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.

