Did you ever wonder what is true leadership?
In the Torah portion of Beshalach, we find a fundamental truth about Jewish leadership. While all-powerful Pharaoh believed he was a God, Moshe understood that the source of strength is from God.
This was demonstrated when the Jewish nation was attacked by Amalek. Moshe sat upon a nearby hill, his hands held high toward the heavens. This wasn't a gesture of his own might; it was a sign to the Jewish fighters to look upward and trust in God for assistance.
This week, we mark the historic day in 1951 when the Lubavitcher Rebbe formally accepted the leadership of Chabad. His mission was defined not by a desire to gather followers, but by a desire to raise leaders who would, in turn, help others.
I witnessed an expression of this leadership on the Monday before the Rebbe’s passing. This is when I received a call from a father whose teenage daughter had been missing for weeks. The police were at a dead end, but they had found a diary in her room filled with references to "angels." Fearing she had been lured away by a cult, the father reached out to me, hoping my knowledge of cults would provide a clue.
Although I did not have an answer, I asked the father for permission to send a note to the Rebbe, requesting his prayers for the girl’s safe return. With his consent, I called the Rebbe’s office and asked the secretary to recite the girl’s Hebrew name at the Rebbe’s bedside. Which they did within an hour.
The following evening, the father called me, his voice thick with emotion. He apologized for not calling earlier, explaining that their home was in a state of commotion ever since their daughter surprisingly walked through the front door several hours after we had spoken.
When asked where she had been, she couldn't provide an answer. She could only say one thing: a voice had popped into her head, repeating over and over, "You have to go home." Unable to silence the voice, she found her way home and the moment she walked through the front door, the voice stopped.
In my opinion, that was the Rebbe’s message to her, and it is a message for all of us today. When a child is lost, physically or spiritually, we must be leaders and help them find the way home.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz,