23 Jul PINCHAS: AN ODE TO DIVERSITY THE ART OF LEADERSHIP

In Search for a
Successor
Miriam has died.
So has Aaron. G-d
tells Moshe that his
turn is about to
come. “Go up this
mountain in the Abarim range and see the
land I have given Bnei Yisrael. After you
have seen it, you too will be gathered to
your people, as your brother Aaron was. . .
.”
At this dramatic moment, captured in this
week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moshe speaks to
G-d. “May the Lord, the G-d of the spirits
of all mankind, appoint a man over this
community to go out and come in before
them, one who will lead them out and bring
them in, so G-d’s people will not be like
sheep without a shepherd.”
One can only imagine the emotions that
engulfed Moshe at the time. For more than
four decades he had faithfully shepherded
the people; with astonishing self-sacrifice
he had committed himself completely to the
creation and development of the nation of
Yisrael. Now, as he is about to leave the
world, he beseeches G-d not to leave the

people orphaned. We can be quite certain
that Moshe’s brief words contained far
more than what is explicitly reported.
Indeed, this is the “job” of the Midrash, to
attune us to the nuanced expressions and
intricate intimations within biblical
narrative. The Midrash on this passage
focuses our attention to the peculiar way in
which Moshe addresses G-d at this
particular encounter: “G-d of the spirits”?
What is the significance of this title?
“Just as no two faces are identical,” states
the Midrash, “no two personalities are
identical. Every human being possesses an
individual identity… During the time of his
death, Moshe requested from G-d, saying,
‘Master of the universe! You are aware of
the distinct personality of every single
individual and that no two of your children
are alike. When I pass away from them, I
beg you, please designate for them a leader
who will contain every single one of them
according to his individuality… G-d of the
spirits! You recognize the individual spirit
of each of your creatures, so appoint
someone who will know how to walk with
each individual according to his spirit.’”
Two Forms of Leadership

This is a remarkable
interpretation. Perhaps
more than anything
else, it captures
Judaism’s view on the
meaning of genuine
leadership. Leadership,
in all its forms — in
the family, in the
workplace, in schools,
organizations and
societies — is not
about cloning people
to fit the image and
disposition of the
leader. An authentic leader must embrace,
rather than shun, human diversity. To a true
leader, the distinctions between people are
a positive phenomenon, not a threat. It is
rooted in the leader’s appreciation of the
creator of humanity as “G-d of the spirits,”
one G-d who created many distinct faces,
spirits and hearts, each of them called upon
to experience life in a unique and individual
fashion.
One of the great challenges facing many
marriages, communities and societies today
is the notion of “My way or no way.” Or as
a person once remarked: “I am easy to get
along with, once you learn to worship
me.” It’s a feeling that the landscape of
my emotions and of my religious
experience is the only terrain worth
treading on. If you think differently, if
you have a different path, you must be on
the wrong team.
Judaism, on the other hand, declares the
oneness of G-d and the plurality of man.
The idea that all of us must be the same is
foreign to the Judaic ethos.
Diversity is sown into the very fabric of
existence. No two flakes of snow are
alike; no two people are alike. A leader’s
goal is not to have all of his or her
followers look alike, but rather to contain
within himself or herself the unique
disposition and soul-energy of each
individual, guiding them to maximize
their own potential, just as the brain
guides individual limbs and organs to
function according to their particular
nature within a larger organism.
This applies to all leadership positions,
including, of course, the respective
leadership roles of spouses in marriage.
The goal in marriage is not to think alike,
but to think together. No two individuals
think alike, nor should they. A successful
marriage is about learning how to contain
within your own space the presence of a
distinct individual without feeling the
need to suppress the spouse’s otherness,
so that your identity reigns exclusively in

the relationship. Like notes in a ballad, each
of us represents a unique and distinct note,
and together we recreate the symphony, not
by singing the same note, but by expressing
our individual note as an indispensable part
of the song.
Absolutes Vs. Individuality
Yet we have to be committed to the same
song. If not, our individual notes can create
chaos rather than a melody. The importance
of individuality does not mean that every
whim and instinct of an individual ought to
be sanctioned in the name of individual
self-expression. If we wish this world not to
be a jungle, we must recognize that G-d, the
“G-d of the spirits,” created absolute
universal standards of morality and ethics
that bind all of humanity. To the Jewish
people, G-d presented an absolute system
of Torah and mitzvos.
Yet this does not compromise the focus of
Judaism on individual expression. Within
the framework of the moral life and the
Torah life, the paths to truth are endless, not
unlike the same 88 keys of the piano which
lend themselves to endless musical
combinations. Mozart, Handel, Beethoven,
Schubert, Bach and Tchaikovsky did not
need to create new keys in order to display
their creative genius and musical brilliance.
We, too, need not create or change the
moral and Torah law in order to express our
individuality. External individualism relies
on external and visible changes in order to
assert itself. Internal individualism, being
in tune to your own inner rhythm, allows
you to transform the same old notes into
beacons of pulsating creativity.
Moshe’s plea to G-d to appoint a leader
who can contain and embrace diversity
constitutes a lesson to us about the quality
of leadership we ought to cultivate in our
relationships with each of our children,
students, employees, and people we have
influence on, allowing them to shine in
their own beautiful way. We must be leaders
to whom people can look to as a source of
inspiration through which they can embrace
life with their own individuated hug.