
By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Debbie Plawner was looking to plan something special for her sister Kim Rosenberg’s birthday. The special something became a celebration for the whole community.
Plawner has been taking classes with Jewish educator, mentor and scholar Yiscah Smith online; when Kim who previously studied at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, started sending her episodes of Pardes’ podcast including Smith, it sparked an idea.
“I said ‘Kim, that’s my teacher,’ and I knew I really wanted for my sister to meet my teacher,” Plawner recalled.
Smith, a teacher at Pardes, Applied Jewish Spirituality and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality in Jerusalem, had a West Coast speaking tour in the works when she was contacted by Plawner about coming to Portland. As it turned out, Rosenberg’s birthday was right in the middle of a series of appearances Smith was scheduled to make in San Francisco. Smith thought it was a great idea, covering her own airfare to make it to Portland for the weekend.
The subject was of Rosenberg’s choosing – she asked for a course on leadership development, Plawner explained, “so that people grappling with the changes that are happening within our community are equipped with a deeper resource that could help them deal with some of the challenges they face.”
Smith obliged with a Thursday, Nov. 21 lecture in the Stampfer Chapel at Congregation Neveh Shalom, based on a 2013 essay by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”l, and a 2022 essay by Rabbi David Ackerman. Both essays examined Parshat Chukah, the section of the Book of Numbers where Moses, for a second time, draws water from a rock with his staff.
Rabbi Sacks explains in his essay that, in the first instance of Moses drawing water from the rock, he was directed by G-d to strike the stone with his staff. In Numbers, however, the direction was to take his staff and speak to the rock. However, Moses struck the rock just as he had the first time.
The difference, Rabbi Sacks elaborated, was that these were different people than the first time around. The previous generation was slaves – they understood a stick as a tool of compelling behavior, of control through violence. Forty years on, the community Moses drew water for this second time were free people (born in the desert) – they had to learn – through speaking – to take responsibility.
“A leader must be sensitive to the call of the hour – this hour, this generation, this chapter in the long story of a people,” Rabbi Sacks wrote. “Even the greatest leader cannot meet the challenges of a different generation. That is not a failing. It is the existential condition of humanity.”
“I’m sure some of you could suggest why we’re in a period now with some of the leaders are hunkering down, digging their heels on the ground; ‘It was, it is, and it will be.’ Meanwhile, more and more people are finding that irrelevant at best, if not offensive,” Smith said. “I think that’s so important that for our leaders today, for you as leaders in whatever capacity you’re leading, that the leadership of today is inspired by, informed by the past, but not defined by that.”
Smith, turning to Rabbi Ackerman’s piece, elaborated on what speaking would have promoted in the moment – dialogue.
“If Moses would have spoken to them, they would have worked it out,’ she said. “The distinguishing component here highlights the need for leadership to be in conversation with their followers. I don’t see enough of that.”
Rabbi Ackerman examined, among others, the thoughts of Rabbi Avraham Dov, who wrote that “each [person] was created to be in service to the Creator in a different manner, according to their soul,” as well as Rabbi Moshe Rothenberg, who wrote that a leader “must know the souls of each and every one and know the service that pertains to that soul.”
“When we weave all these ideas together, might we identify a common denominator shared by all?” Smith asked. “I would argue yes, there is a common denominator in that they all address different shades of a type of leadership that is currently sorely missing and urgently, urgently necessary.”
It’s a leadership that empowers, motivates, and inspires.
“I want my leaders to get me on fire,” Smith elaborated. “I want them to get me so that I can get me, and then I can be the best in the world, for all of you.”
The evening concluded with break-out discussions of personal purpose and how leadership can support that development.
“I really appreciated the breakout and the opportunity to listen to fellow leaders talk about the ways in which they face challenges with leaders with their communities,” Plawner said.
Smith’s weekend Portland continued with a Shabbat dinner on Friday evening and morning services on Saturday, both at private residences, before a meditation workshop Saturday evening at the Eastside Jewish Commons. Smith is releasing a new book soon, Plawner said; she hopes that the tour will include a stop in Portland and an appearance before a larger audience.
Learn more about Smith’s teaching and mentorship work at yiscahsmith.com.
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