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Showing posts from January, 2013

True Leaders: Nachshon, and Martin Luther King

The  world is  full of  people  who  aspire  to  positions  of  power  and  authority.  There  are  very  few  completely  uncontested  positions  of political  power  and  authority  in  the  United  States,  but  the kind  of  leadership  for  which  one  must  compete  is  only  one kind  of  leadership.   Many  of  the  people  in  our  country  or  in our  lives  who  have  most  deeply  and  successfully  exercised leadership  were  actually  not  competing  or  racing  with anyone.  In fact, they held roles that no one else wanted. One  Torah  passage  that  focuses  on  different  models of leadership is the passage from the Book of Exodus describing the events leading up to the Splitting of the Red Sea (Parashat Beshalach,  to  be  read  in  Jewish  communities  around the world on January 26). Of  course,  Moses  is  the  most  prominent  leader  in  this  Torah portion.   Interestingly,  however,  discussions  of  leadership  in this  Torah  portion  rarely  focu