Moshe: The Perfect Leader

 

 

Posted on February 26, 2013 (5773) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level:

Beginner

Moshe is absent from the people of Israel for forty days. This seems to trigger a disastrous turn of events that results in the incident of the Golden Calf. Why is Moshe’s absence such a cataclysmic event in the evolving story of the constant and continuing backtracking of Israel from its Sinai commitment? After all, every rabbi is entitled to a vacation away from his flock.

The commentators to Torah over the centuries have long debated the issue of the absence of Moshe and its connection to the sin of the Golden Calf. Many saw it as a sign of immaturity on the part of the people, in thinking that Moshe was their security blanket and that they could not serve G-d without his help and intervention. Others interpreted Moshe’s absence as a separation trauma in which Israel believed that Moshe, after being in Heaven once already, so to speak, could not readjust to earthly existence and would perhaps never return.

This would have signaled to the people that Torah and G-d’s commandments were heavenly, other-world issues that could have no daily relevance to their mortal existence upon earth. This is an idea that the Torah itself has to constantly counteract – that the Torah is not in Heaven and it is not for Heaven. It is for humans and intended to direct us in our earthly existence. The rabbis taught us in the Talmud that the Torah was not given to celestial angels. It was given to fragile, vulnerable, sinful human beings.

Moshe is not blamed for his absence. After all, he followed G-d’s commandment to remain on the summit of Mount Sinai after the granting of the Torah to Israel. He certainly cannot be faulted for obeying the commands of the Lord. Yet his absence seems to be a contributing factor in the grievous sin of the Golden I think that Moshe’s absence, which after all was occasioned by a command from G-d, was not really the main problem that troubled the Jewish people. Rather, it was the choice of Aharon and Chur to replace him that proved troubling, as events later proved. Chur was too strong a person and, in his confrontation with the people, was killed. Aharon was too accommodating and compassionate a person and in his goodness and identification with the people and their demands he contributed to the sin of the Golden Calf.

Moshe was the perfect blend of strength and compassion. The rabbis criticized King Saul for being too strong on one occasion and too weak and compromising in another situation. A leader must encompass within one’s personality both strength and compassion, firmness and the ability to compromise. The greatness of a leader is determined by the ability to be firm when necessary and accommodating when that occasion arises.

Moshe was and is the prime example of such leadership qualities. He fights a civil war against the architects of the Golden Calf and at the same time pleads the case for forgiveness of the Jewish people from G-d. It is the absence of such a perfectly balanced personality, which can destroy the leader of a people.

Shabat shalom Rabbi Berel Wein

 

Rabbi Berel Wein- Jewish historian, author and international lecturer offers a complete selection of CDs,

audio tapes, video tapes, DVDs, and books on Jewish history at www.rabbiwein.com

 

 

 

You Have the Power • Torah.org

 

 

Posted on February 21, 2019 (5779) By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch | Series: Kol HaKollel | Level:

Beginner

This week’s parsha contains the one of the more infamous moments in Jewish history, the sin of the Golden Calf. The calamitous construction of this molten image at the foot of Mount Sinai occurred not six weeks after the thunderous display of the giving of the Ten Commandments. Moshe, witnessing the revelry surrounding the calf while descending the Mount, threw down the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments, smashing them to rubble. After beseeching G-d for their forgiveness, Moshe prepared to return to the top of Mount Sinai for a new set of tablets. But unlike the original pair, which not only had the text etched by G-d Himself but had also been carved by G-d Himself, the new set which G-d would inscribe was to be hewn by Moshe. “G-d said to Moshe, ‘Carve for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and I shall inscribe on the tablets the words which were on the first tablets which you shattered.'” (Shemos/Exodus 34:1) Why did the second set need to be formed by Moshe rather than G-d?

 

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (1895-1986; Rosh Yeshiva/Dean of Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem in New York City; the leading Halachic/Jewish legal decisor and foremost leader of Jewry of his time) explains that reason is found in the rationale behind the sin of the Golden Calf itself. The Golden Calf did not start as an idolatrous exercise. The Jewish People miscalculated Moshe’s return date and understood his delay as a sign that he had died. They knew that the Ten Commandments were exclusively divine in their construction and interpreted this to mean that mere mortals could not fully comprehend these commandments in all their depth. They knew that they needed assistance from celestial sources. Had Moshe been alive, they reasoned, he would entreaty these forces to assist them. But with his feared demise, they needed an alternative approach. Knowing the heavenly nature of the image of an ox (indeed, one of the images seen by Yechezkel/Ezekiel in his vision of the Divine Chariot (1:10)), they chose to create a likeness of an ox to which they could appeal for celestial assistance in spiritual growth. Through these means they believed they would connect with G-d and understand His holy Torah.

But the maxim they did not appreciate was that Torah is accessible to all and we all have the ability to reach the highest spiritual plains to gain a profound understanding of Torah. Thus, concludes Rabbi Feinstein, Moshe was instructed to sculpt the second set of tablets, to serve as an eternal reminder that Moshe, a man of flesh and blood, was a part of their construction, and, as such, all people have the ability to access the heavenly help needed for spiritual achievement and acquisition of Torah wisdom.

Have a good Shabbos!

Copyright © 2002 by Rabbi Pinchas Avruch and Project Genesis, Inc.

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