Why Are Leaders in Our Community HITTING!?

God tells Moshe, "Speak to the rock." Moshe ends up hitting the rock. Water gushes out and Moshe is punished. He's not going to escort the Jewish people into the promised land because he had lost an opportunity to sanctify God's name in public. There are a variety of opinions among the commentaries as to what Moshe exactly did that was incorrect. Was it that he hit the rock? Was it that he got frustrated with the rock, frustrated with the Jewish people, incorrectly or inaccurately attributed where the water had actually come from? It come from God through the rock, but not actually from the rock itself. If you look in the ord, there are like 10 different views as to what Moshe exactly did wrong. But the simple view according to Rashi is that he hit the rock rather than spoke to the rock. Why is that such a big deal? I'd like to share with you an insight from the mag of Mesich who points out a fascinating observation. When did Moshe ever do in terms of his leadership? Most of his leadership was through speech, not action. Although he had carried this staff of leadership with him the whole time, for the most part, it was used uh to accompany him. in his words. Although Moshe was not such an articulate speaker because of his speech issues, yet his leadership was through speech, not through action. The few times that the that the staff was to be used for action, such as turning the uh water in of the Nile River into blood, that was done through Aharon. But for the most part, his leadership was through speech. All of a sudden after 38 years he's going to use this staff and actually act rather than talk. God literally said talk to the rock and he hits the rock. He actually acted. He actually did something rather than spoke. What changed? So the m of explains that Moenu was talking to a different generation. The previous generation who had left Egypt for the most part had died out. The next generation who were going to enter the land of Israel had a totally different mentality because these people going to enter the land of Israel are going to have to act. Their Judaism is going to be behaviorally centered, not spiritually centered like the generation of Moshe, the generation that had left Egypt. So, it's a totally different generation, a totally different mentality. They're going to go into the land of Israel. there's going to be a lot more mitzvah in which they have to behaviorally engage in whereas in the desert they're engaged for the most part verbally studying Torah spiritually. So Moshe represents the spiritual engagement through speech. The next generation is the physical behavioral engagement through action. And Moshe thought let me speak their language. Let me come down to their level. they can appreciate the connection that we have. Let me lower myself and talk their language. Meet them where they're at. That was Mosha's mistake. He should have spoken to them. He should have spiritually engaged them. Mosha's whole matus, his whole existence, his whole identity, his whole mission was believing in the Jewish people, especially at the times when they seemed least believable. And at this point he thought, well, it's a different generation. I have to talk to them in their language. What he should have done was brought them up to his language because they're going to go off into the land and behaviorally engaged. They need that spiritual connection most. And Moshe should have believed that they were capable. This is a dilemma we all face like Moshe did. we all face in our life where we assess are these people or is this person actually capable of what's expected of them or should we modify? Should we modify what's necessary? We don't always need to modify. Sometimes people are capable and are up for the challenge even if it may not seem like that. I had recently just heard a story from a rav in Crown Heights, a po authority. He got a call from a Kabad rabbi somewhere and the question was the dilemma that he had was a very close community member is arranging a bris for his son and the food's going to be kosher and the venue is going to be kosher everything's going to be great but there's not going to be a real moel a acceptable circumciser there's going to be a doctor so it's going to be more of a circumcision rather than a ritual ual bris may I attend? They're not interested in changing and I tried asking them may I attend this event bear in mind that if he doesn't attend this event you know they have a very close relationship and that will hurt the relationship they will be offended. The Rav said you can't go. You can't you can't go because you are representing Judaism and it's going to look like it's acceptable to not have a proper bris. That was a very difficult thing for this rabbi to hear. But he listened. He did it. He didn't go. And they were hurt. They were offended. But people started wondering why is the rabbi not here. They said he doesn't deprove of our choice of circumciser. Somebody who's not acceptable to to give a ritual circumcision. It was just a he wasn't going to be a it wasn't going to be a brisk. It was just going to be a circumcision. It's not an acceptable uh he didn't believe it was an acceptable event and he's not coming. Because of this event, six different people reached out to the rabbi when it came time for them to put on a brisk for their child to make sure that the rabbi would be comfortable with the standards. Because the rabbi didn't go down to their standards, he ended up lifting many people up to his standards. The Rav who was sharing the story said that later this Kabad Rabbi had a fundraising campaign and was reaching out to people in the community to partner and get involved in his organization. And the rabbi said uh that the the rabbi did not reach out to this couple. He felt uncomfortable. He understands that he hurt his their feelings. It was necessary, but he did hurt their feelings and he was uncomfortable asking them to partner in his organization. They found out about the campaign and they had donated a large sum of money beyond what he ever would have asked or expected them to give. Sometimes we try to speak other people's language and it comes with for because we think we'll relate to them better. In Mosha's case, he was trying to speak the language of action when he should have been speaking the language of speech, something more spiritual. Believe that they're more capable. Believe in people. People are often more capable than they seem. And if we believe in them, we're going to see them flourish. That's my story and I'm sticking to