If you think your flaws and failures automatically make you a better, more “authentic” leader, you’ve completely misunderstood the lesson of Moses.
Most civilizations turned their founders into saints. The Hebrew Bible does the opposite. Abraham falters. Jacob deceives. David sins. Moses—the greatest prophet in Judaism—is denied entry into the Promised Land.
This isn’t a bug in the Torah. It’s one of its most revolutionary ideas.
In this episode of Madlik, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz explore why Judaism insists that greatness and imperfection can coexist—but never confuses failure with virtue. Along the way they examine the Torah’s portrait of Moses, the Beatitudes, Isaiah, Jonathan Sacks, Nahum Sarna, David Flusser, Martin Luther, Bret Stephens, and the surprising connection between biblical leadership and today’s culture of authenticity, victimhood, and populism.
Can a society acknowledge human weakness without celebrating it?
That question may be as relevant today as it was in the wilderness.
Key Takeaways
- The Torah Tells the Truth About Greatness
Unlike most ancient cultures, the Hebrew Bible doesn’t turn its heroes into flawless saints. Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and David are remembered in all their greatness—and all their humanity. Their failures don’t diminish them; they make their greatness credible.
- Flaws Are Lessons, Not Credentials
Judaism teaches us to acknowledge weakness, learn from it, and overcome it. There is a profound difference between recognizing imperfection and celebrating it. The Torah preserves failure to cultivate humility—not to make failure itself a virtue.
- Leadership Is Measured by Character, Not Victimhood
Moses never reaches the Promised Land, yet he remains Judaism’s greatest leader because of his faithfulness, courage, and willingness to serve a mission larger than himself. In an age that often confuses authenticity with virtue and grievance with authority, the Torah reminds us that true leadership is earned by responsibility, not by imperfection alone.
Timestamps
[00:00] Flawed Heroes Thesis
[01:14] Parsha Setup and Welcome
[02:07] Moses Pleads to Enter
[04:37] Rav Lachem Midrash
[06:49] Vetchanan and Human Limits
[07:43] Mythic Moses Rejected
[11:02] Sacks on Mortality and Mistakes
[18:31] Flaws Versus Virtue
[19:11] Beatitudes and Isaiah
[25:58] Essenes and Poverty Ideal
[31:09] Modern Populism and Privilege
[32:58] Closing Shabbat Shalom
Links & Learnings
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Sefaria Source Sheet: https://voices.sefaria.org/sheets/739882
Transcript here: https://madlik.substack.com/
00:00:05.166 –> 00:00:08.797 What if the Hebrew Bible’s greatest innovation isn’t 2 00:00:08.797 –> 00:00:12.060 monotheism, but its refusal to create 3 00:00:12.286 –> 00:00:16.107 perfect heroes? Every civilization celebrates its 4 00:00:16.172 –> 00:00:19.961 founders. Most polish away their flaws. The Torah does the 5 00:00:20.042 –> 00:00:23.811 opposite. It tells us that Abraham faltered, Jacob deceived, 6 00:00:23.892 –> 00:00:27.370 David sinned, and Moses, the greatest prophet who ever 7 00:00:27.499 –> 00:00:31.233 lived, was denied entry into the Promised Land. The 8 00:00:31.233 –> 00:00:35.081 Torah doesn’t hide greatness behind perfection, but neither does it 9 00:00:35.081 –> 00:00:38.593 turn failure into a virtue. That 10 00:00:38.674 –> 00:00:41.817 ancient balance feels surprisingly relevant today. 11 00:00:42.538 –> 00:00:45.473 We live in a culture that increasingly prizes 12 00:00:45.649 –> 00:00:49.466 authenticity over excellence, where victimhood can become 13 00:00:49.594 –> 00:00:53.443 moral authority, flaws become credentials, and success 14 00:00:53.587 –> 00:00:56.987 itself is sometimes viewed with suspicion. 15 00:00:57.616 –> 00:01:01.013 This week, we’ll ask what the Torah’s radically honest 16 00:01:01.013 –> 00:01:04.621 portrait of Moses teaches us about leadership, humility, 17 00:01:04.977 –> 00:01:08.411 accountability, and why recognizing human weakness 18 00:01:08.784 –> 00:01:11.216 is very different from celebrating it.
19 00:01:13.332 --> 00:01:17.173 Welcome to Madlik. My name is Geoffrey Stern, and at Madlik, 20 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:20.240 we light a spark or shed some light on a Jewish text or tradition. 21 00:01:20.740 --> 00:01:24.248 Along with Rabbi Adam Mintz, we host Madlik Disruptive Torah on your 22 00:01:24.248 --> 00:01:27.029 favorite podcast platform, and now on YouTube and Substack. 23 00:01:28.652 --> 00:01:32.394 We also publish a source sheet on Sefaria, and a link is included 24 00:01:32.490 --> 00:01:36.039 in the show notes. This week's Parsha is V'yetchanan. 25 00:01:36.681 --> 00:01:40.197 Join us as we explore the Torah's revolutionary portrait of 26 00:01:40.213 --> 00:01:44.035 flawed leadership and ask what happens when a culture moves 27 00:01:44.051 --> 00:01:47.262 from acknowledging human weakness to celebrating it. 28 00:01:48.001 --> 00:01:51.581 Why does Judaism preserve the failures of its greatest heroes 29 00:01:51.918 --> 00:01:55.593 without ever turning failure into a virtue? And 30 00:01:55.689 --> 00:01:58.799 what might that teach us about leadership, morality, 31 00:01:59.376 --> 00:02:03.111 and ourselves? So another— that was a mouthful. That's another week. That's it. 32 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:05.724 What a great topic. Here we go. Let's go. 33 00:02:07.022 --> 00:02:10.661 So Va'etchanan means that Moses 34 00:02:10.693 --> 00:02:14.460 was pleading with God in Deuteronomy 3:23. He 35 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:18.259 pleaded, O my sovereign God, you who let your servants see the first 36 00:02:18.372 --> 00:02:21.882 works of your greatness and your mighty hand, who has 37 00:02:22.058 --> 00:02:25.729 power whose deeds no God in heaven or earth can equal. So he's laying 38 00:02:25.906 --> 00:02:29.682 on the praise. Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good 39 00:02:29.714 --> 00:02:33.490 land on the other side of the Jordan. This is his on-the-mountaintop 40 00:02:33.506 --> 00:02:36.360 moment. That good hill country and the Lebanon. 41 00:02:37.358 --> 00:02:41.159 But God was wrathful with me on your account. Now he's 42 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:44.928 turning to the children of Israel. It's because of you guys. And would not 43 00:02:44.928 --> 00:02:48.619 listen to me. God said to me, enough. Never speak to 44 00:02:48.619 --> 00:02:50.537 me of this matter again. 45 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:53.647 It's too much. 46 00:02:57.212 --> 00:03:00.679 Don't speak to me of this matter again. Go up to the 47 00:03:00.679 --> 00:03:04.436 summit of Pisgah and gaze to the west, the north, the 48 00:03:04.436 --> 00:03:07.823 south, the east. Look at it well, for you 49 00:03:07.887 --> 00:03:11.467 shall not go across yonder Jordan. Give 50 00:03:11.563 --> 00:03:15.031 Joshua his instructions, imbue him with strength and courage, 51 00:03:15.416 --> 00:03:19.124 for he shall go across as the head of this people, and he 52 00:03:19.124 --> 00:03:22.865 shall allot to them the land that you may only 53 00:03:22.913 --> 00:03:26.573 see. God definitely rubs it in. You're only 54 00:03:26.573 --> 00:03:30.281 gonna see it. This is as good as it gets. But really, this is a 55 00:03:30.281 --> 00:03:33.058 question of Moses's mortality, 56 00:03:33.571 --> 00:03:37.215 Moses finishing his life's mission, 57 00:03:38.387 --> 00:03:42.159 and Moses confronting the fact that he's not 58 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.947 perfect, that he did something wrong. I mean, you even sense in it he's still 59 00:03:46.011 --> 00:03:49.719 blaming the Jewish people. It's still— he's a little bitter. 60 00:03:50.040 --> 00:03:52.993 It's all there. It's sad. 61 00:03:53.956 --> 00:03:57.038 But on the other hand, We're not taking away, 62 00:03:57.713 --> 00:04:01.422 as we'll see with the rabbis, from the greatness of Moses. But 63 00:04:01.422 --> 00:04:05.179 it is what it is. Right. Well, that's for sure. And you 64 00:04:05.179 --> 00:04:08.888 have to remember that it wasn't the people's fault that he 65 00:04:08.888 --> 00:04:12.259 hit the rock. That was his own decision. So he blames the 66 00:04:12.324 --> 00:04:15.872 people. That's just what frustrated people do, is they blame 67 00:04:16.016 --> 00:04:19.533 others rather than taking responsibility for themselves, on themselves. 68 00:04:19.661 --> 00:04:23.363 So that's not such a good It's not. The 69 00:04:23.363 --> 00:04:27.160 flaws are still there. We are who we are. You know, they say it's 70 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:31.000 hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I guess that 71 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.348 applies to all of us, even if we are Ein Moshe 72 00:04:34.478 --> 00:04:38.232 Kemoshe. I mean, he was the greatest, but nonetheless. So 73 00:04:38.232 --> 00:04:42.044 in Bamidbar Rabbah, it says, Rav l'chem b'nei Levi, 74 00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:46.615 it's too much for you, the son of Levi. That is a quote from 75 00:04:46.615 --> 00:04:50.083 Numbers. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, you struck with a rod, 76 00:04:50.116 --> 00:04:53.888 and with you struck you are stricken, he 77 00:04:53.888 --> 00:04:57.575 said, it is too much for you. Rav Lachem, tomorrow you will 78 00:04:57.640 --> 00:05:01.343 hear. So again, the Midrash picks up 79 00:05:01.631 --> 00:05:05.174 on this Rav Lachem, it's too much, and it 80 00:05:05.334 --> 00:05:09.117 focuses on 2 instances. One was with 81 00:05:09.261 --> 00:05:12.836 the sons of Levi. This was Korach's rebellion. And 82 00:05:13.413 --> 00:05:16.523 it says, just as Bnei Korach, the Levi, 83 00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:20.466 overreached, you're also overreaching. In Sotah, Rabbi 84 00:05:20.466 --> 00:05:24.057 Levi says, Moses proclaimed to the Jewish people when 85 00:05:24.073 --> 00:05:27.824 rebuking them with the term rav, and therefore it was 86 00:05:27.921 --> 00:05:31.303 proclaimed to him with the term rav that he would not 87 00:05:31.447 --> 00:05:35.230 enter the land of Israel. The Gemara explains he proclaimed with the 88 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:38.981 term rav when speaking with the congregation of Korach, you take too 89 00:05:38.997 --> 00:05:42.732 much upon yourselves. So it's even interesting 90 00:05:43.165 --> 00:05:46.580 that they're not totally focused on which 91 00:05:46.676 --> 00:05:50.283 crime that Moses committed that 92 00:05:51.084 --> 00:05:54.595 was responsible for him not seeing his 93 00:05:54.771 --> 00:05:58.490 life's mission fulfilled. Was it actually hitting the rock, 94 00:05:59.260 --> 00:06:02.611 or was it the way he talked to the children of Israel? Which is 95 00:06:02.707 --> 00:06:06.298 interesting, right? Means his frustration with the people 96 00:06:06.715 --> 00:06:10.018 may have ultimately been his downfall. 97 00:06:11.381 --> 00:06:15.180 But clearly, I love the fact that it says rav lachem. 98 00:06:16.014 --> 00:06:19.750 Rav, I guess most people would listen to it and say it means rabbi. 99 00:06:20.118 --> 00:06:23.806 But rav is like rov. It means like many. You're 100 00:06:23.806 --> 00:06:26.932 taking too much. Too much, right? Right. 101 00:06:27.958 --> 00:06:31.405 And I would say the word here is overreach. We're 102 00:06:31.405 --> 00:06:35.204 humans at the end of the day, and we can't necessarily— we'll 103 00:06:35.268 --> 00:06:39.083 see Rav Sacks in a second— we can't necessarily fulfill our life's mission. 104 00:06:39.436 --> 00:06:42.850 We can't necessarily do it all ourselves in one generation, 105 00:06:43.427 --> 00:06:47.259 and we are not perfect. So let's focus a little bit 106 00:06:47.435 --> 00:06:51.282 on some of the other rabbinic material. In Devarim Rabbah, 107 00:06:51.298 --> 00:06:54.873 it says, I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying— 108 00:06:55.226 --> 00:06:58.880 Rabbi Yochanan said, from here you learn that no creature has 109 00:06:59.137 --> 00:07:02.888 any claim on its Creator, as Moses, the master 110 00:07:02.904 --> 00:07:06.078 of all the prophets, came only with an expression of plea. 111 00:07:06.687 --> 00:07:10.182 So he's focused on the word Va'etchanan. And what he's 112 00:07:10.278 --> 00:07:14.029 saying is, this is the real difference between us humans, 113 00:07:14.205 --> 00:07:17.780 even the greatest prophet who ever lived, the greatest leader who 114 00:07:17.892 --> 00:07:21.707 ever lived, we are not gods. And at the end of the day, 115 00:07:22.140 --> 00:07:25.795 we can only get down on our knees, as the case may be, 116 00:07:26.003 --> 00:07:29.754 and plead with God. But I think this is what he's saying, the way 117 00:07:29.771 --> 00:07:32.864 my takeaway is, this is the boundary between 118 00:07:33.121 --> 00:07:36.872 humans, creations of God, and God, him 119 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:40.655 or herself. Right. There's no question that that's right. Okay, 120 00:07:40.671 --> 00:07:44.198 great. Let's see why. Great Midrash right here. So here's a 121 00:07:44.198 --> 00:07:47.820 fascinating Midrash. So God is figuring out how 122 00:07:47.981 --> 00:07:51.427 is he going to give the bad news to Moses and who's going to 123 00:07:51.555 --> 00:07:54.617 deliver the— who's going to give him the death kiss, so to speak. 124 00:07:55.339 --> 00:07:59.026 And what I found in it, in one of the dialogues, and I'm taking this 125 00:07:59.026 --> 00:08:02.813 just a little moment, is something 126 00:08:02.878 --> 00:08:06.558 fascinating. So I believe it was Shmuel who was 127 00:08:06.833 --> 00:08:10.578 sent; the prophet Samuel. And Samuel says to Moses, I 128 00:08:10.627 --> 00:08:14.244 came to take your soul. He, meaning Moses, said to him, who sent you? 129 00:08:14.646 --> 00:08:18.438 He said to him, the one who created all creations. He said to him, meaning 130 00:08:18.502 --> 00:08:22.203 Moses said to Samuel, you will not take my soul. He said to him, 131 00:08:22.348 --> 00:08:26.188 anyone who comes into the world, their souls are given to me. Moses 132 00:08:26.188 --> 00:08:29.899 said to him, I have greater strength than anyone 133 00:08:29.948 --> 00:08:33.494 else who comes into the world. Wow. He said to him, what is your 134 00:08:33.494 --> 00:08:37.149 strength? He said to him, and this could have been 135 00:08:37.662 --> 00:08:40.916 the myth of Moses, and that's why I'm quoting it. 136 00:08:41.413 --> 00:08:44.747 Moses says, I am the son of Amram. I 137 00:08:44.795 --> 00:08:48.402 emerged circumcised from my mother's womb. 138 00:08:48.722 --> 00:08:51.977 There was no need to circumcise me. So if getting 139 00:08:52.025 --> 00:08:55.599 circumcised is kind of a fix, fixing the mold, 140 00:08:55.776 --> 00:08:58.902 Moses says, I was born pure, complete. 141 00:08:59.607 --> 00:09:03.037 On the day that I was born, I was able to speak. I walked on 142 00:09:03.053 --> 00:09:06.660 my feet. I spoke with my father and my mother, and I did not 143 00:09:06.740 --> 00:09:10.588 even suck milk. This almost sounds like a typical 144 00:09:10.684 --> 00:09:14.403 Near Eastern myth of a deity being born, 145 00:09:14.691 --> 00:09:18.138 a perfect human being. When I was 3 months old, I 146 00:09:18.138 --> 00:09:21.504 prophesied, said Moses, and said that I was destined to 147 00:09:21.504 --> 00:09:25.143 receive the Torah from fiery flames. When 148 00:09:25.496 --> 00:09:29.118 I was walking outside, I entered the king's palace. He goes 149 00:09:29.343 --> 00:09:33.126 on and on and talks about everything that he did. I received the 150 00:09:33.126 --> 00:09:36.653 Torah from the right hand of the Holy One, blessed be he. I taught it to 151 00:09:36.797 --> 00:09:40.630 Israel. He says, I caused the sun and the moon 152 00:09:40.662 --> 00:09:44.029 to stand still in the heights, and I struck with the staff in my hand 153 00:09:44.029 --> 00:09:47.413 and I killed them. Who is there among those who come 154 00:09:47.621 --> 00:09:51.165 into the world who can do that? So if you want to talk 155 00:09:51.165 --> 00:09:54.853 about a flawed personality, in this particular 156 00:09:54.853 --> 00:09:58.589 Midrash where Moses is addressing Samuel, he's saying, 157 00:09:58.926 --> 00:10:02.550 I'm not that guy. I was as close to perfection as you 158 00:10:02.694 --> 00:10:05.841 get. Go from here, wicked one. You must not say that. 159 00:10:06.724 --> 00:10:10.096 Go flee from me. I will not give my soul to you. And so what 160 00:10:10.096 --> 00:10:13.387 was the takeaway? That God himself had to come 161 00:10:13.692 --> 00:10:17.401 and take Moses away, which on the one hand is a 162 00:10:17.401 --> 00:10:21.239 great honor, the kiss of death, so to speak. But 163 00:10:21.239 --> 00:10:24.900 on the other hand, you have this vignette and you realize how 164 00:10:25.028 --> 00:10:28.625 this story could have gone. And it makes, I think, 165 00:10:28.947 --> 00:10:31.843 The absolute unanimity 166 00:10:32.183 --> 00:10:35.775 amongst our commentators, and I would say 167 00:10:36.471 --> 00:10:40.021 the legend of the street, that we look at our 168 00:10:40.021 --> 00:10:43.643 most famous, our most quote-unquote perfect 169 00:10:43.643 --> 00:10:47.248 leader, and we find the imperfections. We don't shun away 170 00:10:47.329 --> 00:10:50.958 from them. We don't varnish it. It is what it is, and 171 00:10:50.958 --> 00:10:53.668 it makes it that much more profound, I believe. 172 00:10:54.492 --> 00:10:57.653 Fantastic. I mean, that's it. To recognize their 173 00:10:58.166 --> 00:11:01.599 failings is to appreciate them as human leaders. 174 00:11:02.818 --> 00:11:06.540 So Jonathan Sacks wrote a book on leadership. I have a link to 175 00:11:06.540 --> 00:11:10.198 an article that he wrote. He goes, for us as Jews, and by the way, 176 00:11:10.278 --> 00:11:13.760 I quote Jonathan Sacks, but I think you will agree with me, Adam, 177 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:17.353 that there is kind of unanimity about the 178 00:11:17.353 --> 00:11:21.108 failure of our leaders. There is no one who takes the 179 00:11:21.108 --> 00:11:24.910 crash course from you to becoming a Jew, 180 00:11:25.359 --> 00:11:29.194 who probably doesn't hear from you to explain that, unlike maybe other 181 00:11:29.226 --> 00:11:33.061 religions whose founders or leaders 182 00:11:33.061 --> 00:11:36.430 are perfect, we do not shellac, we do not 183 00:11:36.430 --> 00:11:39.960 varnish our leaders. So that's a very important 184 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:43.377 point about the need to have your leaders be 185 00:11:43.410 --> 00:11:47.148 perfect. You say, like, Christianity has that. 186 00:11:47.517 --> 00:11:50.967 The leader needs to be perfect. Judaism never had it. 187 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:55.302 Recently, obviously, the Haredim, the ultra-Orthodox, 188 00:11:55.687 --> 00:11:58.352 are in the headlines. The 189 00:11:58.817 --> 00:12:02.397 ultra-Orthodox tend to deify 190 00:12:03.071 --> 00:12:06.892 their leaders. They follow their leaders. 191 00:12:07.004 --> 00:12:10.712 They don't ask any questions. Whatever the leader says, that's 192 00:12:10.777 --> 00:12:14.485 what they do. The leader cannot be wrong. We know 193 00:12:14.565 --> 00:12:18.337 that Hasidic sects are like that. And I think, Geoffrey, it's a 194 00:12:18.418 --> 00:12:21.997 very important point to say that that's not really 195 00:12:22.173 --> 00:12:25.431 the Jewish way. That's a much more 196 00:12:25.720 --> 00:12:29.363 modern phenomenon because they feel as if they were 197 00:12:29.973 --> 00:12:32.990 being attacked by secular culture. So they 198 00:12:33.103 --> 00:12:36.714 need to fall into themselves and make their 199 00:12:36.714 --> 00:12:40.485 leaders perfect. But I think that's a critical point, 200 00:12:40.710 --> 00:12:44.305 especially now, to keep in mind about what's happened 201 00:12:44.514 --> 00:12:48.254 in certain sectors of Judaism. I love it. You heard it first here 202 00:12:48.417 --> 00:12:50.961 on Madlik from Rabbi Adam Mintz himself. 203 00:12:53.250 --> 00:12:56.099 And now a word from our sponsor. 204 00:12:56.984 --> 00:13:00.832 If there's one thing we value at Madlik Podcast, it's reading texts 205 00:13:01.234 --> 00:13:04.838 and talking about them. That's why I'm excited to share something 206 00:13:05.015 --> 00:13:08.632 I created called VoiceGiftt PLAY. It fits in the palm of your 207 00:13:08.632 --> 00:13:12.444 hand like a remote control and clips onto any book. It's 208 00:13:12.444 --> 00:13:15.909 inspired by those old-school museum audio guides, 209 00:13:16.375 --> 00:13:20.129 but this is personal. VoiceGift PLAY stores up to 10 210 00:13:20.129 --> 00:13:23.643 hours of audio across 999 211 00:13:23.996 --> 00:13:27.670 numbered recordings. 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We are born, we grow, we learn, we mature, 224 00:14:16.509 --> 00:14:20.036 we make our way in the world. If we are lucky, we 225 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:23.803 find love. If we are blessed, we have children. but we 226 00:14:23.947 --> 00:14:27.618 also age. The body grows old, even if the spirit stays 227 00:14:27.794 --> 00:14:31.401 young. We know that this gift of life does not last forever, 228 00:14:31.673 --> 00:14:35.408 because in this physical universe, nothing lasts forever, not 229 00:14:35.489 --> 00:14:38.999 even planets or stars. Now he's focused on the mortality 230 00:14:39.095 --> 00:14:42.943 aspect of what's going on in Moses's mind. For each of 231 00:14:42.943 --> 00:14:46.485 us, therefore, there is a a river we will not cross, 232 00:14:46.805 --> 00:14:49.994 a promised land we will not enter, and a 233 00:14:49.994 --> 00:14:53.776 destination we will not reach. Even the greatest 234 00:14:53.776 --> 00:14:57.622 life is an unfinished symphony. Moses's death on the 235 00:14:57.622 --> 00:15:01.356 far side of the Jordan is a consolation for all of us. 236 00:15:01.852 --> 00:15:05.394 None of us should feel guilty or frustrated or angry or 237 00:15:05.394 --> 00:15:08.984 defeated that there are things we hope to achieve 238 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:12.526 but did not. This is what it is to be 239 00:15:12.526 --> 00:15:16.277 human. Okay, so now he has the second thing. It's you can't 240 00:15:16.293 --> 00:15:20.060 finish it all in your one generation. Nor should we 241 00:15:20.060 --> 00:15:23.506 be haunted by our mistakes. That, I believe, 242 00:15:23.827 --> 00:15:27.498 is why the Torah tells us that Moses sinned. Did it 243 00:15:27.498 --> 00:15:31.201 really have to include the episode of the water, the stick, the rock, and 244 00:15:31.201 --> 00:15:34.920 Moses's anger? It happened. But did the Torah have to 245 00:15:34.952 --> 00:15:38.783 tell us it happened? It passes over 38 of 246 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.470 the 40 years in the wilderness in silence. It does 247 00:15:42.566 --> 00:15:45.914 not report every incident, only those that 248 00:15:45.931 --> 00:15:49.503 have lessons for posterity. Why 249 00:15:49.567 --> 00:15:53.284 not then pass over this too in silence, sparing 250 00:15:53.877 --> 00:15:57.530 Moses's good name? What other religious literature 251 00:15:57.626 --> 00:16:00.846 has ever been so candid about the 252 00:16:00.846 --> 00:16:04.611 failings of even the greatest of its heroes? That's, by 253 00:16:04.611 --> 00:16:07.976 the way, a good question. I mean, you'll never hear the traditional 254 00:16:07.976 --> 00:16:11.645 commentators ask that question, because if the Torah has it, the Torah 255 00:16:11.645 --> 00:16:15.287 wants to have it. But that's his question. And that is, why 256 00:16:15.512 --> 00:16:18.754 bother? What do you need to hear about Moses's failings for? 257 00:16:19.204 --> 00:16:22.864 Wouldn't it be a better picture of Moses not to have those 258 00:16:22.976 --> 00:16:26.588 failings? Even the greatest human being made mistakes, 259 00:16:26.652 --> 00:16:30.280 failed as often as they succeeded, and had moments of black 260 00:16:30.280 --> 00:16:34.052 despair. What made them great was not that they 261 00:16:34.132 --> 00:16:37.872 were perfect, but that they kept going. They learned from every error, 262 00:16:37.888 --> 00:16:41.388 refused to give up hope, and eventually accepted the great gift that 263 00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:45.366 only failure can grant. Namely humility. They understood 264 00:16:45.366 --> 00:16:48.764 that life is about falling 100 times and getting up again. 265 00:16:49.277 --> 00:16:53.044 It is about never losing your ideals, even when you know how hard 266 00:16:53.044 --> 00:16:56.715 it is to change the world. It's about getting up every morning and walking 267 00:16:56.971 --> 00:17:00.771 one more day toward the promised land, even though you know you may 268 00:17:00.771 --> 00:17:04.425 never get there, but knowing also that you helped 269 00:17:04.522 --> 00:17:08.161 others get there. I think about what's going on in 270 00:17:08.433 --> 00:17:12.280 this moment, but again, I want to focus on today's 271 00:17:12.280 --> 00:17:15.518 episode less on the mortality aspect, which is 272 00:17:15.727 --> 00:17:19.536 critical, less on the intergenerational aspect, which 273 00:17:19.536 --> 00:17:22.910 is you can't do it all. We all need to create our own Joshua, 274 00:17:23.360 --> 00:17:26.684 but focus on the flawed part of it, that there is a 275 00:17:26.684 --> 00:17:30.128 profound Jewish benchmark lesson 276 00:17:30.403 --> 00:17:33.960 that we learn. If we— you asked, why does it have to 277 00:17:34.009 --> 00:17:37.577 mention it? And by the way, the Abarbanel asks the same thing. It's 278 00:17:37.577 --> 00:17:41.306 because the lesson is too important to miss, that even if it 279 00:17:41.306 --> 00:17:44.967 detracts a little bit from Moses' kavod, the lesson takes precedence. Right. 280 00:17:47.306 --> 00:17:51.153 Which is remarkable. Let's say it. That's remarkable. And you 281 00:17:51.169 --> 00:17:54.936 notice that Rabbi Sacks, that Jonathan Sacks, wrote this in a dvar 282 00:17:54.936 --> 00:17:58.688 Torah for Vezot HaBerachah, which is about the mortality of 283 00:17:58.704 --> 00:18:02.535 Moses, the fact that he died. So you understand why he's focusing on 284 00:18:02.551 --> 00:18:06.061 mortality, even though we're interested in something else. Yeah. 285 00:18:06.382 --> 00:18:10.053 And I'll just add, Nahum Sarna is another one. In his book on 286 00:18:10.470 --> 00:18:13.836 Genesis, he talks about Abraham and Isaac and all their 287 00:18:13.836 --> 00:18:17.427 failures, passing their wives off as sisters 288 00:18:17.539 --> 00:18:21.387 and all of that. Really does say that if you compare this to 289 00:18:21.692 --> 00:18:25.396 other mythologies in the ancient Near East, 290 00:18:26.182 --> 00:18:29.935 it is striking how different it is. This was 291 00:18:29.983 --> 00:18:33.655 something that was very unique. But now I want to talk about the 292 00:18:33.671 --> 00:18:37.183 flawed part, because the argument that I'm going to 293 00:18:37.183 --> 00:18:40.535 take today is that it's a very nuanced 294 00:18:40.535 --> 00:18:43.405 argument, and there's a big difference between 295 00:18:43.678 --> 00:18:47.526 recognizing failure in our leaders and 296 00:18:47.830 --> 00:18:51.261 idealizing failures. There's a difference between 297 00:18:51.357 --> 00:18:54.883 saying that our leaders have flaws and 298 00:18:54.980 --> 00:18:58.715 saying that a flaw is their ultimate credential. 299 00:18:59.292 --> 00:19:02.754 And I think I want to do is compare it to the Sermon on the 300 00:19:02.754 --> 00:19:06.457 Mount, and not necessarily the pashat of the Sermon on the 301 00:19:06.457 --> 00:19:10.256 Mount, but certainly a way that it has been taken 302 00:19:10.673 --> 00:19:14.456 or mis-taken. So let's just read the Sermon on the Mount a little bit. 303 00:19:15.162 --> 00:19:18.846 And of course, Jesus goes up onto the mountain. And he says what they call 304 00:19:18.879 --> 00:19:22.694 the Beatitudes. It's really, blessed are the poor in spirit. 305 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:26.167 Think of blessed as ashrei. Ashrei ha'ish shelo yish 306 00:19:26.232 --> 00:19:29.927 gachecha. So happy are those who are poor 307 00:19:30.331 --> 00:19:34.091 in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 308 00:19:34.123 --> 00:19:37.804 are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the 309 00:19:37.804 --> 00:19:41.435 meek, for they will inherit the land. So 310 00:19:41.515 --> 00:19:45.326 it's almost as though, Rabbi, you could take it to mean that the 311 00:19:45.326 --> 00:19:46.978 poor in spirit are going to go to the head of the line. Yes. 312 00:19:49.708 --> 00:19:53.500 Those who mourn will go again ahead of those who 313 00:19:53.500 --> 00:19:57.276 simply are living a normal life. And those that 314 00:19:57.340 --> 00:20:00.519 are meek, they will be the ones. They become 315 00:20:00.729 --> 00:20:04.240 almost the ideal. Blessed are those who hunger and 316 00:20:04.304 --> 00:20:08.025 thirst for righteousness. Now, I must say that if you ask the 317 00:20:08.025 --> 00:20:11.777 typical man on the street, they're going to forget about poor 318 00:20:11.988 --> 00:20:15.643 in spirit and think it's poor. They will think less about 319 00:20:15.707 --> 00:20:18.961 those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and think of those who are hunger—hungry, 320 00:20:18.978 --> 00:20:22.723 right? Right. Blessed are those 321 00:20:22.819 --> 00:20:26.490 who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is 322 00:20:26.522 --> 00:20:30.033 the kingdom of heaven. Again, the argument that I will be 323 00:20:30.049 --> 00:20:33.864 making is there are those who believe that something like this is 324 00:20:33.896 --> 00:20:37.599 teaching us that if you're persecuted, by right you 325 00:20:37.824 --> 00:20:41.286 must be better. You must— it's almost a 326 00:20:41.430 --> 00:20:44.749 badge of entitlement, if you will. 327 00:20:45.678 --> 00:20:49.478 And now what we're going to see is how 328 00:20:49.750 --> 00:20:53.469 this has been interpreted, because I think the first 329 00:20:53.533 --> 00:20:57.188 thing that we have to understand is in one aspect, it comes 330 00:20:57.220 --> 00:21:00.779 right out of Judaism, and it's really a nuance. So if you 331 00:21:00.971 --> 00:21:04.722 look at Isaiah 61, the Spirit of God is upon 332 00:21:04.754 --> 00:21:08.233 me because God has anointed me. He says, I have been 333 00:21:08.345 --> 00:21:11.615 sent as a herald of joy to the humble, 334 00:21:12.112 --> 00:21:15.142 levasar anavim shalchini, 335 00:21:16.040 --> 00:21:19.759 to bind up the wounded of the heart, to proclaim release of 336 00:21:19.807 --> 00:21:23.141 the captives. But as a Jew reading this, you know what 337 00:21:23.894 --> 00:21:27.677 it means. If you find somebody poor, make him less poor. If you 338 00:21:27.742 --> 00:21:31.284 find somebody who's captured, release him. It doesn't 339 00:21:31.348 --> 00:21:35.019 mean to say when it says that I am celebrating these 340 00:21:35.115 --> 00:21:38.450 people that they have more inherent worth. In 341 00:21:38.498 --> 00:21:42.073 Isaiah 61:1-3, it says, 342 00:21:42.810 --> 00:21:46.577 I have been sent as a herald of joy to the humble, to bind up 343 00:21:46.577 --> 00:21:49.895 the wounded of the heart, to proclaim release to the captives, to 344 00:21:50.023 --> 00:21:53.358 comfort all who mourn, to give them a turban 345 00:21:53.566 --> 00:21:57.228 instead of ashes, the festive anointment instead of mourning, 346 00:21:57.665 --> 00:22:01.400 a garment of splendor instead of a drooping spirit. They 347 00:22:01.562 --> 00:22:04.909 shall be called oaks of victory. You could 348 00:22:05.087 --> 00:22:08.885 really interpret this as saying that they go to the head of the 349 00:22:08.885 --> 00:22:12.469 line. But as a Jew, when we read it, we know what it means. 350 00:22:12.807 --> 00:22:16.101 It's to pick them up and bring them into the 351 00:22:16.101 --> 00:22:19.829 community, to give them the same tabernacle of victory 352 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:24.087 that all of us are entitled to. But it is a nuance, Rabbi. 353 00:22:24.135 --> 00:22:27.373 Yes. Now, this is obviously, you know, 354 00:22:28.692 --> 00:22:31.957 that the Sermon on the Mount is based on these 355 00:22:32.134 --> 00:22:35.945 verses in Isaiah. It's not that it just happens to be 356 00:22:35.945 --> 00:22:39.786 similar. What they did is they took the verses in Isaiah 357 00:22:40.171 --> 00:22:43.676 and they reformulated them as the 358 00:22:43.886 --> 00:22:47.332 fundamental principles, tenets of 359 00:22:47.429 --> 00:22:51.069 Christianity. So the point that you're making isn't 360 00:22:51.069 --> 00:22:54.645 just an interesting point. Yeah. It actually is the difference 361 00:22:54.645 --> 00:22:58.380 between Judaism and Christianity back to the origins of 362 00:22:58.477 --> 00:23:02.067 Christianity. And exactly. And 363 00:23:02.163 --> 00:23:05.674 if in fact the reading of those who 364 00:23:05.770 --> 00:23:08.688 argue that the Sermon on the Mount is the 365 00:23:08.688 --> 00:23:12.487 celebration and the idealization of those 366 00:23:12.519 --> 00:23:16.206 who are today's, who are suffering, shall today 367 00:23:16.446 --> 00:23:20.149 be the leaders. It comes from a change, a 368 00:23:20.149 --> 00:23:23.387 slight change of, I would say, emphasis. So in 369 00:23:23.484 --> 00:23:26.941 Psalms it says, but the lowly shall inherit the land. 370 00:23:30.058 --> 00:23:32.912 You and I would read this and we would say they get a plot of 371 00:23:32.912 --> 00:23:36.636 land along with everybody else. It doesn't mean that they will 372 00:23:36.845 --> 00:23:40.612 inherit the land as opposed to everybody else. Correct. 373 00:23:40.950 --> 00:23:44.597 It's so fascinating because you're right, Jesus was speaking 374 00:23:44.790 --> 00:23:47.811 to fellow Jews, and whether he made this 375 00:23:48.390 --> 00:23:51.822 paradigm shift or it was made— it's what they 376 00:23:51.822 --> 00:23:54.424 heard, there's no question that there was this shift 377 00:23:54.424 --> 00:23:57.964 in the Hebrew Bible, the poor are 378 00:23:57.964 --> 00:24:01.732 blessed because God hears their cry and society must 379 00:24:01.732 --> 00:24:05.306 restore them, not because deprivation itself is 380 00:24:05.402 --> 00:24:09.105 inherently superior. The goal of the Exodus is not 381 00:24:09.105 --> 00:24:12.359 permanent marginality. It's freedom, land, 382 00:24:12.472 --> 00:24:16.239 abundance, national flourishes. If you read the 383 00:24:16.239 --> 00:24:19.797 Bible, there are 2 things that I want to bring out. Number one, in 384 00:24:19.862 --> 00:24:23.581 Devarim, the book that we're in, it says, there shall be no needy among 385 00:24:23.677 --> 00:24:27.396 you. And then a few verses later, it says, for there will never 386 00:24:27.396 --> 00:24:31.195 cease to be needy ones in your land. And that's not a contradiction. 387 00:24:31.628 --> 00:24:35.363 It just means that the obligation is on us to 388 00:24:35.363 --> 00:24:39.162 make sure that those who fall through the cracks are pulled up and 389 00:24:39.242 --> 00:24:42.288 brought with us. It wasn't a 390 00:24:42.288 --> 00:24:45.863 transformation. And then the other thing 391 00:24:45.975 --> 00:24:49.822 is the Bible celebrates success. The 392 00:24:49.982 --> 00:24:53.733 Bible celebrates prosperity. It never 393 00:24:53.894 --> 00:24:57.693 idealizes poverty. So in Deuteronomy 8:10, it 394 00:24:57.693 --> 00:24:59.632 says, when you have eaten your fill, 395 00:25:01.659 --> 00:25:05.448 Give thanks to the Eternal your God for the good land given to you. You 396 00:25:05.448 --> 00:25:09.284 have to be thankful for the good. You never put it down. When you have 397 00:25:09.284 --> 00:25:12.730 eaten your fill and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and 398 00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:16.578 flocks have multiplied, it says in Deuteronomy 8, and your silver 399 00:25:16.610 --> 00:25:20.319 and gold have increased and everything you own has prospered. It doesn't say 400 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:24.244 give it away. It doesn't say it's going to blind you. It says, 401 00:25:24.761 --> 00:25:26.796 beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Lord your God. That's right. 402 00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:30.482 forget God who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. 403 00:25:30.819 --> 00:25:34.506 Beware that you don't look and appreciate 404 00:25:34.506 --> 00:25:38.161 those people who don't have it as good as you. It's really 405 00:25:38.257 --> 00:25:42.008 a nuance of a change, but it is connected to this thing of 406 00:25:42.040 --> 00:25:45.695 flaws. Flaws are important. They will always exist, and they 407 00:25:45.791 --> 00:25:49.478 are there for us to learn from, as Rabbi Sacks says, and 408 00:25:49.510 --> 00:25:53.261 it's there for us to tweak and fix, not 409 00:25:53.261 --> 00:25:56.756 disappear. But they are never there for us to 410 00:25:56.932 --> 00:26:00.717 absolutely laud. what I am going to share 411 00:26:00.717 --> 00:26:04.214 with you is an amazing scholar that I discovered this 412 00:26:04.471 --> 00:26:07.872 week named David Flusser. He was an 413 00:26:08.001 --> 00:26:11.290 immigrant from Czechoslovakia. 414 00:26:11.867 --> 00:26:15.445 He studied at Charles University. He was taken 415 00:26:15.621 --> 00:26:19.199 under the wing of a professor. He was fascinated in religion 416 00:26:19.488 --> 00:26:23.306 and a professor of Christianity, and he fell in love with Christianity. 417 00:26:23.643 --> 00:26:27.189 He comes to Israel, he makes Aliyah, and he actually 418 00:26:27.189 --> 00:26:30.924 becomes an Orthodox Jew, and he's teaching at the Hebrew University. 419 00:26:31.069 --> 00:26:34.511 And one of his main motivations in life 420 00:26:35.012 --> 00:26:38.819 is to show that Jesus was like Hillel in a sense. He was a 421 00:26:38.819 --> 00:26:42.519 great leader. He was a great thought leader. And so he 422 00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:46.274 connects what Jesus says to strands within 423 00:26:46.387 --> 00:26:50.103 Judaism. Listen to what he does with the Sermon on the 424 00:26:50.103 --> 00:26:52.737 Mount. He connects it to the Essenes, 425 00:26:55.921 --> 00:26:59.625 the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the desert. 426 00:27:00.090 --> 00:27:03.520 He says, contrite of spirit, ani ruach, 427 00:27:03.953 --> 00:27:07.319 the Sons of Light called themselves evionei 428 00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:11.054 chaschesed, paupers of grace. So 429 00:27:11.070 --> 00:27:14.853 he's taking the word that said, you who are poor of spirit. 430 00:27:15.398 --> 00:27:18.957 These appellations are characterized by a paradoxical 431 00:27:19.326 --> 00:27:23.109 combination of a term depicting the abject state of 432 00:27:23.109 --> 00:27:26.924 the sect in the present with a second one which proclaims 433 00:27:26.956 --> 00:27:30.695 triumphantly the plenty of God's grace bestowed on his 434 00:27:30.792 --> 00:27:34.384 elect. So Rabbi, if we had a sect in Judaism 435 00:27:34.593 --> 00:27:37.976 that celebrated poverty, that celebrated living in the 436 00:27:38.056 --> 00:27:41.728 desert without everything, with giving away possessions, it was 437 00:27:41.841 --> 00:27:45.384 the Essenes. And what he's showing is that this 438 00:27:45.384 --> 00:27:49.070 paradoxical contrast between the present plight and 439 00:27:49.166 --> 00:27:52.990 persecution of the blessed and their future glory 440 00:27:53.103 --> 00:27:56.846 in the kingdom of heaven is also the main burdens of 441 00:27:57.039 --> 00:27:59.378 what Jesus was saying on that mount. Right. 442 00:28:01.742 --> 00:28:04.985 What he is saying is that these aniim, these poor, 443 00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:09.047 poor of spirit, I should say, are endowed with the 444 00:28:09.047 --> 00:28:12.499 supreme gift of divine bliss with the Holy Spirit. 445 00:28:13.125 --> 00:28:16.449 He says, I have tried to show that one of the central doctrines of the 446 00:28:16.449 --> 00:28:20.254 sect was that only the elect, the members 447 00:28:20.286 --> 00:28:24.108 of the sect, have the Holy Spirit bestowed upon them. It is 448 00:28:24.204 --> 00:28:27.785 the Spirit, that Spirit, that makes them different from 449 00:28:27.817 --> 00:28:31.124 others. So it was in the Essenes, according to this 450 00:28:31.124 --> 00:28:34.511 scholar, that all of a sudden, All right. All of a sudden, being poor, 451 00:28:35.056 --> 00:28:38.152 being persecuted, being downtrodden 452 00:28:38.425 --> 00:28:42.195 became an entitlement. They were special. 453 00:28:42.436 --> 00:28:46.238 They were the children of light. The notion that the poor endowed with 454 00:28:46.286 --> 00:28:48.949 the Spirit are participants in the true 455 00:28:49.253 --> 00:28:52.911 eschatological community therefore fits. 456 00:28:53.424 --> 00:28:57.242 It is well known that Jesus and our community of purpose saw in 457 00:28:57.339 --> 00:29:01.126 poverty a way to attain salvation. So the 458 00:29:01.126 --> 00:29:04.485 truth is those who read into this a 459 00:29:04.501 --> 00:29:07.746 radical statement that having 460 00:29:07.859 --> 00:29:11.410 flaws actually gains you a seat at the 461 00:29:11.410 --> 00:29:14.704 table were not far from the source. 462 00:29:15.170 --> 00:29:18.319 Wow. Now, I will say that 463 00:29:18.785 --> 00:29:22.272 Martin Luther actually read the text in a 464 00:29:22.272 --> 00:29:25.678 similar fashion. And what Martin Luther says 465 00:29:26.016 --> 00:29:29.422 that the poor in spirit are those who know and feel their 466 00:29:29.422 --> 00:29:32.972 spiritual poverty, that they have nothing of their own before 467 00:29:33.085 --> 00:29:36.684 God. So if Christianity believes that you can only get redemption 468 00:29:36.796 --> 00:29:40.636 through God, you have to feel that you've lost every other chance. 469 00:29:41.294 --> 00:29:44.700 The more flawed you feel you are, the more you 470 00:29:44.813 --> 00:29:48.395 realize, as in Va'etchanan, that Moses says, I have 471 00:29:48.508 --> 00:29:52.074 no chance. I have to pray to God. Right. He took 472 00:29:52.123 --> 00:29:55.811 this to the extreme. A man will find out that he is so 473 00:29:55.811 --> 00:29:59.562 depraved that no strength, no works, no merit of his own 474 00:29:59.594 --> 00:30:03.089 will ever deliver him from his guilt. Therefore, he must utterly 475 00:30:03.121 --> 00:30:06.920 despair of himself and seek outside of himself the righteousness 476 00:30:07.112 --> 00:30:10.703 of Jesus. So the point is that whether this was 477 00:30:11.056 --> 00:30:14.021 the only reading of the Sermon on the Mount or not, 478 00:30:14.326 --> 00:30:17.644 certainly there were those, and I will say Christian 479 00:30:17.708 --> 00:30:21.491 socialists later on, read it this way, that 480 00:30:21.556 --> 00:30:25.327 they said that the New Testament Jesus identifies himself with the 481 00:30:25.327 --> 00:30:29.167 hungry, the poor, the sick, and the prisoners. This is the source of 482 00:30:29.506 --> 00:30:33.217 what we call populism today, that the masses know 483 00:30:33.314 --> 00:30:36.938 more than the leaders because the masses are more flawed than the 484 00:30:36.938 --> 00:30:40.706 leaders. They don't excel at anything. To the contrary, the less 485 00:30:40.706 --> 00:30:43.878 they excel, the more they are entitled. It's a 486 00:30:43.878 --> 00:30:47.236 fascinating switch. And it's a 487 00:30:47.236 --> 00:30:51.012 Christian switch. I mean, they don't think of 488 00:30:51.012 --> 00:30:54.532 it that way, but that's where it finds its source. This is 489 00:30:54.564 --> 00:30:57.898 part of what they call the Judeo-Christian tradition, 490 00:30:59.053 --> 00:31:02.531 that these political ideas of today are 491 00:31:02.739 --> 00:31:06.138 based on these religious 492 00:31:06.266 --> 00:31:08.719 ideas from the beginning of Christianity. 493 00:31:09.857 --> 00:31:13.528 So one of the young political, and 494 00:31:13.704 --> 00:31:16.862 I would say Jewish people who were 495 00:31:16.926 --> 00:31:20.693 behind -Graham Platner; Rebecca Katz says, the era 496 00:31:20.693 --> 00:31:24.508 of the perfect candidate is over. People are flawed and they not only 497 00:31:24.541 --> 00:31:28.099 forgive politicians who aren't perfect, but they relate more to them. 498 00:31:28.468 --> 00:31:31.530 That being flawed becomes the— 499 00:31:31.898 --> 00:31:35.201 it's not a glitch in the software, it is the 500 00:31:35.201 --> 00:31:38.743 software. It's fascinating, the world that we have 501 00:31:38.807 --> 00:31:42.190 moved into. And as Bret Stephens, and I'm going to 502 00:31:42.238 --> 00:31:46.069 finish with him, he says, a progressive movement ceases 503 00:31:46.181 --> 00:31:49.740 to be progressive when it becomes embarrassed by progress. 504 00:31:50.413 --> 00:31:54.084 When achievement is treated as exploitation, 505 00:31:54.437 --> 00:31:57.931 prosperity as moral compromise, resilience as 506 00:31:58.108 --> 00:32:01.458 privilege, and excellence as exclusion. A moral 507 00:32:01.570 --> 00:32:05.385 conviction of our time, especially prevalent on the cultural left, 508 00:32:05.674 --> 00:32:09.136 is that the powerful are presumptively bad while 509 00:32:09.345 --> 00:32:12.599 the powerless are presumptively good. These 510 00:32:12.695 --> 00:32:16.238 categories aren't just political, they are also social, economic, 511 00:32:16.382 --> 00:32:20.037 ethnic, and racial. It's why so many conversations today 512 00:32:20.229 --> 00:32:23.740 revolve around the concept of privilege, a striking 513 00:32:23.836 --> 00:32:27.331 redefinition of success that removes the presumption of 514 00:32:27.395 --> 00:32:30.715 merit from those who have it and the stigma of 515 00:32:30.747 --> 00:32:34.518 failure from those who don't. Rabbi, I 516 00:32:34.518 --> 00:32:38.016 believe that he's hitting the nail on the head. And the distinction 517 00:32:38.129 --> 00:32:41.306 between accepting flaws, 518 00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:45.495 accepting flaws in our leaders is one thing, and 519 00:32:45.495 --> 00:32:48.704 taking it to the extreme of making that a 520 00:32:48.945 --> 00:32:52.234 qualifier is something that has been a total 521 00:32:52.250 --> 00:32:55.588 misunderstanding of what you said a second ago is our 522 00:32:55.845 --> 00:32:59.120 Judio-Christian traditon. This is 523 00:32:59.168 --> 00:33:02.859 amazingly important. And this week we observe 524 00:33:02.908 --> 00:33:06.375 the fast day of Tisha B'Av, also as a time to think 525 00:33:06.375 --> 00:33:09.601 about humility and what that means and how we 526 00:33:09.826 --> 00:33:13.662 balance all those things. So we want to wish everybody a Shabbat Shalom. You should 527 00:33:13.662 --> 00:33:17.225 have a meaningful Tisha B'Av, and we look forward to seeing you next week where 528 00:33:17.225 --> 00:33:20.885 we will talk about Parashat Eikev. Thank you, Geoffrey. This is an amazing topic. 529 00:33:21.479 --> 00:33:25.296 Shabbat Shalom, and celebrate your flaws—but not too 530 00:33:25.329 --> 00:33:28.657 much. Shabbat shalom, and see you all next week. 531 00:33:30.334 --> 00:33:32.065 Shabbat 532 00:33:35.575 --> 00:33:36.627 shalom.



