Do what feels right. Try your hardest. Lead by example.
With less than a month left in our semester abroad as Nachshon fellows, the conversation has turned to how we can utilize everything we have learned and experienced as we return to our home camps, college campuses, and start to plan for graduation, grad school, and our future careers.
Do what feels right. Try your hardest. Lead by example.
It sounds like a pep talk a football coach might give to his players as they prepare for the big game. But in this case, these “proverbs” weren’t for a group of football players, they were the lessons I took away from what started out as a regular text study with Rabbi Leon Morris based on the topic of leadership and the how responsibility affects the leader.
Rabbi Morris reminded us that before Yosef died, he asked B’nei Yisrael to take his bones with them when they left Egypt, to bury them in Cana’an and posed the question: why was the coffin of Yosef’s bones carried alongside the Mishkan during B’nei Yisrael’s time in the dessert? We found our answer in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, which teaches that his coffin was carried alongside the Mishkan because in his lifetime, Yosef embodied the Aseret Hadibrot (the Ten Commandments), even though he died hundreds of year before they were received from Hashem. Yosef was a human embodiment of Torah and the Commandments. He humanized principles that can at times feel lofty and unattainable. Learning from Yosef’s example, the goal of Jewish leadership is to humanize, teach, and to help others actualize Judaism, Jewish text, and Jewish practice, which may seem out of reach, antiquated, and too complicated to attempt or approach.
Being a Jewish leader sometimes carries with it the “burden” of representing Judaism and Jewish practice. Rabbi Morris encouraged us to find the Jewish practice that is meaningful to us and to never stop reaching for new Jewish meaning in our lives. In that way, our ever-growing and ever-improving Judaism becomes an example for others in our community to follow. What might the Jewish world look like if instead of narrowing ourselves into categories and denominations, each of us focused on feeling connected to our current Jewish practice and striving for new Jewish connections? I know that this semester as Nachshon fellows, we have all been given the opportunity and the challenge to do so.
The clock is ticking down. Before we know it, we will be on the plane home and setting off into the future as Jewish leaders. The players have have warmed up, practiced., and put on their uniforms. The past five months have been full of new and rich Jewish learning, Jewish experiences, and life experiences. I have questioned everything about my Judaism and my connection to Israel and have found the resources to find the answers I’m looking for. The players gather in a huddle, to listen to their coach, and to mentally prepare for the challenging game ahead. Our cohort of Nachshon fellows has used our time together to bond as a group of aspiring Jewish leaders, each of us bringing something unique and different to our group and to the Jewish world. And now, we are getting ready to take the field.
Do what feels right. Try your hardest. Lead by example.
Hike!
