by Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, Ahavat Zion, Beverly Hills 

This week’s passage speaks of matters which all leaders and members of UMJC congregations should bear in mind. Those matters are the mechanics of a congregational split, and the kind of leadership that deserves and experiences the blessing of God.

The text tells us of four ring leaders of an attempted congregational split in the days of Moshe. Korach, a Levite, and Datan, Aviram and On, of the tribe of Reuben, were all at the head of about 250 participants in the revolt. The great medieval commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra points out that this rebel band contained grumblers and malcontents of all kinds. Included were Levites, who felt aggrieved at being appointed to serve the priests, and Reubenites, who considered that they had been deprived of the birthright that had been transferred to the tribe of Joseph. According to Ibn Ezra, they suspected Joshua (an Ephramite) of using his influence to favor his own tribe over others. Then there were the firstborn of Israel who felt aggrieved because the privilege of priesthood had been taken from them and granted to the Levites who had not worshiped the golden calf.

What Ibn Ezra is highlighting here is that these ring leaders and those with them, “250 men of Isra'el, leaders of the community, key members of the council, men of reputation” (v.1), had motivations other than those they stated. The stated reason for their rebellion, their “church split” if you will, is given in verse four: “You take too much on yourselves! After all, the entire community is holy, every one of them, and ADONAI is among them. So why do you lift yourselves up above ADONAI's assembly?” They are complaining about Moshe, Aharon and Miryam allegedly lording themselves over the community in an unseemly way. But as Ibn Ezra rightly notes, there is no correspondence between their stated reasons and their real motivations.

So it shall be for us, and every member and leader in our Union would do well to remember this. Whenever a split is being threatened or, God forbid, is occurring or has occurred, those who are wise would do well to look behind the rhetoric to root out the real reasons behind the actions being taken. One will usually find that our contemporaries are motivated by a sense of denied status, a quest for more power, and a lack of humility, as was the case with Datan, Abiram, and company. And one will also often find the stated reasons for the action contemplated or taken will be as noble-sounding as in our text, which speaks of the entire assembly being holy, every one of them, HaShem being among them. In modern terms such splits will often be described as “something the Holy Spirit is doing.” Do not be deceived. Look behind the smokescreen of pious rhetoric: find out who is grasping for power, who is sore over opportunities denied, who is jealous, and who is motivated by pride in the midst of the split.

Moshe in particular provides us with a stirring and contrasting example of good leadership. Consider his good leadership as exhibited in the following ways: 

1. The text says more than once “he fell on his face.” This is a posture of submission, humility and vulnerability before God. The Tachanun section of our daily prayers is called “nefilat apayim” (falling on the face), and reflects this ancient practice at least in part. In modern practice, we rest our head on our arm as a sign of mourning, self-abnegation and humility before God in view of our sins, but in ancient times, people prostrated themselves before God or even before a human king. In the case of Moshe in our text, he falls on his face as a sign of his transparency before God, his submission to him, his recognition of God’s supreme authority in this matter, and as a sign of how appalled he is at the blow to God’s honor which is being dealt by the rebels. For in fact Moshe knows that the rebellion is not really against him, Aharon or Miryam: it is a rebellion against God himself.
    
2. From this we learn that a good leader knows himself to be chosen by God for the office he holds. The more trying the leadership situation the more crucial it will be that a leader knows that it is God himself who put him in that position. With such awareness, one can withstand almost anything: without it, one is weak, vulnerable and fragile before the onslaughts that will occur from time to time.
3. We also learn that the leader God chooses is appalled at the right things: he has a sense of God’s honor, and of what is honorable in general. In more modern terms, he has a holy set of values. He knows what it means to honor God, or to fail to do so, and this distinction is crucial to him. Such a leader is more concerned with God’s honor than his own.
    
4. Moshe is also a leader who prays, not as a last resort, but as a matter of relational habit. The first thing he does is fall on his face, likely calling out to God at that moment. And we see him in this text not only taking action against the rebels, but talking the matter over with God.
    
5. Moshe is also remarkable here for his incisive analysis of what is going on. He rebukes the schismatics in verses 8-11, attributing their rebellion to a lack of gratitude for what they have, and a greed for more power and status. This will also be true of the leaders God chooses: even in the midst of a stressful crisis, they will be able to identify the underlying issues and the relational factors lurking behind rhetorical smokescreens. They can sense what is really going on.
    
6. Moshe is also an exemplary leader in that he has not plundered the people of God: he is not a self-serving shearer of the sheep, and cannot be rightly accused of financial monkey-business. As he says to God in verse eleven, “I haven't taken one donkey from them, I've done nothing wrong to any of them.” Good leaders care more for the sheep than for their fleece.
    
7. Moshe models good leadership in that he takes early and decisive action. A good leader discerns the situation and takes preemptive action. What would have been disastrous in this situation, and can be disastrous in our own situations, would have been for Moshe to be paralyzed by indecision, or crippled by a need to discuss things ad infinitum with his advisors. No, although it is true that “victory comes from having many advisers” (Prov. 24:6), it is also true that a good leader understands the times and knows what needs to be done (1 Chron. 12:22). Good leaders are decisive, and take action at the right time, knowing when it would be folly to adopt a wait and see attitude.
    
8. Moshe is confident that God will back up his act, that HaShem will take decisive action against those who are causing this disastrous split. This is why he directs them to come up the next day for a showdown at which time he says God will do something unprecedented to vindicate Moshe and Aharon, and to prove who is at fault in these matters. In fact, Moshe seems to have an intuition of what will happen. This will also be true for us from time to time: we will have an intuition about how things are going to shake down, and this will be so the more we know ourselves to be in the right, and the more we realize that something important to God is at stake.
    
9. Finally, Moshe is not vengeful, but instead wants God’s judgment to be limited to those who are really at fault. He wants to limit the collateral damage. This is why, in verses 20-21, Moshe intercedes with God that he limit his judgment only to the core guilty parties praying, “Oh God, God of the spirits of all humankind, if one person sins, are you going to be angry with the entire assembly?” This kind of concern for the members of one’s flock, this kind of eschewing of vengeance, this determination that only those who are at the core of the problem would face strong discipline, all of this is characteristic of a strong and God-ordained leader.

What is called for then is for leaders to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, able to discern what is really going on, but not out to hurt or destroy, only to save and to rescue what can be saved and rescued even in the midst of tough and challenging circumstances.

May God gives us such leaders, and may all of us rise to whatever occasions he calls us to face.