By Rabbi
Yisroel Shusterman
This
week’s Parsha Perspective is dedicated by Mr. Binyomin Philipson in memory of
his late mother Mrs. Ellen (Elka bas Zisel) Philipson OBM
The story is told of
the cantor who was approached after the synagogue services by an indignant
member of the congregation.
"That was the
most awful rendition I ever heard in my life!"
The president of the
synagogue turned to the cantor to console him: "Oh don't worry about him,
he just repeats what everyone else says!"
This week's Torah reading
speaks of the song which Moses and the Israelites sang
after the redemption from Egypt and the miraculous splitting of the sea: The
verse states that "Then Moses and the children of Israel sang
this song to G‑d..."
Like everything
Jewish, there are several opinions about how the song was sung:
The Talmud tells
us that according to Rabbi Akiva, Moses said the first few words of the
verse, "For He has triumphed gloriously" and everybody responded,
"I will sing to G‑d". They continued to respond with this refrain
"I will sing to G‑d" after each verse that Moses sang.
According to Rabbi
Eliezer, however, Moses sang "I will sing to G‑d," and everybody
responded, repeating "I will sing to G‑d". They continued, with the
entire congregation repeating each verse after their leader.
Rabbi Nechemiah’s
opinion is that Moses began by singing the opening words of the song, following
which each person sang the rest of the song on their own.
These three opinions
represent three different degrees of leadership and ability to inspire.
Rabbi Akiva is
showing us a scenario where the people are totally given over to their leader.
He alone sings the song of gratitude to G‑d, with the people simply affirming
everything that he is expressing.
Although it may
appear to be the ultimate unity, with everybody united behind one cause, Rabbi Eliezer takes
this is unity even further. According to him, they did not merely affirm what
Moses was singing by repeating the same refrain, but they actually repeated the
words themselves. It was more personalized. Each individual was able to
internalize the words, thus becoming a reflection of that person's own deep
feelings and comprehension. The very same words, expressed by hundreds of
thousands of different people, were able to take on many different nuances,
depending on the individual person.
Rabbi Nechemiah
takes leadership to the ultimate level. If it is really coming from their own
deepest, essential being, why should they need to repeat it after somebody?
According to Rabbi Nechemiah's view, Moses merely started them off with a few
words of the song, thereby inspiring them to reach deep within and experience
the miracle, with the result that each of them sang the entire song on their
own.
True leadership is
about empowering others to tune in, to be in harmony with the leader and the
ideals being expressed and lived, thereby becoming leaders in their own right.
This past Wednesday (January 20,
2016) in the Jewish calendar, was 10 Shvat, marking the 66th anniversary
of the passing of the Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, the previous Lubavitcher
Rebbe OBM (in 1950) and the ascent to leadership of Rabbi Menachem M
Schneerson, OBM. To quote former Chief Rabbi of the UK, Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks, after having had audience with the Rebbe, “The world was wrong. When
they thought that the most important fact about the Rebbe was that here was a
man with thousands of followers, they missed the most important fact: That a
good leader creates followers, but a great leader creates leaders”!
The Rebbe was indeed
a great leader!
(Excerpts
from Chabad.org - by Rabbi Mordechai Wollenberg)
May you have a meaningful and
uplifting Shabbos
