Unfit for Leadership?

Charlton Heston as Moses at his best in 'The Ten
Commandments'

My apologies in advance for not posting NEXT week; I'll be travelling and don't expect to be able to get to a computer.  But here's a thought for THIS week...



No, this isn't an essay about President Trump, please no!  It's about Moses!  But actually, there are parallels between Moses and Trump - as well as any flawed leader...and they're ALL flawed to one extent of another.

All leaders are flawed, because all PEOPLE, whether they aspire to leadership or not, are flawed.  But when one aspires to leadership, one's flaws become visible for all the world to see.  And they become more critical.  Say I have a 'locker room sense of humor,' such as Trump is popularly seen to possess.  If I'm just Don Levy, an individual, then if my humor offends you, you can just decide not to admit me into your circle of individuals who matter to you.  To put it more plainly, you can decide that my friendship is not worth having to listen to my jokes.  BUT...if I have insinuated myself into your life somehow, say by being elected your president, then you can't just ignore or avoid me.  I'm in your life whether you want me there or not.  That's why, if you particularly take exception to my expression of humor or whatever, you are likely to constantly question my fitness for whatever office I have managed to acquire.  This is why we are unforgiving of the foibles of presidents, congressmen, generals, or (much lower down the hierarchy) rabbis.

Moses, while being a giant of a man, is flawed.  He begins developing a short temper and loses his ability to deal rationally with the people Israel and even with G-d at times.  This causes his downfall.  It isn't that he should be an object of scorn.  Rather that his fitness for continuing to lead the people Israel comes into question.  Here, at the point in the Torah's narrative that we are reading these weeks (this week's reading, Beha'alotecha, begins with the eighth chapter of Numbers), he is starting to lose it.

Of course it is only human - and Moses is, if anything, human - to be reluctant to step down from leadership.  It is difficult after a time, to separate oneself from the entity one leads, and to see its continuance after one's pulling out.

Fortunately for Moses - and for the people Israel - G-d sees and recognizes Moses' developing unfitness, and ultimately decrees that the mantle be passed to Joshua bin Nun.  That doesn't happen this week (in the cyclical reading of the Torah), but the events we read about now definitely lead to it.

But the Jewish tradition fortunately does not develop a contempt for Moses just because his time as a leader ultimately passes.  Rather, we revere him.  The Rambam (Maimonides) called Moses the chiefest of the prophets, and I don't know of a Jew who would disagree with that assessment.

Leadership is an elusive quality.  It is rarely possessed, and it is rarely possessed permanently.  When it presents itself to us, it is our task to recognize it and to follow it.  Sometimes, it takes a powerful discernment to recognize it.  And to know when it is time to move on.