Parshah Devarim

Parshah Devarim

I’ve heard that the best summary of a sermon or a good talk is simply, “The What, the So What, and the What Now.” I like to follow that simple rule of thumb whenever I preach longer sermons, for the most part.

As we turn now to the first parshah in the book of Deuteronomy, called by the same Hebrew word for Deuteronomy, Devarim, we discover that this book, this fifth book of our sacred Torah, goes well beyond the what, the so what, and the what now.

The Hebrew word devarim literally means “things” or “words,” and is the first word in this final book. This fifth book of words is like the opus magnum of all Moses had to say and teach before leaving his life here on earth. This same Moshe who resisted his call to leadership as reported in the book of Exodus by arguing with G!d that he had never been a man of words and was slow of speech and slow of tongue. (Ex. 4:10).

At the end of his life, this same Moshe had quite a lot to say to us! I dare say that he grew into his ministry and his call to be leader and teacher. As his body grew weak with age and he knew his life would not be for much longer, he began the transition of moving from leader and passing that leadership on to those who would lead the people into the long awaited promised land, which Moses himself would never enter.

There on the plains of Moab, Moses delivers 3 lengthy discourses reviewing their history, their laws and commands, and their covenant with The Holy. And it is in these three final discourses that Moses reminds the people who they are, whose they are, and what they are to do. No other book in our Torah so vividly encapsulates and dramatizes all the key elements of Judaism as a faith and a way of life, as Lord Rabbi Jonathon Sacks reminds us.

It is in this final fifth book, Devarim, that Moshe moves from a strong leader into a visionary, transformative leader who gives us, in his final moments here on earth, our WHY. He moves beyond the What, So What, and What Now, and into WHY. The poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery describes this by writing, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

This is what Moses is doing in this book we call Devarim, Deuteronomy. And by so doing, he transitions from Moses the liberator and the miracle worker and the great leader into Moshe Rabbenu, Moses, our teacher. He exemplified leader as teacher.

He did so by sharing with us a grander vision, a greater hope, a firmer discipline, and an inner strength. While a king rules as an outside authority who administers the law, a teacher helps us grow and stand on our own two feet. While a king informs us, a teacher doesn’t stop there, but also forms us and transforms us so that we can stand on our own two feet and move forward with integrity.

A teacher helps us to discover, uncover, and develop who we are, how to find the information and resources we might need for making good and wise decisions, and helps us develop the internal strength of character we need to make it happen and to follow through consistently. In the language of leadership development in the United States Army, this is summarized by the phrase, “To Be, To Know, and To Do.” Moses is giving us that very thing here in this book of Devarim.

The leader as teacher uses influence rather than brute force, spiritual and intellectual information and experience rather than coercion, and inspiration and exemplary action rather than dry rules and commands to motivate. Moses reminds us in this opening discourse, in verse 13 of chapter one, how he exemplified a system of shared leadership by having the people choose from each of their tribes those who were wise and discerning and experienced. Not those who were strongest physically, or the best looking, or those who had the most money or possessions, but those who were wise and discerning. Moses set wisdom as the crowning criterion for leadership.

While it took some time for us to learn that violence was not the proper route to follow in inhabiting the new land, we at least here see the beginnings of a new way of leadership. Not one that rules with an iron or violent fist, but one that shares responsibility, invites partnership, and relies on wisdom above all else.

It is important to note here that Devarim does not present to us a Moses the Good Manager. While a good manager may be skilled at getting people to fall in line and do as told, a good leader will, by their character and actions, convince people to buy into the larger vision, to take ownership in their piece of the puzzle. Being such a leader means focusing on “how to BE” as much as on “how to do.” It is the job of the leader as teacher to mobilize people around the mission, the “BE” part of the organization; while a manager focuses on the “how to” parts.

At the end of the day, a leader as teacher models for us two very critical components: who a leader is, and what a leader does. Devarim shows us Moses at the end of his life, where he had grown from a stumbling, mumbling reluctant manager, something I like to call a “cat herder,” into a real leader as teacher. Here at the end, he exemplifies a value-based character, presence, and the knowledge, tact, and agility necessary for being a leader-teacher. And by his actions, he shows us how to communicate, create the right environment, develop others into growing their own leadership skills, and how to get results by helping people catch the vision and take ownership in it. Forty years in the desert had honed Moses, and this fifth book sums up what happened to mold and form us into a people, a nation.

We would do well today to heed this, to first BE a person of integrity, to KNOW what the best next right thing is, and then to DO it, as a person of great integrity and inner strength of character, and to do it in the company of other wise souls.

As Brene’ Brown writes in her book, Rising Strong, we may stumble and fall short, but we learn from that. As Israel wandered in the desert under the leadership of Moses, we stumbled about a bit. And we learned from that. It was a process. In this book of Deuteronomy, Moses is showing us how to own our story, complete with stumbling and disappointments, and wanderings for so long, and how, at the edge of the river ready to finally cross over into our much-yearned for and long-awaited Land of Promise, to write a daring new ending to his life and start a bold and courageous new beginning to ours.

And that is how we begin our study of Deuteronomy, with Moshe Rabbenu leading the way.