"There is a right way for future Jewish leadership to go, and a wrong way. The wrong way is to emphasize antisemitism and the assaults on Israel, to exaggerate the tensions between the different streams in Jewish life, and to bemoan the lack of Jewish leadership. The right way is to make friends within and beyond the Jewish community, to emphasize the ethical and spiritual dimensions of Judaism, to find social action projects we can work on across other divides, and to find ways of making Jews feel proud to be Jews."
Jonathan Sacks
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| No person is like another. From the day of the creation of Adam and onward, no person can fix this world what is the responsibility of another to fix. Everyone has his or her destiny and assignment in life. [Translated by Rabbis for Human Rights, www.rhr-na.org] |
.אינו דומה אדם לאדם מיום בריאת אדם והלאה ואין אדם אחד יכול לתקן מה שעל חברו לתקן היינו שלכל אדם יש לא יעודו ותפקידו אותו ירד לעולם לתקנו כידוע
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1. What are the social justice implications of this text?
2. How does this text differ from other texts about social responsibility?
3. Do you relate to this text? Why or why not?
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| If a person of learning participates in public affairs and serves as judge or arbiter, that person gives stability to the land... But if a person sits in their home and says to themselves, “What have the affairs of society to do with me?... Why should I trouble myself with the people’s voices of protest? Let my soul dwell in peace!”—if one does this, they overthrow the world. [translation by Hazon] |
מַלְכָּהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה, בְּמִשְׁפָּט שֶׁהוּא עוֹשֵׂה, מַעֲמִיד אֶת הָאָרֶץ... אִם מֵשִׂים אָדָם עַצְמוֹ כִּתְרוּמָה הַזּוּ שְׁמוּשְׁלֶכֵת בְּזָוִיוֹת הַבָּיִת וְאוֹמֵר: מָה לִי בְּטוֹרַח הַצִּבּוּר ?מָה לִי בְּדִינֵיהֶם? מָה לִי לִשְׁמוֹעַ קוֹלָם? שָׁלוֹם עָלֶיךָ נַפְשִׁי! הֲרֵי זֶה מַחֲרִיב אֶת הָעוֹלָם.
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1. When do you sit at home when you might stand up and make a difference? Why is it often easier to do so?
2. What does this text say about the relationship between power and responsibility?
3. “Person of learning” refers to those in society who have training, a higher profession, or power of some other kind. This text is specifically speaking to those who are in power in society – and who still have responsibility to act for others. In today’s society, who would you replace “person of learning” with?
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We came because we could not stand idly by our brother’s blood. We had done that too many times before. We have been vocal in our exhortation of others but the idleness of our hands too often revealed an inner silence...we came as Jews who remember the millions of faceless people who stood quietly, watching the smoke rise from Hitler’s crematoria. We came because we know that second only to silence, the greatest danger to man is loss of faith in man’s capacity to act.
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1. In what way is losing faith in our capacity to act the greatest danger?
2. In what ways are we still standing idly by? In what ways have we done great acts of justice?
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A leader who doesn't hesitate before sending their nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
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1. Why should a leader hesitate before sending their nation into battle?
2. What qualities are demonstrated by this hesitation? Why are they required for proper leadership?
EXODUS 2:11-17 *
1* Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, "Why do you strike your fellow?" He retorted, "Who made you chief and ruler over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was frightened, and thought: Then the matter is known! When Pharoah learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharoah. He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
These three major episodes in Moses's adult life occur before God speaks to Moses at the burning bush.
1. What do we learn about Moses’s character from his reactions to these three situations?
2. What strengths does Moses display that make him the right choice to lead the Jewish people out of their slavery in Egypt?
3. What weaknesses does Moses display in these scenes?
4. Which of these strengths or weaknesses do you relate to as your own? How do they affect your ability and your community's ability to create social change?
1. How do R. Yehuda Nesiah and the Rabbis each understand the role of leadership?
2. How are societies influenced by their leaders, and how are leaders influenced by their societies?