AUGUST 17 • 2023 | 53
SPIRIT
A Leader’s Role
A
central theme that
runs through the
Torah portion of
Shoftim is the concept of
leadership.
It begins by instructing us
to install fair and just
judges and officers
throughout all our
cities. It speaks of an
era when there will
be a king who will
preside as monarch
over the people, and
it talks of a prophet
leader who will guide
the people by the
word of God.
There will be a
Supreme Court, the
Sanhedrin, the high-
est court in the land,
which will have the final
say in interpreting the law.
The Torah emphasizes the
importance of leadership
and stresses how good lead-
ers will impact the overall
well-being of the nation.
Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner
was a great, very brilliant
rabbi of the last generation.
He had many students. One
moved to a part of the coun-
try with a very small Jewish
population and set to work
to strengthen the communi-
ty and arduously expand it.
He kept up a relationship
with Rabbi Hutner, and
they would regularly cor-
respond. In one exchange,
Rabbi Hutner wrote that a
leader of the Jewish people
must be like the town clock,
which for many centuries
had always stood tall in the
center of town on a high
base. The clock should be
visible from any point guar-
anteeing knowledge of the
time of day. If it were to be
within everyone’s reach, then
each would look at his or
her individual timepiece and
notice that the town clock
may not exactly match up.
When the people
notice that the town
clock is running a few
minutes slower or fast-
er than their personal
watches, they’d want
to reach out and adjust
the big clock to match
their own. Out of
reach, high up, people
can’t change it to sync
with their own. Instead,
they’d have to change
their watches to match
the town’s clock.
When one is in a
leadership position, says
Rabbi Hutner, they are on a
pedestal for everyone to see.
They are meant to model
good and ethical behavior.
That’s the first way in which
a leader is like the town
clock; a visible figurehead.
On a deeper level, a leader
must have an unwavering
internal moral compass that
is set in the right direction.
It must point to what is
correct and good without
being influenced by what the
masses want.
Public opinion should not
affect decisions of a leader.
The people are meant to fol-
low his or her lead, matching
their compass to the leader’s,
not the other way around.
A leader must be fearless in
doing what is right and just,
regardless of what people
may say or think.
Rabbi Chaim Fink is a rabbi and
educator at Detroit Partners in Torah.
TORAH PORTION
Rabbi
Chaim Fink
Parshat
Shoftim:
Deuteronomy
16:18-21:9;
Isaiah
51:12-52:12.
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