This week’s Parsha deals with one of the most difficult moments any nation can face: the transition from one leader to the next.
Moshe Rabbeinu is about to die, and he has to hand the torch of leadership over to Yehoshua.
Leadership transitions are never easy. In politics, people sometimes speak about giving a new leader a hundred-day grace period. But when it comes to the Jewish people, there is no hundred-day grace period.
This is not simply a political process. It is about our survival — morally, nationally, historically, and on every possible level.
A leader is not simply someone standing at the top saying, “I have the power.” A leader represents the nation of Israel. And Moshe Rabbeinu himself did not want the job.
When Hashem first told him that he would lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, Moshe resisted. Why? Because leadership is not about privilege. It is about responsibility.
When something goes wrong, the leader cannot simply pass responsibility down to somebody else. The leader is responsible.
Moshe Rabbeinu learned that throughout his life. He took the Jewish people out of Egypt, and they complained. He brought them through the desert, and they complained. He received the Torah from Hashem and brought it down to Am Yisrael, and almost immediately he had to deal with the sin of the Golden Calf.
Moshe went through enormous tests of patience and frustration. Ultimately, Moshe himself was not allowed to enter Eretz Yisrael.
So imagine Yehoshua at this moment.
Moshe Rabbeinu is handing him the leadership of the Jewish people.
That has to be terrifying.
Nobody can fill Moshe Rabbeinu’s shoes. But even beyond that, Yehoshua now has to accept responsibility for the entire nation.
You might expect Moshe to reassure him by saying something like, “Trust in Hashem. Hashem will be with you. Everything will be fine.”
That would seem like the natural Jewish message.
After all, Judaism warns us repeatedly against the idea of kochi v’otzem yadi — believing that “my strength and the power of my hand” created my success.
When the Jewish people conquer the Land of Israel, the Torah warns us not to say that our own power accomplished it. Ultimately, Hashem gives us the ability to succeed.
That lesson is especially obvious when we look at the State of Israel.
The numbers alone make no sense. We are a tiny Jewish state surrounded by hundreds of millions of people, many living under regimes that are openly hostile to us.
Anyone who thinks that our continued survival is simply the result of our own strength is not looking carefully enough at reality.
We have to be extremely careful never to fall into kochi v’otzem yadi.
And yet, when Moshe hands leadership to Yehoshua, what does he say?
“Chazak ve’ematz.”
Be strong and courageous.
That is strange.
Why emphasize strength?
If success is ultimately dependent on Hashem, why doesn’t Moshe simply say, “Have faith in God”?
Why “be strong and courageous”?
We say:
“Eleh varechev v’eleh vasusim, va’anachnu b’Shem Hashem Elokeinu nazkir.”
Some rely on chariots and some on horses, but we rely on the Name of Hashem.
So what does chazak ve’ematz mean?
If we translate it simply as “be strong and brave,” without understanding what lies behind those words, it sounds almost contradictory to a basic Jewish idea.
Judaism does not glorify ego, arrogance, or conceit.
So why is Moshe telling Yehoshua to be strong?
The answer lies in one of Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatest traits: his modesty.
The Torah tells us that Moshe was extraordinarily humble. When Hashem first told Moshe that he would lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, Moshe repeatedly said no.
Eventually, Hashem became angry with him.
Why?
If humility is such a positive trait, why would Hashem become angry at Moshe for being humble?
Because modesty is a wonderful trait when it concerns yourself. But when truth, morality, and leadership are on the line, modesty can become the wrong response.
There are times when saying, “I don’t want to get involved,” is not humility.
It is failure.
When truth and morality are at stake, your personal modesty has to take a backseat.
Hashem became angry because Moshe allowed his humility to interfere with the leadership role Hashem had given him.
Moshe was not allowed to say, “I’m nobody, so I can’t do this.”
You are never supposed to think of yourself as worthless.
True modesty means recognizing that on your own, you are nothing. But if Hashem has given you a responsibility, then denying that responsibility is not modesty.
If Hashem says you must lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, then that is now your responsibility.
And that is what Moshe is teaching Yehoshua.
Moshe is effectively telling him:
“I made a mistake when I first became leader. I confused modesty with leadership.”
Yehoshua was Moshe Rabbeinu’s closest student, and Yehoshua himself was a very modest person.
So Moshe tells him:
“Chazak ve’ematz.”
Do not confuse humility with weakness in leadership.
On a personal level, remain modest. But when you are dealing with the needs of the nation, with Am Yisrael, with Eretz Yisrael, modesty cannot be used as an excuse for weakness.
Remember, Yehoshua is the man who is going to bring the Jewish people into the Land of Israel.
When you are dealing with the destiny of the nation, false modesty is dangerous.
If you bow your head in front of immorality and tell yourself that you are simply being modest, that is not humility.
That is immorality.
I say this all the time:
When diplomacy takes precedence over morality, that is evil.
If someone says, “I am going to make peace with somebody who, by his own definition, is committed to evil,” that is not necessarily peace.
It can become war disguised as peace.
So Moshe is telling Yehoshua: Do not mix up modesty with leadership.
You have to be a strong leader.
There is a place for modesty in your personal character. But when you are leading the nation of Israel, you have to stand up.
And this is a lesson the State of Israel needs to learn as well.
Yes, we should be modest.
Yes, we should avoid unnecessary confrontation with the world.
There is no reason to anger people simply for the sake of angering them.
But when our survival is at stake, there is no room for saying, “What is the world going to think?”
When people are trying to destroy us, survival comes first.
The world stood largely silent while six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. So when our survival is on the line, we cannot allow fear of international opinion to dictate our actions.
The same applies when the world makes demands of Israel that are based on falsehood or immorality.
When the United Nations condemns Jews for building in Judea, Israel should not duck its head.
We should stand up and ask:
Jews cannot build in Judea?
That demand is ridiculous historically, religiously, and nationally.
There is no room for false modesty there.
And when Israel is condemned for Jewish construction in Judea while attacks against Israelis receive far less attention, Israel should say so clearly.
If an ally condemns Jews for building homes while saying little when Israelis are attacked, Israel should call out that hypocrisy.
That is not arrogance.
It is leadership.
And this is the distinction Moshe is teaching Yehoshua.
Being strong does not mean believing that your own power is responsible for your success.
You still know that everything comes from Hashem.
You are not being strong because you think you are personally great.
You are strong because you understand whom you represent.
You represent Hashem.
You represent Am Yisrael.
That is a completely different kind of strength.
Yehoshua had to learn that lesson because he was about to lead the Jewish people into Eretz Yisrael.
There could be no false modesty at that moment.
When leadership requires action, humility cannot become an excuse for avoiding responsibility.
If you were created with a particular purpose, and the moment comes when you are called upon to fulfill that purpose, refusing to act is not necessarily modesty.
Sometimes it is exactly the opposite.
There is a famous story about a man drowning in the ocean.
The Coast Guard comes and offers to rescue him.
He says, “No. I’m waiting for God.”
Then another rescue boat comes.
Again he says, “No. I trust God. God will save me.”
A fisherman comes by and offers to help him.
Again he refuses.
Eventually the man drowns.
He gets to Heaven and says:
“God, I trusted You. Why didn’t You save me?”
And God says:
“I sent you the Coast Guard. I sent you the Navy. I sent you the fisherman. Why didn’t you take the help I sent?”
That man thought he was demonstrating faith.
He wasn’t.
Hashem had already sent him the means to survive.
Sometimes people disguise failure to act as righteousness or humility.
It is neither.
The same is true of leadership.
Unfortunately, many leaders today suffer from the opposite problem.
Their egos are enormous, but they do not understand real humility.
They talk endlessly about themselves:
“I did this.”
“I accomplished that.”
“I achieved this.”
That is not leadership.
If you constantly have to sell yourself, you are not a leader.
Leadership is not sold.
Leadership is earned.
There is a major difference.
Selling means you are going out and telling people how great you are.
Leadership means people see who you are and come to you.
It is incoming, not outgoing.
Moshe Rabbeinu is telling Yehoshua:
Remain modest as a person.
But when you have to deal with national issues, Jewish issues, religious issues, or matters of survival, there is no room for false modesty.
And that lesson applies to us in the State of Israel today.
When we are dealing with our survival, or when people demand things from us that are immoral or based on lies, we cannot bow our heads.
We have to stand up.
We have to roar.
Not because we believe in kochi v’otzem yadi.
Not because we think our own strength saves us.
Exactly the opposite.
We stand strong because we know that Hashem is with Am Yisrael.
That is why there is no reason to be afraid.
We should be cautious.
We should be careful.
But we should not live in fear.
Fear can become a sign that we have forgotten Who is ultimately in control.
At the end of the day, this Parsha is positive.
Hashem will be with the nation of Israel.
And ultimately, Am Yisrael will prevail.
Shabbat shalom.