Tap Into!

There are people in our history who were unwittingly thrust into the limelight and one could have speculated that they would be unlikely to succeed.

Some examples: Our leader Moshe had a speech impediment and was personally not interested in leadership, yet he became the greatest leader, teacher and prophet to ever live.

In this week’s Parsha the Torah speaks of Pinchos who was previously unknown, yet he was the only one to recall a law and he acted upon it. As a result of his heroism he stopped a plague that had killed 24,000 Jews. Because of Pinchos’ devotion G-d awarded him by bestowing on him and his descendants the priesthood. Our Sages tell us that there were 300 high priests that emerged from Pinchos’ descendants.

King David is another prime example of someone who became a leader by surprise. Until David was twenty eight years old he was shunned and demeaned by his family, yet because of his devotion he was appointed king of Israel. He also composed the book of Psalms, from which many portions of our daily prayers are taken, and the Messiah will emerge from David.

If we take a look at Queen Esther’s life, the probability of her emerging as the heroine in the Purim story was quite slim. The Megilla tells us that Esther’s father died before she was born and her mother passed away during childbirth and she was raised by her cousin Mordechai.

There is a long list of people who one would have thought had a long shot for success due to their obstacles, deficiencies, and challenging situations. Yet by following the example, ideals, drive, spirit and outlook of our great leaders, they overcame any despair and emerged with great success, achievement and satisfaction.

The Torah tells us that Moshe, as the concerned and devoted leader, wished to hand over the reins of leadership before his death. The Medrash relates that Moshe asked G-d that his sons take his position. G-d told Moshe that although his sons were worthy, his devoted student Yehoshua was the best for the position. Moshe entirely accepted G-d’s wishes, and officially, in the presence of the entire nation, bestowed the mantle of leadership on Yehoshua with a superabundance of energy.

Moshe was a one of a kind person. He was in Heaven for 120 days; he is Moshe Rabbainu – our main teacher; through him all of Torah was communicated to us, and he had a direct line to G-d at any given time. When Yehoshua became leader, the elders said, “The face of Moshe is like the sun and the face of Yehoshua is like the moon.” Simply understood, they meant that Moshe outshone Yehoshua.

Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin o.b.m. explains it a bit deeper. Even when the sun sets, it worries about how to illuminate the night and thus sheds light on the moon to illuminate the world, for the moon has no light of its own.

Moshe is compared to the sun because he appointed a leader at the time when his life was setting. However, this was not the case with Yehoshua. At the end of his life, due to the situation on hand, he could not assign a single leader in his stead; rather, the group of Zekainim – elders were given the responsibility to transmit Torah and lead the people. Thus when Yehoshua passed away, he was like the moon that does not have the capacity to illuminate others.

The Torah refers to Yehoshua as the devoted student of Moshe who never left his side. Yehoshua was one who did menial tasks to honor the Torah and its followers, which made it seem unlikely for him to replace Moshe. Yet G-d chose Yehoshua. He led the Jews into Israel and it was under his leadership that they conquered the land, divided it, and allotted it to the tribes.

During the battle in Givon, Yehoshua ordered the sun to remain in its place until they finished the battle. This feat had already been performed by Moshe and years later by Nakdimon Ben Gurion.

Yehoshua asked the sun remain in place by telling it to remain silent. The Medrash tells us that the way the sun moves about is by continuously expressing praise of the Almighty. By asking it to remain silent it stopped in its tracks.

Not bad for a man who is compared to the moon!