Moshe pleads with Hashem to name his successor who would lead Bnei Yisrael. In closing, he entreats Hashem not to permit Bnei Yisrael to be left without leadership. One would think that in the desert the Jewish People were bereft of competent leadership. True, Moshe would be gone, but he left behind him those who learned leadership skills directly from him: Yehoshua, his student par excellence; Pinchas, the zealot who had the courage to stand up to a nasi who had publicly desecrated Hashem’s Name; Elazar, the son of Aharon HaKohen, the Kohen Gadol who was the paradigm of sanctity; the Zekeinim, Elders, who stood at the helm of the nation, who completed Moshe’s inner circle of leadership. Can we really assert that Bnei Yisrael would be left as sheep without a shepherd?
Horav Elchanan Wasserman,zl, takes a practical approach, maintaining that a team of leaders, a committee, is not equivalent to solo leadership. A single leader who embodies the critical leadership qualities will be more successful than a group of leaders who probably will spend more time laying claim to their own territory than working for the community. One person must make the decision; he can — and should — delegate authority to others to execute various duties. He should even encourage decision making on the part of others. He should always remember, however, that the ultimate responsibility lies with him. It is his responsibility to accept – not to use as a vehicle for projecting blame onto others. He must be the “ish al ha’eidah,” the (one) man over the assembly, the focal point of the entire congregation, earning the esteem and love of his followers.
