MAY 27 • 2021 | 35

I

n this week’s parshah, Moses 
has a breakdown. It is the 
lowest emotional ebb of his 
entire career as a leader. Listen to 
his words to God:
“Why have You 
brought this trou-
ble on Your ser-
vant? What have I 
done to displease 
You that You put 
the burden of all 
these people on 
me? Did I con-
ceive all these people? Did I give 
them birth? ... I cannot carry all 
these people by myself; the bur-
den is too heavy for me. If this is 
how You are going to treat me, 
please go ahead and kill me — if 
I have found favor in Your eyes 
— and do not let me face my 
own ruin.
” (Numbers 11:11-15)
Yet the cause seems utterly 
disproportionate to its effect. 
The people have done what 
they so often did before. They 
complain. Many times, Moses 
had faced this kind of complaint 
from the people before. There 
are several such instances in the 
book of Exodus.
On these earlier occasions 
Moses did not give expression to 
the kind of despair he speaks of 
here. Usually, when leaders faced 
repeated challenges, they grow 
stronger each time. They learn 
how to respond, how to cope. 

They develop resilience, a thick 
skin. They formulate survival 
strategies. Why then does Moses 
seem to do the opposite, not 
only here but often throughout 
the book of Numbers?
In the chapters that follow, 
Moses seems to lack the unshak-
able determination he had 
in Exodus. At times, as in the 
episode of the spies, he seems 
surprisingly passive, leaving it 
to others to fight the battle. At 
others, he seems to lose control 
and becomes angry, something a 
leader should not do. Something 

has changed, but what? Why 
the breakdown, the burnout, the 
despair?
A fascinating insight is pro-
vided by the innovative work 
of Professor Ronald Heifetz, 
co-founder and director of the 
Center for Public Leadership 
at the John F. Kennedy School 
of Government, Harvard 
University.
Heifetz distinguishes between 
technical challenges and adaptive 
challenges. A technical challenge 
is one where you have a prob-
lem and someone else has the 
solution. You are ill, you go to 

the doctor, he diagnoses your 
condition and prescribes a pill. 
All you have to do is follow the 
instructions.
Adaptive challenges are dif-
ferent. They arise when we are 
part of the problem. You are ill, 
you go to the doctor, and he tells 
you: I can give you a pill, but 
the truth is that you are going to 
have to change your lifestyle. You 
are overweight, out of condi-
tion, you sleep too little and are 
exposed to too much stress. Pills 
won’t help you until you change 
the way you live.

NO QUICK FIX
Adaptive leadership is called 
for when the world is changing, 
circumstances are no longer 
what they were, and what once 
worked works no more. There is 
no quick fix, no pill, no simple 
following of instructions. We 
have to change. The leader can-
not do it for us.
The fundamental difference 
between the books of Exodus and 
Numbers, is that in Exodus, Moses 
is called on to exercise technical 
leadership. The Israelites are 
enslaved? God sends signs and 
wonders, 10 plagues, and the 

Israelites go free. They need to 
escape from Pharaoh’s chariots? 
Moses lifts his staff and God 
divides the sea. They are hungry? 
God sends manna from heaven. 
Thirsty? God sends water from 
a rock. When they have a prob-
lem, the leader, Moses, together 
with God, provides the solution. 
The people do not have to exert 
themselves at all.
In the book of Numbers, how-
ever, the equation has changed. 
The Israelites have completed the 
first part of their journey. They 
have left Egypt, reached Sinai, 
and made a covenant with God. 
Now they are on their way to the 
Promised Land. 
Moses’ role is now different. 
Instead of providing technical 
leadership, he has to provide 
adaptive leadership. He has to 
get the people to change, to 
exercise responsibility, to learn 
to do things for themselves 
while trusting in God, instead of 
relying on God to do things for 
them.
It is precisely because Moses 
understands this that he is so 
devastated when he sees that 
the people haven’t changed at 
all. They are still complaining 
about the food, almost exactly 
as they did before the revelation 
at Mount Sinai, before their 
covenant with God, before 
they themselves had built the 
Sanctuary, their first creative 
endeavor together.
He has to teach them to adapt, 
but he senses — rightly as it 
transpires — that they are simply 
unable to change their pattern 
of response, the result of years of 
slavery. They are passive, depen-
dent. They have lost the capacity 
for self-motivated action. As we 
eventually discover, it will take 
a new generation, born in free-
dom, to develop the strengths 
needed for self-governance, the 
precondition of freedom. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
served as the chief rabbi of the 
United Hebrew Congregations of the 
Commonwealth, 1991-2013.

WE HAVE TO CHANGE. 
THE LEADER CAN’T DO IT FOR US.

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

Two 
Types of 
Leadership

SPIRIT
EXPANDED TORAH

