Parasha Vayelech
D’var Torah by Terry Treseder
We pause in terror
before the human deed
the cloud of
annihilation, the concentration of death
the cruelly casual way
of each to each
[Gates
of Repentance]
During these days of judgment, when the
cloud of annihilation begins to settle over the broken heaps of human lives
half-way across the world, we in Israel are beginning to see a tragically
familiar image resolving itself in the larger mirror of America: scenes of senseless human carnage; heightened
security measures at airports, public buildings and points of entry; severe
drop in tourism and its subsequent economic hardship; backlash against fellow
citizens of Arab or Persian descent; harsh rhetoric from political leaders;
pleas from other governments around the world to exercise “restraint”; a nation
outraged and frustrated with its great military power apparently impotent
against a shadowy enemy who moves across borders among ordinary people.
Egypt’s President Mubarak likened
the world’s problem with terrorists to a neighborhood infested with
cockroaches: “You rid them from one
flat and they simply move into another.”
Clearly, conventional modes of national and international defense are
ineffective against a worldwide infestation of terrorists. New kinds of thinking and strategic planning
are in order. A different kind of
leadership is required -- not just for one nation, but for every other nation
across the globe. The need for
fundamental changes in leadership during times of dramatic historical shifts is
precisely the focal point of this week’s brief, yet important Torah
portion. The subject of Deuteronomy 31
is the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua just before ‘Am Israel sets
out to enter the promised land.
Vayelech
Moshe vayidaber et ha-devarim ha-eileh
“Then
Moshe walked (out) and said ... Today, I can no longer go out or come in.” Lest we think he has grown too old and
senile, Rashi points out a later verse (34:7):
“His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” Instead, wrote the medieval commentator,
Moses is saying that, “I am not permitted, for authority has been taken from me
and given to Joshua.” Rashi goes on to
clarify what is meant by “authority” in that context: “It teaches that there was closed for him the tradition and
fountain of wisdom.” The conventional
wisdom that worked for forty years of desert wandering would not prove
effective for the coming years of war and settlement. Another dramatic shift in leadership style would come nearly two
hundred years later when authority passed from David the (last) Warrior to
Solomon the Statesman.
Today, the government of Israel is
predicting that it will be at least fifteen years before a new kind of leader
will emerge among the Palestinians who can lead his or her people into forming
a nation living at peace with its Jewish neighbor. In the meantime, every nation, including Israel and America, will
need to continue developing their own innovative styles of leadership -- both
in vision and ability to implement creative stategies of defense, statesmanship
and the preservation of freedom.
At this critical juncture in
history, let us add prayers for our leaders to the traditional prayers of
selichot. Let us pray for strong,
radically different kinds of leadership for our people and all the peoples of
this planet.
May the terror be
replaced by tranquility
May the cloud of
annihilation be replaced by clouds of glory
May concentrations of
death be replaced by concentrations of life