Leadership Qualities
Parshas
Shemos
Moses, the chosen
messenger of the Master of the Universe, came riding out of the desert into the
fabled kingdom of Egypt. With nothing more than the staff in his hand and his
brother Aaron at his side, he strode into the royal palace, confronted Pharaoh
and demanded, “Let my people go!”
Thus began the
spectacular story of the Exodus. Time and again, Moses confronted the
belligerent Pharaoh, and after each refusal, he visited a shattering new plague
onto Egypt until it was beaten into submission, and the enslaved Jewish people
were finally free. As for Moses, he has come down to us as the greatest leader
of all time, the man who single-handedly took on the might of the entire
Egyptian kingdom and prevailed.
But let us stop and
think for a moment. Wherein exactly lay the greatness of Moses in his mission
to Egypt? Every step he took, every word he spoke, every move he made was
choreographed by Hashem. Hashem told him exactly when and where to go, exactly
what to say, exactly what to do. All Moses had to do was follow his
instructions faithfully. He had no personal input into any aspect of his
spectacular performance. Why then is Moses considered such a towering figure in
the history of the Exodus?
The commentators
explain that the one critical element that would determine the success or
failure of his mission was entirely in Moses’s control. “I want you to
know,” Hashem said to him, “that you are going on the condition that you
perform my wonders in front of Pharaoh without fearing him.” Without fearing
him. This was the key.
As Hashem’s chosen
messenger, Moses enjoyed full divine protection, and he knew full well that
Pharaoh could not harm him. But it is one thing to know this intellectually and
quite another to feel it in one’s heart. According to the Midrash, Pharaoh’s
throne was surrounded by snarling lions and fierce warriors, and Pharaoh
himself was an exceedingly intimidating tyrant. No matter how sure Moses was
that he would come to no harm, could he enter such a scenario without a twinge
of trepidation in his heart? And yet, if he had exhibited the slightest tremor
in his voice, the slightest flutter of his heart, the slightest blink of his
eye, he would have compromised his entire mission. Hashem had sent Moses to
demonstrate His absolute mastery over Pharaoh, to show that Pharaoh was utterly
nothing, putty in the hands of Heaven. Therefore, had Moses felt any fear, he
would have acknowledged Pharaoh as an adversary, albeit an infinitely weaker
one, and thereby doomed his mission to failure.
Here then lay the
greatness of Moses. He saw clearly that there is no power in the world other
than Hashem, that Pharaoh in contraposition to G-d was a total nonentity,
unworthy of even the slightest smidgen of fear. Therefore, when Moses walked
fearlessly into Pharaoh’s palace, everyone, Egyptian and Jew alike, knew that
Hashem was in absolute control
A great general, who
was in the process of mounting an invasion of a neighboring country, called a
meeting of his most trusted advisors. “Gentlemen, I have a problem,” the
general began. “I had hoped to win fame and glory for our armies during this
campaign by thoroughly trouncing the enemy. But wherever my armies appear, the
enemy flees. We have still had no opportunity to engage them in battle and
destroy them. How can we get the enemy to stand and fight?”
“We take hostages,”
said one advisor. “That will force them to fight.”
“We plan ambushes,”
said another. “We cut off their escape routes.”
Other advisers
suggested yet other ruses to force the enemy to fight.
“You are all wrong,”
said one old advisor. “If the enemy flees whenever your armies appear, what
greater glory can there be?”
In our own lives, we often face trials and challenges that
strike fear into our hearts. Whether the threat is to our health, financial
security, family life or anything else, the effect can be frightening and,
indeed, devastating. But if we can find the strength to look at the world in
the broader perspective, if we recognize that we are all messengers of Heaven
doing his bidding here on the face of the earth, we will discover that there is
nothing to fear but fear itself. As long as we connect ourselves to the
infinite reality of the Creator, all our worries pale into insignificance.
Text Copyright © 2009
by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.
Goodness begets Goodness
Parshas
Shemos
Posted on January 5, 2010 (5770) By
Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein
| Level: Beginner
Shifra and Puah give
Jewish children life in this week’s parsha. Midrash and Rashi point out that
Shifra and Puah were really Yocheved and Miriam. In G-d’s world where
everything eventually evens out, Moshe, Yocheved’s son and Miriam’s brother
will be saved from the Nile and its tides and crocodiles by another woman who
saved children, Batya, the daughter of the Pharaoh. There is a common streak
that runs throughout the Torah that goodness begets goodness and evil always will
lead to other evil.
Saving children is the
prime value in Jewish life. The emphasis on education in Jewish life is part of
this mission of salvation of the young. The enemies of the Jewish people have
always concentrated on destroying Jewish children so that the Jewish future
would be bleak and non-existent. Pharaoh’s decree to cast Jewish children into
the Nile was the first in a long line of such decrees.
The Germans and their
evil cohorts destroyed one and a half million Jewish children during the Holocaust.
The absence of these children from the midst of the Jewish world is felt even
today, seventy years later. Thus the supreme act of kindness and risk taken by
Shifra and Puah leads to their reward that the savior of Israel will also be
saved from the Nile by a different, compassionate and risk taking woman.
One never realizes how
a kindness and good deed done to others can influence for good one’s own life
and family circle. By saving other children, Shifra and Puah saved their own
little child and brother as well.
In the late 1940’s the
Day School movement in America was barely on its fledgling feet attempting to
somehow save thousands of American Jewish children from the pits of complete
assimilation and Jewish apathy and ignorance – the Nile River of its day,
spiritually speaking. It faced overwhelming problems and fierce opposition from
within the established Jewish community itself.
Many felt then that
somehow being intensely and proudly Jewish in a knowledgeable fashion was
un-American. One of the major problems that the Day Schools faced was finding
dedicated young families willing to leave the imagined sanctuary of the New
York area to become the teachers and administrators of these new schools in the
hinterlands of America. They were justifiably concerned about the future of
their children growing up in a more difficult, Jewishly speaking, environment.
Rabbi Ahron Kotler, one
of the driving forces behind the creation of these new day schools, boldly
announced to the yeshiva world that any young couples who would move to these
“out of town” communities to help build and staff these schools would be
personally guaranteed by him to have success in raising their children as they
wish.
His guarantee and
prediction was fulfilled in dozens of families who have made a great deal of
difference in rebuilding Torah life in America. Saving others in essence,
and in the long run, helps to save one’s own self. The redemption of Israel
from Egyptian bondage is initiated by small acts of kindness, sacrifice and
goodness. Israel and Zion is redeemed by acts of justice and righteousness.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
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