The ideal Torah concept of “king” differs greatly from the monarchs who rule over gentile peoples. A Hebrew king is the concentrated expression of the collective Israeli soul – Clal Yisrael – that manifests itself in our world through millions of bodies revealed in time and space as the Jewish people.
To fear G-D is actually the highest level of courage because when a person possesses genuine awe of HaShem as the Creator and Source of all that exists, he cannot possibly fear Pharaoh, poverty, prison, torture or even death. “Fearing G-D” is essentially a deep awareness and conviction that nothing exists outside HaShem, which in turn eliminates the ability to fear anything subordinate. It is precisely this elevated consciousness that enabled the midwives to give birth to the greatest leadership our nation has known.
The question is often raised why so many otherwise faithful Jews choose to voluntarily live in exile from their homeland if the Torah so clearly dictates the need for the Jewish people to reside in Eretz Yisrael. And why do we sometimes even find learned rabbis who go so far as to reject the very existence of a Divine commandment to live in the Land of Israel?