Power Corrupts – Jewish Leadership
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5770
The latest scandal to hit the Jewish community involves a Rabbi named Leib Tropper. He just stepped down as the head of an organization called EJF, or Eternal Jewish family, a conversion center in the chareidi world. The organization has pushed internationally for Conversion standards that are well beyond what the Halacha dictates and has called into question numerous conversions that don’t meet their standards, causing great distress and heartaches to many sincere men and women who converted to Judaism.
Even worse is that the head of that organization Leib Tropper, who led the fight for extreme standards and actually revoked a woman’s conversion because she was seen wearing pants some time after her conversion traded conversions for sexual favors and has been accused of misusing over a million dollars. There are tapes of his conversations with a woman he was converting to that effect and he has resigned his post and offered a Tiger–esque kind of apology.
Apparently you must cover every inch of yourself unless of course you are in his office!
Why do I bring this up today? That is a good question? But I decided to talk about it for two reasons:
- For too long our communities have been sweeping incidents like this under the rug and that has proven disastrous for us. Every time something like this happens it is our obligation to stand up, denounce it and speak about and teach real Torah Judaism.
- There is an important lesson to be learned trying to figure out how such a person can do such a thing. What are some of the factors that lead to such a situation?
With regard to the last question, I think that a large part of it has to do with the old adage, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
With power comes the danger of arrogance and when put together power and arrogance lead to many issues but for our purposes this morning I will highlight two:
- When you achieve real power and it affects you, you can come to see your way as the only way and if you have enough power you can seek to impose that method or lifestyle on everyone else.
- The more arrogant one becomes the more likely that they come to see themselves as above the law and not subject to the same restrictions as everyone else. That can even develop to a point where you put yourself not only above man’s law but God’s law as well.
Both of these issues are addressed beautifully in today’s Parsha. Towards the very end, after the death of Yaakov the brothers are once again nervous. Yaakov is dead and the major impediment against Joseph taking revenge upon them is removed. Surely he would not hurt them, when Yaakov was alive but what is stopping him now. So the brothers get together and tell Joseph that Yaakov commanded the brothers to tell Joseph after Yaakov’s death to forgive his brothers and not to harm them. Leave aside the question of whether Yaakov actually said that and the related question of whether Joseph knows that it is a lie and look at Joseph’s response. “Do not fear, he says to them, Am I in place of God?”
This is an underappreciated scene! According to Rabbeinu Bechayei, the brothers never even asked directly for forgiveness. Why doesn’t Joseph go after them? As Rashi tells us, implicit in his response to the brothers is his ability to do whatever he wants to them, he is the second in command to Pharaoh, he is the great and powerful Joseph!
The answer is very simple- he doesn’t let the power get to him. He doesn’t become
arrogant and self-worshipping; he realizes that God had a hand in this plan and it is not his place to punish his brothers despite all that they had done to him. It could not have been easy for him and it is nearly impossible for me to imagine how difficult it was for Joseph to control himself.
To fully appreciate this quality of Joseph let us return for a moment to the beginning of his life. He is the chosen child, favored by his father, described by the Torah as beautiful and by the baalei hamidrash as self indulgent and obsessed with his beauty. He has the gall to share his dreams of ascension to power with his brothers; he relays to them visions of them bowing down to him. The potential for Joseph to become Leib Tropper was enormous but it doesn’t actualize. The greatness of Joseph is that he is able to maintain humility and to appreciate that God is in ultimate control despite his power and stature.
If you look at the Joseph narratives in the Torah you will find they are a story of maturation and growth in which Joseph goes from arrogant self-obsessed child to Joseph Hatzaddik, a mature, humble and righteous man.
A similar idea is expressed in Jacob’s deathbed blessings to his son’s. In chapter 49 he says the following to Dan:
16. Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.
18. I have waited for your salvation, O Lord.
The first question that one should ask is “what is the connection between judging in verse 16 and the attack method in verse 17. The second question that you should ask is “what is the connection between those two and waiting for God’s salvation?”
Most of the commentators argue that Dan’s blessing is not actually to judge his fellow Jews in court but to judge Israel’s enemies on the battlefield. Thus you understand why judging in that manner is connected to a “method of attack.” It also explains I have waited for your salvation, O Lord.- that is the corrective. The military leader of Israel might let the success and power get to his head and become arrogant and forget God and thus Dan is reminded- I have waited for your salvation, O Lord. Maintain your humility despite your success and power.
Jacob’s choice of Judah as the other military leader and sole political leader teaches us the same message. He says “Judah, ata yoducha achecha” your brothers will praise or admit to you. It is a strange choice of words- and the Midrash argues that this choice teaches us why Yehuda was chosen. Judah is chosen as the one the brothers will admit to because he admitted to Tamar that she was right and he was wrong. He was in a position to abuse his power and burn her rather than admit wrongdoing and suffer the ensuing embarrassment but he doesn’t. He doesn’t let the power get to him; his humility is the reason he is chosen.
The ideal Jewish leader is one who does achieve success but maintains enough humility to stay within the law, understands their position visa vis God and has respect for others who might not live exactly as they do.
This is a lesson that Leib Tropper did not learn but one that our communities must!
