That great 19th Century African American educator Booker T. Washington exemplified the power of a simple and modest spirit. A story is told of a day when Washington, then a professor at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, happened to pass the mansion of a wealthy woman as he walked to work.
The woman did not recognize him and called out, “Hey you! Come here! I need some wood chopped!” She was a product of her southern post-Civil War culture and simply perceived him as a black man who was there to do her bidding.
The woman did not recognize him and called out, “Hey you! Come here! I need some wood chopped!” She was a product of her southern post-Civil War culture and simply perceived him as a black man who was there to do her bidding.
Without a word, Dr. Washington peeled off his jacket, picked up the ax and went to work. He not only cut a large pile of wood, he also carried the firewood into the house and arranged it neatly by the fireplace.
He had scarcely left when a servant said to the woman, “I guess you didn’t recognize him, ma’am, but that was Professor Washington!”
Embarrassed and ashamed, the woman hurried over to Tuskegee Institute to apologize. The great educator respectfully replied: “There’s no need to apologize, madam. I’m delighted to do favors for my friends.” [As told by Steve Goodier < http://www.lifesupportsystem.com/>]
Such was the grace and humility of this great African-American leader of the late 19th and early 20thcentury. Booker T. Washington was born a slave in 1856 in Virginia and grew to be an educator and author, a spokesperson for his people and an advisor to Presidents. This week we begin the story of another man who was born into slavery and became a great leader of his people. Like Booker T. Washington, this man was also famed for his simple and modest spirit. We read of the birth of Moses, who the Torah calls, “the most humble of any man on earth.” We see him in conflict with the Egyptian Pharaoh, who is characterized by humility’s opposite, pride and arrogance. Pharaoh is the very picture of a confident and self-assured monarch. He knows that he has been born to rule and groomed to govern his great nation. He has definite ideas as to where he is leading his country. Even when his advisers counsel that he should soften his policy toward his Jewish slaves, that Egypt is about to be lost, he rejects their entreaties and stubbornly sticks to his own way.
Whereas Pharaoh is born into a hereditary monarchy, Moses’ origins are kept purposefully vague. “A certain man from the house of Levi went and married a woman from the house of Levi,” says the Torah in identifying Moses’ parents. By keeping the identity of his parents anonymous, the Torah is telling us that Moses’ greatness is not inherited through any illustrious lineage. Moses was not born to lead – his right to lead was earned through his character. We know two things about Moses’ character. The first, as I have already said, was that he was the most humble of men. He did not want to be the leader of the Jewish people. He protested to G-d that he had a flaw that would doom his leadership – he had a stutter and could not speak. But G-d responds, “You don’t have to be perfect to be a leader. We are all flawed. It is only when we do not recognize that fact that we are flawed are we not fit to lead.”
The second thing that we know about Moses was that he was an “upstander”. Have you ever heard that word? When I looked it up in Miriam Webster’s online dictionary, I was informed that an “upstander” is “one of the handlebars on an Eskimo sledge.” Another definition of the word is being championed for inclusion in the Oxford and Webster dictionaries by two young women now in their twenties, Monica Mahal and Sara Decker. As they tell it, “During bullying prevention movements in our high school, the term “upstander” was used on a casual basis. While we were typing up a speech, huddled in a coffee shop on a cold winter day, the word “upstander” continued to appear on the screen with the distinct red squiggly line beneath it. The message was clear: there is an error.
“We both double checked our spelling, still to no avail of eliminating the spell check notification. At that moment we realized that this groundbreaking term, one that has inspired our own local community to eschew intolerance, is technically not an official English word. Since then, we have been determined to give upstander its deserved spot in the dictionary.” As they define it, “An upstander is an individual who sees wrong and acts. A person who takes a stand against an act of injustice or intolerance is not a “positive bystander” — they are an UPstander.”
That is a perfect word to describe Moses. The first time we meet Moses as an adult he witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. He immediately intervenes, and accidently kills the Egyptian. The next day, the Torah tells us, he intervenes in a conflict between two Hebrews. This guy can’t seem to mind his own business – he is incapable of turning away when he sees what we call today “bullying behavior”. The aggressor turns to Moses and says, “Do you mean to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” Moses, realizing the matter is known, flees to Midian. No sooner does he arrive than he encounters the daughters of Jethro, a priest of Midian at a well watering their flocks. Shepherds drive them off, and once again, Moses steps in to defend the weak. He simply cannot turn away in the face of injustice.
The next thing we know, Moses is being called by G-d at the burning bush. That is Moses – a humble upstander with no “yichus” as we say, no pedigree, no family history that can give him bragging rights. And he is exactly who G-d needs.
Shabbat Shalom
