Over the past several weeks, two
high profile organizations made stunning changes in leadership. Travis
Kalanick, the founder and CEO of UBER, the ride sharing company, was forced to
step down as its leader amidst accusations that he has fostered a workplace
culture of abuse, discrimination, disrespect of women and sexual harassment. This
led the five major investors in Uber to demand that Mr. Kalanick leave his post
immediately.
Phil Jackson of the New York Knicks
was forced to step down as President of the professional basketball team.
Jackson came to the Knicks in 1967 as a player, went on to win eleven
championships as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers, and is a
member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, in his three years as President of
the Knicks the team got worse. His critics charged that he was wedded to the
triangle defense, a system with which he had success as a coach but which most
current teams had abandoned in a more up-tempo game. His relationship with
players deteriorated as he tried to fit them into a system that did not play to
their individual strengths. As his team was losing more and more, he became
critical of more successful teams, those that relied on the three point shot,
like the two time champion Golden State Warriors. He made poor strategic
decisions in trying to build the team. So, after three years of futility, he
and the Knicks came to a parting of the ways.
Sometimes the reasons for a change
in leadership may be obvious, as in the case of Travis Kalanick of Uber and
Phil Jackson of the New York Knicks. They make the newspapers and are
exhaustively analyzed by business and sports journalists. Other times the
change in leadership is shrouded in mystery, as in the case of Moses and the
People of Israel in this weeks’ parasha. For it is in this week’s Torah portion
that G-d, the chief investor and most passionate fan, so to speak, of the Jewish people, decides
that the CEO that he appointed over 40 years earlier to lead this enterprise, Moses, must go. The
Jewish people are about to enter the Land of Canaan. But they are thirsty, and
complain to Moses. G-d tells Moses come before the people and order a rock to
yield water before their very eyes. Instead, Moses takes his rod, assembles the
people before the rock, and addresses them. “Listen, you rebels, shall we get
water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses strikes the rock, twice, with his
rod, and water gushes forth.
G-d responds to Moses, “Because you
did not affirm my sanctity before the Jewish people, you shall not lead them
into the Land that I have given them.” And generations upon generations of
rabbis and scholars have analyzed and debated the reasons that G-d gave Moses
the pink slip.
Generations upon generations of
rabbis and scholars have tried to reconcile the harshness of this verdict with
the seemingly minor transgressions of Moses in this situation. They recognize
that Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it. In this, they acknowledge
that Moses did not precisely follow G-d’s command. They recognize that Moses
called the people “rebels”. In this he was perhaps not as patient and
compassionate as he ought to have been with the people’s complaining. He did
address the people saying, “Shall WE get water for you out of the rock?”
seemingly taking personal credit for a miracle performed by G-d. But none of
these, nor all of them together, seem to be valid reasons for G-d to give Moses
his notice. After all, everybody is entitled to a bad day once every 40 years….We
all come upon situations where, for one reason or another, we are not at our
very best. Where is G-d’s mercy? Where is G-d’s compassion? Where is G-d’s
understanding for the enormous burdens that Moses has endured over forty years?
Where is G-d’s appreciation for the
sacrifice of his servant, Moses? Where is G-d’s vaunted forgiveness – “slow to
anger, abundant in kindness” and so forth and so on.
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein was the
pre-eminent Modern Orthodox rabbi of his generation. He died in 2015 at age of
81. Rabbi Lichtenstein suggests that this episode represents just the beginning
of difficulties that Moses will have in relating to the People of Israel
throughout the remainder of the Book of Numbers. A daunting gap has opened
between the leader, Moses, and the Israelites, the people he is leading. The
generation that Moses led out of Egypt has died. Moses is speaking to a younger
generation, those who have not known slavery. He was hopeful that this younger
generation, born into freedom, would be different from the generations of their
parents and grandparents. Yet his hopes are dashed. They gripe about the very
same things that their parents and grandparents complained about! The incident
at the rock is emblematic of the rift that has grown between Moses and his
people. He can no longer lead them.
Several years ago the business
magazine, Forbes, published an article entitled “Eight Clear Signs Its Time to
Make a Leadership Change". One sign is
that the leader’s style and approach are outdated. They can no longer inspire
and motivate. They themselves have stopped learning and growing. Could it be
that Moses style, his way of communicating, was not reaching the new
generation? Was he becoming increasingly frustrated with his inability to inspire them? Was this newest generation equally exasperated with his ways? Another sign that it is time for a leadership
change is that the leader begins to mistreat others. This is a sign the leader feels weak. The
leader compensates by becoming abusive in an attempt to make him or herself feel
important. In other words, the statement, “Can WE bring water out of the rock”
is a sign that Moses feels he is beginning to lose the respect of the younger
generation that has grown up in the desert. Finally, there are a number of
episodes in the rest of the Book of Numbers where Moses appears to be passive
and unable to make a decision. He is no longer influencing the direction of
events, but rather, reacting to them. For example, when the Israelites lapse
into idolatry at a place called Baal-peor, Moses tells others to deal with the
situation. He then goes to the Tabernacle and weeps at its entrance. Seeing
ones leader openly display his vulnerabilities -- like withdrawing and crying
during a crisis --does not inspire confidence and may be another sign that a
change is in order.
We can now understand that it was
not this one event which caused G-d to replace Moses with Joshua as the
Israelites entered the Promised Land. The one event at the rock was simply
symbolic of the crisis in leadership that the Israelites were enduring as a new
generation arose in the wilderness.
Whether one is 40 years old and leading a
modern tech company like Uber, a legendary 71 year old hall-of-famer leading a
basketball team, or a 120 year old and leading a holy nation, sometimes a
change in leadership is necessary to advance the overall mission of the group.
We might feel some sympathy for Moses, but we ought not feel that this change at
the top was unjust.
Shabbat Shalom
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