Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible (Covenant & Conversation Book 8)

The king, however, relied on popular support. Without that he could be deposed. But this was laden with risk. Doing what the people want is not always doing what God wants.

Justice asks: how can you be sure you will fail if you never try?

A leader is one who, though he may stumble and fall, arises more honest, humble, and courageous than he was before.

There is an enduring message here. Leadership, even of the very highest order, is often marked by failure. The first Impressionists had to arrange their own exhibition because their work was rejected by the Paris salons. The first performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused a riot, with the audience booing throughout. Van Gogh sold only o

A leader is one who takes responsibility. Leadership is born when we become active rather than passive, when we do not wait for someone else to act because perhaps there is no one else – at least not here, not now. When bad things happen, some avert their eyes. Some wait for others to act. Some blame others for failing to act. Some simply complain.

That is what Moses understood and did. He knew: if you want to build a team, create a team that builds.

French literary theorist and anthropologist Rene Girard called mimetic desire, meaning, we want what someone else wants, because we want to be that someone else.

We have to be at peace with ourselves before we can be at peace with the world.

There must be praise for those who do well, as well as constructive criticism when people do badly. Criticism must be of the act, not the person; the person must feel respected whatever his or her failures.