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| Call me America-centric, but I can think of no finer leader in history than George Washington! |
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| John Edwards on Thursday, 31 May |
As you can see, leadership was definitely on my mind when preparing my divrei Torah for this Shabbat. Enjoy!
It’s About All of Us
A Drash for Parashat Naso
1 June 2012
Rabbi Don Levy
One of the most common
pitfalls of leadership is to become full of oneself. It is all too easy, when one’s role in an
enterprise is pivotal, to allow one’s thinking to devolve to: “It’s all about
me.” It is the reason that many leaders fall hard through their
indiscretions. If it’s all about me,
then why should I be constrained by the same rules as everybody else? This is often what seduces powerful men to
act in ways that bring them down with humiliation, in the full view of the
world. In the US we’ve seen this play
out over the last month with the saga of John Edwards. He is the former senator and presidential
candidate who was on trial for corruption over funneling campaign funds to his
former mistress to buy her silence. Although
the judge declared a mistrial yesterday and Edwards won’t be going to prison,
he is ruined and will spend the rest of his life in obscurity contemplating his
failures.
And of course a few
years back we saw it all the way in the White House, in the scandal involving
President Clinton, the intern and the blue dress. Other countries have had
their own share of such scandals. How
about the dramatic downfall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chief of the
International Monetary Fund, in a tawdry episode that sank his hopes of being
the next president of France?
When I started rabbinical school,
many of my classmates were thinking about rabbinic careers in paths other than
in the pulpit upon ordination. But when
our senior year arrived, most of my classmates entered the pulpit selection
process. What changed their minds? For many, it was the experience of serving as
a student rabbi in small congregations.
To breeze into town for the weekend, and face a bevy of activities where
the key element is the presence of the student-rabbi, is extremely gratifying
and seductive. And I’m sure that Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion understands this phenomenon. Surely the requirement to serve two years as
a student-rabbi is intended specifically to seduce the rabbinical student to
seek employment as a pulpit rabbi. After
all, the congregations of the Union for Reform Judaism support the
college-institute. They do so in order
to ensure a continuing supply of new rabbis to fill the URJ’s pulpits. If too many graduates of the rabbinical
school go on to seek doctorates, or choose oddball paths – like becoming a
military chaplain – then the congregations of the Union will not be
well-served. So it’s a good thing that
pulpit work is seductive.
Look, I know I’ve set
up a striking juxtaposition: cheating
politicians who fall from tawdry sex scandals on one hand, and rabbinical
students who bypass academic careers to work in the pulpit instead on the
other. But it is not true that the same
tendencies of human nature can produce a range of good and bad consequences,
depending on the circumstances of the individual? And what I’m talking about here is something
very common to the human experience: the
tendency to be fooled into inflating one’s self-importance. Politicians and the titans of the business
world are certainly subject to it. So
are religious professionals. And a lot
of other people in between.
I was thinking about
this over the last weekend. I know that
this congregation has experienced a vacuum in the area of professional rabbinic
leadership over the last few years. Had
it not been for the efforts of a few key volunteers, especially the indefatigable
Jan Marriot, the congregation would not have survived. And it is not a disparagement of the skills
and abilities of Jan – or anybody else – that many of you longed for rabbinic
leadership. I received so many e-mails
from so many of you during the months between when you elected me to be your
next rabbi, and when we finally received clearance to live in Australia, that I
was keenly aware of the this longing.
And then last weekend, when Clara and I had finally arrived and I began
my duties in this pulpit, it became even more clear how big an impact my just
being here had on so many of you.
It would therefore be easy for me to
mistakenly think that this is all about me, and to allow myself to be sloppy or
go astray. But this week’s Torah portion
is an important reminder that it’s not all about one person, or one faction of
the people Israel. Rather, it’s all
about all of us. That’s a lesson we can
draw from Parashat Naso.
In this portion, we read a litany of
the exacting duties of the heads of the various tribes. In particular, the Levites are warned that
they must discharge their unique duties precisely, lest they die. How much scandal by powerful men could be
avoided if such leaders were told: “By the way, if you slip and fall in a scandal,
you’re dead meat?” Perhaps the powerful
titans of the world would act with more discretion if they had such a threat
hanging over their heads…
The knowledge by the Levites that a
transgression on their part would result in their deaths, surely served to keep
their feet planted firmly on the earth.
It prevented their taking their duties lightly and thinking they could
work less hard and be immune from blame because of their lofty position. Because after all, it wasn’t all about them and their privileges. It was about how, if they did their jobs
correctly, they served to bring Divine favor upon the entire people.
The so-called priestly blessing,
which we shall read from the Torah tomorrow morning, is a reminder of this
agency. We’re all very familiar with this
text. It closes every service here at
Temple Shalom, and in many other congregations worldwide. At the end of the service, the leader stands
in this pulpit and pronounces it. Yevarechecha Adonai Veyismerecha. Ya’er Adonai Panav elecha veychuneka. Yisa Adonai panav elecha, vayasem lecha
shalom. May the Lord bless you and
keep you. May the Lord cause His
countenance to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance to you,
and grant you peace. Because of the
grandeur of this pronouncement, I prefer to offer the English in the style of
language found in the old Union Prayer Book.
After each of the three parts of the blessing, the congregation
traditionally responds: Ken Yehi ratzon. May this be G-d’s will.
In our rational minds, most of us do
not believe that a mistake in pronouncing these words will prevent G-d’s favor
from being bestowed upon the congregation.
But as I pointed out last week, religion transcends rationality. I know that, if I were to stumble and err on
these words, some of you would be taken aback, perhaps appalled. And you would be justified. I should never take my duties so lightly that
I do not make sure I have rehearsed the words of important passages, to get
them right.
This knowledge of the ways that you
are likely to respond to my mistakes, or indiscretions, helps to keep my ego in
check. This enterprise we call Temple
Shalom is not about me, or about my
need to call the shots. It’s about how
the things we do in this sanctuary and in this building, and even outside these
premises in the name of our congregation, inspire each of us to live up to the
highest aspirations of our Jewish tradition.
But if it’s not all about me, it also isn’t all about any one of us, no matter
what positions we may hold in temple leadership. This is something important to keep in mind
as we approach the Annual General Meeting, at which you will elect a Board of
Management to provide governance to the congregation for the next program year. Thinking about standing for election? Remember, it’s not all about you. Approach the possibility of serving in
elective office with a sense of awe, a sense of the incredible responsibility
you will hold for the temple’s continued viability and well-being.
The Levites in ancient Israel faced
incredibly harsh sanctions if they should fail in their duties. Leaders today, in public life in general or
in the congregation in particular, face no threat of death should they err and come
to think it’s all about them. But when
we read this week’s Torah portion, we should be reminded of the importance to
the entire congregation. It should
remind us of the importance of working hard to get it right. We should be reminded that, even if nobody will
die should we get it wrong, our failure will nevertheless impact negatively on
the community. It will impair each
member’s ability to derive benefit from their participation in our community’s
main enterprises: worship, learning, and
Jewish fellowship. We who have been called to leadership positions in this holy
congregation, whether professional or lay, must approach our duties with a
sense of awe at the incredible responsibility we have accepted. Instead of thinking about the perks of
leadership, including the sense of control and the centrality of oneself, we
should always remember that it’s about all of us. If we do manage to keep this perspective,
then we shall succeed in leading this congregation from strength to strength.
Leaders
Must Lead
A
Drash for Parashat Naso2 June 2012
Rabbi Don Levy
Have
you ever witnessed a fundraiser where the biggest donor issued what is called a
‘Challenge Pledge’? It works like
this: the big donor declares a challenge
on to double the amount of all pledges made within a certain span of time. If the pledges of all the donors who take up
the challenge add up to $ 1,000, then the big donor also gives $ 1,000. If the other pledges add up to $ 1,800, then
the big donor antes up an additional $ 1,800.
And so on. The big donor, by
issuing the challenge, dares the other potential donors to dig deep into their
pockets, to see how much they can ‘force’ him to give. Big givers tend to like this approach,
because it spurs the ‘little guy’ to come forward with what he can give.
Another approach sometimes taken by
big donors is to hang back and give everybody else a chance to give the money
necessary for the cause, then to step in and ante up everything else necessary
to meet the organization’s goal. So if
the goal of the fund-raiser is to provide $ 10,000 for the cause, for example,
this giver waits until all other pledges are in.
Say the latter add up to $ 5,000.
The big donor would then write a check for $ 5,000 and bring success to
the fund-raising campaign.
Personally, I think that all
charitable giving is meritorious. It
should be encouraged, and praised, no matter how the donor wants to determine
his amount. If the cause is worthy, and
the goal is met, then we shouldn’t quibble about how the donor wants to
determine his gift. But not everybody
would agree with me. The great
Maimonides himself identified eight levels of tzedaka, which is what we generally call charitable giving in
Jewish circles. The eight levels are
found in our siddur, Mishkan Tefilla, and
we read them this morning in the preliminaries section of our service. As a review, let’s open to page .. right now
and review them.
So you can see that, in the greater
scheme of things according to the Rambam, for the leader to ‘hang back’ and
only announce his gift after everyone else had given, to make up for any
remaining deficit, is not the highest level of giving. It is a very conspicuous way to give, because
the giver who gives thus, gets to pull the cause back from the brink and ‘save
the day.’ In my last congregation, we
had such a benefactor. The net result of
his way of giving, was that everybody else stopped giving. They ‘knew’ that he would step in and save
the day, so why bother writing a check?
Let Mr. Big do it in his own time, as he always does. As a result, there was no general culture of
giving and commitment. Perhaps worse,
the day came when Mr. Big, upset with the way the temple was being managed,
took his checkbook and went home.
Because there was no culture of giving, this meant a financial collapse
for the congregation. It was not a happy
time.
In this week’s Torah reading, we see
a reflection of this kind of giving. The
nesi’im, the leaders of the tribes
were the last to bring gifts for the building of the mishkan. They reasoned: ‘Let the public contribute whatever they
will. When they stop bringing, we will
donate whatever is missing to complete the work.’ Perhaps their intentions were good. But their strategy backfired on them. The common people brought almost everything
necessary, and the leaders’ contribution thus was not substantial. The leaders failed to lead. This is why, according
to Rashi, the word nesi’im is missing
its first yud in two occurrences in
the chapter, and its second yud in
another occurrence. Because the nesi’im – the leaders of the tribes –
did not act like leaders at all. They
were not worthy of the title.
Many years ago, early in my military
career, I learned the difference between authority
and leadership. The former is dependent on rank and
position. It has to do with making the
decisions, with calling the shots, with issuing the orders. The latter, leadership, is not dependent upon rank or position. Each troop in the unit, even the lowliest
private, can and should show leadership, which means responding with initiative
to the organization’s needs without being instructed.
As in a military organization, so
too in a congregation. We have certain
individuals who are in positions of authority and are thus empowered to call
the shots. But each member of this
congregation can and should take the initiative to meet the congregation’s
needs. Of course I’m talking about
donating money to ensure the congregation can continue to operate and
flourish. But I’m talking about more
than that. As I reminded you last night,
there is an Annual General Meeting coming up.
Will you stand for election to the Board of Management? Are you willing to attend a dozen or so
meetings over the next 12 months and contribute positively to ensure the temple
has the quality governance it needs and deserves? Will you step up and offer to serve as a
vice-president, or as minutes secretary to ensure these critical jobs will be
done? Will you offer to help plan and
run the next fund-raising activity or social event? Will you offer to learn to be a Gabbai, or a
Shamash? When, G-d willing we once again
have enough children to have a viable cheder,
will you step forward to teach or assist?
In today’s Torah reading, the
leaders, the ones in authority did not show much leadership. Fortunately, the rest of the kahal stepped up to the plate and the
mishkan got built. Unfortunately, the
‘leaders’ of the tribes ended up looking like followers.
As Temple Shalom approaches another
AGM, let’s each one of us commit to lead.
Let’s commit to step up to the plate to ensure the congregation has the
governance it needs, to ensure its financial needs are met, to ensure that
enough members are available to fill critical positions in public worship. Then, the mishkan
will surely get built. That is to
say, we shall ensure that this congregation endures to serve as a center of
Jewish life on the Gold Coast. And that
Jewish life will be a full life that will, in turn encourage other Jews on the
Coast to seek to be a part of it. As
Theodore Hertzl proclaimed: Im tirzu, zeh lo agada. If you will it, it is no dream.
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