True Leadership

There is a symbiotic relationship between a true leader and his followers. What affects one affects the other. When we act in a royal fashion, our leader too can reveal his true greatness.

Leader’s Sins Hurts Followers

In this parsha the Torah lists and details the various types of sin offerings. First, the Torah discusses “the anointed priest who shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people.” The Torah proceeds to describe the atonement sacrifice he must bring to the Temple.

What does the Torah mean when it says that the priest’s sin brings guilt on the people?

Rashi, the principal commentator of the Torah, explains that when the High Priest sins it brings guilt on the people since they depend on him for their own atonement. Now that he has been compromised by his own sins, the people have lost someone who would help remove their guilt.

In other words, when a leader is found to be deficient it harms the people whom he leads.

Followers Sins Diminish the Leaders

There is an opposite way of explaining the relationship of the High Priest’s sin and the guilt of the people. Whereas Rashi’s explanation sees how the people are harmed when their leader is deficient, the other explanation cited by some commentators is that when we see a Jewish leader that seems flawed it is because of the guilt of the people.

We are quick to criticize our leaders. But, the above explanation exhorts us to first examine our own ways. Perhaps the leaders are reflecting our own shortcomings.

Leader’s Sins Help his Followers

There is a third explanation of the relationship between the sins of the leaders and the nation. G-d will orchestrate that a leader will do something that appears to be a sin, so that his repentance will serve as a model for the people to change when they sin.

In other words, the leader’s actions will have a direct salutary effect on his followers. In most cases his positive contributions will spur the positive activities of his followers, while in some cases his lapses and the way he responds to them are what create a positive ripple effect.

An Organic Relationship

The common denominator of all these explanations is that there is a dynamic relationship between our nation and its true leaders. Whatever affects one side of the equation affects the other side.

In truth, all three explanations reflect the symbiotic relationship between a true leader and his people. Indeed, Torah sources demonstrate that there is an organic connection between them.

There are two explanations for this phenomenon:

The first explanation taken from the Chassidic classic, the Tanya, has to do with the nature of our souls and the relationship between them.

All of our souls originate in the highest spiritual realms. And all souls share the same Divine source. From their nexus they separate and descend into this world through different channels. Some souls do not undergo any significant change as they enter into the body— these are the “head” souls. Most other souls go through a lengthy process of acclimation to the worlds through which the soul “travels” in its sojourn to earth. These souls represent everything besides the head, including the “toes” and the “toe-nail” souls.

But, no matter how much a soul undergoes this process of change—even a so-called “toe-nail” soul—always retains its connection to its source. This connection it retains by way of its attachment to the “head” souls, whose spirituality is virtually the same “down here” as it was “up there.” The stronger our ties with the head souls, the more vibrant is our connection with our Divine source.

In effect, all of our souls are connected to one another through their connection to the head souls.

The human body is often cited as an example of this relationship. The human body consists of organs that are all connected to the brain and heart; and by that connection they are all connected to one another. And therefore, when one organ is deficient it can affect all the other organs and the brain and heart as well. Conversely, when the brain is affected it hurts all the other limbs of the body.

Thus, when one soul is in some way stained, as a result of the sins the person committed, it affects all the other souls, including the head soul “There is No King without a Nation”

The second explanation—also based on the Tanya—refers to the role of the leader as a king. The very intuition of the monarchy is one that is generally misunderstood. Contrary to the popular notion of an absolute monarch, a king is not a dictator. In order for a leader to be considered a king, rather than a dictator or just a managerial style leader, the nation must declare the utter devotion and loyalty to him.

Kabbalah teaches us that the person endowed with the capability of being a king does not want to be a king. This is because the faculty of kingship is embedded more deeply in the soul than any other trait.

To understand this concept let us contrast the desire for leadership with the trait of kindness. We all possess the faculty of kindness, but it might take some cultivating to help this trait come to the surface. Generally, acts of kindness help the person experience feelings of kindness. The same is true for all other faculties with the exception of kingship.

The faculty of kingship is so deeply rooted and “encapsulated” in the soul of the person who is capable of being a king that it requires tremendous efforts on the part of the nation to arouse the desire in him to be their leader; for the encapsulated power to break out of its shell. This potential of leadership is so removed from one’s consciousness that the true leader (as opposed to the power hungry political figures throughout history) may have no inkling that he is capable of and destined to be a leader.

Moses, King Saul and other Biblical and post- Biblical leaders were perfect examples of this reluctance to become a leader, not just because of their humility, but because it is the most elusive human potential.

Moses, of course, had to be pressured by G-d Himself to become the leader of the Jewish nation. Moses could not fathom that he was the greatest of all Jewish leaders of all times!

Long Live the King!

Only the nation’s heartfelt exclamation of “Yechi HaMelech-Long Live the King” and their continued devotion to him, can elicit the trait of kingship from its unconscious state. Thus, the expression, “there is no king without a nation.” The nation actually creates the king.

Since the king is totally dependent on the nation for his very existence as a king, it follows, that when the people are flawed, it has a direct effect on their leader; it diminishes him. And conversely, when the king’s stature is diminished, it hurts the people because there is arguably no greater connection between people than the one of a true leader and his followers.

The more the people accept the king as their leader, the more they follow his dictates— assuming that he is a righteous king—the more his stature is raised and the higher he can go, which, in turn elevates the level of the people as well.

The Spark of Moshiach

Of all the kings that Judaism speaks of, the most prominent one is, of course, Moshiach. Moshiach is not a dictator who will crush us, but one who will enable us to reveal all of our positive qualities. Moshiach helps us become leaders and kings of our own lives and to help inspire others as well.

If our devotion to a king is what makes him our king and reinforces our relationship with him, then it is certainly true about Moshiach. The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that, in fact, every one of us possesses a spark of Moshiach within.

When we ignite our spark of Moshiach, the general Moshiach is then empowered to express his G-d given ability and mission to become our king and liberate us from exile.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayikra by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.