Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

“Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?’ And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. But God said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.’”

The above scene represents a critical turning point in the story of the Exodus. Moses brings forth water from a rock and in the process is told by God that he would not be able to finish the mission he started — to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. In an article on the Israeli website BINA, Avraham Eisen writes that this episode can teach us a great deal about the transition of leadership from one generation to the next.

Timing is everything. Few leaders want to voluntarily step down from their positions of power, privilege and influence. Yet there comes a time when new challenges or changing circumstances find the leadership of an older generation wanting. Optimally, a successful leader should know that it is time to leave the arena before he or she suffers the ignominious humiliation of a Moses at the Rock.

The second lesson we can draw, says Eisen, is that when the empathy that a leader has for his people weakens, it is time for a new leader. The people are justifiably frightened and thirsty, yet Moses seems to have run out of patience with them. He angrily calls them “rebels” and strikes the rock, not once, but twice. This is a sign of mental exhaustion, brought about by the sustained stress of leading this obstreperous nation for so many years. Today we might call it burnout. The yawning gap that has opened between Moses and his people cannot be bridged. It has reached the point of no return.

The third lesson we can learn, according to Eisen, is that leadership needs to be well suited to the task at hand. Moses was the perfect fit to speak to Pharaoh, to bring on the plagues, to lead the Jewish People out of Egypt, and to teach them the Torah that God gave at Sinai. He may have been just the person to lead them into the Land of Canaan, had things gone according to plan. But they didn’t. The people sinned and the generation that Moses led from Egypt — his generation — would die in the desert before reaching Canaan. A new generation would rise in their place. Perhaps the first “generation gap” in history would make Moses a mismatch to these younger people in need of younger leaders.

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