Empathy Sympathy

Sympathy is feeling pity and sorry for someone else.

Empathy is being able to share and understand someone else’s feeling.

A leader must empathize with the people he or she leads, but at the same time they must be a leader, meaning a separate entity. To be both is quite the challenge.

Moses was destined to be the leader of the Jewish People. He needed to relate to them, understand their pain, feel their hardship, in a word, to empathize with them.

But he also needed to be separate from them, to help them with perspective, to give them hope, to see a brighter future.

He got this from the same place where every other good Jewish guy gets his good qualities from his MOTHER.

Yocheved, Moshe’s mother born in this week’s Torah portion was born in the walls of Egypt. Not outside of Egypt nor inside of Egypt, right in between. Enough outside of Egypt to be considered among those that are coming into Egypt, but enough inside to not be counted by name among those that were arriving.

This is where Moshe came from, inside and outside, enough to empathize but not to lose perspective.

What a gift and what a lesson for where we can have a positive influence in the lives of others.

Have a good Shabbos!