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