Sie sind auf Seite 1von 2

Yosef & Paroh: Competing Models of Leadership

Rabbi Maury Grebenau


When we look at this parsha with fresh eyes, Parohs actions are almost impossible to
understand. Lets imagine Paroh as a CEO or the apex of a government organization as a way to
frame his actions. Paroh calls a meeting with the general managers to explain his idea. Guys he
says, I just saw an amazing presentation on the economic future of our company and I am
making this guy the CFO!. The other managers are surprised, Boss, can you tell us a little
about him?. Well Paroh says, Not much to tell. He just got out of jail yesterday but hes got
a lot of potential. In terms of experience he used to run Potifars home operation. You know him,
down in sales. One of the managers breaks the silence with the question everyone wants to ask,
What was he in jail for?. Oh, he was accused of assaulting Potifars wife. The managers are
now sweating. Another brave soul ventures another question to try and get Paroh to see the light,
Is he a cultural fit?. Paroh leans back in his chair, Well he is a Hebrew but seems like a sharp
one. Those guys who shepherd our gods and sometimes eat them?!
We could continue the scene but the point is clear, this move was ridiculous and everyone
around Paroh must have seen it. Clearly the hand of Hashem is at work here but there seems to
be another message here as well. As we look a little further in the Torah, there seems to be a
theme of the Mitzrim taking some pretty inexplicable courses of action. If we look to the next
inexplicable scene it might be the Mitzrim chasing the Jews after the ten plagues only to be
destroyed at the sea. After all they had been through to the point that Paroh himself begged the
Jews to leave after the plague of the firstborn, chasing them now seems foolhardy in the extreme.
Why is it that Mitzrayim becomes a model of these poor decisions?
Lets look more deeply into the narrative in Shemot to identify how Paroh is
characterized to see what we can learn about our own parsha. Later in Shemot (5:2), Paroh says
to Moshe and Aharon, Who is Hashem that I should listen to Him?!. He completely denies that
there is anything higher or more in control than himself. Rashi (Shemos 7:15) tells us that Paroh
acted as a deity and every morning he would go out to the Nile to go to the bathroom in order to
hide the fact that he has bodily needs. But there is an even more sinister aspect to this act. The
Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 9:9) tells us that that the Egyptians worshiped the Nile as one of their
gods1. When Paroh uses the Nile as his personal toilet he is defiling the waters of one of the
deities of Egypt. He is showing clearly that he feels there is nothing aside from him. Paroh
becomes the symbol of gayvah, haughtiness.
At the beginning of the enslavement (1:8) Rashi quotes an argument about if the Paroh
mentioned as the new king was indeed a different person or the same person with a different set
of rules less favorable to the Jewish people. The fact that there is even a dispute when the verse
1

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.

The book which focuses on this is called Good to Great


One of the contrasts he uses between these leaders and others in the same industry is the size of their picture in the
companys annual report. The level 5 leaders have pictures which are smaller or absent altogether.
4
Shemaya tells us to hate Rabbaut (pirkei avot 1:10) which is according to most a position of authority
3

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen