Parashat Pinchas
If the Torah teaches us anything, it teaches us that it is not easy to be a leader and even harder to be a leader of the Jewish people: Throughout the Torah we read about a people who complain, who do not believe even when miracles literally happen right in front of their eyes, who keep breaking the rules, and always think they have the better answer.
One might reasonably wonder why anyone wants to lead the Jewish people – it can be a thankless task! And yet the Sedra of Pinchas sets out three examples of people taking leadership, each very different in style but all receive a reward.
Leadership style 1 – Pinchas: zealot or man of action
Last week, we finished on a bombshell: Moses’s great nephew, Pinchas, who was not an elected or appointed leader, took dramatic steps – picking up a spear, he killed an Israelite and a Midianite woman for their flagrant immorality. Was he a dangerous zealot, or a man of decisive and righteous action, stepping in when Moses seemed unable to lead the people?
This style of leadership (readily recognisable in today’s world) is shocking not only to us but to the Talmudic Rabbis too. The Talmud surrounds zealotry with warnings: If someone comes to ask whether they should act like Pinchas, the answer is not: yes, go ahead. The answer is: we do not instruct people to do this. And the Jerusalem Talmud is even sharper: Pinchas acted not with the agreement of the sages.
No matter how uncomfortable we may feel with what Pinchas did, we have to engage with it to make sense of the opening words of this week’s sedra: God tells Moses that he is rewarding Pinchas for his swift action. God brings a halt to the plague rampaging through the Jewish people, that has killed 24,000 of them and rewards Pinchas (or perhaps contains him from future acts) with eternal priesthood and bestows a brit shalom (covenant of peace) upon him.
Leadership style 2: pesky feminists or social activists
Under existing law, the daughters of Tzelofchad: Machla, Noa, Chagla, Milcha and Tirtza, having no brothers, were not entitled to inherit their father’s share of land in Israel. They approached Moses, asking for possession of the land.
[“Why should the name of our father be omitted from the family because he had no son? Let us have a possession among our father’s brothers” (Bamdibar 27:4)]
Moses “brought their claim before G-d”. And the sisters were given leave to inherit. This is viewed universally positively in the Torah, Mishna and the Talmud. The Torah presents this a legal change bought about as a direct result of their activism: The Talmud heaps praise on the sisters calling them wise women, commenting that they saw what Moses did not see.
[“The daughters of Tzelofchad merited to have this law written through them”.]
A contemporary women’s midrash draws beautifully on a verse from Psalm 85 : “There is truth that descends from on high, and there is truth that grows from below. Blessed is the generation in which truth from above meets truth from below.”. In other words, this part of the sedra not only corrects the injustice toward these five sisters but rewards their challenge by preserving a record of a change to divine law. [“Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash”].
Leadership style 3: ego free succession planning
Moses, knowing that he was not destined to lead the people into the promised land, asks God to appoint a successor, to ensure stability and continuity. Moses uses a very particular form of words in his request which is the subject of much commentary. I’ll summarise just one interpretation from Rabbi Sacks. His take is that Moses is asking that his successor learns from his own perceived failures – how when he led from the front, he found that the Jewish people were not willing to follow. He asks God to choose a successor who will better understand how to navigate the gap between the changes you know as a leader must be made, and the changes people are willing to make. In truth, says Rabbi Sacks, Moses did not fail and his reward comes when he anoints Joshua who is able to complete what he began.
Which leads me on to followership – because of course, you can only be a leader if you have followers. I asked ChatGPT to point me in the direction of Jewish sources that identify what it is to be a good follower.
It told me that: “there are not many sources on Jews as followers.” Relatable?!
What sources there are, are about how to be a good Jew: to be a Jew isn’t a passive state of being. It is an active, demanding responsibility, where one maintains critical thinking, speaks truth to power and is ultimately accountable to higher moral laws. I think this means that we are meant to be both leaders and followers simultaneously. In other words, leaders and followers have the same responsibilities.
Returning to where I started, the Torah teaches us that it’s hard, and it’s risky being a leader – or as this book. Leadership on the Line by Harvard academics, Heifetz and Linsky says, “To lead is to live dangerously”. This book is all about how to survive as a leader. And in the final chapters it asks the real root question: why – why lead when it is this risky?
You won’t be surprised to hear me say that I think the reason to be a Jew and a Jewish leader is about meaning and loving kindness, but I was happily surprised to read it in this book –
They say:
“The answer to the question why lead is both simple and profound. The sources of meaning most essential in the human experience draw from our yearning to connect with other people. The exercise of leadership can give life meaning… because it allows us to connect with others in a significant way. The elemental word we use for that kind of connection is love. To some, talking about love in this context may seem soft and unprofessional but it seems undeniable that love lies at the core of what makes life worth living. Love gives meaning to what you do.. we take risks for good reasons: we hope to make a difference in people’s lives. Leadership enables and challenges us to love well.”
So, as we listen to the leyning – I invite you all to think about not whether you are a Pinchas, a Noa, a Tirtza, a Moses or Joshua, but about yourself as both a follower and leader in our community – and how you will connect, challenge and love well.
Vicky Fox, Member of New North London Synagogue
