by Rabbi Avi Billet
After watching the episode of Tzlafchad’s daughters unfold, Moshe Rabbenu was faced with the reality that his own mantle’s passing to a successor was not yet secured. Based on Rashi’s comment, Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch suggested that after seeing that daughters could inherit and could carry their father’s legacy, Moshe felt even his sons could inherit his position and lead in whatever method suited their style.
Obviously God felt differently and instructed that Yehoshua will take over, mostly because Yehoshua has been primed to fill Moshe’s shoes more than any other person.
Rabbi Shternbuch goes on to recount a teaching of the Kotzker Rebbe:
“Why didn’t Moshe appoint Pinchas, who proved his holiness and righteousness in the Zimri encounter? Because the kanai (radical zealot) is not worthy or fit to lead the people. He can’t understand what drives each individual.” Rabbi Shternbuch explains that in his zealousness, Pinchas put himself in danger through killing one of the N’siim (princes) of Israel so publicly. The obligation is not on each individual to act so piously (a term we can use in retrospect because God’s reaction to Pinchas was so magnanimous), which is why Pinchas, who was so unique to serve God with such a stellar sense of mission, cannot be a leader of the people.
This is a significant difference that Pinchas had – he was so dedicated to the service of God that his service-to-the-nation could never extend to the mundane, to the day-to-day troubles people face. Yehoshua, on the other hand, whose daily training was in practical applications of Torah, was more suited to be the leader who would replace the ultimate master of Torah, Moshe Rabbenu.
When Moshe calls out to God as “Elokei HaRuchot” (God of the spirits), Rashi explains this term as meaning God before Whom “the personality of each individual is revealed – they do not resemble each other. Appoint a leader who can put up with each individual according to each individual’s personality.” It is not the job of the leader to mold all of his people into his own image, but rather to accept all his people where they are in their Jewish experience, and to work with them. Do not reject anyone who thinks differently, who functions differently, who looks at the world differently. Anyone who wants to be under the wings of the divine should be welcome!
The Midrash Rabba (21:14) explains that one of the reasons Yehoshua was most worthy is because “he would arrange the benches and spread out the mats,” arriving first and being the last to leave, serving all who came to study, not caring one iota for his own honor, thereby demonstrating that what was most important to him was simply for each Jew to have the opportunity to grow in Torah.
Reading of Yehoshua’s role with the benches reminded me of a fascinating story in the annals of rabbinic texts, the story of Rabban Gamliel’s being deposed as Nasi. (Brachos 28b)
Through a series of incidents in which Rabban Gamliel had taken a harsh stance against Rabbi Yehoshua and ridiculed him publicly, the people (why not the rabbis? Were they afraid of Rabban Gamliel’s wrath?) objected and insisted that Rabban Gamliel be deposed. What had Rabbi Yehoshua done wrong? Through his own analysis he had reached conclusions which differed from Rabban Gamliel. Rabban Gamliel may have had honorable intentions in defending his rulings, defending the Torah, and his position. But that did not excuse the way he treated those with whom he disagreed!
After rejecting a few candidates, they decided to appoint Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah as Nasi because he was an untouchable. He was wise enough to reach conclusions on his own, wealthy enough that he wasn’t beholden to anyone, and had wonderful yichus so even Rabban Gamliel could not criticize the choice. This is the background to the tale of his hair turning white and his declaring “I am like 70 years old” as is depicted in the Haggadah.
To the point: One of the first, and most important changes Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah instituted was to remove the doorkeeper of the Beis Medrash, giving permission to anyone who wanted to study Torah to do so. Rabban Gamliel had previously declared all students who were “not the same on the inside as they were on the outside” to be unfit to enter the Beis Medrash. The Gemara records a debate as to how many benches were added to the Beis Medrash, 400 or 700, which were quickly filled by the influx of students clamoring to study Torah. Rabban Gamliel’s response to seeing this was, “Perhaps, chas v’shalom, I have withheld Torah from the Jewish people!”
Many successes in learning were achieved through the enhanced enrollment. More minds breeds more Torah and more discussion, and the inclusion of everyone was apparently a much greater policy than any kind of exclusion had ever been.
The Gemara continues with another tale of a debate between Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua, in which Rabban Gamliel, now humbled by his own deposing, accepts Rabbi Yehoshua’s teaching and even goes to Rabbi Yehoshua’s house to seek forgiveness . A conversation ensues, and at the end Rabban Gamliel asks Rabbi Yehoshua for forgiveness. After Rabbi Yehoshua, who had been so so hurt by Rabban Gamliel, finally agrees to forgive for the sake of Rabban Gamliel’s father (or ancestor), the people who witnessed the reconciliation suggested Rabban Gamliel be reinstated as Nasi. The question became what to do about Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah? The conclusion was that Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah would give the public lecture one week out of four, while Rabban Gamliel would give it three weeks out of four.
After his reinstatement, however, the doors of the Beis Medrash remained open, and Torah was shared with a much larger population than before his deposing.
In light of Rabbi Shternbuch’s insights, we can see the parallel to the differences between Yehoshua and Pinchas.
Rabban Gamliel was very strict and intolerant of dissent, and went so far as to humiliate Rabbi Yehoshua over and over, in a manner that may have come from great intentions but from an outsider’s perspective propped up his own ego at Rabbi Yehoshua’s expense. Eventually this kind of behavior could no longer be tolerated, and the people rose up to put a stop to it. Only after Rabban Gamliel was humbled a little, seeing that he wasn’t always right and that his methods may have truly been harmful to Rabbi Yehoshua and the many people who had been turned off and turned away by his intolerance, was he able to fill his position once again.
Pinchas had a heightened level of intolerance for tomfoolery which played out in his impatience with Zimri, and the drastic measure he took to stop Zimri. While he may have been right, that kind of leadership can’t serve the entirety of the people. Yehoshua, who was more measured in general, was much more suited for the job of leader of Bnei Yisrael. It took time, but Pinchas did eventually find his own proper place, as the spiritual leader of the people, the Kohen Gadol, whose job follows more of a set of rules than a balance of tolerance.
May we be blessed to see and have leaders who are tolerant, patient, warm, accepting, humble (not ego-driven), who do not insist on full compliance to their own choices and decisions, but who inspire, teach, give options, and most importantly meet people where they are and do their utmost to bring all Jews under the wings of the divine, without pre-conditions and with the most Ahavas-Yisrael-inspired acceptance of our fellow Jews.
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