As we enter another election season here in Israel, there’s no better time to step back and examine what traits we should be looking for in our national leaders.
Interestingly, Parshat Ḥukat and its accompanying Haftara from the book of Shoftim provide powerful insights to this question.
Parshat Ḥukat contains the story of Moshe striking the rock in order to draw water from it to quench the thirst of the Hebrews in the desert. Shockingly, the Creator responds with anger at Moshe and Aharon, and both are punished with not being able to lead the people into Eretz Yisrael.
Various commentators have provided explanations for this severe punishment, but I want to focus on two: Rashi and the Rambam.
Rashi brings the well known explanation that Moshe was punished for hitting the rock rather than speaking to it as HaShem commanded.
The Rambam, meanwhile, explains that Moshe was punished for the way he addressed Israel before hitting the rock, proclaiming, “Hear now, you rebels!”
Seemingly, these two explanations are wildly different. But Rav Levi Yitzḥak of Berditchev explains that they’re fundamentally related. He further teaches that part of being a true leader is giving moral guidance, even admonishing when necessary, and that there are two kinds of leaders in Israel. Some admonish by way of recognizing and emphasizing Israel’s potential, and encouraging Israel to live up to that potential greatness, while others admonish through criticism and belittling the people.
This difference manifests, not just in its impact on the nation, but also on the rest of the world – when the leader emphasizes Israel’s greatness, the rest of the world takes note and responds to Israel’s greatness. But when the leader diminishes Israel, the rest of the world also looks down upon Israel, and acts accordingly.
So when Moshe diminished Israel, like the Ramban explained, Israel was diminished in the eyes of all of creation. Even the rock, which was created to give water to Israel, looked down upon Israel. Therefore Moshe had to hit the rock, to force the water out of it, since it could not be convinced by words, as Rashi explains.
We therefore see that Israel’s leaders are directly responsible for how we’re perceived in the world. A leader that sees himself, and the rest of the nation, in light of our potential greatness will bring greatness to the nation, while a leader who belittles the people, in the end belittles himself, and belittles all of us on the world stage.
As Rashi writes later in the parsha (commenting on Bamidbar 21:21), the leader and the generation are one and the same.
We see this phenomenon with Yifaḥ as well in the Haftara. Rav Shlomo Aviner points out in his commentary on chapter 11 of the book of Shoftim that When Yifaḥ is asked to lead the generation in their war against Ammon, he insists on proving himself in the eyes of the nation before becoming their leader. Without what we’d call today “consent of the governed,” the leader has no legitimacy. And when the leader does have the nation behind him, the leader and his generation are truly one and the same.
This is why Yifaḥ is ultimately able to enter his negotiations with Ammon so confidently – he knows his people’s story, he’s confident in his people’s faith, and he knows that he stands on the right side of history. And even when negotiations break down, he fearlessly leads his people into war, because he knows that he is Am Yisrael – by virtue of standing at the head of his nation, his fate is inseparable from that of the people.
So as we enter this upcoming round of election campaigns, let’s not forget what we’re looking for in a leader – someone who demands greatness of Israel, not through harsh critique but through reminding us of our ideals, and pushing us to make those ideals a reality. A leader who knows that the greater we are in our own eyes, the more unstoppable we’ll be in making our impact on the world.
