It’s a pretty standard story, someone says he
is at college and his major is philosophy – and the question is, What job can
you get with that degree? The standard response is – a shepherd.
Many of our ancient Jewish ancestors and
leaders were shepherds. Moses, our
greatest prophet, was a shepherd, not by training but as a result of his life
journey. It sounds like a pretty easy
job at first. Watch the sheep, let them
graze…but leading the flock requires skill and is dangerous. Animals attack the flock. The shepherd has to fight them off.
This week in our parsha, there is a transfer
of leadership – and the big question that challenges us is - how do you get the flock to move together in
one direction?
This work is not like a cattle roundup with
riders on horses moving around the herd.
It tends to be the work of one person at a time.
I learned the lesson of how to lead a flock
of sheep at a wonderful site in Israel called Ne’ot Kedumim, the Biblical
gardens, outside of Tel Aviv. They have
a small flock there and those who are willing can try their hands at leading
the flock. There is a secret that the
folks there revealed to us, a secret that without it there is no chance of
success. No amount of gesturing,
hollering, or pointing the way can work unless
we first figure out who is the lead sheep.
Once we know who is the lead sheep, we motivate the leader to move, and
then the rest follow the lead sheep.
This critical insight teaches us an
invaluable lesson about leadership.
Effective leadership amongst us human beings, only comes from
establishing, first, a strong relationship one to one. No leader, no matter what her vision and how
appealing it is, can drum up support only on the basis of that vision. First, she must build relationships with one
person and small groups, one at a time.
To try to force a group of people to move as
one, like forcing the flock to move, to force conformity, is to replicate the
horrors of Nazi Germany and other oppressive regimes. Real, effective leaders know that there are
significant and powerful differences in any constituency that require sometimes
compromise and sometimes going our own way.
As an example, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X both pursued
civil rights, but in radically different ways.
Real leaders know that success is a mixture of teaching a vision and
also building consensus, not an easy task.
There is a contemporary example of forced
conformity, one that impacts our Conservative egalitarian Judaism in Israel as
well as reform and even modern Orthodox movements in Israel -- the religious
establishment in Israel, an establishment that has maintained a monopoly on
marriage, conversion, kosher supervision, the totality of Jewish religious life. Non-Orthodox congregations receive minimal
financial assistance from the government.
And officials who represent the establishment like religious affairs minister
David Azoulay condemn down other streams of Judaism. This past week Mr. Azoulay said about all
non-Orthodox Jews, ““A liberal Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I
cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew.”
Afterwards he softened the argument, saying, “These are Jews that have
lost their way.” While other ministers
support liberal and all forms of Judaism
in Israel, and while the prime minister’s office maintains that Azoulay’s point
of view is not its official stance – it is a sad state of affairs that without
the Orthodox political parties, the coalition would fall apart, and so
important transformations in Israeli society like adoption of a more expansive
conversion law have recently been rejected, and there has been apowerful backlash
against the change in the law that now obliges all to serve in Israel’s armed
forces, reducing the exemption for students studying full time in yeshivot.
I experienced the discrimination against liberal Judaism 10
years ago when I was studying in my Israel year, living in west Jerusalem. We belonged to the Masorti the Conservative
minyan Ma’yanot. They wished to purchase
a piece of land in a new housing development, but Shas, the Sephardic religious
party, the same party that Minister Azoulay belongs to, put in a competing bid
to acquire this land only to block May’anot from acquiring it.
It is critical to know that Orthodox Jews make up 10% of Israeli
society but control 100% of the religious establishment.
There are now well more than 50 Masorti Conservative
congregations in Israel from Eilat as far north as Kiryat Shmona near the
border with Lebanon.
They are taking a leading role in integrating Israelis back into
religious life, showing youth and adults alike opportunities to learn and grow. Natan Sharansky, leader of the Jewish Agency
has said this – inspired by Masorti’s bar mitzvah program for students with
special needs is amazing and holy work – and even this program received a rebuff from the city of Rehovot. Mayor Rahamim Malul, in April, called off the
bar mitzvah ceremony for 4 autistic boys that was to be held at a special needs
school in the city because a Masorti-Conservative Rabbi was going to officiate.
Minister Naftalit Bennet wrote about how Israel is the home for
Jews of all types, all backgrounds, and this spirit of unity is one that we
take from our Torah reading this week, as Moses passes the torch of leadership
to Joshua, he pleads with God to make sure the people have a new leader – so
that the people will not be like a flock without a shepherd – and the Alshech
teaches that this new leader, the new shepherd, is someone who will be able to
bring down God’s influence and presence to people who can share the message –
to establish the one on one relationships that will extend God’s covenant in an
ever expanding network, to all anashim, nashim ve’taf, men women and children…
And we hope and pray that the Israeli government will not only
speak of one Jewish people but immediately begin to engage in high level
dialogue and outreach to the Masorti-Conservative, Reform, Modern Orthodox and
other liberal streams of Judaism in Israel that are bringing people back to
faith and opening up opportunities for Jewish involvement in such exciting and
innovative ways.
Over the course of this year, I want to begin to develop the
relationship of our community to our Masorti brothers and sisters in Israel, to
get to know them and to show our support for their trailblazing work. Like Joshua, they have major work ahead of
them to overcome the inertia of the religious establishment.
Yehi ratzon she’tishreh
Shechinah al ma’aseh yadam.
May God bless the work of their hands.
Amen.
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