Shabbat Gathering: Being humble.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about Korach, a cousin of Moses and Aaron, a member of the priestly tribe. And we get a big dose of humility. Korach asks a hard question that ends up fomenting a rebellion. The question was this: Why is Moses solely in charge? Korach maintained that all the people are holy and no one is better than another. (And this is an appealing position for someone of my particular political persuasion.)

Because we’ve been following the story, we know that Hashem has selected Moses above all others. Moses never asked to be the leader and, in fact, protested to Hashem about the selection. Korach wasn’t there at the burning bush to witness Hashem drafting Moses into the leadership role, but Korach was there to witness the plagues on Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea and a host of other miracles. You’d think that would be enough to convince him to go along with Hashem’s plan, but it wasn’t. When Korach confronts Moses, Moses throws himself to the ground on his face. —An extreme act of humility.

A test is devised to find out who should be the leader and Korach fails. As punishment, he and his family are sent down to a pit that has opened up in the Earth, and that’s that.

Moses as a role model.

I belong to a study group that’s reading Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber. It’s a thick book made up of very short stories about the Baal Shem Tov and his followers who lived in the first half of the 18thC. We’re about 200 pages into the book. The one theme that is repeated, a lot, is that the Baal Shem Tov and his followers were extremely humble people, even more than being wise. And their model for humility was Moses.

Perhaps the leadership of the Israelites should have been better distributed. Moses already acceded some of his leadership when he followed his father-in-law’s instructions for distributing judicial authority, but there’s also no denying that Hashem had a plan and Moses was key to that plan.

Humility and leadership seem to be at odds with each other, maybe more than ever before as it pertains to our own country’s leadership. Beyond individual personalities, our entire political and information and economic infrastructure seems to reward those who put themselves first. I don’t know how we back off from this or even if we can back off from it. (Thank goodness it isn’t up to me alone.)

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

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