Why Hold Out For More (Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia - "Here Comes Sunshine")

The other morning I am watching my favorite news show, a U.S. newscast based in New York. The morning news leads with gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the political implications for the national Democratic and Republican Parties as well as the Tea Party. My children were awake, bleary eyed and quietly eating breakfast since they are not yet too excited by politics. Then the host of the morning show began speaking about the next news story. “In Toronto…” she began. My kids perked up and started paying attention. The newscaster was talking about the troubling news story of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack and even with this news the Mayor’s approval ratings had actually gone up 5 points from the previous week.  Our children’s’ eyes didn’t blink, they didn’t leave the television. Their mouths, ears and eyes were wide open. The story ended, the commercial began and so did the questions. “What’s crack?”  “Is it illegal?” “If the Mayor is doing something illegal why is he still Mayor?” “How can his approval ratings go up if he was smoking crack?” For five minutes as I am preparing to leave for morning minyan, I am answering questions about Crack, drugs, and how can the Mayor smoke crack, break the law, and be Mayor.  We all like to have our leaders, Mayors, Prime Ministers, and Presidents to serve as role models and to have minimal character flaws.

            This week’s Parsha is Parsha Va’Yeitze. We continue reading of the adventures of Yaakov Avinu, Judaism’s third Patriarch.  Yaakov flees from home and eventually arrives at his uncle’s home. Yaakov’ marries both his cousins, Leah and Rachel. He is given their maidservants as a concubine. He has children, twelve sons; he works for his uncle and makes his uncle very wealthy. Finally Yaakov realizes that it is time for him to leave his uncle Lavan and return home. Yaakov devises a plan that will allow him to return home with much of his uncle’s flock as a form of payment for the 21 years of indentured servitude. 

Indeed Yaakov struggles in this week’s Parsha as he struggled in last week’s Parsha.  He struggles in his relationships and faith in God. He struggles with his need to cling to someone or something. He was born clinging to his brother. Now he desperately struggles to find another to cling to: God, Lavan, Rachel, his sons, or his wealth. Yaakov also struggles with himself. He struggles with his “moniker” and what he is supposed to be, an Ish Tam- a simple man (Gen. 25:27), and his desire to be materially well off (Gen.28: 20). Perhaps this struggle is best illustrated at the beginning of the Parsha when Yaakov suggests that God is not yet his God but only the God of his father and grandfather. In that famous dream about the ladder and the angels, God stands next to Yaakov and tells him the Covenant made with his father and grandfather  will now be passed down to him. By re-iterating the covenant with him, Yaakov not only inherits a pre-existing Covenant but also becomes an active participant in the Covenant. God tells Yaakov “Hinei Anochi Imach Ushmarticha b’chol Asher Teilech, Behold I am with you and I will guard you wherever you go…” (28:15). That should have been re-assuring to Yaakov as he makes his way to Padan Aram and to his uncle’s home.

However, Yaakov needs more. Yaakov does not yet have the faith that his father and grandfather have. Yaakov, as a young man, still struggles with who he is, whom he should emulate, and how to live his life.  In an incredible act of chutzpah, Yaakov makes a deal with God. Im Yiheyeh Elohim Imadi Ushmarani Baderech Hazeh Asher Anochi Holech v’Natan Li Lechem L’echol Uveged Lilbosh, vShavti b’Shalom el Beit Avi v’Hayah Hashem Li Le’lohim  -  If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothes to wear, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. Until now Yaakov only considered God to be the God of Avraham and Yitzchak, his father and grandfather. When will Yaakov consider God his God? If and when God provides him with the material sustenance that his brother Esav clamored for in Parsha Toldot. Yaakov wants food, clothes and material goods. Again we see a very different Yaakov than the one described as an Ish Tam (Simple Man- Gen.25:27) Now that he is on his own, Yaakov is unwilling to accept God as his until he too has some type of personal relationship with God. Both Avraham and Yitzchok had this personal relationship with God and experienced signs and wonders. Yaakov takes the first steps toward a personal relationship with God. He received a Covenant from God. However Yaakov still struggles in his attempt to cling to God.  Certainly some kind of sign or wonder would cement his belief.

Yaakov was hardly a saint. From Yaakov we learn that faith in God is not necessarily easy. While a covenant may satisfy our mind, a sign or a miracle engenders faith in God. Yaakov demonstrates that achieving faith in God is a challenging undertaking, as well as an ongoing process. Frequently this process begins as Yaakov’s began, with an immature demand such as: “if you save me now God,” or “if you do this for me God, then I will do….” Hopefully the process evolves into a more mature relationship where neither party has to prove its faith or its presence to the other. Perhaps this is the difference between one who perpetually struggles and one who has achieved spiritual fulfillment and contentment. I admit it is far easier to explain  and learn from the “flaw” of a lack of faith as opposed to the flaw of arrogance, hubris and smoking crack.

Peace,

Rav Yitz 

And the Politicians Throwing Stones (John Barlow & Bob Weir - Throwing Stones)

A famous Italian Renaissance writer once wrote the power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When leaders, leaders of business, leaders of congregations, and leaders of nations fall out of touch with Amchah, with the people, those leaders become vulnerable to losing their grip on power. When leaders start to actually think that they are bigger than the group, then the leader will eventually lose control of the group. Every leader, from Presidents and Prime Ministers to Priests and Rabbis, leaders must always remain aware of the very tricky tightrope upon which careers are balanced. Leader must remember for whom they work, what they represent, and to whom they are answerable. When leaders fail to remember these things, then leaders become arrogant and out of touch. Like all leaders both historical and fictional, this arrogance or hubris generally leads to their downfall. We saw it with King Saul, Macbeth, and we see it in the boardroom of AIG and some in Toronto think that we see it in the Toronto Mayor’s office.

In this week’s Parsha, Va’eira, we read of the importance of leadership while avoiding arrogance. We read of leaders remaining in touch with Amchah (the people), even when Amchah doesn’t listen and fails to cooperate. We read of the terrible results when leadership becomes arrogant, out of touch, and without a sense of limits. We learn that seven times Moshe and Aharon went before Pharaoh and asked that B’nai Yisroel be freed in order to serve God in the wilderness. Seven times Pharaoh’s heart hardens and he refuses. The Parsha begins with G-d telling Moshe of the covenant, and that although he revealed himself to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov; he did so with a different name (Ex. 6:3). Therefore, we can surmise that Moshe had a very different type of revelation and relationship with G-d than our forefathers.

This different relationship manifests itself in the conversation that transpires in Ex.6:10-13. “Then the Lord spoke to Moshe saying: Go and tell Pharaoh King of Egypt to let B’nai Yisroel out of his land. But Moshe spoke before the Lord saying: Look, B’nai Yisroel have not heeded me; how then will Pharaoh heed me, seeing I am of uncircumcised lips? So the Lord spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them to B’nai Yisroel and Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.” God never spoke this way to any of the Avot (Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov). Nor did they speak to God like Moshe. While there are many ways to understand God’s response to a dejected Moshe, certainly one way is within the context of leadership. God essentially tells Moshe to get back out there with his brother and do what needs to be done. God also tells Moshe, that both he and Aharon must first go to their constituency even before confronting Pharaoh. Why go to B’nai Yisroel? They don’t listen and they don’t pay attention. Besides, the authority that Moshe and Aharon must confront is Pharaoh, not B’nai Yisroel. Moshe and Aharon must remain in touch with the people, even if that means increased frustration and diminished efficiency in achieving the ultimate goal. Moshe and Aharon cannot lose touch with the people or the people lose touch with the covenant and even with God. 

God implicitly tells Moshe that humility is required for leadership. Rambam re-iterates this in a specific ruling: “It is forbidden for a person to lord it over the community in a domineering manner but he must exercise his authority with humility and reverence; it is likewise forbidden to treat the people with disrespect even if they are ignorant… Though they may be ordinary common folk, they are the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov…. He [the leader] should rather bear patiently the cumbrance of the community and their burden…Look at Moshe…God gave them a charge to Israel which our tradition takes to mean that  Moshe and Aharon accepted the yoke of leadership of the people on the understanding that they will curse and stone them.”

This first step in humble leadership is acknowledgment of limitations. Hence, we read Ani Adonai, “I am the Lord”, seven times in the Parsha. Moshe and Aharon should never forget that. While it may be humbling for the leader to admit that there is still a greater being, it is even more humbling for any leader to admit that he/she must also be answerable to Amchah. Moshe and Aharon learn this lesson. Pharaoh does not. For many leaders it is often the most difficult lesson to remember. Leadership must answer to both God and to Amchah.

Peace,

Rav Yitz