Thursday, August 29, 2013
Failure of Religious/Political Leadership
In class we discussed the failure of our religious/political leadership to heed Yirmiyahu's nevuot and to follow in the way of HaShem and Torah. Think of two other times in Jewish history (one from Tanach and one post-Tanach) when our religious/political leadership failed to serve as positive role models for the Jewish people. Give the time period, the location, the leader(s)and how they failed us.
Do not use examples that are already posted by your classmates.
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King Achav- Ruled over Israel from 869-850 BC. He was a bad king. He made all the Jewish people start worshiping idols. He killed all the navim and was a horrible person.
ReplyDeleteSabbatai Tzvi- 1626-1676. He was a Sephardic Rabbi was claimed to be Moshiach. He got a huge group of people to believe him and to follow all the thing that he made up. It was a huge scandal that caused many people to sin.
king yeravam- king of the northern kingdom from around 922 to 901 BC. He steered the Jewish people in the wrong direction, and built them golden calves, and told them not to go and pray in Jerusalem, and instead give offerings at his bamot. He caused the people to sin. Also, in my opinion, the current Israeli political group called Neturei Karta serve as very negative public figures not only for the jewish people, but for the world at large. They are against the ideas of Zionism, and vehemently protest against them. However, that does not make them bad role models, as they are entitled to their opinions. The way they go about protesting, however, abhors me. They align themselves with blatantly anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-Jewish groups, and show their support at rallies of terrorist organizations. Making such an atrocious public display for their own people disgusts and frustrates me to no end. This gives the world a bad idea of Jews in general, and shows a lack of caring and achdut between our people.
ReplyDeleteKing Shlomo ( 970 to 931 BC) - We have recently learned about King Shlomo in our Megillot Class because we are learning about Kohelet. King Shlomo was King David's son who ruled the kingdom of Yehudah for 40 years. We learned about how Shlomo really tried to be a good role model for his people, but once he gained all of his power and wealth he got haughty and his kingdom fell. He violated the 3 rules that a king must follow: you may not have too many horse (from egypt), you may not have too many wives, and you cannot acquire too much gold and silver. Indeed, Shlomo had too many horse and too many wives. His wives led him astray from Hashem because he started to worship their gods and built them Bamot in his palace.
ReplyDeleteMordechai Anilevitch (1943) - Mordechai Anilevitch was a man who led the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He wanted to help get all the Jews out of the Warsaw Ghetto. Once he led the uprising he made a statement but the uprising itself failed. Many people were killed in the uprising and many more people were deported to the camps. Nothing really changed.
1. King David, Jerusalem, 1049-970BCE: I know what you're thinking- David? Really? He's one of the best rulers we've had! Well, I would like to point out one moral flaw that I personally believe made him a poor role model for the nation. The incident with Batsheva on the roof and the events that followed- taking her when she already had a husband- was totally immoral and unacceptable, especially for a ruler. (Now, I know that Shlomo came from Batsheva so maybe that means God didn't disapprove of the relationship, but let's not think about that for these purposes.)This is a religious and moral flaw that David exhibited that made him (perhaps even temporarily) a negative role model.
ReplyDelete2. Pre-Hasmonian leadership, Jerusalem, appx. 200-BCE: Well, the clearest indicator that there was no good Jewish religious leadership during this time period because many Jews were turning away from God and being seduced by Hellinism and Greek culture. If there was a stronger leader, the Jews wouldn't have so easily submitted to the culture around them.
1. Moshe -- right after Matan Torah -- when he went up to שמים to receive the לוחות and when he came back down he smashed them. He saw them doing Avodah Zarah and got extremely upset and smashed the לוחות. Although each of us is human, as a leader, he should have been more calm and understanding with the people. Maybe he should have heard their side first instead of just immediately reacting. Instead of trying to help people deal with an emotion that is in fact so human of us, he kind of went and said it was okay to have such anger by reacting the way he did.
ReplyDelete2. Many rebbeim nowadays are often caught up in scandals. The recent name 'Weberman' found all over the news was upsetting to many. There are many rabbis and leaders in our community that are caught up in things that aren't exactly what a leader should be doing (sex scandals and abuse charges). People in communities look up to these people, and when they see that Rabbis are doing such things they start to distance themselves from Judaism and their communities and even worse - sometimes people think these things are okay.
1. Aharon- when the Jewish people thought that Moshe was late coming down the mountain with the לוחות- Aharon and the Jews were concerned that Moshe had not returned from the mountain. They ordered Aharon to "make gods that will go before us". The next sentence describes Aharon telling them to bring their gold to him, so he could build the golden calf.
ReplyDelete2. Amram- Moshe's father in Mitzraim after the decree to throw all the baby boys in the Nile was implemented.- After he heard the news of the decree, Amram, the leader of the Jews at the time, decided to split from his wife because he did not want to risk killing one of his own babies. Every Jew around him followed his footsteps. He failed because he didn't fight for anything. He just listened to the decree and made himself more miserable than he already was. He let Paraoh construct his life.
1. King Chizkiyahu of Yehudah (716-687 BCE - reign) was among the later kings of Yehudah. By the time of his reign, Yishayahu and Yirmiyahu had been trying to convince the kings that the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash and the following exile were inevitable. In Malachim 2, Chizkiyahu was described as being one of the greatest kings, doing good in the eyes of G-d to the same extent that David did. Fast forward to the 14th year of his reign. Assyria sent a messenger to try and make Yehudah a vassal state. What does Chizkiyahu do? He doesn't turn to G-d as he was supposed to. He sends messengers to Yishayahu the prophet and asks Yishayahu to pray on behalf of the people. We learn from this that Chizkiyahu was selfish. The only documented time when he prayed to G-d was when he was gravely ill. Now, when his people will suffer, he does nothing. He even goes so far as to "surrender" to Assyria's conditions and give them the golden doors of the Beit Hamikdash as taxes. This is definitely not what a strong Jewish king should have done.
ReplyDelete2. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786 CE) was a German Jewish philosopher influenced by the Haskalah, or Jewish enlightenment. In his various writings, he wrote that mitzvot are not mandatory; they are there to be guides of what to do rather than a script of exactly what to do. Moreover, you ca pick which mitzvot you want to keep instead of being forced to keep all of them. In his opinion, Jewish observance was more of a choice than an obligation. With these words, the defenses built up over the years against assimilation and loss of faith were taken down. Reform Judaism began to gain popularity; people kept only certain mitzvot which they "liked." In Mendelssohn's day, only two of his six children remained Jewish. Today, we are facing a reality in which we will lose more Jews than we did during the holocaust to assimilation. Mendelssohn's teachings and influence have a lot to do with this mass exodus from the faith.
King Shaul: Shaul was the first king of Israel. It started when his son killed the Plishtim officer and the peopled gathered to all fight the Plishtim, then Shaul made a sacrifice without waiting for Shmuel. Shaul was impatient and didn't want to be alone. Shaul cares what the people think of him and asks according to how he thinks they would like. After many mistakes Shaul made, Hashem tells Shmuel that He regrets making Shaul king. Shaul doesn't realize he fails, rather he makes up excuses for his mistakes.
ReplyDeleteMoshe Katzav-He was the king of Israel and while he was ruling, he was an okay president, but it was found out that he raped and sexually abused women.
Rechavum, - Rechuvam was the son of Shlomo and ruled Judah for 17 years (928-911 B.C.E) and the king of the Jews when the kingdoms split. It can be argued that G-d was going to split the kingdom anyway in order to follow through with Shlomo's punishment (who also failed to be a good leader for the Jews as Sophie explains above), although Rechavum does also lead to the division of Dovid's and Shlomo's kingdom. Rechuvum's lowest point is when he goes to the elders for advice and instead of listening to them, he rejects their advice and listens to what his peers had to say. This shows disrespect to his elders as well as a very poor political move. He treated the Jews harsher than his father had and as a result of this, 10 tribes leave him for Yeruvum who built bamot and led the jews into an era where they were not very religious or G-d fearing.
ReplyDeleteShimon Bar Kokhba- Shimon Bar Kokhba led the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt from 132-136 B.C. He is known now as a false Messiah and is even known to some rabbis as "Bar Kozeba" which means son of lies. As a result of the failed rebellion against the Romans, the majority of the population of Jews in Judea were killed or exiled. The Jews were exiled from Jerusalem and over half a million Jews were killed. Some scholars even mark this as the date for the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.
Reuven- In Tanach, He was one of Yaakov's twelve sons/one of the twelve tribes. When his brother, Yosef, was to be sold and killed, Reuven, the eldest son, failed to take a stand against the injustice being committed against his brother. He failed to stand up to his brothers for what was right and just. He failed to step up to the plate even in a position of leadership, and set a terrible example for the Jewish people by allowing such injustice to take place in front of him. Because of his failure, Yehuda emerged as a leader in Egypt instead of the the eldest, Reuven.
ReplyDeleteShimon Bar Kochba- After the destruction of the Second Temple (70 A.D.), the Jews were forbade from visiting Jerusalem under Emperor Hadrian (130 A.D.). Two years later, a Shimon Bar Kochba led a revolt, which consisted of thousands of religious Jews, against the oppression. Many believed that Bar Kochba was actually the Messiah. Bar Kochba even named himself Nasi ("Prince") to identify himself as the Messiah. Eventually, his rebellion was crushed by Hadrian's army, and many Jews fighting under Bar Kochba's leadership died of starvation when Hadrian's army besieged Betar, where his revolt was based. Bar Kochba's failure and his false claims of being the Messiah greatly damaged the Jewish people of his time. After the revolt and discrediting of his identity as the Messiah, Bar Kochba became known as "Son of Lies."
Adam HaRishon and his wife Chava, though they may not have been leaders in the sense of telling a group of people what to do, failed as leaders for all the rest of us. They were supposed to follow G-d and set an example for ALL of the people who came after them. Not only did they fail to set a good example for the rest of us to follow, they got kicked out of Gan Eden and made it so that now none of us can have the same opportunities to do good that they did have in Gan Eden.
ReplyDeleteFlavius Josephus (aka Yosef ben Matisyahu) was the head of a group of Jewish soldiers fighting against the Romans from about 66 CE to 67 CE, when he surrendered to, and later befriended, supported, and worked for the Romans he had previously been fighting against. He became a friend and adviser to King Titus and worked as an interpreter for the Romans when they were dealing with the Jews. It was because of him that, when the Jews did not surrender in Titus's siege on Jerusalem, the city and second Beit HaMikdash were looted and destroyed.