From the time that Moses comes on the scene, he is under attack:
• When he breaks up a fight between Jews while still in Egypt, one turns to him and says, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14).
• When it appears to the people that Moses descends from Sinai a bit late, they rebel and build the golden calf (Exodus 32:1).
• When Korach and his cohorts challenge Moses’s rule, the attacks culminate. In their words, “You take too much upon yourself” (Numbers 16:3).
Moses is brutally criticized despite all the good he does:
• In the Egypt incident, he is challenged a day after he raises a voice of moral conscience by courageously stopping the Egyptian who attacked a Jew.
• In the golden calf incident, he is challenged after becoming a leader of leaders by heroically taking his people out of Egypt and shepherding them to Sinai, where they hear the voice of God.
• In the Korach incident, he is challenged after the story of the spies, wherein he expressed unconditional love for his people by telling God that He must not destroy all of Israel for the sin of a relatively few rebels (Numbers 14:13–19). Moses makes a similar plea in the Korach episode (Numbers 16:20–22).
Other figures in Tanach were similarly challenged despite all they did for their people. King David, who defended the Jews against Goliath and the Philistines, and who liberated and united Jerusalem, suffers rebellion from within, first from his son Avshalom and then from Sheva ben Bichri (II Samuel 13, 20).
And after all Mordechai did to join Esther in saving his brethren, the Megillah concludes by telling us that Mordechai was ratzuy l’rov echav (favored by the majority of his brethren; Esther 10:3). In other words, a large minority opposed him.
Truthfully, strong leaders inevitably incur the wrath of some. A wise man taught me this lesson. On the day I left my first pulpit in St. Louis, he approached me and said, “Rabbi, I bless you that you should have many enemies.” I looked at him, startled. “We’ve been close; why such a harsh blessing?”
“My words are meant as a berachah,” he responded. “Remember, if you do nothing, you have no enemies. A sign that you’re doing, that you’re accomplishing, is that you have enemies.”
No one was more loved than Moses. And yet, even Moses had his detractors. That’s the price of strong leadership. As Rabbi Israel Salanter said: “A rabbi who is loved by everyone is not a rabbi, and a rabbi who is disliked by everyone is not a mensch.”
Candle lighting:
Korach parsha
July 5th at 7:59 p.m.
