The True Measure of Leadership

How do we measure the role of a leader? By all accounts, Moshe’s leadership was extraordinary and unparalleled. Yet the Torah does not shy away from portraying him, like all human beings, as finite. Just as his brother Aharon and his sister Miriam faced mortality, so too must Moshe:

“And Moshe finished speaking these words to all Israel. And he said to them: ‘A hundred and twenty years I am today. I can no longer sally forth and come in. And the Lord has said to me: You shall not cross this Jordan.’” (Deuteronomy 31:1–2)

When a leader of Moshe’s stature departs, two questions rise to the surface: Who will succeed him? And how will his legacy endure? Both questions are monumental. For Jewish tradition, they serve as a sober reminder that no leader, no matter how exalted, is beyond mortality—and no leader is irreplaceable.

Two midrashim from the period of the Mishnah capture these concerns.

The first midrash addresses succession. God tells Moshe to prepare Yehoshua for leadership:

“Set up an interpreter for Yehoshua, and have him ask, interpret, and teach rulings in your lifetime, so that when you leave this world, Israel will not say to him: ‘In the lifetime of your teacher you did not speak, and now you speak?’… And Moshe and Israel would lift their heads to hear the words of Yehoshua. And what did they say? ‘Blessed is the Lord, who gave Torah to Israel by the hands of Moshe our teacher.’ So were the words of Yehoshua.” (Sifre Devarim 305)

Here the midrash insists that a true leader does not cling to power but nurtures the next generation. Moshe ensures that Yehoshua’s voice is heard even while he lives, yet always as a continuation of “the Torah of Moshe our teacher.” Leadership is not a personal possession but a sacred trust, handed forward in service of Torah.
The second midrash turns to an even more difficult question—the danger of lionizing or deifying a seemingly irreplaceable leader:

When Moshe died, God told the angel of death: “Go and bring Me Moshe’s soul.” But the angel of death could not overpower him. He searched for Moshe among the sea, the mountains, the hills, and even among Israel, but no one could say where he was. Finally, Scripture records: “And He (God Himself) buried him in the valley… and no man knows his burial place to this day.” (Deuteronomy 34:6; Sifre Devarim 305)

This midrash acknowledges Moshe’s singular greatness—so great that even the angel of death could not touch him. And yet it also sets a boundary: his burial place is hidden, inaccessible to human and angel alike. Why? So that Israel would not turn his grave into a shrine, and Moshe into something more than human. He is remembered, but never worshiped. His Torah lives on, but Israel moves forward without him.

Taken together, these two midrashim offer a profound vision of Jewish leadership. On the one hand, a leader must prepare successors, ensuring that Torah continues beyond their lifetime. On the other hand, the community must resist the temptation to sanctify leaders themselves. Continuity is safeguarded, and idolatry is rejected.

The true measure of leadership, then, is not only what a leader achieves in life, but how the people continue after their passing—faithful to Torah, guided by new voices, and steadfast in remembering that only God is eternal.