EVERYONE CAN LEAD

Upholding the Torah

Leadership manifests in two ways, emerging from opposite impulses. Authority is imposed on us. An authority figure exerts control over our lives, binding us with his decisions. A police officer is an authority who protects and serves us, but also commands us. In contrast, influence convinces us, inspires us, draws us in. Authority pushes down on us while influence draws us up.

Rav Yisroel Belsky, in a 2005 address to recent ordinees (published in R. Dov Brisman ed., Natrana De-Oraisa: Kovetz Chidushei Torah (Brooklyn, 2006), pp. 47-49), invoked the response of King Yoshiyahu (Josiah) to a momentous Torah reading (2 Kings 22). Priests informed him that a Torah scroll had been found hidden in the Temple – at least one commentator suggests this was the original Torah scroll written by Moshe (see Abarbanel, ad loc.). According to a tradition recorded in the Talmud Yerushalmi (Sotah 7:4, quoted in Ramban, Deut. 27:26), the curses of the Torah in Deut. 27 were read. On reaching the final verse: “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold (asher lo yakim) the words of this law by observing them” (Deut. 27:26), Yoshiyahu cried out, “Alay le-hakim, it is on me to uphold.” The king immediately embarked on a wildly successful mission to raise the spiritual level of the nation and to eradicate idolatry.

Every one of us, Rav Belsky continued, should feel “Alay le-hakim.” To some degree, leadership is about position — having the right job such as king, rabbi or president of an organization. But even without that position, every person can be a leader using G-d-given talents and self-motivated energy. We all must find the passion to uphold the Torah, leading in our own small and large ways. Passion, commitment, a calling to improve — these are key ingredients of leadership. Wherever we are, we can use the tools available to us to transform the community.

What We Are Given

The Mishnah (Kiddushin 82a), in discussing wealth, says that everything is based on your merit. Tosafos (ibid., s.v. ela) explain this to mean that everything is based on your mazal, your fortune. Ostensibly, Tosafos seem to twist the Mishnah’s words to mean the exact opposite of its plain meaning. Rav Yisrael Lipschitz (Tiferes Yisrael, ad loc.) offers the background necessary to understand Tosafos’ interpretation.

In Rav Lipschitz’s formulation, mazal refers to the circumstances in which you are born and raised. Due to no choice of your own, you are deeply influenced by your family genetics, the time and place in which you live, your upbringing and the food you eat (as a child, when you usually have little choice). Your education and talents, the career and life options which are presented to you, to some extent the people you know — these are largely beyond your control. These are your mazal.

However, the sum of your circumstances (mazal) do not fully determine your future. Your merits play the decisive role. Even someone set up for wealth by family and talents can lose it all, whether by a bad decision or events beyond his control. Tosafos is saying that mazal establishes your starting point; you decide where to go based on your efforts, your prayer, the merits you achieve.

Put differently, mazal gives you skills, abilities, and resources. Your parents raise you well, offer you opportunities for advancement in which you thrive thanks to your many talents. You achieve a certain status or certification, earn money and make connections, develop your unique abilities and traits. What do you do with that? You can remain in that mazal territory and continue your life dedicated to your family, or you can move beyond. You are able to harness everything you have received and direct it to serving the community, to becoming a leader in your own way. You can find your role, based on your own abilities, in communal leadership. You can say “Alay le-hakim.”

Leaders are not necessarily rabbis or presidents of organizations. Leaders are the people who take initiative, who solve problems, who add value to the community in a variety of ways. If you are inspired by both the letter and spirit of the Torah, if you take guidance from Torah sages, you can use your talents and resources to find ways to improve people’s spiritual and physical wellbeing. If you succeed, people will respect and follow you. We are all called, but very few answer “Alay le-hakim.”