Torah Portion - July 11, 2009

“What kind of a leader for us?”  Dvar Torah 7-11-09 

Rabbi Mark S. Kram, Temple Beth Or, Miami, FL

The election in Iran gave the world pause, and Iranians in particular, questions about accuracy of the vote count.  Last week, in Michigan, the incumbent Senator was finally replaced by an opponent who won that election by only 312 votes as certified by the state Supreme Court.  And who can forget the “floating chads” of our own state which in 2000 gave George Bush the edge (??!!) over Al Gore by not counting many of them.

Our parasha this week, Pinchas, says that God revealed the land that the Israelites would inherit without Moses as a part of the continuing Jewish story.  Moses is told, “Ascend these heights of Abarim and view the land that I have given to the Israelite people. When you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your kin, just as your brother Aaron was.” (Numbers 27:12-13).

And then Moses, still the concerned and involved leader of his people, the one who led his people from Egypt through a 40-year trek in the wilderness with this “testy” group of nomads, spoke out.  From a heartfelt concern that the people would continue to be led by someone qualified to lead, Moses gave voice to his love of his people that they would not be left without a competent leader after he was gone.

Moses said, "Let the Lord, Source of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in, so that the Lord's community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd." (Num 27:16-17). 

Not just some leader who stays at home and leads by orders, but rather someone who is out front and leads by example.  After all, in a world of Madoffs and corporate dishonesty, a world which often reflects greed and not good, we who are thirsty for leadership – true leadership – expect more.

Not a leader who acts as if “Do what I say, not what I do.”  The commentator Rashi said, “[A leader should be] not like the kings of the [some] nations, who sit at home and send their armies to war, but as I (God) did.  [A leader] who will lead them out: through his merits.  And bring them in: through his merits.”

A hope that we have the sense to elect and be led by a leader like that – the leader with the qualities and the merit to lead.

Shabbat Shalom!

MARK

Rabbi Mark S. Kram