So close to the elections, and we have a leadership workshop with the beginning of the Book of Shemot (Exodus). Here are just a few things that Moshe Rabbenu taught us:
1. A leader can grow up even in the home of Pharaoh, as a Prince of Egypt, but still never forget his people, his identity and his family. He has courage to face Pharaoh, the ruler of the greatest empire in the world, the man who also adopted and raised him, and tell him the truth to his face.
2. A leader is not necessarily charismatic. He can be a stutterer, with a slow tongue, and not a great speaker. He himself does not claim he is perfect, but mentions his shortcomings without shame and says: "for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue".
3. A leader works with maximal cooperation and minimal jealousy, hatred, rivalry and trying to step all over other people. Moshe starts his leadership role along with his brother Aharon, and his sister Miriam, in a shared leadership model, in which each of them uses their own talents.
4. A leader does not say that "we must change the People" or "Change the Torah" or "Change lands". He is faithful and devoted to the People even when they err and sin, and he does not despair despite the fact that it is difficult for him to teach them the Torah, and he keeps going even when the People have no will to keep going to Eretz Israel.
5. A leader does not attribute his success to himself. He is a believer, and he knows that he is only a channel, only a messenger. The most important man in the Exodus of Egypt is also the humblest person in this move.
Of course, we do not expect our elected leaders to be Moshe Rabbenu, and surely not in the next 100 stormy days. And still, these Portions, which will accompany the elections, remind us that we have something to strive for.
