Parshat Shemot: Moses as a Leader

And he (Moses) looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no man, he smote the Egyptian.  (Shemot 2:12)

And so we are introduced to Moses.  The first, most influential and lauded leader of our people is introduced to us by recalling his murder of an Egyptian, after ensuring that no one was witness to his crime.  Not so, say our sages!  There was many a person around, but there was no man.  There was no one to stand up against the wrong being done to a Hebrew by an Egyptian.  No one was there to stop the suffering of the innocent.  No one was there to speak out against slavery and abuse.  “In a place where there is no man, strive to be a man” (Pirkei Avot 2:6).  Moses was a man, where there was no man

And this is the character of a true leader: the ability to stand up for what you know and feel is good and right on the inside, not just when in the company of friends but when surrounded by hostile enemies.  It is easy to say the right things from a pulpit and to write the right things from behind a news desk and even to feel inside what is right on the inside.  It is much harder to do what is right when surrounded by those who are doing wrong and it is even harder to live a life devoted to doing what is right.  Many people can live a good life, do many good things, and avoid doing wrong…but how many can live a life fighting for what is right, living and breathing good deeds?  I think in our first introduction to Moses we can see why it is he who becomes the representative of Am Yisrael to Pharaoh. 

 

Ehyeh asher Ehyeh – I shall be as I shall be (Shemot 3:14)

It is this name of God that Moses will invoke when speaking to the Jewish slaves in Egypt.  What is there in this mysterious name?  Ramban says that this name is used because of its future tense, because it relates to the people that He will be revealed to them over time.  I find that it is also somewhat of a statement of purpose.  God is today as he was yesterday and will be tomorrow.  It is not Him that changes, but our relation to Him that is constantly in motion.  Even having that relationship is in our hands.  God is everywhere, the Omnipresent, but we don’t have a relationship unless we reach out to Him just as He has put His hand in front of us.  The way we all relate to Him is different, as the Ba’al Shem Tov says in his commentary on the first blessing of the Amidah.  We say “God of Avraham, God of Yitzchak, and God of Ya’akov” because God was different through the eyes of all three…He was a personalized God that they related to in their own unique way. 

The same things rings true today.  I shall be as I shall be – God is there and it is up to us to find the way in which we best relate to Him.