Leadership
Qualities
Parshas Chukas
He brought down the wrath of Heaven on Egypt until
Pharaoh agreed to let the Jewish people go. He led them out to freedom. He
parted the sea and led them through. He brought them to the foot of Mount Sinai
to receive the Torah. He guided them through the desert for forty years. But at
the last moment, when they stood poised on the threshold of the Promised Land,
his leadership came to an end. Moses passed away without stepping a foot into
the Promised Land.
Why wasn’t Moses granted the privilege of entering
the Promised Land to which he had labored so diligently to bring the people?
We find the answer in this week’s Torah portion.
After Miriam died, the miraculous well from which the people had slaked their
thirst in the desert vanished, and they were left without water. They maligned
Moses for taking them from the gardens of Egypt into an arid wasteland. Hashem
told Moses to assemble the people and speak to the rock, which would then give
forth water. Moses called the people together. “Listen, you rebels,” he
declared angrily. “Can water come out of this rock?” Then he struck the rock
with his staff and water flowed. But Moses had erred. Instead of speaking to
the rock, he had struck it. And for this, Hashem decreed that Moses would not
enter the Promised Land.
Let us now look for a moment at the Torah
reading of Devarim, where Moses is reviewing the events of the previous forty
years in his parting words to the Jewish people. He reminds them of how the people
had responded to the slanders spread by the spies upon their return from the
land of Canaan, and how Hashem had decreed that the entire generation would die
in the desert and only their children would enter the Promised Land. “Hashem
was also infuriated with me because of you,” Moses concluded, “saying, `You too
will not arrive there.'” It would seem, therefore, that Moses was barred from
entering the Promised Land because of the sin of the spies, not because of the
sin of striking the rock. How do we account for this apparent contradiction?
The commentators explain that Moses had originally
been exempt from the decree barring the Jewish people from entering the
Promised Land because of the sins of the spies. As a leader of the Jewish
people, he was in a class by himself. He was not integrated into the body of
the common people. He was not driven by their motivations or influenced by
their social currents. Although he was always sensitive to their needs, his
thoughts, convictions and motivations were never controlled by the ebb and flow
of public opinion. Therefore, since he was not really one of them, he did not
have to share the unfortunate fate of the people when they erred and sinned.
But at the incident of the rock, Moses lost his
imperviousness to public opinion. No longer aloof and remote in his decision
making, he flared at the Jewish people. “Listen, you rebels!” he cried in
anger. He allowed the people to get to
him, and as a result, he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, in
disobedience of Hashem’s command. Therefore, he no longer deserved to be
considered in a class by himself, and he shared the fate of the people who were
barred from the Promised land because of the sin of the spies.
A man once asked a great sage for his opinion of some
popular political leaders.
“They are like dogs,” he replied.
The man was puzzled. “Like dogs? Why?”
“Very simple,” said the great sage. “When a man
walks down the street with his dog, the dog always runs ahead, yapping
excitedly. But when he gets to the corner, he doesn’t know which way to turn.
So he stands and waits for his master to catch up. Once his master chooses the
new direction, the dogs is off and running once again. These leaders you mentioned have no opinions or convictions of their
own. They sniff the air to discover in which direction the wind is blowing, and
then they are off and running. Some leaders!”
In our own lives, we are
called upon to act as leaders, whether in the broader community, our immediate
circles or simply in our own families for our children. Everything we do sets
an example for others and influences them at least to some extent. But in order
to be true leaders, we must have the courage and integrity to follow our own
convictions. We must have the fortitude to live spiritually rather than cave in
to the pressure of the fashionable materialistic trends. Despite the decadence
of our society, or perhaps because of it, there is a latent thirst for
spirituality among the people around us. If we live by our convictions, we can
have a part in bringing that thirst into the open and literally change the
world. Text Copyright © 2010 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
Utter
Honesty
Parshas Chukas
Posted on June 28, 2012 (5772) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level: Beginner
HASHEM spoke to Moshe saying, “Take the staff and
gather the assembly, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock before
their eyes that it shall give its waters. You shall bring forth for them water
from the rock and give drink to the assembly and to their animals.” Moshe took
the staff from before HASHEM, as He had commanded him. Moshe and Aaron gathered
the congregation before the rock and he said to them, “Listen now O rebels,
shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” Then Moshe raised his arm
and struck the rock with his staff twice. Abundant water came forth and the
assembly and their animals drank. HASHEM said to Moshe, “Because you did not
believe in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore
you will not bring this congregation into the Land that I will give them.”
(Bamidbar 20:7-12)
…The testimonies of HASHEM are reliable they
make wise the simple! (Tehillim 19:8)
Here we have on open display one of many clear
demonstrations of the veracity of the Torah. Moshe’s faultiness is exposed in
living color for the world to see for all time. He is accused by The Almighty
of “not believing in HASHEM”! Even a momentary lapse, in a situation of extreme
pressure and desperation is not excusable. It must be spelled out for all
future generations how he had erred in his career as a servant of G-d! Usually the writer of history has his
turn to revise things, consciously or sub-consciously, and sanitize the
reputation of the heroes it wishes to promote. What does the Torah consistently
do? It points out the subtle and overt errors of all our ancestors. No one is
so sacred to avoid criticism!
Avraham is faulted for allowing water to be
fetched by an agent rather than going to get it himself when he was visited by
three heat stricken wayfarers on the hottest day ever just three days after his
circumcision at the age of 99. The strict eye of justice did not spare or
excuse him even as his greatness was on parade. Then Sara chuckled inwardly,
and probably undetectable, by human hearing, and yet she was held accountable
for a slight lack of belief in HASHEM’s ability to grant her a child in her old
age.
Yaakov is punished for his response to Rochel when
she demanded a child after her sister had already given birth multiple times.
“Am I in place of G-d!?” he responded bluntly. He was evidently not the one with
a fertility issue but that was not the way to respond to a woman in emotional
pain. Ouch!
That a golden calf was built just 40 days after
the Nation of Israel all heard the HASHEM declare, “You shall have no other
gods before Me…” and the Torah records G-d’s wish to destroy the entire nation
and rebuild it with Moshe is brutally truthful and revealing. That Aaron albeit
unwillingly played a direct role in its construction is even more startling
because later he would become the highest of high priests. That ugly fact could
easily have been swept under the historical rug and no one would be the wiser.
We find that even Miriam’s slight-slight of her
brother Moshe whom she loved and which resulted in her public disgrace as she
was afflicted with Tzaraas, could also have avoided headlines, but no! It is
one of the six daily remembrances and one of the 613 Mitzvos to remember what
HASHEM did to Miriam, when she spoke to Aaron and out of for concern for Moshe!
Ouch again!
The rebellion of Korach also would have been
better to be hushed and whisked away. Why would Moshe want people to know that
in his lifetime there were dissenting opinions and mutinous machinations at
play!? Does that add or detract from the credibility you would expect Moshe to
be seeking?
The answer is that Moshe did not write anything
from his own mind. He was not more than a compatible printer of The Almighty
penning with perfect precision like any other scribe only what he was bidden to
and not more or less.
The cases are just too many to list! Even a few
examples though serve as strong evidence that the testimonies of our Holy Torah
are dripping with utter honesty!
DvarTorah, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam
and Torah.org.
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