Our Rabbi's Message
February 19th 2010
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelMoses was a different kind of leader and we see how different he was in the Parasha that we read this week. It is a story that takes weeks to complete. We are provided with intricate detail about the building of the Tent of Meeting, which served as the Temple while our ancestors were in the desert. You have to remember that for forty years they had a Bedouin type of existence. No one lived in a permanent home. Every structure that they built was moveable.
Knowing that, the plans for the Tent of Meeting were extraordinary. Everything used in that construction was of the highest quality. Parts were made of gold and silver and parts were of colors that were difficult to find in the desert. The Tent was of the highest quality. It was Moses, by the command of God, who commissioned the Tent. That was the only building that he ever commissioned. That was the only building that he ever built. His life style was not very different from the life styles of the other Bedouins. All of them lived in tents. None of them gathered water from a source that was different from the sources where he gathered water. All of them ate the same Manna when they were hungry.
Moses was perhaps the only leader in ancient times who did not have a castle, who did not live in an abode that was especially created for him. If my memory serves me correctly the only leaders who did not choose castles as their homes were Harry Truman and David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres and Golda Meir, and even they had to live in certain homes that were especially built by their nations for their leaders.
The focus of Moses' leadership was the people. The reason for his leadership was the people. He did not ask for special amenities because he was the titular head of the Children of Israel. Indeed, he gave a good part of his leadership to Aaron, who became the High Priest and whose power was cardinal during the early days of Jewish settlement in the Promised Land.
Moses did not aspire to be a god, or to be a partner of God. He never asked to be buried in a special grave and he was not. He never desired the accoutrements of power. All that he wanted and all that he prayed for was the success of his people.
There were no lobbies that could reach him, no favors with which people could buy him. At best, he was a man of the people and for the people. His life was dedicated to them.
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