And Bamidbar Rabbah, specifically chapter 7, gives us a fascinating peek into their thinking. It uses a series of comparisons to illustrate God's, well, "royal" attributes, if you will.

The passage starts with the verse about sending lepers out of the camp: "They shall send out from the camp every leper..." (Numbers 5:2). Seems like an odd place to start a conversation about divine kingship, right? But stick with me. The rabbis are about to build something really interesting here.

The text suggests that just as an earthly king has a certain structure and way of doing things, so too does God. It's all about understanding God through analogies.

First, we’re told that earthly kings have nobility. Well, so does God! How do we know? Because God commands us to "take a census of [se’u et rosh] the entire congregation of the children of Israel..." (Numbers 1:2). The phrase se’u et rosh literally means "elevate them," suggesting a recognition of inherent worth – a divine nobility, if you will.

And what about senior officials? Kings have them, of course. And God? Well, "The prince of the princes of the Levites, Elazar son of Aaron the priest" (Numbers 3:32). Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi even adds that Elazar was an overseer of officials! Talk about management structure.

The analogies keep coming. Kings provide for their armies. God provides manna from heaven: "Behold, I am raining bread for you from the heavens" (Exodus 16:4). Kings give blankets and garments to their soldiers; God ensures the Israelites' clothes never wore out in the desert: "Your garments did not become worn..." (Deuteronomy 8:4).

It goes on! A king issues death sentences. God commands, "The adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death" (Leviticus 20:10). Kings exact fines. God decrees, "They shall fine him one hundred silver pieces" (Deuteronomy 22:19). Kings inflict corporal punishment. God commands, "Forty he shall flog him; he shall not add" (Deuteronomy 25:3).

And finally, we arrive back at the initial verse about banishing lepers. Kings have metal mines where they exile the banished. And God? Well, God has… a metaphorical “metal mine,” a place to which people are banished. And that place, in this context, is outside the camp, away from the community, as we see with the lepers.

So, what’s the point of all this? It's not just a list of comparisons. It's a way of understanding God's order, God's justice, God's role in the world through a framework people in that time would immediately grasp: the structure of a kingdom. It’s a way of making the divine relatable, comprehensible, even if only in a limited, human way. The rabbis were using the familiar to illuminate the unfamiliar, using the earthly to hint at the heavenly. And in doing so, they painted a powerful picture of a God who is both transcendent and intimately involved in the lives of the people.