Yearning for Malchus

A thought on the Haftara, Lecha Dodi and Elul

The past few weeks I have been trying to understand 3 seemingly different ideas. As I was exploring these ideas I realized that perhaps they are all part of one idea. 

1. Every year as Elul approaches, we start hearing messages about “The King is in the field”¹. I always had a hard time understanding this: Why is Hashem in the field? Why a field? Why doesn't Hashem come into our communities, why do we need to go out to the field?

2. While learning the parshiyos over  the past few weeks I noticed an interesting thing. When it comes to capital punishment, the Torah seems to transition from taking matters into your own hand², to going to a Kohen³. Then the Torah tells us about appointing judges⁴ and coronating a king⁵. We then learn about the Zekeinim who convened at the gates of the city⁶. What are these different roles and why are the Zekeinim at the gate?

3. The Haftaros over the past few weeks are known as Shiva D’Nechemta, the seven Haftaros of comfort over the destruction of Jerusalem. I noticed tha…