Rabbi Nathan's blog

Friends, this month we embark in our Torah journey through the latter portions of Exodus that include a description of a leadership crisis engendered by the golden calf incident. Leadership challenges do not just show up now. A pattern emerges right after the exodus from Egypt: the people get in a tough spot (usually a lack of food or water on their journey), they complain bitterly to Moses, and Moses then needs to cobble together a solution, often with God’s assistance, to allay the frustration. It’s definitely a reactive approach that finds Moses and the people responding from crisis to crisis. And sometimes, in a fit of frustration, Moses simply loses his temper and lets fly his own complaints against his people, or ‐ in the case of the golden calf which we read this month ‐ lets fly the first set of tablets which are crushed and broken.

Moses is not completely alone. Jethro, his father‐in‐law, convinces Moses to set up a more robust judicial system that won’t wear down his son‐in‐law or the people. God, with Moses’s support, establishes a priestly system that helps to direct the peoples’ spiritual energy and material resources ‐ helping to provide some important structure as well. But, throughout Torah, we still get the sense of Moses becoming isolated and tired. In a particularly poignant moment later in the journey, after fielding yet another complaint from the Israelites, Moses lashes back at God asking why he has to shoulder so much responsibility,

“Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I produce all these people, did I engender them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a caregiver carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? (Num. 11:11‐12)”

Rather than being one who joyfully accepts the mantle of leadership, Moses here sounds like someone who sees the enterprise as a burden that he has to bear. And he seems to be wondering what he did to deserve it. Moses’ statement and his general behavior — his short‐temperedness, his blaming of others, (even God) ‐ might be a sign that he was simply burnt out from a leadership structure that left him exposed and unsupported.

Moses’ experience invites us into the question of what else could have been done to support him, aside from the ad‐hoc fixes of the judges and the priesthood? Or was Moses fated to experience the extra burden that comes with being the founder of a new movement?

Closer to home here at Beth Israel, I’m aware that we too are in a moment of leadership transition as we prepare for R. Linda’s retirement. We have invited our two rabbinic candidates, Rabbis Chloe Zelkha and Aviva Marchione, to share their styles of spiritual leadership and teaching. We hope to welcome one of them to join Beth Israel’s rabbinic leadership team. As that one prepares to become our new associate rabbi, we will need to prepare our support for their journey and their work.

At this moment of our transition, I’m excited to see what new energy and ideas one of these incoming rabbis will bring into
our BI system. I know that they each have wonderful gifts that can serve us well. I hope that each of you has an opportunity to interact with them at an upcoming service they will be leading when they visit.

And, at the same time, this also can be a moment when we also can re‐envision our general leadership structures outside of the rabbi ‐ whether this is someone chairing a committee, taking leadership on the board, or simply taking charge of creating a new activity at the synagogue. Whatever level of leader, this could be a time to ask ourselves: how do we set up leadership that invites collaboration and participation and doesn’t set up our leaders into more “go it alone” approaches that can leave them isolated or tired out like Moses?

Aside from volunteering and lending a helping hand with our many volunteer needs, what might it look like or mean to support our lay leaders at BI as they try to tackle an important challenge in our community? Could even simply serving as a listening ear and a place for feedback for one of our volunteer leaders help them think through a particularly tricky or challenging part of their work? Or perhaps good leadership might involve more teaming up in order to keep even the more simple tasks (like washing dishes after an oneg) fun and connective? While I don’t have all of the answers here ‐ I do think that this moment of transition invites the opportunity to each look at the ways that we can take responsibility and contribute to a thriving synagogue system.

I have no doubt that we will continue to build on the strong legacy of Rabbinic leadership that Rabbi Linda has developed these many years. And I also am excited about this moment as one when we can envision anew the creation of healthy, supportive, innovative, and interconnected structures of lay leadership that help nourish our volunteers and deepen our community connections with one another. The more we can do this, the more we can build upon the caring, “Hamish” and engaged community we are known to be. May we go from strength to strength at this moment of change and opportunity.