In this week’s reading, Moshe (Moses) is told to appoint Yehoshua (Joshua), “a man who has the spirit within him,” to lead the Nation of Israel after Moshe’s passing. Rabbi Asher Zelig Rubenstein shlit”a, whose classes are available on TorahMedia almost immediately after they are given, discussed last night the concept of “a man who has the spirit within him” to be a leader.

Democracy, he pointed out, is somewhat hypocritical. We select leaders because they think like us, to represent our way of thinking — and then we mock those same leaders when they follow the poll results. We know that they are not leaders, but rather followers.

The Mishnah says that at the end of times, “the face of the generation will be like the face of the dog.” Some explain that the “face” is a reference to our leaders, who will “lead” the same way that a dog runs ahead of his Master. It is not the dog, but the dog’s owner, who determines which way they will go — but to the uninformed observer, it looks like the dog is “leading.”

A true leader, by contrast, is able to be firm in the face of public opinion. Yehoshua, who had always been the quiet follower, listening to Moshe and following his every word, “had the spirit within him” to lead the nation, and not be its follower!

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org

This week’s reading puts to rest the misguided notion that “there are two sides to every argument.” This statement is, at its essence, a truism — so in actual use, it is intended to convey that each side must be exaggerating, that the truth always lies somewhere in the middle.

In our case, Korach accuses Moshe and Aharon of elevating themselves over the congregation, although everyone — and we do mean, quite literally, everyone — saw Moshe lead us out of Egypt, engage in a unique dialog with G-d, ascend Mt. Sinai, descend with the two Tablets, and on and on. And various other people, motivated by their own agendas, side with Korach!

It is possible to be a builder, and it is possible to be a destroyer — not with physical action, but simply by sowing division and discord. One can take the most ridiculous and patently false idea under the sun (mercenaries with bulletproof vests and knives as “peace activists” leaps, of course, to mind), and someone will believe it.

None of us consider ourselves capable of creating division like Korach. But when there is an argument affecting ourselves and our communities, we all must shoulder the responsibility to be discerning and thoughtful, before simply concluding that each of the two sides must both be wrong.

Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org

In this week’s reading, we learn of the spies sent to look at the Land of Israel, who returned with an evil report — and the disaster that followed. The entire generation that said they could not go up into the Land created a self-fulfilling prophecy: G-d repays measure for measure, and that generation died during the 40 years that our Nation spent in the desert.

The spies returned with evidence of the fantastic bounty provided in the Land that our Nation was destined to inherit. So what was their evil report? They informed the Nation that the inhabitants were giants. They ignored G-d’s promise that, like David versus Goliath, Israel would be successful. G-d even ensured that the Canaanites were so busy burying victims of a sudden plague that they left their homes deserted and paid no attention to the intruding spies.

As we learned so vividly in this week’s news, it is trivial to create an evil report if you only look at half the facts. This applies to many of the “evil reports” that we here in all aspects of our lives — we hear half the story and imagine that we know the entirety. This is why Lashon Hara (gossip) is indeed profoundly evil — it creates a distorted picture. People who tell us Lashon Hara are “friends” in the same way that mercenaries with knives are “peace activists,” and we must avoid them both!

Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org