Leadership 4 U

Follow the Leader: Insights into Jewish Leadership

In Last week's Torah portion of Ki Tisa we read how Moses already had his own tent of meeting and his "personal mishkan - tabernacle".

Considering that he wasn't going to benefit anything extra from constructing the communal tabernacle, why did God instruct Moses to get involved in the building of the Mishkan that was primarily for the Divine presence to dwell amongst the Jewish people?

We can learn an important lesson in leadership from here. One cannot simply worry about his own person spiritual growth.

One needs to concern himself with others' Torah study and spiritual development. This takes after Moses who wasn't just a leader in theory but also in practice.

At the moment I am situated in southern Israel, which is under a barrage of rocket attacks from terrorists in Gaza. This reminds me of the following story of Rabbi Nosson Zvi Finkel, the late Rosh Yeshiva (head of the Talmudical College) of Mir, one of the largest Yeshivot of pre-war Europe that to this day has several thousand people learning under its' roof. Despite R' Nosson Tzvi's Parkinson's disease, this did not stop him becoming one of the greatest leaders of our generation.

During the Gulf War, there was a scare that Saddam Hussein would use biological weapons. Therefore, every building had to have designated sealed rooms that would be isolated from all sources from air, and one had to use a gas mask to breath.

After one such siren, some students of the Mir Yeshiva ran to their designated sealed room. They had put on Gas masks and had already sealed off the door with special masking tape.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Who is it?", one of the students asked. "It is Nosson Tzvi" came the response from the other side of the door. The students in the room were clueless as to what to do. They were sure that there was a student who had been late in getting to his sealed room and therefore had to impersonate the Rosh Yeshiva, so they refused to open the door. After much persistence, they felt guilty and opened the door. Imagine their shock when they saw the Rosh Yeshiva standing there with his gas mask.

The Rosh Yeshiva lived a few minutes walk from the Yeshiva and was not supposed to be in or near the Yeshiva at the time. So what was he doing there, wondered the students in the sealed room?

"I had a pre-arrangement with my driver. Immediately upon the sound of the alarm he was to collect me and drive me straight to Mir. In times of crisis, I just wanted to be with my boys".

Thus should a leader act. For the people and with the people.

KI TISA: Small Things; Huge Impact

In this week’s Torah portion, as we discussed in the “It’s in the Name” section, we read about the devastating incident of the Golden calf.

What is remarkable about this tragedy, was that only 3,000 men were involved with the sin, out of the Jewish population at the time of a few million people!

Nevertheless, Moses, who wasn’t even affected by their sin, was instructed by God to “go down” from the Mountain.

Is there anything positive we can learn from this?

Of course! If such a tiny proportion of the population could make such a huge negative impact on the entire Jewish nation, just think of the huge positive impact a similarly proportioned positive act could bring!

Therefore, this incident must inspire us and give us hope; that we all have the potential to change the world; for the bad or for the good.

The potential is there; we just need to realise it.

Ethics from the Torah portion - Tetzaveh

Pure Olive Oil

In this week’s Torah portion, the commandment of lighting the Menorah (candelabrum) in the tabernacle was given. The Torah commands us to use pure olive oil.

This raises a question. Anything used in the temple had to be pure. So why the emphasis on the purity of the oil here – it is obvious and surely the verse doesn’t need to mention that the oil specifically needs to be pure.

We know that the Torah, being not a history book but a guide to life, is always as brief and concise as possible. So this addition of the word “pure” is there for a reason.

I heard a beautiful story that illustrates this perfectly.

Channukah.

Brings back memories, doesn’t it?

Every winter we light the Channukah Menorah (candelabrum) and eat donuts and latkes (fried potato pancakes) and spin the dreidel (spinning top) – but Channukah is all about the Jewish victory over the Hellenist Greeks and the miracle of the oil. There was miraculously oil left over for just one day but it lasted for 8 days until new, pure oil could be brought to Jerusalem to the temple. This very same oil that we are commanded to use in the temple from this week’s Torah portion.

A man was preparing his Menorah for lighting on the first night of Chanukah. It was a beautiful and exquisite piece of silver, handed down from generation to generation with immense physical and sentimental value.

His son comes home from school, holding a small metal menorah. “Daddy, I won this in school today! Please let us use it to light the Chanukah lights”. The man did not know what to do! There is a concept of Hiddur Mitzvah, beautifying the mitzvah, which warrants using the nicer candelabrum.

Finally, he sets out to his Rabbi to ask him what to do. The Rabbi answered him by saying that he should use the menorah that his son brought home.

Why?

Let us think back to Chanuka. What happened? We celebrate Jewish military victory over the Greek army; an out-numbered and out-armed group of mean gaining victory over one of the most powerful nations in the world at the time. Therefore, the mitzvah to light the chanuka lights is to publicise the miracle, to spread the word, and to light up the world.

To use the man’s son’s menorah shows a dedication on the child’s part to go against a world filled with corruption and morality; to remove darkness and replace it with light.

This is what we must do. We are like the olive oil. We are crushed and ready to give out light to the world. But we must be pure. Pure intentions create a unique paradigm shift and only then can we fully devote ourselves to the service of God.

I am writing this hours before Shabbat commences. In the Shabbat services we pray to God and ask God to “purify our hearts to serve you with truth”.

May we merit purifying our hearts and bringing truth and light to the world.

Shabbat Shalom.

Jewish Values - Love Your Neighbour

Love Your Neighbor Like Yourself Part I

By Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen

“Do not take revenge, do not bear a grudge against a member of your people, love thy neighbor like yourself.¹”

“Love thy neighbor” - is there any commandment more well-known than this? Yet we must ask ourselves what this requires on an individual level? Understood literally this would imply that we must have the same emotional feelings of love to others that we naturally feel for ourselves. Yet is this really possible? We all feel a very strong love for ourselves and it is surely impossible to love other people to the same extent.

A more satisfactory explanation of this commandment is that it obligates us to strive to desire that our friend succeeds in life. This attitude is not based on emotions, rather it comes from an intellectual understanding that the success of another person should also be a source of joy to ourselves. In order to achieve this level we must work on removing feelings of jealousy towards others. Jealousy comes when a person feels threatened by his friends achievements, and feels inadequate as a result. But we need to recognize that each person has his own unique set of talents tailor-made for him to be able to fulfill his potential in life.
For example, the abilities required of a pitcher in baseball are very different from those needed to be a great batter. Would a pitcher be jealous of the batter’s ability to hit a ball very hard?! And likewise, would a batter feel lacking if he could not pitch a ball as accurately as the pitcher?! Of course not - they realize that they have a particular role in the team that requires certain talents but not others. So too, I have no reason to feel jealous of my friend’s abilities. Had I needed them I would have been blessed with them!

Once we can internalize this idea then it will become far easier to share in our friend’s joy and empathize with his pain. So, when a friend is seeking employment, the command of “love thy neighbor” tells us that we should strive to want him to succeed as much as we would want to succeed ourselves. And if he fails in a test then we should try to imagine how we would feel in the same situation and transfer that feeling to him. This is one of the key aspects of ‘love thy neighbor’ and if we can live by this then we can avoid unwarranted jealousy and feel far more content with our lot in life.

¹ Vayikra, Parshas Kedoshim, 19:18.

Mussar from the Torah Portion: MISHPATIM

Slaves to Who Exactly?

In this week’s Torah portion of Mishpatim we read about some of the laws concerning servitude.

God says “The children of Israel are slaves to me.” Why is this necessary?

During the six days of work, from Saturday night until Friday afternoon, one can become so engrossed in the physicality of work and in the tempo of things; that he simply does not want to stop. He has become enslaved to his worldly affairs and is unwilling to relinquish the physical in return for the spiritual.

Thus, God tells us explicitly that we are slaves to Him. We are slaves to God and God alone.

Slaves have a purpose; to serve their master. However, not all slaves have equal tasks. We need to remember this. We all have our unique task on this world. Not all tasks are equal. Each requires its own characteristics and individual needs.

However, this aspect of a sense of duty should instil in us a sensible list of priorities. When we need to decide whether to serve the BlackBerry or God, it should be obvious which one to choose.

The Shofar, The Torah and you

In this week's Parsha we read about the giving of the ten commandments, the fundamentals of the Torah.

"And when the voice of the shofar sounded long, and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice."

The classical Biblical commentator Rashi explains:
”When a person blows a shofar, (Ram's horn blown on the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah and some other occasions throughout the year) - the longer he sounds the shofar, the weaker the sound becomes. At Mount Sinai, though, the sound of the shofar became louder as it got longer.”

Anyone who has had any musical experience knows that any (non-synthetic / non-electronic) musical instrument that is played for a long note will end on a diminuendo.

However, the sound of the shofar was different. How?

The sound of the shofar at the giving of the Torah has never ended. It continues and becomes stronger from generation to generation. It calls upon Israel and the pious people of the nations of the world to fulfill the commandments of God, which gladden the heart and enlighten the eyes.

The great Chassidic Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev explains:

“Some people hear the shofar of Rosh Hashanah all year, and some hear the sound of the shofar which was blown when the Torah was given all the days of their lives.”

We have to hope and strive for that Shofar to appear in our lives on a daily basis. That shofar, the sound of repentance and closeness to God, speaks to us.

All we have to do is understand the language.

Mussar from the Parsha: Yitro

לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנָי

שמות כ:ג

Exodus Chapter 20
3. You shall have no other gods before Me.

They asked Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk: What new thing did King David tell us when he said (Psalms 81:10): “There shall not be a strange god in your midst”? Is there not an explicit commandment that “you shall not have other gods”?

He answered: King David’s intention was that you shall not have within yourself a God who is “strange” - a stranger to you. Rather, God’s presence should dwell within you in your heart at all times.