Leadership is not for old men; and it takes work to keep Shabbat (Vaethanan)
Note: In this essay I arrogate the privilege of arguing that leadership is not for old men, from the perch of a 78 year old (next month) relic, despite being – at least I convince myself – of peak mental acuity.
I.
The forced retirement of Moshe
– the case against gerontocracy
II.
Yes, there is a link between the haftarah
of Vaethanan and Shabbat Nahamu
III.
Observing Shabbat takes work
- The forced retirement of Moshe – the case against gerontocracy
God rebuffs and rebukes Moshe for his repeated requests to lead the Israelites into the Land of Israel. Yet Moshe does not seem to accept any responsibility for this seemingly cruel decision, going so far as to blame the Israelites for his misfortune.
וַיִּתְעַבֵּ֨ר יְהֹוָ֥ה בִּי֙ לְמַ֣עַנְכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמַ֖ע אֵלָ֑י וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֤ה אֵלַי֙ רַב־לָ֔ךְ אַל־תּ֗וֹסֶף דַּבֵּ֥ר אֵלַ֛י ע֖וֹד בַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה׃
But God was wrathful with me on your account and would not listen to me. God said to me, “You have had enough! Do not speak to Me of this matter again! (3:26)
I would suggest a different translation here, namely; וַיִּתְעַבֵּ֨ר יְהֹוָ֥ה בִּי֙ – and God passed over me – לְמַ֣עַנְכֶ֔ם – for your sake.
In other words Moshe acknowledges, perhaps grudgingly, that God has decided he is no longer the man for the job. That after forty plus years of leadership, the aged leader is no longer up to the task of energizing and guiding a nation as it invades, conquers and establishes itself in its new home. Fresh blood is needed. Younger blood … Men in their prime who are less rooted in nomadic ways, more technocrat and field marshal.
Hence the question is what to do with Moshe. After all, the Torah has no mandatory retirement age, nor does it offer any rules of succession during a leader’s lifetime. This would naturally lead the Israelites into a gerontocracy that can result in political, religious, economic and military sclerosis.
So what then would the Israelites do with an aged Moshe looking over the shoulder of the younger Yehoshua, second-guessing his every move? What would Yehoshua do with his revered, but no longer able, mentor breathing down his neck? How would the Israelites handle the inevitable conflict of being torn between the desire for progress and the love and adoration for a relic from a different reality?
Thus Moshe accepts, albeit bitterly, the fact that he is being permanently sidelined for the sake of the Israelites, and not (only) because of any past missteps, be they his or those of the Children of Israel whom he prefers blaming.
Today we live in eerily parallel times, when the State of Israel is effectively paralyzed by not one, but two, gerontocracies. For this is true in both the haredi bubble and in the political seat of power.
The leading sage of the haredi world is Dov Lando, a crotchety and superannuated nonagenarian. In his dotage, the lugubrious Rabbi Lando expresses a preference for living under an Arab regime. Lando’s singular achievement, like that of his predecessors, has been his ability to outlive and outlast his peers. Hence it is hardly surprising that his acolytes and minions would paralyze our highways and vandalize our public transportation infrastructure while howling imprecations against an “enemy army” (i.e. the IDF).
The leader of our government is a somewhat younger senior citizen, yet nevertheless past his sell-by date. At 76 years of age, and after enduring – and being endured – as our prime minister of 20 years, he is no longer the man for the job, despite singular achievements earlier in his career. Bibi, like Moshe, convinces himself that he retains exclusive eligibility and entitlement to the premiership. To achieve this, he sells out the productive, tax paying citizenry to internal enemies of the State, while, like a Latin American caudillo he exports his name-changing playboy progeny to Miami and London.
Out of touch with the real world, oblivious to what is going on in the street, oftentimes ignorant of the way their names are being used to advance agendas that can be charitably described as socially, politically and economically destructive, and, more honestly, as desecrations of God’s name, the nonagenarian and centenarian rabbis continue to rule in name, while others are likely manipulating them to serve disastrous agendas.
By contrast, Bibi, following the Faustian playbook survives by making any pact with the devil that he finds expedient – at a cost to the Israeli taxpayer of 18 billion shhekels a year and a manpower shortage of 20,000 soldiers in our overextended army.
Perhaps the time has come to tell the rabbi רב לך אל תוסף לדבר – You’ve had enough, it is time to stop talking (3:26), and to give Bibi a gold Rolex and, perhaps, a get out of jail card. And then, if it is not too late, maybe a Yehoshua can be found who can lead the benighted haredi minions and the beleaguered Israeli veterans and taxpayers into a promised land of national well-being and sustainable growth long into the future.
II. Yes, there is a link between the Haftarah of Vaethanan and Shabbat Nahamu
While most haftarahs are designed to parallel the contents of the weekly Parsha (harking back to an era when the Romans prohibited reading from the Torah itself), the haftarah to Vaethanan is not believed to have any parallel in our parsha. Rather, in the wake of Tisha B’Av and the destruction of Jerusalem, it is Yeshayahu’s paean to redemption, offering us comfort as he describes an eventual Messianic utopia.
Having said this, I would suggest there is indeed a powerful echo of our parsha in the haftarah.
In the parsha we read:
לֹ֣א תֹסִ֗פוּ עַל־הַדָּבָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֤ר אָנֹכִי֙ מְצַוֶּ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֥א תִגְרְע֖וּ מִמֶּ֑נּוּ לִשְׁמֹ֗ר אֶת־מִצְוֺת֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר אָנֹכִ֖י מְצַוֶּ֥ה אֶתְכֶֽם׃
You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the ETERNAL your God that I enjoin upon you. (4:2)
The conventional interpretation of this verse is that we are enjoined against embellishing a particular mitzvah, e.g. adding a fifth chapter into tefillin, or subtracting from the mitzvah in any way.
However, in the larger context, we can argue that the meta meaning of this verse is that we must not encumber observance needlessly to the point where normal life becomes unsustainable, and indeed, religious life becomes a deterrent to Jewish connectivity. Likewise, we are told not to dilute Torah and mitzvot to the point where Jewish life becomes spiritually empty and ultimately meaningless.
In truth, both these impulses define the times in which we live and, indeed, they feed off one another. Torah life has become so onerous and encumbered by needless stringencies and religious one-upmanship that being religious is now a full-time job. At the same time, those less inclined to religiosity increasingly dilute their observance and their connection to Torah to the point of vacuity.
The greatest success of each extreme is the growth of the other: the smug, entitled elitism of the haredim on the one hand, and indifferent, illiterate hostility of the progressive left on the other.
Now let us look at the haftarah:
כׇּל־גֶּיא֙ יִנָּשֵׂ֔א וְכׇל־הַ֥ר וְגִבְעָ֖ה יִשְׁפָּ֑לוּ וְהָיָ֤ה הֶֽעָקֹב֙ לְמִישׁ֔וֹר וְהָרְכָסִ֖ים לְבִקְעָֽה׃
Let every valley be raised,
Every hill and mount made low.
Let the rugged ground become level
And the ridges become a plain.
(Yeshayahu/Isaiah 40:4)
How remarkable!
The Prophet is describing a utopian time when those who have reached the depths of indifference and depravity shall be elevated to level terrain and, likewise, those who are in an unrealistic, even counterproductive, height of extreme observance and encumbrance will be brought down to the level of דרכיה דרכי נועם – the Torah’s ways are (meant to be) pleasant (Mishlei/Proverbs 3:17) so that וְהָיָ֤ה הֶֽעָקֹב֙ לְמִישׁ֔וֹר the crooked can become straight.
III. Observing Shabbat by working
Vaethanan repeats the Ten Commandments with some variations from the earlier version in Shemot/ Exodus 20.
The fourth commandment pertaining to Shabbat merits some added scrutiny:
שָׁמ֛֣וֹר אֶת־י֥וֹם֩ הַשַּׁבָּ֖֨ת לְקַדְּשׁ֑֜וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוְּךָ֖֣ ׀ יְהֹוָ֥֣ה אֱלֹהֶֽ֗יךָ׃
Observe the day of Shabbat and keep it holy, as the Adonai your God has commanded you.
שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כׇּֿל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒׃
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
וְי֨וֹם֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔֜י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַיהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֗יךָ לֹ֣א תַעֲשֶׂ֣ה כׇל־מְלָאכָ֡ה אַתָּ֣ה וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּ֣ךָ וְעַבְדְּךָֽ־וַ֠אֲמָתֶ֠ךָ וְשׁוֹרְךָ֨ וַחֲמֹֽרְךָ֜ וְכׇל־בְּהֶמְתֶּ֗ךָ וְגֵֽרְךָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ לְמַ֗עַן יָנ֛וּחַ עַבְדְּךָ֥ וַאֲמָתְךָ֖ כָּמֽ֑וֹךָ׃
but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Adonai your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your donkey, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. (5:12-14)
The second verse in the commandment (in both locations) “Six days you shall do your labor” (Deut: 5:12) seems totally superfluous. After all the preceding verse instructs us to “Keep Shabbat”, while the subsequent clause tells us that “The seventh day is your Lord God’s Shabbat” and that neither you, nor your son, daughter, slave, maidservant, ox, ass etc should do any work.”
Clearly then, one may indeed work on the other six days. So why does the Torah interject verse 12?
The answer, of course, is obvious. Observance of Shabbat is comprised of two components:
1.Laboring during the six weekdays
2.Resting on the seventh day.
Just as we are commanded to rest on Shabbat, we are likewise commanded to labor from Sunday through Friday. In fact, without the labor part the rest would be unnecessary.
Hence, anyone who does not labor during the weekdays is transgressing the fourth commandment just as much as one who does constructive labor on Shabbat. And there are tens of thousands like this who, except when blocking our highways or vandalizing on public transport, or smoking their Marlboros are indeed keeping shabbat seven days a week, which means not at all.
Which brings us back to “Do not add to the thing that I command you, nor shall you diminish from it” (Deut. 4:2). It is no coincidence that this verse and the commandment to work six days a week and rest on the seventh appear in the same parsha. Because Shabbat is the only mitzvah the transgression of which can encompass both adding and diminishing.
A person who eschews labor in a misguided effort to better serve the Almighty is adding to Shabbat by resting from labor during the six weekdays. Likewise, he is simultaneously diminishing from this commandment by not working when he is supposed to be working.
This, of course, bring us back to the first item in these notes on the parsha, and what happens when a superannuated gerontocracy is (seemingly) in control of Jewish life.
