DIVREI MENACHEM
BY MENACHEM PERSOFF
Special Projects Consultant, OU Israel Center mpersoff@ou.org
The Art Of Leadership
N
owadays, we are often mistrustful of our leaders – because they often let us down. We might also believe that they acquired their leadership roles, not based on qualification, but on nepotism, “protectzia,” or some other nefarious antecedent. Our skepticism, of course, is not a new phenomenon: We can trace it all the way back to this week’s Parsha. The appointment of Bezalel as the chief artisan of the Mishkan is a case in point. G-d called Bezalel by name and filled him with the spirit of Hashem in “in all manner of workmanship.” Notably, Bezalel’s divine appointment as related to Moshe is preceded by the term “See!”
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When Moshe later recounts Bezalel’s lofty position to the people, he also employs the expression “See!” Which leads us to ask why was it necessary for both Hashem and Moshe to employ a seemingly redundant imperative term, by way of introduction to Bezalel’s appointment? Following Nechama Leibowitz, the term “See!” alerts the listener for whom it was especially important to clarify that the appointment of Bezalel was divine. For suspicions and criticisms of Bezalel’s appointment were just around the corner. The first cause for suspicion, to cite Ramban, was that the people found it incredible that such a talented artisan could exist in the first place. For where would a previous slave ever have acquired such multifarious talents? Then the people had every reason to suspect Moshe (the king) whose appointees
