Sefer Bamidbar Parshat Pinchas: On the Succession of Leadership

In Parshat Pinchas, named for the priest Pinchas, Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, God has Moses go to the top of Mount Abarim so that Moshe can see the land the Israelites are to enter.

God informs Moses that, just like his brother, Aaron, he is going to die without entering the land. And Moshe responds here not with protest, but with concern for the community. Numbers, chapter 27, relates:

Moses spoke to the Lord, saying,

Let the Lord, Source of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in so that the Lord’s community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd. ¹

God then answers, saying,

Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and lay your hand upon him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission him in their sight. Invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey ².

In this story, we see that Moshe’s priority is not his own legacy or immortality, but the future of his people. He wants to ensure that they have the leadership that they need and deserve. We see that the greatest leaders make themselves replaceable. Rather than making the collective story about themselves, they set up a plan beyond their own tenure.

The Jewish tradition gleans a lot from this small exchange, between God and Moses, about the nature of leadership.

Rashi, for example, focuses in on the beginning of Moshe’s plea, “Lord, Source of the breath of all flesh.” Referencing the Midrash Tanchuma, Rashi says that by this Moses meant:

The personality of each person is revealed to You, and no two are alike. Appoint over them a leader who will tolerate each person according to his individual character. ³

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov added to Rashi’s comment, saying, “The tzaddik (the righteous one) draws and completes the spirit-of-life of each and every person.” ⁴

Based on God’s description of Joshua as “an inspired man,” ⁵ Rebbe Nachman additionally taught that a leader needs the kind of moral clarity that accompanies a borderline prophetic spirit. His book Likutei Moharan tells us:

Each and every Jewish leader possesses “a special spirit” … And this “special spirit” which the leader possesses is a form of holy spirit, a spirit of prophecy. Even though at present the prophetic spirit… is not extant, he must certainly nevertheless possess “a special spirit” drawn from holiness, one not found among the rest of the people. ⁶

While we can no longer be prophets like Moses and Joshua, we can still strive to be inspired individuals who bring out the best in one another.

It is easy and natural to feel jealous and resentful of one’s successor. But we can again look to the example of Moshe, who, at the end of chapter 27, takes Joshua and has him stand in front of the high priest and all the people and puts his hands upon him in an act of publicly passing on his leadership, just as God had told him to do.

Here, we don’t see any signs of negativity or judgment from Moses. Similarly, it’s also common for a new leader to want to demonstrate that they are better equipped than their predecessor, and we don’t see any of that from Joshua, either. Joshua, like Moshe, is a model for us to follow, to resist the hubris of basing our merit on the denigration of those who came before us.

The Midrash Sifrei Bamidbar imagines: “Moshe’s face beamed like the sun, Joshua’s face… like the moon. ⁷” ⁸ Of course, the light of the sun is greater than the light of the moon, and the moon receives its reflective ability from the light of the son. Similarly, there has never since been a prophet like Moses, ⁹ yet Joshua was the one to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land.

This transition of power can resonate with us as parents setting up our children for a life of independence. It can resonate as we set up workplace succession plans. And it can resonate in movement-building, as we take on the challenges of poverty, racial injustice, and much else. It takes great character, a special spirit, for one to be able to see the story beyond themself.

When I heard the scientist and environmental activist Jane Goodall speak some years ago on the topic of climate change, she said it’s not that we’ve inherited the land from our parents, it’s that we’ve stolen it from our children. By seeing ourselves not only as the successors but as those who will be succeeded, as Moshe did, we can more clearly see our obligation to be responsible stewards for future generations.

One “inspired” leader in our time who, despite her death, left a phenomenal legacy, was the Jewish disability activist Sheryl Grossman, of blessed memory.

Rabbi Avi Orlow recently published a tribute to Grossman, who passed away at 46 this year due to cancer from a rare genetic disorder called Bloom’s Syndrome. ¹⁰ He wrote:

Even though she was only 4-foot-3, in my eyes she was a giant… Sheryl Grossman z”l was a[n] inspired and inspiring person of faith and action. She spent her life… building ramps and elevators, bringing sign language interpreters, making sure the text was available in large font, etc. She worked tirelessly to make sure that the richness of an accessible Torah would not be withheld from Israel and the world! ¹¹

Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers) teaches:

“The work is not for you to complete. Nor are you free to refrain from it.”

¹² Those of the previous generations who took up the mantle of leadership did their part. And with the passage of time, new leaders are tasked with taking charge and carrying on the work of those who can no longer be with us. Perhaps the most significant way to honor these individuals is to help to bring the work they did closer to completion.

Sources:

Number 27:15-17
Numbers 27:18-20
Rashi on Numbers 27:16:2
Likutei Moharan 8:2:3
Numbers 27:18
Likutei Moharan, Part II 8:8:2
Sifrei Bamidbar 140:2; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 75a
Rashi on Numbers 27:20:2
Deuteronomy 34:10
The Jerusalem Post: “Sheryl Grossman, Jewish activist who shed light on rare genetic disorder, dies at 46”
Said to Myself, “Sheryl Grossman z”l: Opening the Doors”
Pirkei Avot 2:16