Pushing but not too far

Torah Movement Mitzion Torani Tzioni

The MiTzion Movement Torani Tzioni sends groups of Israeli post-army yeshiva students to form kollels and affect Jewish identity in Jewish communities around the world.

This week's Dvar Torah is by Rabbi Benji Levy Dean of the College, Moriah College

The Torah is the ultimate chronicle on leadership. Although some describe our heroes as angels, a simple reading of the Torah is clear: the majority of our biblical models were not superhuman, but rather super humans. Human beings with all the burden and benefits that this title implies.

The deliverer of this manuscript, Moses, was considered the supreme leader: Moshe Emet V – Torato Emet – "Moses is the truth and his Torah is true," Lo Kam B & # 39; Yisrael K & # 39; Moshe Od – "never in Israel did another come out like Moses". And in a short run in the heart of this week's parasha, we are aware of a hint about why this is happening.

When Moses is told that he will not lead the Jewish people into the Promised Land because of his mistakes in the episode where he hit the rock rather than talking to him, his first recorded response Ask God (Numbers 27: 16-17.): "To name a man on the congregation who will go out before them and come before them, that will bring them out and bring them; and do not let the badembly of God be like sheep without a shepherd. "

Moses, who experienced the pains of the Israelite nation, who led them out of Egypt to receive the Torah and through the barren desert for decades of selfless dedication. , was told that he would not continue the odyssey in their homeland.

His answer is staggering. Not a complaint, not a question about himself – his first thought was who will wear them? Who will continue what he started. Remembering the golden calf that was built last time he was not there for forty days, Moses feared that his nation would be like a sheep without a shepherd.

I find this simple answer inspiring and it shows its greatness as a leader. Leadership is about people, not the leader, and Moses was the incarnation of that message. When you go to David Ben Gurion's house at Sdei Boker or Menahem Begin's in Tel Aviv, you see the humility of what it means to live for a people, not for oneself

. I said. Why did Moses ask for a leader who would come out before them and come in front of them, take them out and bring them back? If it comes out before people, it gets them out and it happens before them, it introduces them – it's a redundant request. But this revealed another characteristic of the direction that made Moses what he was.

As Moses stated, the Israelites needed a leader who would come out before them and come before them, someone who would solve a problem and take care of it, pave the way, setting the bar high and creating a space for people to take up the challenge.

However, sometimes the bar can be placed so high that the leader grows beyond people, judging himself irrelevant. It is where a level of tolerance is essential or the leader will turn around after leading the way and people will be too far behind. His ideals are right but his timing is bad and that is why Moses qualifies his statement by saying that the leader needs: "to take them out and bring them."

This combination of pushing and pulling, setting the bar high and ensuring that it is achievable, is incumbent not only on all the leaders and badociate badociates, but on the parents and the children, but on each of us and to ourselves. As a Jewish people and as a human being, it is our duty to constantly re-evaluate our goals and how we would like to reach them, pushing ourselves but not beyond our limits.

Rashi (Numbers 27:17) to be a point of distinction with other kings who would sit in their homes and send their armies into battle. We see examples of this style of leadership in the Israeli army where the commander leads the front with his troops and almost every successful sports team where the captain leads from within the team.

This was the message of Moses in his humble request for a new leader – one that each of us can take into account in becoming the best people we can, challenging ourselves with achievable goals.