Shoftim 2011/5771
Sword of Damocles
Rabbi Neil A. Tow©
A tyrant named Dionysius was the ruler of a city called Syracuse in southern Italy in the 4th century BCE. He had people in his court whose job it was to inflate his ego, flatterers. Damocles was one of these hired flatterers, and one day after Damocles praised his patron for his great wealth and luxury, Dionysius said to him, “If you think I’m fortunate, why don’t you try out my life?”
They arranged everything for Damocles to live the life of his patron and he was having a wonderful time until he noticed that a sharp sword was hovering over his head, a sword hanging from the ceiling by a horse hair. His patron said, ‘this is what the life of a ruler was really like.’
Damocles was eager to return to the way things were, to his poorer life, but a safer life.(Thanks to N.S. Gill for explaining the passage from Cicero that tells this story.)
In Jewish tradition, the closest parallels I can think of are a source from the Mishnah (Chagigah 1,8), “The laws concerning Shabbat, feast-offerings, and misuse of holy property are like mountains hanging by a hair.” And another, from the Talmud Shabbat 88a, “’They stood be’tachtit ha’har’”, the Rabbis explain this expression (Exodus 19:17) to mean, they stood literally tachat ha’har, under the mountain, and God held the mountain over their heads saying, in a very forceful way, that they really had no choice but to accept the Torah.
The sword of Damocles over his head, the mountain hanging by a hair, the mountain hanging above the heads of the people.
These are powerful and disturbing images that share in common a reality that responsibility and leadership are not easy for us to handle and may fill us with uncertainty and fear. Responsibility and leadership are risks that make us vulnerable.
Shoftim ve’shotrim titen lecha bechol she’arecha, the parsha opens for this week opens, ‘Judge and officials you shall appoint them in all your cities.’
To be a judge or an official of the court is to have the sword and the mountain hanging over our heads, as we wrestle with ideas and issues that are difficult to understand and apply to changing circumstances.
And so we find that taking on responsibility and leadership and implementing them are heavy tasks for anyone. In the end, as much as the Torah teaches that the people must appoint leaders, we may not want to take those leadership roles due to the way they impact our lives and put us in difficult positions of supervision, decision making, and authority.
How many prophets tried to avoid the responsibility of being a prophet from Moses onwards?
It is essential that we remember the challenges of responsibility, the challenges of leadership and that there are moments when we can and should say ‘no’ when our judgment tells us that it is not the right moment for us to step forward.
And there are other moments when it is time for us to step forward confidently whether the situation and path ahead is clear or whether there are obstacles in the path ahead.
The sword of Damocles and Mount Sinai hanging above our heads are as much about being humble and sensitive as they are about fear.
My prayer is that all our positions of responsibility, all our leadership will take us to new and meaningful places in our lives and give us the opportunity to step back and appreciate the challenge and blessing of leadership, and to celebrate and respect the power of leadership to bring order, meaning, and peace to others. Shabbat Shalom.
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