Glossary · Torah Ohr · Likkutei Torah
Ein melech bli am
אין מלך בלא עם
There is no king without a people (ein melech bli am)
“There is no king without a people (am)”: kingship needs subjects distinct from the king, so G‑d’s Malchus brings separate beings and worlds into being, and they make Him King by accepting His yoke.
Where it’s explained
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2, ¶5Kingship is exaltation and removal from the created, unlike kindness and love, which apply to one who is close. Am is from omemos, “dimmed”: strangers and separate beings. Kingship does not apply to children, just as the soul is not said to rule over the limbs, which do its will at once.
משא״כ בחי׳ מלוכה הנה אין מלך בלא עם מלשון עוממות דהיינו זרים ונפרדים דוקא משא״כ על בנים לא שייך לשון מלוכה
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶14All the worlds come into being only through Malchus, since they have no relation to His essence; they live from His being called King over them. Like a crown of precious stones, it is not of the wearer’s essence, yet through it his kingship is seen. Am means contractions and concealments; only through them is there a king, while in truth He is unchanged.
מלשון עוממות היינו בחי׳ צמצומים והסתרות שע״י צמצומים אלו אז שייך להיות בחי׳ מלך
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4, ¶9Since He brings everything into being and is equally above and below, there is no one for Him to be King over; only through our service do we draw His kingship upon us (“say before Me verses of Kingship, so that you make Me King over you”). This is by shov, settled return, not ratzo: “send away the people” so that they be an am.
ולא שייך לפניו ית׳ להיות נקרא שמו מלך כי על מי הוא מלך
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 1, ¶15A people are men like the king who relate to him in some measure, only lower; one would not call a man king over trees and stones. Compared to G‑d no one is comparable, so it takes the covenant, in which He bound Himself to us, to raise Israel to be His am.
פירוש שהם נקראו במדרגות עמו שהם אנשים כמותו. ומתייחסים אליו בערך מה
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 7, ¶13As a king turns yesh into ayin, all being nullified before him, so the am, the separate yesh, comes to self-nullification. Angels are not so separate; Israel below, at the utmost of separateness, are where kingship is chiefly revealed, through turning yesh into ayin.
ודוקא ישראל למטה שהם בתכלית בחי׳ עוממות ונפרד ושם הוא עיקר בחי׳ גלוי המלוכה
Stated differently
What makes subjects an am: being strangers and separate from the king, or being of his kind and relating to him
אין מלך בלא עם מלשון עוממות דהיינו זרים ונפרדים דוקאAm comes from omemos: specifically strangers and separate beings; kingship does not apply to children.
וכמשל אלו נאמר שמלך על עצים ואבנים שאינם מן המין והסוג שיתייחס ותפול עליהם שם המלךA people must be men like the king who relate to him in some measure; one does not rule over trees and stones, which are not of a kind to which the name king applies. Israel become His am through the covenant.
Whether kingship, unlike the other middos, is exalted and removed from the people or dwells and is clothed in them
וה״ז בחי׳ רוממות והסתלקות מהנבראים משא״כ שאר המדות הוא בחי׳ קירובKingship is exaltation and removal from the created beings; the other middos are closeness, since kindness and love apply also to one who is close.
כך בחי׳ מלכות אין מלך בלא עם הוא בחי׳ השוכן ומתלבש בעם משא״כ מדותיו ית׳ לך ה׳ הגדולה כו׳ אין להם ערך ויחס לעםMalchus, “no king without a people,” is what dwells and is clothed in the people, as the Shechinah dwells in the lower beings; His middos (“Yours is the greatness…”) have no relation to the people, and that is “holy,” separated.
Main sources
Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 1, ¶15Likkutei Torah, Balak 2, ¶5Likkutei Torah, Balak 2, ¶6Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32, ¶14Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4, ¶9Likkutei Torah, Tzav 11, ¶2Torah Ohr, Shemos 7, ¶13
Where it appears
In 43 paragraphs of 34 maamarim.
- Likkutei Torah, Masei 2 ¶7 ¶18
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 1 ¶15 ¶20
- Likkutei Torah, Nitzavim 4 ¶17 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shelach 11 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 3 ¶17 ¶21
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 32 ¶14 ¶38
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 8 ¶5
- Torah Ohr, Vayakhel 2 ¶8
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 11 ¶2
- Torah Ohr, Lech Lecha 4 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Bamidbar 6 ¶2 ¶9
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 1 ¶27
- Likkutei Torah, Shabbos Shuvah 2 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Yisro 2 ¶25
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 1 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Acharei 1 ¶11
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 2 ¶5 ¶6
- Likkutei Torah, Rosh Hashanah 2 ¶3
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 15 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 34 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Va’eschanan 10 ¶13
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 8 ¶3
- Torah Ohr, Megillas Esther 9 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 5 ¶12
- Torah Ohr, Mikeitz 15 ¶4
- Torah Ohr, Shemos 7 ¶12 ¶13
- Likkutei Torah, Tzav 7 ¶34
- Torah Ohr, Parshas Zachor 2 ¶7
- Likkutei Torah, Shemini Atzeres 4 ¶9 ¶17
- Likkutei Torah, Shir HaShirim 42 ¶10
- Torah Ohr, Bereishis 6 ¶2
- Likkutei Torah, Ki Seitzei 1 ¶5
- Likkutei Torah, Nasso 2 ¶10
- Likkutei Torah, Balak 1 ¶22
Written with AI from the paragraphs of Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, each entry checked by a second AI reader and every Hebrew quote checked by code; not yet reviewed by a person. Our English: CC BY-NC 4.0.