Leadership: A Balancing Act – Atid Learning Center Weekly Update 2/2/18

 

NEXT SUNDAY(2/11/18):       11am meet with Director Rabbi Rami Schwartzer 

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Intelligence may be in our genes, but wisdom is certainly not. A person becomes wise when he or she realizes that everything in his or her life is an opportunity to learn something. Everything that happens to us and everyone we know (yes, everyone) can teach us something. In this week’s portion we find Moses listening carefully to, and implementing, the suggestion of Jethro, Yitro in Hebrew. Moses was the greatest of all prophets. He communicated directly with God and was given the Torah. Not only was Yitro not a prophet, he was a priest of Midian – a foreign nation! 

Yitro observes Moses at work and sees that he is overwhelmed by the people’s need for him to act as a judge.  Who knew there would be so many disagreements and arguments for him to settle?  Yitro sees this and offers Moses what we might call  “constructive criticism”. Yitro tells  Moses,  “This is not a good thing you are doing,” a gentle way of telling him that the whole manner in which Moses is going about settling the people’s complaints is completely wrong (Exodus 18:17). It is not that his rulings or warnings to the  people are incorrect, as says the Midrash Sechel Tov (12th-century commentary), but rather that the system isn’t working for either Moses and the people.

Accepting  Yitro’s advice, Moses develops a new system.  Moses appoints a middle level of judges. In this new system, judicial responsibility is shared with other individuals and only the major disputes come before Moses. Instead of being the sole leader, he entrusts 70 elders to listen to and resolve the people’s problems.  

In this way, Yitro seems very contemporary. Moses realizes that to remain a leader he has to share his power.  Instead of having only one person serving as God’s spokesperson he empowers 70!  Being a good leader often means having to delegate your power to others.

FAMILY DISCUSSION

Talk with you family about a time when you tried to do everyone on your own and it became too much.  Did you realize that you had to share the project or the responsibilities with other? If yes, how did it turn out?  If not, did you get burned out? What happened?

Share a time you got advice from someone.  Was it easy to or difficult to accept? It’s not always easy to accept “constructive criticism” from someone, especially a family member.  Can you think of a time when it was easier to accept than at another time? Why do you think that might be?

Did a leader ever ask you to accept responsibilities for something that was too “big” form him or her to do alone. How did it feel being brought into the “leadership” circle?