Yesterday, as we chanted portions of Parashat Yitro during our Morning Blessing service, culminating in hearing the 10 Commandments, I reflected on two aspects of leadership.  At the beginning of the parasha, Moses was becoming exhausted from overwork. Yitro, his father-in-law, advised him to set up a system of courts to help with adjudicating all the disagreements among the people.  Moses was able to retain his leadership as the one who ultimately taught “God’s laws and statues” to the people, but the responsibility for dissemination of justice was shared..

Later, Moses led the children of Israel to stand at Sinai and experience the smoking mountain, synesthetically seeing the sounds of thunder shofar, hearing the words of the Divine.  They were terrified and retreated to stand at a distance, begging Moses to be their intermediary.  The direct experience of God was more than they wanted to continue to receive.  Here they did not welcome shared leadership and preferred mediated experience of the Presence and so Moses then ascended into the dense mist to receive Torah that he would bring down to the people.

I asked myself how the sharing of judicial responsibility – which in this text nevertheless did involve Moses confirming difficult answers with God – differed from the direct mystical experience. The ancient Israelites were willing to take on the former but not the latter. Today we, too, are immersed in the dance between how much to rely on spiritual leadership for guidance and how much we choose to be more autonomous, searching out answers on our own.  How do we relate to authority?  To what extent are we able to rely on another’s advice or interpretation?  

Similarly, in prayer, sometimes we might desire to receive the Divine energy channeled through our leaders and sometimes we might thirst for a more direct mystical experience.  What is the role of teacher and leader in our spiritual lives?

At Chochmat HaLev, I believe that we are searching together for our own model: one that is more horizontal than vertical, more cooperative than hierarchical, one in which we each contribute, and one in which we can rely on each other. Certainly we have different skills and training that can be honored and respected. Spiritual leadership can help create a container for prayer, meditation, and spiritual growth; and, it is our own consistency in our practice and our own intention – kavanah –which determines our ultimate experience and benefit.  

During the community Torah reading yesterday, we received a blessing to be able to discern our calling.  Our challenge as members of a spiritual community, is to each look into our place of Wisdom of Heart –  Hokhmat ha-Lev , a place of knowing our own deepest truth and desires, and to ask ourselves how we might serve.  What is our Moses spark that the Divine is calling to leadership?  How can we share the responsibility for co-creating this community?  Whether by reaching out to others during times of illness, sorrow, or loss, helping to keep our holy space beautiful, joining a committee or the Board of Directors, we are each all unique and essential to the creation of community. 

My blessing for us is that we continue to grapple with the Torah texts and find in these stories questions and contrasts that can enrich our lives.

I write to you today as I am in transit with the Northern California Board of Rabbis’ Mission to Israel.

Let us all pray for peace,

Rabbi SaraLeya
January 23, 2011
18 Sh’vat 5771