Earlier this week, I visited some family in
As I was waiting in line, and since it was December 25th
and the place was packed with Jews it was a long line, I started to think about
Jewish leadership. It’s not just our
political leaders of the last couple generations that we celebrate. On the walls of the homes of countless
religious Jews there are pictures of great Rabbis like the Lubavitcher Rebbe,
the Chofetz Chaim or Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik.
It seems like on both the secular and religious worlds, the
previous couple generations were packed with great leaders, heroes really. There were people of such personal integrity
and iron wills to fight for both the spiritual and physical safety of the
Jewish people, that we celebrate their lives, but what about today?
If I wanted to print t shirts up today or hang pictures up
of the great leaders of our nation, who would be on them? Where are our heroes?
Where are the great men and women of our generation who
stand up to fight for us and we have so much that needs fighting for?
Where is the great leader of Israel who stands up to unite us
and bravely says what we know (or at least I think) to be true? Jews of every corner of the religious
spectrum, including the charedim, must serve in the Israeli military, but we
need to change our military to be a Jewish military based on the values and
principles that G-d set forth in his Torah.
Where is the business leaders who stands up and says that
all Jews must be 100% honest in business?
Jews who commit illegal acts, stealing money from both Jews and non-Jews
and going to jail not only brings disgrace to them, it brings disgrace to the
entire Jewish people, Israel and G-d.
Where are the religious leaders who stand up and unites us
ad Jews? It doesn’t matter what
synagogue someone prays at or even what particular customs they have. It doesn’t matter if their Chassidish or
Litvish or Modern Orthodox or whatever.
They are Jews. In my heart of
hearts, I can’t believe that when I reach my day of ultimate judgment, I’m
going to be judged on what shul I daven at or whether I wear a gartel or not…
so how can I judge others?
Several years ago, I heard Rabbi Joseph Telushkin quote the Lubavitcher
Rebbe who quoted the Medrash in the Torah portion of Shemos. In Shemos, we’re told that Moses went out one
day and saw an Egyptian beating a Jewish person. Moses looked around and then killed the
Egyptian. There are many explanations to
what it means when we read that Moses “looked around.” The simple answer is that Moses looked around
and saw that nobody was there to witness Moses killing the Egyptian. A different answer is that Moses looked into
the Egyptian’s future and saw that nothing good would come from him, even in
future generations. The answer given my
Rebbi Yehuda in the Medrash is that when Moses looked around, there were plenty
of people there, but… nobody was doing anything. Everyone was standing silently. Nobody was helping. Nobody was leading and since nobody was
leading, he stepped up to lead.
The answer is clear… where are our leaders? Our leaders are us. We need to do it. We need to stand up for G-d and the Jewish
people. We may not be ready. We may not think that we can do it or we
should do it, but we must do it.
