A friend of mine recently purchase a Toyata Prius, one of the more popular new hybrid cars. When I asked him how he liked it, he enthusiastically responded, noting of course that in addition to being a good car, it was a car that was also good for the world. And indeed, environmentalists the world over have highlighted the importance of purchasing such a car as a means to hopefully improve the Earth’s situation vis-a-vis global warming. My friend then added one more comment, one that I found particularly shocking: Apparently, in addition to being the car of choice for environmentally conscious individuals, the Prius is also the favored car of gang members — that’s right, gangs! — in the Los Angeles area. Isn’t that nice, I thought; even criminals are beginning to have a conscious about global issues. It reminded me of a joke I once heard by the comedian Paul Rodriguez: “The good thing about gang is, at least they carpool.”
My friend then corrected me and informed me that the gangs did not favor the Prius due to it’s environmental credentials, but rather because it was an incredibly quiet car. In fact, the Prius is so quiet when switched to the electric mode (as opposed to when it used a traditional gas engine), it is nearly impossible to hear the car as it approaches … and that’s exactly the reason why the gangs love it. When they are planning a drive by shooting, the element of surprise is key … and the Prius provides that much needed element.
After absorbing the absurdity of the situation for a few moments, it hit me that there is an important lesson here: The Prius is successful, in part, because it has the ability to ‘speak’ to many different populations — as exhibited by my friend’s appreciation fo the car — he an environmentally sensitive Orthodox Jerusalem Jew — as well as the love of the car by the Crips and Bloods of Los Angeles. Obviously, any car — and product for that matter — that can speak to such a wide audience is going to succeed.
So, too, I believe is the case with words. If one envisions his or her words being successfully accepted by a wide audience, the speaker must realize that they must have the ability to speak to different people at different places in their life. I can’t simply assume that because I have a good product — an important message in this case — it will automatically be accepted by all. I must work at making sure it can be accepted by all, that it’s packaged in a way that speaks to different people’s specific concerns and interests.
Let me give you a Torah example of what I mean. In this week’s Torah portion, Va’era, the great Torah commentator Rashi notes that the Torah often interchanges the person to whom God addresses as the ‘leader’ of the Jewish people. Sometimes it says that God speaks to Aharon and asks him to convey a message, and sometimes it says that God speaks to Moses and asks him to convey a message. From this, Rashi asserts that Moses and Aharon must be equal in leadership importance.
“But how can that be?” Rabbi Aron Soloveitchik asks. Moses is known to be the true leader of that generation, one of the greatest leaders of all time. The Sages state explicitly that there has never been a Prophet as great as Moses. How can Rashi possibly say that Moses and Aharon his brother are on equal footing?
Rabbi Soloveitchik answers the question by pointing out an interesting Midrash: When the Torah tells us that Aharon goes out to greet his brother Moses (after Moses has been away from Egypt for a while following his killing of an Egyptians), it says that Aharon kissed his brother at their reunion. The Midrash says this kiss was like Kindness kissing Justice and Peace kissing Truth. Aharon was known to possess the former qualities (of Hesed – kindness and Shalom – peace), while Moses was known for the latter (Tzedek – justice and Emet – truth).
What Rashi was saying then when he said that Moses and Aharon were equal was not that they were actually both equally signficant leaders of the Jewish people — everyone would admit that Moses was the more essential leader — but rather that the qualities represented by the two brothers were equally important.
Sometimes, some people must be lead with kindness and peace; if they heard the absolute truth and were held to a standard of absolute justice they would collapse under the burden. For (a silly) example, imagine you want your child to try something new that they’re afraid to do, but you think — perhaps even know — that they’ll love it once they try it and will actually be quite successful at it. Such a child might need some prodding to encourage them to take a chance. This is the time to build their self-confidence. It is not the time to point out all their flaws, true though they may be. Similarly, there are other times one must insist on justice and truth, for if one did not, the child could begin going down the wrong path and returning them would be even more painful than the initial difficulty of insisting on these attributes.
The Torah itself provides additional examples. Notice when God commands one of the brothers to speak to the Pharoah. Usually, the recipient of the command is Moses. That’s because God wants truth spoken to power, and for that Moses is the right man. Pharoah cannot be coddled; he’s a wicked person. He must be told in no uncertain terms that what he’s doing is wrong and against humanity. One cannot make peace with such a person, hoping that, as Winston Churchill once colorfully commented, “you can feed a hungry tiger a little piece of meat in the hope that he won’t eat you also.” Appeasement in such a case won’t work.
However, when God wants a message delayed to the Jewish people, it is Aharon who is usually selected to be the messenger. That’s because the Jewish people are downtrodden, beaten and in need of inspiration not insistence. They need to have the self confidence restored and hope in the future reestablished. They have to be told that they can do it (which of course they can, but only with great difficulty … and that truth can be left out at this point in time); they have to have their concerns addressed and peace made with their fears.
A good leader should possess the qualities of both Moses and Aharon, and even more importantly, know when to use his or her different qualities based on the needs of the different people he or she is trying to lead. It’s not enough to have the right message; a leader must also learn what’s necessary for people to be able to hear the message.
