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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