Political Folly

“Chief among the forces affecting political folly, is lust for power, named by Tacitus as ‘the most flagrant of all the passions.’ Because it can only be satisfied by power over others, government is its favorite field of exercise.”

This passage is taken from Barbara Tuchman’s 1984 incredible book, The March of Folly. In her book the American Jewish Pulitzer prize historian makes a case for the folly of governments throughout history from Troy, through the popes of the renaissance to the American revolution and Vietnam. Tuchman shows how in each case, disaster and downfall was clearly apparent to the leaders who failed to acknowledge it and do something about it, driven by passions, ego, and most importantly, the lust for power. 

Our Torah portion this week Vaikra open with the verse: 

"וַיִּקְרָ֖א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלָ֔יו מֵאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹֽר׃

יהוה called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying:”

Moses - Moshe in Hebrew, was the name that God called him.

Midrash Vayikra Rabbah teaches us that Moses in fact had ten different names. Some of them were: Yered, Chever, Yekusiel, Avigdor, Avi Zanoach… 

The Midrash explains the meaning of each name. For example: Yered (in Hebrew “descends”) was picked because Moses brought the Torah from above. Avigdor (from the Hebrew Gader- fence) describes Moses putting a fence around the Torah. Chever (for the Hebrew “to join”) because he joined the children of Israel with God.

In his book “Sichos Mussar,” Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz (1902-1979) explains that Moses’ names “each indicate a separate dimension of his multifaceted personality…. Yet, it was Moshe by which he was known.”

The Midrash then concludes:

“The holy one told Moshe, “Of all your names, I will call you only by the name that Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh calls you [as it says] and she called him Moshe.”

What was so special about this particular name, that God chose it above all others?

Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz explains that this name described Moses’s central and most important trait, that of Mesirat Nefesh. 

Literally translated to “the giving of one’s soul,” Mesirat Nefesh is a term describing self-sacrifice. 

In order to do the right thing, in order to save baby Moses’s life, the Pharaoh's daughter risked her own. She was defying her father’s order by doing so, deciding to give her own soul to save Moses’.

The word Moshe comes from the verb to “pull out of water.” Moshe -  Moses' name embodies this self sacrifice.

Perhaps Moses’ greatness as a leader was exactly it, putting the Israelites’ lives and well being before his own. 

The Midrash also describes the moment in which Moses was picked by God to lead the Israelites, a moment when Moses the shepherd, followed a stray goat and then carried it back to the flock on his shoulders. (Shemot Rabbah 2:2)

Mesirat Nefesh though could be even deeper than that. The literal understanding of self sacrifice is one thing, but what about self sacrifice to mean the sacrifice of the ego? Of one’s perception of one’s self?

It seems that according to Barbara Tuchman, the inability of leaders throughout history to do so is what caused great folly and brought destruction and suffering to many. She writes:

“Aware of the controlling power of ambition, corruption and emotion, it may be that in the search for wiser government, we should look for the test of character first. And the test should be moral courage.”

Tuchman makes the case that more than any other human pursuit, such as success in the business, science or art and entertainment, it is government which is the most lustful. While success in the other pursuits provide fame, dignity, reputation and recognition, it is the ability to control over others which overetakes whomever approaches governmental pursuit.

Unfortunately these are our leaders, and leaders such as Moshe, those who operate out of Mesirat Nefesh, out of self-sacrifice in the deeper and psychological sense of the term, are quite rare.

Yet perhaps our biggest folly is not to learn from this repeating pattern and accept flawed leadership as a given.

Tuchman quotes the English poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

“But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us, is a lantern on the stern which shines only on the waves behind us.”