Leadership on the Slope
We all get there, stuck in the rut or slipping down the slope, or whichever other cliche you want to use, it’s all the same; we’ve gotten stuck!
The Talmud states that one who is tied up and can’t untie himself. So how does someone who has entered into the stuck zone get unstuck.
When G-d appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush in last week’s Torah portion, Moses asks G-d, how will the Jewish People believe in me? G-d answers that Moses is to tell them the code words; “Pukod Pukoditi – you will surely be remembered”. These code words were told by Jacob and Joseph to their children as a sign that the person who would deliver these words would be the chosen one sent by G-d to take the people out of Egypt.
This begs the question; If Jacob and Joseph both gave over this message to their children, surely many of the Jewish People knew about it. As such, it’s not a secret anymore and anyone could come forth and claim to be the one!?
In fact, G-d wasn’t telling Moses what words to say but more accurately G-d was answering Moses question and giving a profound message of leadership to this new Jewish leader.
Moses had asked, how will the people who have gotten stuck in an exile mentality going to believe in me and my message. How will they be inspired to have hope when they are on the slippery slope or stuck in a rut.
G-d answers that this is the power of leadership. When we believe in someone and their inherent good, their inherent ability to rise above their circumstance and the soul that lies within them, we bring them out of their stuckedness and bring them out of their exile. Exile is not a state of being as much as is it is a state of mind and spirit. When someone believes in us, we are then able to see a better world.
Sometimes all we need is a reminder, a little glimpse of what could be. When that reminder and glimpse is offered by someone who believes in us, we are inspired to rise up over our circumstances.
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This Shabbos is the Shabbos that blesses the month of Shevat. On the 10th of Shevat in 1951 the Rebbe assumed the leadership of Chabad and became the 7th in the Chabad dynasty. My inspiration and the inspiration for the transformative work that Chabad has done over the past 70 years is credited to the Rebbe’s belief in me and in every individual who interacted with him and even those who merely have studied his teachings. The Rebbe never accepted that who we are and and where we were is as good as it gets. The Rebbe always encouraged us to be more and to do more.
Let’s dig in this Shabbos and discover the endless reservoir of good and G-dliness that each of us possess.
With blessings, Good Shabbos.
Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman
