Parshat Shemot  23 Tevet 5763, 28 December 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Shemot     Exodus 1:1- 6:1

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - Who is an authentic Jewish leader? When we must define the most necessary characteristic of a leader of a Jewish community, of a Day School, of a Synagogue, or of a service Organization, what is the most necessary criterion?

In a typically Jewish fashion, I would like to begin my response by asking another question. Why does Moses expend so much time and energy in refusing G-d's call (vocation) to him to become the leader of the Israelites? After all, he had the commitment and the courage to leave Pharaoh's palace as an adopted Egyptian prince and slay the Egyptian task-master who was beating the Hebrew!

And in subsequent Jewish history it was the modest, unflappable Sage Hillel who said, "If I am here, everyone is here" - not because he was arrogant, but because he knew his own worth. When G-d asks a tried and tested lover of his people to "step up to the plate." Why does he demur?

Yes, he felt inadequate because of his speech impediment, but the Almighty responds: "Who places a mouth for a human being and Who makes me mute...? Is it not I, the Lord. Now go forth, and My presence shall be with your mouth and shall direct what you say..." (Exodus 4:11,12). Why, then, does Moses respond to such a Divine guarantee with the clear refusal: "Please, my Lord, establish as Your messenger whoever else you might send" - but not me! (Exodus 4:13).

Moses is apparently rejecting - at least at this point - shlichut, the "profession" of serving as G-d's agent, the vocation of being G-d's messenger. And if there is one verb which is most often repeated and emphasized in this first portion of the Book of Exodus, it is shlah, to send, to send out as an agent (Exodus. 3:10,12,13,15 - as a sample). Morevoer, Moses certainly had heard from his natural mother and nurse Yoheved the glorious tradition of "agents" who transmitted the teaching of ethical monotheism from generation to generation. When Isaac presents his son Jacob with "the blessing of Abraham" to inherit the ancestral land of Israel, he gives him the charge, "And Isaac made Jacob an agent "(Vayishlach Yitzchak et Yaakov, Genesis 28:4,5).

Similarly, when Jacob sends his chosen first-born Joseph, to whom he had given the coat of many colored stripes, to see after the welfare of his brothers, he "sends" him as an agent, and he even repeats the verb for emphasis, "And he sent him from the valley (emek) of Hebron" (Genesis 37:13,14). Rashi even cites the midrash: "But Hebron is on a mountain (not a valley)?! The meaning of the text is, he sent him (with the agency) of fulfilling the profound (amukah, emek) advice (of Abraham), the righteous Patriarch who was buried in Hebron, to fulfil G-d's mission to Abraham "between the pieces" (Rashi, Genesis ad loc). So why does Moses "give G-d such a difficult time" as it were - although he obviously accedes to G-d's request after seeing the special signs.

Rav Mordechai Alon, Dean of Yeshivat Hakotel, makes an important distinction between shlichut (agency) and arevut (co-signership); after all, as we saw in last week's Torah reading, it was Yehudah - and not Joseph - who receives the election - vocation of first - born, and most probably because he was willing to be an arev (co-signer). The Abrahamic mission is to unite the world in the service of the Divine by doing charity and justice (Genesis 12:3, "through you shall be blessed all the families of the earth," and Genesis 18:19, "For I have loved you... so that they observe the way of the Lord to do charity and justice...". When Jacob sent Joseph to report on the welfare of his brothers, the patriarch was making his beloved son the agent to unite the family; tragically, as a result of his reportage of his dreams, he became the divider of the family - and therefore forfeited the gift of the first-born.

The next dramatic moment of Israel's unification came when the Grand Vizier asked to see Benjamin, the second son of Rachel. Old Jacob, still reeling from his loss of Joseph, is reluctant to part with Benjamin although that means not receiving Egyptian grain during a difficult famine. Reuven makes an offer father Jacob cannot accept: "You can slay my two sons if I do not return Benjamin to you" (Genesis 42:37).

Yehudah rises to the occasion, introducing a new concept which gains Jacob's acquiescence: "Your servant will be a guarantor (co-signer, arev) for the lad vis a vis my father" (Genesis 44:32). And ultimately the fact that Yehudah volunteered as guarantor not only allowed the remaining eleven brothers to go to Egypt together and thereby provide food for the family, but also served as the cause for the Grand Vizier to reveal himself and unite the entire family (Genesis 44:18 - 34, 45: 1-5).

What did Yehudah add to the equation in becoming a guarantor? While it is true that a messenger or agent is considered as the individual himself (shluho shel adam K'moto), a messenger can inform the sender that he wishes to put a stop to his agency, and a messenger is not responsible to carry out his task when confronted by an unforeseen emergency (anoos rahmana patrei). A guarantor or co-signer, on the other hand, takes ultimate responsibility, no matter what happens. Hence Yehudah is willing to be a servant instead of Benjamin; his responsibility knows no limitation, despite whatever unexpected crisis may arise (as a scheming Grand Vizier).

Moses hesitated in becoming an agent, or shaliah, because he was not certain that he could unify the Israelites, to say nothing of the Egyptians. His ultimate acceptance, however, was to be an agent - guarantor as was Yehudah; he took ultimate responsibility for his people, even to the extent of not entering the Promised Land along with them. And indeed this is the truest definition of an authentic leader: one who is willing to be a guarantor, to take responsibility for a congregation, a school or a community, no matter what!

Shabbat Shalom.

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