The Sun, Moon and Stars

Tomorrow, we start a new Sunday School and adult education year at Beth Chai.  I am so looking forward to seeing our community at Garrett Park Elementary.  It is also an important day for our community – it is the first day of our collaboration with Machar and Kehila Chadasha on Sunday School education.  The Beth Chai leadership has been working tirelessly this summer on this partnership and it will be very exciting to see it come to fruition.

I’ve been thinking about leadership styles and collaboration a lot over the last few months.  In the Torah, we meet various types of leaders and witness a variety of collaborative moments. Two of the most important leaders are Moses and Joshua.  In the legends of our people, Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery and Joshua leads the people into the land of Israel.  But their leadership styles are very different.  Whereas Moses leads on his own, for example going up Mt. Sinai without anybody else, Joshua is a far more collaborative leader.
 

We read in the Talmud:
פני משה כפני חמה; פני יהושע כפני לבנה
Moses’ face radiates like the sun; Joshua’s face radiates like the moon.
(Bava Batra 75a)

 
What’s the difference between leading like the sun and leading like the moon? The sun is so bright that you can’t see anything else.  It takes up all the space in the sky.  The moon, though, is different.  On a dark night, when you look at the moon, you can see all the stars twinkling beside it.  So it is with collaboration.  Everybody has the chance to shine. 

That’s my hope with our new collaboration – may it allow each of the congregations and each member to shine.  Together, may we make a beautiful tapestry.  Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow and to a wonderful year of learning!