In this week’s reading, Moshe announces to the people of Israel that he can no longer lead them. “He said to them, ‘I am 120 years old today; I can no longer come and go, and Hashem said to me, “you shall not cross the Jordan River”’” [31:2].
Lest they think they are to be abandoned, Moshe goes on to remind them that they are always, permanently led by HaShem, who guards over them: “Hashem your G-d, He shall lead before you, He shall destroy these nations…” But then he says, “Yehoshua [Joshua], he shall lead before you, as Hashem spoke” [v. 3]. The language used in both phrases is precisely the same, “he shall lead before you,” whether referring to Hashem or to Yehoshua. And then Moshe commands Yehoshua to lead the nation into the land, with Hashem leading the way [v. 7-8].
Jews may or may not have a Temple. They may or may not live in their land under their own rulership. They may experience peace or persecution. But there are always Jewish leaders, able to tell us how to proceed. And Hashem showed us how it is done: not based upon elections or popular choice, but through recognition by others, especially those who preceded them.
In the past, there were those who claimed that the Torah was “made up” (ch”v) at some point during the First Temple period, or even later. Yet we can track the leaders of the Jewish people throughout that time, and ask when (not to mention how) that happened. Today, there are even those who question whether the Jews of today are the Israelites of the Bible—and again we can point to the same chain of leadership. Not because people nominated themselves or vied for the position, but because they devoted themselves to the teachings of the leaders who came before them.
In the way that Moshe conveyed the leadership to Yehoshua, even in recent years our greatest scholars would point to their successors as their health began to decline. The Jewish People are not left like a ship without a rudder, in a model of leadership that, more than any other, has withstood the test of time!
