The greatest leader of the Jewish people was Moshe. In Parashat Shemot we read about the birth of Moshe, his flight to Midian and his experience at the Burning Bush where he is charged with the mission of redeeming the Jewish people from Egypt and leading them to receive the Torah and to enter Eretz Yisroel.
Unlike the detailed stories of the Avot, the Torah tells us very little about Moshe Rabbeinu in his youth. But in the few stories that we do read, we see the important qualities that made Moshe worthy of being the great leader of Klal Yisroel.
After being ‘adopted’ by the daughter of Pharaoh and given back to his own mother to nurse him, the Torah teaches ויגדל הילד, that Moshe grew up and was brought back to the palace. Only a few verses later, the Torah repeats ויגדל משה, that Moshe grew up. Rashi teaches that whereas the first verse refers to growing in the literal sense of becoming older, the second reference refers to Moshe becoming great in his stature - that he attained greatness.
The Tiferet Shlomo explains that Moshe’s greatness is reflected in the next wordsויצא אל אחיו וירא בסבלתם, that he went out to his brothers and saw their suffering. Moshe did not just physically see their suffering. Rashi teaches that he “set his eyes and heart to be pained" by it. More than just witnessing their oppression, Moshe empathised with their plight and genuinely felt their pain.
And he did not just feel their pain and move on. The Torah proceeds to illustrate how despite the personal risk involved, Moshe took action in the face of injustice, to protect the weak and those who were being mistreated.
When Moshe saw an Egyptian overseer striking a Jewish slave, he could have looked the other way. But he took action and killed the Egyptian.
The next day, when he saw the two Jews, Datan and Aviram fighting, he did not ignore it and look the other way. He called out the wrongdoer who had raised his hand to strike his fellow.
Moshe did this all at great personal risk. After these episodes, Datan and Aviram reported Moshe’s actions to the Egyptian authorities. Moshe was arrested and sentenced to be executed and after miraculously being spared, he was forced to flee to Midian.
One would have thought that after all of this, Moshe had learned that mixing in to other people’s fights was not in his interests.
Yet, when he arrived in Midian, he again encountered injustice when the daughters of Yitro were being harassed by the local shepherds. You would think that after all that he had lost, Moshe had learned that it is better to keep your mouth shut and not get involved. But again, Moshe stood up to the aggressors to protect the victim.
As a prince in the Egyptian palace, Moshe could have ignored the plight of the lowly slaves and enjoyed his life of luxury, wealth and comfort. Protecting his position, he could have ignored the Hebrew slave being beaten and he could have buried his head and not mixed in to the quarrel of two Jewish trouble makers.
This was Moshe’s greatness and the strength of character that he displayed that showed his readiness to be a leader.
Moshe did not only stand up to his fellow man in the face of injustice. At the end of the Parsha, Moshe is prepared to stand up against G-d Himself in the face of the suffering of Bnei Yisroel. After Pharaoh decreed that the slaves would no longer be given straw with which to make bricks, Moshe cast his words against the Almighty; “Why have You done evil to this people… and You have not saved Your people."
To challenge Hashem’s running of the world was the greatest risk of all and Moshe was sternly rebuked for it. But when faced with the suffering of his people and the perceived injustice of Golut, personal risk was the furthest thing from his mind.
Over the last few weeks, we have praised the heroes of Bondi Beach, who showed courage and leadership to take action to protect others, putting aside any consideration of their own safety. At the same time we have vociferously called out the failures of the State and Federal government who lacked that type of leadership, being too concerned about protecting their own positions and voter electorates than to stand up for what is right.
We also need to look inside ourselves. We can highlight the failures of others in large events and tragedies, but how do we act in the small scale-incidents? How often do we see or hear of someone being mistreated, publicly embarrassed or harassed and do nothing? Our sages teach that public embarrassment is akin to bloodshed, yet it is far easier to ignore it, to go about our business and pretend nothing happened. We think why should I get involved and put myself at risk?
The Alter Rebbe teaches us that each of us has a spark of the soul of Moshe Rabbeinu inside of them. We saw this spark in the heroic actions on Bondi Beach and now we need to express it in our own daily lives. When we see someone else being mistreated, we must be the champions of justice and right; to empathise, to speak out, to rise up and take action.