Passover and Leadership
Passover and Leadership
Dr. Bill Robinson
Each year, we gather around the table to read the Haggadah and relive the Exodus from Mitzrayim (the narrow place). Ideally, one should experience the difficult journey through the wilderness toward a Promised Land as a personal encounter, not just history or myth. As with our ancestors, the journey will require courage and faith, friendship and self-growth. Na’aleh’s three principles of leadership can deepen your seder experience and help you transcend the narrow places in your life.
Anyone can lead.
Leadership involves working with others to achieve shared goals. Thus, if you ever talked with your spouse about how to deal with the kid(s), then you engaged in leadership. Moreover, not only can anyone lead, everyone has a responsibility to lead.
The Haggadah tells a story in which the Divine is the major mover of events – bringing us out of Mitzrayim “with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm.” Yet, the story in the Torah, along with Talmudic and Rabbinic commentaries, conveys a different (or shall we say fuller) version.
First there is the story of the two midwives, Shifra and Puach, who defied Pharoah’s orders to
kill the first born sons. And, Miriam who rebuked her father, who had suggested that perhaps we should not have any children to avoid Pharoah’s decree. Miriam asserted “Your decree is harsher than Pharoah’s. He only decreed against the males, but you have decreed against both the males and females.”
Later, as the Jews stood by the sea with the Egyptian chariots advancing on them, many cried out to Divine. Moses comforted them saying the Divine “will battle for you.” Yet, the reply Moses received was “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.” At which point, according to Midrash, Nachshon ben Amminadav walked into the sea. Only when the waters began to drown him did the sea split, which brings us to the second principle of leadership.
Leadership is Risky
Both Nachshon and Miriam acted in ways that put their welfare as risk. Later, as the people journeyed through the wilderness, Miriam rebuked Moses for spending too much time with the Divine not attending to his wife. In response, she was stricken with leprosy. Notably though, the Israelites refused to journey forward until Miriam was cured and could rejoin them.
There are many stories of that time which convey the riskiness of leadership. Aaron’s sons get burned to death for arguably being too zealous in fulfillment of their duties. With fear growing as they waited for Moses’s return, some Israelites chose to build a Golden Calf. They ended up being slaughtered by their brethren. And, Moses more than anyone faced innumerable risks. At one notable moment, his impatience led him to hit the rock, instead of telling the rock to give water. This led to him being forbidden to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land.
You Can Learn to Lead Better
The good thing is that we can all learn to lead with confidence and skill. Unlike the Israelites in the Wilderness, we do not have to wait for the next generation to attain the courage, faith and wisdom needed to lead effectively.
The crucial moment came when the twelve spies returned from scouting the Promised Land and ten of them fearfully told the Israelites that the people there are too strong for us to enter the land. They saw themselves not as powerful leaders, but “as grasshoppers.” It was then the Divine declared that the Israelites had to wait till another generation arose for them to enter the Promised Land. They lacked the confidence in themselves to lead effectively and inspire others.
Unlike the Israelites in the wilderness, we have not just the Torah, but the Talmud and the entirety of the Jewish tradition to guide us. Most importantly, the Jewish holidays, including Passover, are an educational opportunity for each of us to grow more courageous and more faithful (along with many other virtues). They offer a time to reflect among family and friends, a time for reconsideration and renewal.
While Judaism demands of us to redeem the world, it also provides us with the resources to become the leaders our world needs. As my teacher, Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, has written,
After communicating the goal [of redeeming the world], the Torah turns to the next key challenge: how to develop the incredible human capacities needed to carry the burden of this mission. Judaism places the nurturing of human capability at the center of its religious life.
Each holiday offers us another step on the journey of self-growth.
In life, we often find ourselves in “narrow places” where our freedoms are limited and our self-expression constrained. Escaping from the narrow places leads first into a wilderness that is uncertain and filled with risks. To traverse that wilderness and ultimately find freedom, self-expression and comfort, we must have the confidence to lead, the ability to brave the risks, and the willingness to learn.
May this year’s Passover celebration bring you further along on your journey of leadership.
