Shameless Rabbi's
Seven Rabbis were summoned late at night for an early morning exclusive session to determine if the year should be interlocated (fancy word for adding a month - a Jewish Leap Year) as is proscribed. Eight Rabbi's showed up. This is not the beginning of a joke. True story Talmud Sanhedrin.
The organizing Rabbi questioned who showed up uninvited. Shmuel raised his hand. When asked why he came, he said to observe and learn the procedures. The organizing Rabbi (R' Gamliel) praised his dedication.
The Talmud tells us that Shmuel wanted to prevent the shame from the actual culprit who showed up uninvited.
***
This leads to a question: what is shame? Did Shmuel not have shame for now being seen as the culprit? Did he not care? Does he not have shame?
***
When we hear of a shameless person, usually we think about this as a negative. We think of a person with low moral character who doesn't care what others may think of them. They'll do anything, they are shameless.
But on a positive note, there is another type of person who is shameless and that is a person who doesn't define their self evaluation by the opinions of others because they get their sense of worth from their essence, their soul!
If you know who you are in truth, you stand proudly regardless of your shortcomings, deficiencies and are able to keep focused on moving forward.
The Torah portion this week lists the individual gifts of the leaders of the Tribes and their gifts to the Mishkan. When the donations were given for the construction of the portable Temple they stood back and said "we'll give whatever is not donated". The Torah tells us that more than enough was given and so the leaders the Nesiim's gifts were superflous. They didn't carry their shame but moved forward with being the first to give the donations at the inauguration of the Mishkan. They didn't carry their shame, they moved forward.
Who were these leaders that had this inner sense of worth? Our Sages tell us these were the Jewish People who were assigned as the Taskmasters over their brothers during the time of the Egyptian slavery. They chose to take the beatings themselves rather than oppress their brothers. Their sense of self and their dedication to the Jewish People earned them the role of Leaders of the Tribes. These are the very same people who know how to move forward.
A leader is not one who doesn't make a mistake, it is one who doesn't get stuck in the shame of it and knows who they are and move forward with inner strength!
Good Shabbos!
Continue Reading
