“Devarim: Moses’ Opening Rebuke: Choose Your Leaders Wisely,” by Rabbi Suzie Jacobson
Published on Truah.org, the rabbinic call for human rights: Moral Torah.
If you were to leave one message to your descendants, what would you say?
Knowing that his epic leadership journey will soon come to an end, the once verbally challenged Moses begins a quite verbose swan song. In the portion we call “Devarim/Words,” in a book we call “Devarim/Words,” Moses begins the first of three speeches which serve to impart his instructions and rebuke to a people who will soon be on their own without God’s favorite prophet.
It is unsurprising that Moses will spend much of his remaining airtime warning his often fickle followers that they will need to scrupulously follow God’s Torah if they are to gain blessing and avoid the curses of the ancient world.
What is surprising is how Moses begins his farewell. He begins by telling them that the success of his leadership stems from shared leadership: “I took heads of your tribes, men wise and experienced, and I placed them as heads over you” (Deuteronomy 1:15). Moreover, he commands these judges to: “hear-out [what is] between your brothers; judge with equity between each man and his brother or a stranger” (Deuteronomy 1:16).
Moses’ first piece of advice is not a spiritual admonition — instead, our prophet leads with a call for wise, capable, and fair human leadership…