[Avodah] HaShem HaMelech

[Daniel M. Israel]

Quoting "kennethgmiller at juno.com" <kennethgmiller at juno.com>:
> In the example in question, do people expect more mercy from a queen  
> than from a king? I don't think so; the main idea of both is that of  
> absolute rulership. Thus I would argue that the best translation  
> would be one that does not carry any gendered baggage.  
> Unfortunately, "monarch" is not nearly as common a word as "king",  
> and has the potential for sounding stilted.

Actually, I don't think "queen" carries that connotation at all.  If I  
said, "who do you think you are, the King of England," I think most  
people would hear that as a complaint about authority.  But if I said,  
"who do you think you are, the _Queen_ of England," I think that would  
be heard as a complaint about pickiness or something similar, and that  
in spite of the fact that the actual British Monarch has been a Queen  
not a King for almost six decades.

IOW, in spite of many historical examples of ruling Queens, we still  
associate "King" with authority and "Queen" with wife of the one with  
authority.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
daniel at cornell.edu