Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
This is why the plague of blood was done first in order to attack their deity and show it impotence
clearly states that this is a new king implies that there is continuity here. Even if this is a new
Paroh during the enslavement, there is still the continuity of everything that his office and the
nation of Egypt are all about even in sefer Bereishit. Mitzrayim and Paroh represent this ultimate
gayvah in a sense of leadership. This is one model of how to run things presented to us in these
parshiot. This structure acts as a foil to the other paradigm of leadership embodied by Yosef.
In our parsha we see Yosef acting as a very different type of leader. Yosef immediately
says that it is not him but Hashem who interprets the dream (41:16). He has the ability to take
credit for his action but instead pushes the credit away. He pauses when speaking to the brothers
to say that he fears Hashem (42:18), a very unusual move for an Egyptian officer. He presents
himself as a tool which Hashem is using to fulfill His will in the world. There is no gayvah.
When Jim Collins writes2 about companies which were able to go from being good solid
companies to some of the strongest companies around he identifies a number of attributes which
they seem to have in common. One of them is what he terms a level 5 leader. Such leaders are
understated and humble and they consider the good of the company over their own image3.
Yosef was such a leader and he laid out a plan for how Egypt could succeed never keeping the
glory for himself.
Paroh and Yosef are shown in the Torah as two different models of leadership. There is a
type of leadership which is successful and it is the Yosef model. We are being sent a clear
message: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is the danger of
leadership we are told to avoid in Pirkei Avot4. We must use the model of Yosef to make sure we
are leading and not lording. Having the mindset of a good leader is not easy but it strengthens an
organization and follows in the footsteps of Yosef.