JULY 20 • 2023 | 45
Talmud. Respect and rever-
ence for your teacher should
be greater even than respect
and reverence for your parents,
rules Rambam, because parents
bring you into this world, while
teachers give you entrance to the
World to Come.
When someone exercises
power over us, they diminish us,
but when someone teaches us,
they help us grow. That is why
Judaism, with its acute concern
for human dignity, favors lead-
ership as education over leader-
ship as power. And it began with
Moses, at the end of his life.
For 22 years, as a Chief Rabbi,
I carried with me the follow-
ing quotation from one of the
greatest leaders of the Zionist
movement, Israel’s first Prime
Minister, David Ben-Gurion.
Although he was a secular Jew,
he was enough of a historian
and Bible scholar to understand
this dimension of leadership,
and said so in eloquent words:
“Whether you hold humble
office in a municipality or in
a small union or high office
in a national government, the
principles are the same: You
must know what you want
to achieve, be certain of your
aims and have these goals
constantly in mind. You must
fix your priorities. You must
educate your party and must
educate the wider public. You
must have confidence in your
people — often greater than
they have in themselves, for
the true political leader knows
instinctively the measure of
man’s capacities and can rouse
him to exert them in times of
crisis. You must know when to
fight your political opponents
and when to mark time. You
must never compromise on
matters of principle. You must
always be conscious of the
element of timing, and this
demands a constant awareness
of what is going on around
you — in your region, if you
are a local leader, in your
country and in the world, if
you are a national leader. And
since the world never stops for
a moment, and the pattern of
power changes, its elements
like the movement of a kalei-
doscope, you must constantly
reassess chosen policies toward
the achievement of your aims.
A political leader must spend
a lot of time thinking. And he
must spend a lot of time edu-
cating the public and educating
them anew.
”
The poet Shelley once
said that “poets are the
unacknowledged legislators
of the world.
” Whether this is
true or false, I do not know,
but this I know: that there is all
the difference between giving
people what they want and
teaching them what to want.
Teachers are the
unacknowledged builders of
the future, and if a leader seeks
to make lasting change, they
must follow in the footsteps of
Moses and become an educator.
The leader as teacher, using
influence not power, spiritual
and intellectual authority rather
than coercive force, was one the
greatest contributions Judaism
ever made to the moral horizons
of humankind, and it can be
seen most clearly in the Book
of D’varim, when Moses for the
last month of his life summoned
the next generation and taught
them laws and lessons that
would survive, and inspire, as
long as there are human beings
on earth.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-
2020) was a global religious leader,
philosopher, the author of more than
25 books and moral voice for our time.
His series of essays on the weekly
Torah portion, entitled “Covenant &
Conversation” will continue to be shared
and distributed around the world.
Take Responsibility
T
his week, we begin
reading the fifth book
of the Torah, D’varim/
Deuteronomy. This book
is affectionately known as
“The Torah’s Sequel” because
the entire book is
Moses repeating to
the Jewish people
the story of their
exodus from Egypt
and 40-year journey
through the desert.
Moses opens his
narrative with the
story of the spies.
When you compare
Moses’ narrative to
the original story,
he changes a few
aspects. Here, Moses
credits the people with the
idea of sending spies, “You
all approached me and asked
me to send spies.” Previously,
in the Book of Numbers, it’s
written differently: “(Hashem)
spoke to Moses, ‘Send for
yourself spies.’”
In addition, in the original
story, we find that although
the spies did indeed say won-
derful things about the land;
they also said that the nations
living there were invincible
and that if the Jewish peo-
ple were to try to conquer
the land, there would be
no chance for victory. Here
Moses doesn’t mention that.
He only relates that the spies
gave a positive report. He
then goes on to blame the
Jewish people. He says, “You
did not want to go up to the
land … You said, ‘Our broth-
ers have discouraged us.’”
The reason for these dif-
ferences is Moses wanted to
teach the Jewish people a les-
son; he wasn’t just reviewing
history. He was, in effect, say-
ing to the people, “Don’t try
to pass the blame to someone
else for your mistakes. You
alone are responsible for your
actions.” True, Hashem told
Moses to send the spies,
but Hashem hoped that
after all of the miracles
the Jews witnessed in
Egypt, they would trust
Him. It was only because
the Jewish people insist-
ed to send the spies, so
Hashem said to go ahead.
Moses then went a step
further. “Don’t try to pass
the blame to the spies
either,” he said. True, 10
of them said that victo-
ry was impossible; but
even that did not remove the
people’s freedom of choice.
Ultimately, people must
choose for themselves what
they will do. Therefore, Moses
says, you can’t pass the blame;
accept the responsibility for
this decision, for at the end
of the day it was your own
choice!
The Lubavitcher Rebbe
always spoke that the power
of positive is much greater
than the negative. We can
apply the lesson that Moses
taught us, in an even great-
er extent, to a person who
decides to do a good thing.
When someone encourages
you to do a mitzvah, even
though it was not your idea,
you get the credit. So please,
take responsibility, do a mitz-
vah and make this world a
better place.
Rabbi Schneor Greenberg together
with his wife, Estie, run the Chabad
Jewish Center of Commerce.
He can be reached at rabbi@
jewishcommerce.org.
TORAH PORTION
Rabbi
Schneor
Greenberg
Parshat
D’varim:
Deuteronomy
1:1-3:22;
Isaiah 1:1-27.