I was wondering: What does it mean to say that R. Yehoshua says that the time of kings getting up is the time of krias shema? Is he saying that the halacha is derivable from some practical, observable worldly metzias? Is he saying that this was what was given over to Moshe at Sinai? What would be the spiritual/halachic relevance of the time when kings get up? Surely, (lechoyra), it would appear that things relating to spiritual matters have more of a connection to zman krias shema than these kinds of things.
Also, I don't understand what it means on the same amud, that a person will be zocheh to distinguish between a Jewish king and a goyish king. How is this a chiddush? At face value, any Jew could easily distinguish between King Solomon and lehavdil, Pharoah......What is R. Yochanan referring to?
Thanks...
(1) The most basic answer is that the reason the time of Kerias Shema is compared to the time that kings wake up is to show the distinction between what they do -- i.e. worship their idols, and, l'Havdil, what we do -- accept the sovereignty of Hash-m. When the kings wake up and bow down to the sun, we accept upon ourselves Hash-m as the One and Only G-d. (That is what the kings were doing at the time the Torah was given, hence the time of Kerias Shema was expressed in order to emphasize the distinction between them and us.)
(2) The Gemara's intention is to impress upon our hearts that our portion is much greater than their's, so that when we see what their kings have, we should know that we will merit to have much greater glory when Mashiach comes.