Parashat Pinhas: How Moses ended his role as leader of the Jewish people

In Parashat Pinhas, which we will read this coming Shabbat, we are exposed to a defining moment: the moment when God informs Moses about the end of his role.

Moses, the first leader of Israel, who brought the people out of slavery in Egypt, who mediated between God and the people at the one-time event of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, and who led them in the desert for 40 years, receives the following message:

“Go up this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the Children of Israel. After you have seen it, you, too, will be gathered to your people as Aaron, your brother, was gathered” (Numbers 27:12-13).

God informs Moses: Your role is over. You have led the people faithfully for the past 40 years, and now, just before the people reach their destination and enter the Land of Israel, you are called to step aside. You are given the opportunity to see the land from afar, from Mount Abarim, from Mount Nebo, but you will not enter it!

Can we conclude from this that Moses failed in his role? That he took a long journey but did not reach the destination? That Moses’ journey was in vain?

We could judge Moses’ story this way if Moses had responded with anger or feelings of missed opportunity. If Moses himself had reacted this way, we could conclude that indeed, in his view it was a failure. But Moses responds differently. He asks God that the people not remain without leadership:

“May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who will go out before them and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the Lord will not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:16-17).

This response shows that Moses did not see the end of his role as a failure. He understood that he was faced with a challenge in how to respond to the announcement of which God had informed him. Moses could have focused on his personal story, been disappointed that he was not allowed to enter the Land of Israel, felt the insult, cried, or argued. But Moses did none of these things.

He chose to focus on the national story. He had a responsibility to lead the people, and this responsibility did not leave him for even a moment. True, he would soon finish his role, and this might be disappointing and saddening, but at present, he was still in his role, and it was his responsibility to ensure that the people would not remain “like sheep without a shepherd.”

The end of Moses’ role was not a failure but the conquest of another peak. Moses proved that he performed his role in the best possible way, with complete faithfulness and dedication, while ignoring his personal story and focusing on the aspect of leading the people. As described by the sages in the Midrash: “To make known the praise of the righteous, that when they depart, they put aside their own needs and engage in public needs” (Sifrei Numbers 138).

From Moses’ words, we can understand how he viewed his role. When he describes his expectations of the next leader, he says: “...who will go out before them and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in.” What does this mean?

The sages of the Midrash interpret the first part of the sentence as follows:

“Not as others do, who send forth their troops and come at the end, but... ‘who will go out before them’ – at the front, ‘and come in before them’ – at the front” (Sifri Numbers 139).

Personal example is the way to lead the people.

And what does the continuation of the sentence “and who will lead them out and bring them in” mean?

It seems that a personal example is not enough. The leader cannot hope that the public will follow him just by his personal example. The leader has the responsibility to ensure that, indeed, the public follows him. The leader needs to be not only “before the people” but also “with the people.” ■

The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites.