A new year is soon upon us.
Unlike secular custom, which encourages us to greet the first day of January with celebration and partying, Jewish custom immerses us in a 15-day framework of contemplation and reflection when the first day of Tishrei rolls by.
For all the opportunities our traditions provide us to search our souls, to pave a new path for ourselves, we should be pretty good at it. That we don’t usually demonstrate strong soul-searching abilities – individually or societally – might be one of the reasons God continues to give us so many opportunities to do so. He wants us to get it right. Eventually.
This year during the High Holidays, as we measure and assess our own inner selves, we are also being asked by a large cadre of men and women to outwardly at least assess and measure them as candidates for the House of Commons.
Jewish tradition sets high standards for those who would be leaders within the community. For example, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, proposed four criteria to his wise but beleaguered son-in-law for choosing leaders from among the people. “Choose from the entire people men of valour (i.e. of good character) who are God-fearing, men of truth, haters of corruption.”
There are many other references in our holy books and our tradition to the characteristics we require of those who seek public office. Indeed, every Shabbat morning we praise men and women who work “faithfully” (i.e., in accordance with the values and standards of our faith) for the benefit of the public good.
Nachman Ben Jacob, one of the sage Amora’im (early generation of teachers) in Babylon, added, “A leader must always show respect for his community.” By demanding that a leader show respect for the community, Reb Nachman was propagating a strict test of behaviour. A leader must always act scrupulously for the right and good of the community whose trust he or she has sought.
Outside of Jewish sources, one of the most memorable statements regarding the qualities we seek in our leaders was written by Josiah Gilbert Holland, an American novelist and poet who lived through the crucible of the Civil War.
“God, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honour; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.”
Holland’s statement still stands the test of time. Indeed, it came to mind recently when Natan Sharansky, chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency, described the July 2015 agreement with Iran as a point of “great shame for the West.”
It was the first time, Sharansky said, that western leaders signed an agreement with a dictatorship – in this case a brutal theocracy that oppresses its own citizens, foments terror around the world and openly calls for and underwrites the annihilation of a member state of the United Nations – but made no demands upon that dictatorship to change its behaviour in exchange for concessions. Concessions were instead granted to the dictatorship.
The leaders of the western world stood before the demagogic regime, but, unfortunately, did not “damn its treacherous flatteries.”
