruler, too, is undoubtedly to be traced 
 back to a Jewish origin. The holy dignity which God, 
 entrusted to him, was conferred on the king by this act, 
 viz.: that his head was anointed by the High Priest with 
 holy oil. In this way were Saul and David installed into their 
 office by Samuel, and when Solomon was to ascend the royal 
 throne while his father was yet alive, the High Priest Zadok 
 was ordered by David (I. Kings, i.) to perform on him the 
 solemn act of anointing in order to secure for him in this 
 way the crown of the country. And how did the people 
 conduct itself with regard to this event ? In the above- 
 mentioned chapter it is reported that on the day of the anoint- 
 ment of Solomon, the people rejoiced and shouted with 
 happiness. " And they blew the trumpet, and all the 
 people said, ' God save King Solomon.' And all the people 
 came up after him, and the people played on pipes and 
 rejoiced with great exuberance, so that the earth rent with 
 the sound of them." This was the view of the Jewish people 
 on the coronation of its King, and so great was its joy on 
 that day. 
 
 Now, my brethren, if our people during its long, disastrous 
 exile ever had cause to celebrate the Coronation of a King 
 with joy and happiness, to-day is that occasion, on the 
 Coronation of our GRACIOUS, ILLUSTRIOUS KING 
 EDWARD VII. AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA. It is not 
 only the feelings of loyalty and allegiance that compel us 
 to celebrate this day, but also our feelings of gratitude to 
 the English people. Gratitude was always a Jewish virtue, 
 our feelings of gratefulness towards our benefactors were 
 always stronger than those of hatred towards our persecutors. 
 
 And we have reason to be thankful to the English people. 
 Whilst in most of the other countries our brethren are despised 
 and oppressed, in England they are received with unlimited 
 hospitality, enabled to lead an honourable life, and 
 find a second home. Therefore we may be proud of the 
 sentiments which animate us to-day, and give ourselves 
 up to them entirely. We may, therefore, frankly express
 
 8 
 
 our lively and sincere participation in the general joy of the 
 whole English people. 
 
 And thus we may with gladness of heart express our 
 exalted frame of mind with the words of the Psalmist : 
 " This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice 
 and be glad in it," which we may apply in a double sense : 
 we have to rejoice at the great event of the day, at 
 the solemn act of crowning the head of our Sovereign, 
 and we also have to participate in the universal joy that 
 our King has recovered from His dangerous illness and has 
 so far regained his strength as to be able to undergo such 
 a ceremony. 
 
 My brethren ! In our Talmud are enumerated four 
 classes of persons who have to bring thank offerings ; one 
 of those is he who has been suffering from a grave illness 
 and has recovered. Now, our King, too, was lying ill with 
 a very serious illness and we, as His loyal and faithful subjects, 
 who fully appreciate the mercy that God has shown us by 
 restoring Him to health and strength, also ought to bring 
 a thank-offering. But in what way can we do that ? An 
 act of charity always pleases God as the best of offerings, 
 and since our King takes great delight in rendering help to 
 the needy, I would suggest that a Benevolent Loan Society 
 be founded, the aim of which shall be to assist necessitous 
 people. 
 
 And so let us offer up our prayers to the Almighty and 
 All-merciful God, that He may keep our King and Queen for 
 a long, long time in good health and strength, and that He 
 may bless the English country and increase its welfare and 
 prosperity ! Amen.
 
 A 000 069 307 7