Shepherd of Israel, Appear!

The Last Request 

The moment of truth arrives. Forty years in the wilderness are about to end, and Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu that it is time to say goodbye: “Ascend this mountain of Avarim, and gaze upon the land that I have given to Bnei Yisrael. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, like Aharon your brother…”¹ 

 

Moshe Rabbeinu then does something extraordinary: He turns to Hashem with a demand: “Vayedabber Moshe (Moshe spoke) to Hashem”. The Torah is full of pesukim that state “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying to him.”² This is the only time that Moshe spoke to Hashem, saying to Him. Dibbur (speech) implies that the speaker is saying something harsh; in other words, Moshe is demanding something and expecting to receive a reply. 

 

What was that so-important thing that made Moshe speak up like that, so different from his usual way of talking? What was foremost in his thoughts the moment Hashem told him that he was about to leave this world in the next few days, maybe even hours? 

 

This is what Moshe demands: “Let Hashem, G-d of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community who will go out before them and come in before them, who will lead them out and bring them home. Let not Hashem’s community be like a sheep without a shepherd.”² 

 

Moshe Rabbeinu, the Jewish People’s merciful shepherd, who shepherded them faithfully and devotedly for more than forty years and was willing to give up his life for them, is not willing to leave this world before being certain that there will be a worthy leader who will continue to lead the Jewish People after he dies. 

 

The G-d of Spirits 

There are two very important points here: 

Firstly, being a leader of the Jewish People is not a bonus – rather, it is something very critical and essential; that is why Rabbeinu Hakadosh, in the last teaching he gave before his passing, which later became his Will³, exhorted everyone to search in every generation for the true leader, because all of Judaism depends upon this. The Torah is not complete without it. 

 

Secondly, the Jewish People, as a nation, cannot exist without a leader, because without a “man over the community” the Jewish People might split and disintegrate. This is what indeed happened during the hundreds of years when there was no steady leadership – in the days of the Judges, when “There was no king in Yisrael, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” During this period, we see a disturbing disintegration of the Jewish People, as well as complete moral abandon among them, to the point of committing the three most severe transgressions. The lowest point took the form of fierce and bloody civil wars that claimed tens of thousands lives! 

 

Without a leader, disputes break out and the Jewish People divides into groups and factions. And so, Moshe Rabbeinu uses a very special phrase: “G-d of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the community.”² What is “G-d of the spirits”? Only one other time does this phrase appear in the Torah – in the story of Korach, where Moshe prays: “G-d, the G-d of the spirits of all flesh…” ⁴ 

 

Without a leader “infused in My spirit”, who knows how to adapt his approach to the spirit of each and every Jew – without him, the different spirits of the people cause disputes and rifts, whereby they sink lower and lower. 

 

The Figure of a Leader 

Who can be a leader of the Jewish People? 

 

Rabbi Natan, in Likutei Halachot, outlines the characteristics of the leader according to the teachings that appear in Likutei Moharan: 

First of all, a leader of the Jewish nation must have complete emuna (faith), because that is the role of a leader: to reveal the emuna and teach it to the people until all Jews obtain complete, clear and pure emuna. 

 

Secondly, the leader of the Jewish nation must have kedushat habrit (maintaining the holiness of the covenant), because brit and emuna depend on each other. Therefore, the true leader leads the Jewish nation in a path of kedusha (holiness) and tahara (purity), and purges them of the flaws in the brit, bringing them to a life of kedusha and tahara. 

 

In our generation we need a leader. We see the spirits in the nation and the rifts between the various factions. Even among G-d-fearing Jews there are no mutual understandings, and, unfortunately, there are harsh disputes that damage and harm the entire people. 

 

We all feel we must have Mashiach. We must have a leader who will find the way to lead all Jews and to deal with each person according to his unique spirit. 

 

This is true especially when we see threats from the outside coming upon us; then the need is emphasized even more. But the truth is that no external enemy can even touch the Jewish people if they are united and have a true connection with each other. For that, one needs a true leader. 

 

Shmuel Among Those Who Called His Name 

As mentioned, the most difficult period for the Jewish People was the period of the Shoftim (Judges), when there was no one leader of the nation. The book of Shoftim ends with the sad story of Pilegesh beGiv’a and a civil war that came close to annihilating the tribe of Binyamin.⁵ What is the conclusion from that period? 

 

The conclusion is the book of Shmuel. Shmuel Hanavi wrote Sefer Shoftim, as well as Sefer Shmuel. Shmuel Hanavi is the tikkun (rectification) of the period of the Shoftim because he was the leader who united and connected all Jews with each other – and with Hashem. It says that in his days, “all of the House of Yisrael yearned for Hashem.”⁶ That is why he is equated with Moshe and Aharon, and he is the one who crowned the kings – Shaul, and the eternal leader of the Jewish nation, David, Melech Yisrael (King of Yisrael), from whom the Mashiach will come.  

 

Because that is the tikkun: true leadership that brings and hastens the coming of Mashiach, who is the only one who will make peace among Jews and Peace in the world, and therefore he is called “Sar Shalom”. 

 

The Conclusion: Dissemination 

How is this connected to each and every one of us? 

 

Chazal, in the book Tanna Devei Eliyahu, draw an amazing conclusion from the story of Pilegesh beGiv’a: “You might ask, those seventy thousand killed in Givat Bnei Binyamin, why were they killed? Because the Great Sanhedrin should have tied iron ropes around their waists and lifted up their clothes above their knees [in other words, not wear cumbersome robes, but light clothes suitable for walking from place to place] and go around all the cities of Yisrael, one day in Lachish, one day in Beit El, one day in Chevron, one day in Jerusalem, and teach the Jews Torah and mussar, so that the Name of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, be sanctified all over the world that He created, from one end to another, and they didn’t do so. Rather, each one of them entered his vineyard and wine and field, and said, “Peace be to you, my soul,” so that they wouldn’t have to exert themselves. Therefore, in Givat Binyamin, where the people did not learn Torah and derech eretz (proper behavior), the Jewish nation gathered together to fight and seventy thousand died. And who killed them all? You can say, it was the Sanhedrin that killed them!”⁷ 

 

These are explicit and fearsome words, and they speak for themselves! 

 

It is forbidden for any one of us to say, “Peace be to you, my soul”. We must go out and meet our brothers, Bnei Yisrael, and speak to them, and teach them emuna, and teach them kedushah and shmirat habrit; teach them to pray and to do hitbodedut. We should repent and cause all Jews as well to repent completely, so that all of the Jewish nation will ask for Hashem, their G-d, and David, their king, the true leader, the Melech HaMashiach, for only then will Yisrael express itself with greatness and true glory, in keeping with Hashem’s will and the will of the tzaddikim. 

 

May it be so with great mercy, speedily in our days, Amen. 

 

---

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Bamidbar (Numbers) 27:12-13 

² Bamidbar 27:15-17 

³ I Likutei Moharan 282 

⁴ Bamidbar 16:22 

⁵ Shoftim (Judges) 19-21 

⁶ Shmuel I (I Samuel) 7:2

⁷ Tanna Devei Eliyahu – Eliyahu Raba 11