Parshat Vaethanan: From Moshe to Joe Biden, the case against gerontocracy

Several weeks ago, an aged and mentally reduced, Joe Biden was finally compelled to withdraw his candidacy for a second term as US President. His diminished faculties had long been evident. Nevertheless, he remained in position as both president and second term candidate by the willful manipulation of his family and close associates and his own hubris.

Those who wished to assign a more benevolent spin to the prolonged effort at keeping him in office argued that it was fear of Biden’s being replaced by his vice president Kamala Harris who was uniquely unqualified for an executive position of any kind. The cynical decision to place her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office had been terrifying from the get go.

Only now do we see how this strategy turned into the archetype of good intentions paving the road to hell.

Indeed, it was only when Joe Biden made an utter fool of himself before the entire world as he attempted to spar with Donald Trump, himself not the Paganini of debaters, that resigning from the campaign became inevitable.

This story is not unlike the case of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who clung to her seat on the Supreme Court bench knowing that she was dying and mentally sub par. Yet she and a large coterie of sycophants hoped for a last bout of immortality in order to thwart the likelihood of her being replaced by a conservative judge. In that case as well, the delaying of an overdue exit turned into a boomerang that achieved the very result it was meant to impede.

Nevertheless, in the normal world, there is general acknowledgment of the fact that great age is hardly a criterion for continued leadership power (and I write as someone who will be 76 years old next month). It is only legal technicalities that allow anomalies like Bader-Ginsberg, or Joe Biden, or, indeed, Donald Trump to hold high office well past their sell-by dates. But at least in their cases, a system of checks and balances offers some mitigation from the train wrecks they might otherwise cause.

Would this were true for the contemporary world of Torah where age is the primary criterion for being designated the primo inter pares, the Gadol HaDor, the supreme leader (to borrow a term from a not dissimilar ayahtollah-ocracy with which we are now contending on an existential basis). And, of course, there are no checks and balances.

There’s nothing quite like a superannuated and mentally diminished supreme leader to lead society toward disaster. Under the best of circumstances, if he is still in control of his mental faculties, he will see things through archaic lenses and be unequipped to contend with contemporary reality. And should, as is often the case, his mental acuity be impaired – indeed seriously impaired – a collusion of his corrupt immediate family and/or self-serving sycophants will continue to prop him up, lest they lose the goose that lays their golden eggs.

Such was the case with the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, no doubt a sweet sage who was never allowed to retire in dignity. Well into his dotage he was stage-managed by his sleazy grandson and his fishwife of a daughter, to hold audience in which he was utterly incoherent. He could only, but barely, repeat his reflexive order to grow a beard (for those supplicants who were clean shaven) while his handler grandson Yankie or his daughter Rebbetzin Kolodetsky would put words into his mouth that served the needs of haredi power brokers who trafficked in his approbations.

It was evident to anyone that Rabbi Kanievsky had lost his hold on reality. Yet one dared not state what was obvious to even a child. The emperor had no mental attire. His wires had been stripped. His arteries were clogged.

Meanwhile the “mishpoche” was raking in millions by sellng mass produced, personally ‘autographed’, gilt-framed blessings that would guarantee joy, riches, health, marriage to anyone who would ‘donate’ several hundred dollars, the actual sum equating to some mystical gematria. Or they would offer wine that had been blessed by the sage. Or they would pitch for contributions on behalf an unnamed relative who was ostensibly dying from insurmountable debts, whose fiscal rescue would guarantee the doddering rabbi’s infinite blessings. (Indeed this perpetually dying unnamed relative continued to serve as a shill for R’ Kanievsky’s daughter who – for a significant fee – promised to intercede on the donor’s behalf at her father’s grave.)

This was an unprecedented disgrace and a supreme act of elder abuse.

And I might add, the same was true when the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, incapacitated by strokes and heart attacks, would be propped up and wheeled out for view by his Hassidim. But at least in the Rebbe’s case there was no fiscal, halachic or communal shenanigan involved in that disgrace. It was simply an offense to the great man himself, who should have been allowed to pass in dignified comfort, not on public display.

The forced retirement of Moshe – the case against gerontocracy

God rebuffs and rebukes Moshe for his repeated requests to lead the Bnei Israel into Eretz Israel. Yet Moshe does not seem to take any responsibility for this seemingly cruel decision, going so far as to blame the people for his misfortune.

וַֽיהוָ֥ה הִתְאַנַּף־בִּ֖י עַל־דִּבְרֵיכֶ֑ם וַיִּשָּׁבַ֗ע לְבִלְתִּ֤י עָבְרִי֙ אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּ֔ן וּלְבִלְתִּי־בֹא֙ אֶל־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַטּוֹבָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לְךָ֖ נַֽחֲלָֽה

And God was angered with me because of your deeds, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan (Devarim/Deuteronomy 4:21).

Earlier Moshe says;

וַיִּתְעַבֵּ֨ר יְהוָ֥ה בִּי֙ לְמַ֣עַנְכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמַ֖ע אֵלָ֑י

And God was enraged with me because of you… (3:26).

This, at least, is the conventional translation of  ויתעבר ‘ה בי למענכם.

I would like to suggest a different translation here, namely; ויתעבר ‘ה בי – and God decided to pass over me – למענכם – 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 Moshe is no longer suitable for energizing and leading a nation as it invades, conquers and establishes itself in its new home. Fresh blood is needed. Younger blood … A man in his prime who is less rooted in nomadic ways; more of a technocrat and field marshal.

Now, as we learn later in Sefer Devarim, in the case of Moshe there was no evidence of mental or physical deterioration. Nevertheless the Almighty saw fit to sideline him permanently.

וּמֹשֶׁ֗ה בֶּן־מֵאָ֧ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֛ים שָׁנָ֖ה בְּמֹת֑וֹ לֹא־כָהֲתָ֥ה עֵינ֖וֹ וְלֹא־נָ֥ס לֵחֹֽה

Moshe was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished (Devarim/Deuteronomy 34:7-8)

(It is worth noting that the passing of Moshe seems to be met with pro forma mourning on the part of the Bnei Israel, and they are sanguine about the naming of Yehoshua to replace him. This is in stark contrast to the deaths of Miriam and Aharon which were both followed by spontaneous, uncontrolled grief. 

Clearly, by the time of his death, Moshe no longer enjoyed the confidence of the People. I suspect he had lost their trust when he struck the rock twice. They got the message very clearly that they were the object of his rage, and the rock he had struck was merely a proxy for themselves. 

As I pointed out in my notes on Parshat Hukkat [Two Strikes and Moshe is Out] Moshe is Rabbeinu, Moshe is our teacher. And once a teacher strikes a pupil twice, the relationship is pretty much over.)

Hence the question is what to do with Moshe.  After all, the Torah stipulates no mandatory retirement age, nor does it offer any rules of succession during a leader’s lifetime. This would naturally lead Israel into rule by a gerontocracy which can only result in political, religious, economic and military paralysis.

So what then would the Bnei Israel do with an ancient Moshe looking over the shoulder of the younger Yehoshua, second-guessing his every move?  What would Yehoshua do with his revered, but no longer capable, mentor breathing down his neck?  How would the Bnei Israel handle the inevitable conflict of being torn between the desire for progress and the hovering presence of a relic from a different era?

Thus Moshe accepts, albeit bitterly, the fact that he is being permanently sidelined for the sake of the nation, and not (only) because of any past missteps, be they his or those of the Bnei Israel.

Today we live in eerily parallel times, when the ultra-Orthodox are in the thrall and grip of a gerontocracy whose singular achievement is its ability to outlive and outlast its peers.

Out of touch with the real world, they are often oblivious to what is going on in the street. Frequently, their names are used to advance agendas that can be charitably described as socially, politically and economically destructive, and, more honestly, as desecrations of God’s name. Such nonagenarian and centenarian rabbis continue to rule in name, while others manipulate them to serve catastrophic agendas.

Perhaps the time has come to tell these rabbis; “רב לך אל תוסף דבר” – You’ve had enough, it is time to stop talking. Then, if it is not too late, perhaps a Yehoshua or two can be found who can lead their benighted minions into a promised land of healthy living within the boundaries of Torah and the reality (and responsibilities) of living in a modern Jewish state. Instead, what we end up with is lesser men who double down on the fanaticism that preceded them, and then proceed to further inflame their followers with newer and more restrictive directives.

Yes, there is a link between the Haftarah of  Shabbat Nahamu and Parshat Vaethanan

While most haftarot 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 the parsha. Rather, following Tisha B’Av and the destruction of Jerusalem, it is Yeshayahu’s  paean to redemption, offering us comfort as he describes the eventual 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 אָֽנֹכִי֙ מְצַוֶּ֣ה אֶתְכֶ֔ם וְלֹ֥א תִגְרְע֖וּ מִמֶּ֑נּוּ

Do not add to the thing that I command you, nor shall you diminish from it( 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. Indeed, they feed off one another.

Torah life has become so onerous and encumbered by needless humrot (stringencies) and religious one-upmanship, that being religious becomes a full-time job. Those less inclined to piety increasingly dilute their observance and their connection to Torah to the point of meaninglessness.

The greatest success of each extreme is the growth of the other: the smug, entitled elitism of the haredim on the one hand, and the indifference, illiteracy and hostility of the hilonim on the other.

Now let us look at the haftarah:

כָּל-גֶּיא, יִנָּשֵׂא, וְכָל-הַר וְגִבְעָה, יִשְׁפָּלוּ; וְהָיָה הֶעָקֹב לְמִישׁוֹר, וְהָרְכָסִים לְבִקְעָה

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain  (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 40:4)

How utterly remarkable!

Yeshayahu is describing a perfect 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 |”דרכיה דרכי נועם” the pleasant way of Torah as it is meant to be so that “והיה העקוב למישור” – the crooked shall become straight.