Modern-Day Moshe

Leadership That Builds Faith Across Generations

(Parashat Shemot)

Dedication

In memory of our holy soldiers who fell sanctifying God’s Name and the Land of Israel:

Ephraim son of Liat and Shmuel, Yosef Malachi son of Dina and David, Eliyahu Moshe Shlomo son of Sarah and Shimon, Yosef Chaim son of Rachel and Eliyahu, Netanel son of Revital and Elad, Yakir son of Chaya and Yehoshua.

May their memories be a blessing, and may the elevation of their souls bring merit and strength to the entire people of Israel.

Ran Hirshorn Z'L, may his memory be a blessing

Faith Seen Up Close

In the quiet moments of the last few nights, every time I close my eyes, I find myself having the same conversation.

I am speaking with my cousin Sara and her husband Kenny, parents of Ran, a beloved son taken suddenly, far too young.

In my dream, I ask them:

“How did you know how to be people of such faith? Who taught you this secret?”

In the dream, I keep asking the question.

But in waking life, I approached their children, trying to understand what I was seeing before me.

I wrote to one son, after hearing of the loss, with the words: “This is too beyond horrible.”

He responded:

“Not horrible — just challenging. Everything Hashem does is for the best, even if we can’t see it.”

I asked their children.I asked their grandchildren.

Each one, independently, answered with the same words:

“We have good parents.”

And then, in the midst of unbearable loss, I hear Sara say as a simple truth:

“We are so blessed to have been given such a remarkable son. He lived many days .We have no complaints.”

Alongside her stands Miriam — Ran’s wife — and what she embodied was no less extraordinary. With calm, with steadiness, and with an open heart, she was able to lovingly celebrate the life she shared with her husband. There was no blame. No anger. No bitterness. Only real, overwhelming love — spoken gently, honestly, and without pretense.

This was not emotional suppression. It was not spiritual bypassing. It was the quiet strength of faith that has room for pain without being ruled by it.

This is faith that has been taught, modeled, transmitted — and held.

And it is no coincidence that this moment of witnessing modern Jewish faith comes precisely as we read the parsha in which the Torah teaches us, step by step, how Jewish leadership creates faith.

What Sara and Kenny are living — without slogans, without drama — is not accidental faith. It is faith shaped by a way of leading, parenting, and standing with others that the Torah reveals at its very beginning. Almost quietly, Parashat Shemot opens the curtain on the secrets of Jewish leadership: how faith is formed, protected, and passed on — not through heroics, but through presence.

It begins with one simple instruction.

“Take Off Your Shoes” – Leadership Begins Eye to Eye

The very first instruction God gives Moshe is not action, speech, or command.

It is posture:

“Remove your shoes from your feet, for the place upon which you stand is holy ground.” (Shemot 3:5)

Shoes create distance between a person and the ground. Removing them is an act of humility, attentiveness, and presence.

Before Moshe is allowed to lead, he is taught:

• Do not approach this mission from above

• Do not insulate yourself

• Stand with the people, not over them

Already, leadership is framed as relational, not heroic.

And there is a second foundation laid here:

Leadership cannot survive — and cannot stay honest — if it is not backed by Divine presence.

God does not say, “You are enough.”God says, “I will be with you.” (Shemot 3:12)

Jewish leadership is never self-generated faith. It is faith carried through relationship with God.

And once that foundation is laid, Moshe is shown something just as essential: what Divine power actually looks like when it enters the world. Before he is asked to represent God to others, he must first learn how God Himself leads.

The Burning Bush – Power That Does Not Consume

Moshe is then shown a vision that becomes the defining image of Godly leadership:

A bush that burns — and is not consumed.

God does not choose a mighty cedar or a towering oak. He appears in a lowly bush, vulnerable and small, yet alive within the fire. The message is subtle and profound.

Divine power does not overwhelm what it enters. It ignites without destroying. Presence does not erase the vessel that holds it.

This is not only a revelation about God. It is an instruction for Moshe.

Here is the template for Jewish leadership:

• Strength that does not dominate

• Fire that does not annihilate

• Power that leaves room for life, growth, and breath

Faith, God teaches Moshe, cannot be forced into people. It cannot be imposed through fear, pressure, or control.

This is not only a lesson for national leadership. It is a lesson for parents.

A parent, the family leader, carries power simply by standing in the room. Presence alone shapes atmosphere. Words, expectations, values, and even love itself radiate outward — whether we intend them to or not. The burning bush teaches that this power is meant to warm, not overwhelm.

Parents are not asked to produce a specific outcome or force a finished product. They are asked to keep a steady flame burning: consistent messages of faith, lived example, trust in God — offered again and again, patiently, over time.

Children grow toward faith when they are allowed their own process within that warmth. They need space to question, to struggle, to fail, and to return — all while knowing that the fire has not gone out. Fire that demands results consumes. Fire that is tended carefully gives light, direction, and life.

Faith is not imposed. It is held.

“Who Am I?” – Leadership Is Not Self-Authorized

The Jewish Leadership Masterclass now moves from how power must be held to who is permitted to hold it.

After seeing a model of leadership that does not consume, Moshe turns inward and asks a question that every honest leader eventually asks:

“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Shemot 3:11)

This is not insecurity, and it is not self-doubt. It is a question of legitimacy.

Moshe is asking: By what right do I stand before power? Who authorizes me to carry a mission this holy and this dangerous?

God’s response is striking. He does not reassure Moshe about his talents. He does not tell him he is worthy. He does not point to Moshe’s greatness.

Instead, God says:

“I will be with you.”

Leadership, the Torah teaches here, is not self-authorized. It does not come from confidence, charisma, or inner certainty.

Leadership is not heroic independence. It is relational dependence on God.

Only when a leader knows that the mission is larger than the self — and that they are not carrying it alone — can leadership remain humble, faithful, and true.

“They Will Not Believe Me” – A Request for Tools

Moshe then says:

“But they will not believe me.” (Shemot 4:1)

This line is often read as a criticism of the people, and some commentators do hear an element of misplaced suspicion in Moshe’s words. But read carefully, in the flow of the conversation, something deeper is happening.

Moshe has just been taught how power must be held and where authority comes from. Now he turns to the people themselves and names the central leadership challenge of the moment:

How do you lead a people whose faith has been crushed by suffering?

This is not a rejection of the mission. It is responsibility.

Moshe is saying: If I am to stand with them — not above them — I need to understand where they are. I need to know what support they will need to believe again.

He is asking for tools.

And God treats the question with full seriousness.

God does not say, “They will believe — don’t worry.”He does not shame Moshe for asking.He does not demand blind confidence.

Instead, God begins to teach Moshe how faith is rebuilt.

What follows is a carefully structured response — a step-by-step process. God is leading Moshe on a journey of curiosity, showing him that leadership requires paying attention to the inner state of the people and seeking — and sometimes requesting — the right tools from Heaven to meet them there.

Faith, God teaches Moshe, is not restored by command. It is rebuilt through wisdom, patience, and the courage to ask the right questions.

God Teaches Moshe How Faith Is Rebuilt

God teaches Moshe through experience,  training him in the slow, careful work of rebuilding faith.

Authority Must Be Handled Carefully

The first tool God gives Moshe is his staff.

At God’s instruction, the staff is thrown to the ground — and it becomes a snake. Moshe recoils in fear. Only when God tells him to pick it up does it return to being a staff.

Authority, God is teaching Moshe, is not neutral. When it is released without care, detached from its source, faith in God, it becomes frightening and destruc

tive. Power easily turns predatory when it is not consciously connected to Truth.

Faith cannot be restored through intimidation or force. A leader must learn how to hold authority — not throw it — so that power serves life rather than threatening it.

Action Can Isolate

Next, God turns Moshe’s attention to his own hand — the instrument of action.

Moshe places his hand inside his cloak, and when he removes it, it is afflicted. When he returns it again, it is healed.

Action, God is teaching Moshe, carries risk. Acting without constant return to relationship with Him can isolate the leader from the people. Doing, fixing, intervening — even for the right reasons — can create distance if it is not grounded in connection.

Faith does not grow where people feel acted upon. It grows where they feel accompanied.

Leadership cannot be built on force alone. It must be relational, attentive, and responsive.

Faith Is Built Gradually

Only then does God spell out the structure explicitly:

“If they do not believe the first sign… they will believe the second.” (Shemot 4:8)

God teaches Moshe that faith is not an all-or-nothing demand. It is rebuilt in stages.

A leader must be prepared to offer one sign, then another — one reassurance, then the next — meeting people where they are rather than insisting they leap to where we want them to be.

Faith grows through patience, repetition, and trust. It deepens when people are given time to absorb, to integrate, and to move forward at a human pace.

God is teaching Moshe — and through him, all future leaders — that enduring faith is built layer by layer, not through pressure, fear, or demand.

Aaron Enters – Leadership Must Be Shared

Only after all this does God introduce Aaron:

“He will see you and rejoice in his heart.” (Shemot 4:14)

This moment is not logistical. It is structural.

Until now, Moshe has been taught how to stand, how to hold power, how to ask for tools, and how to rebuild faith patiently. But there is one final lesson without which leadership cannot endure: no one is meant to lead alone.

God does not give Moshe a helper, an assistant, or a subordinate. He gives him a partner.

And the Torah emphasizes one detail above all others: Aaron will not merely accept Moshe’s role — he will rejoice in it.

Leadership that wounds relationship is not Godly leadership. Faith cannot grow in an atmosphere of rivalry, quiet resentment, or competition for honor. A mission this holy cannot rest on the silent pain of those closest to us.

Moshe’s leadership is only released into the world once it is clear that his rise will not diminish another. Aaron’s joy signals emotional safety. It says: Your role does not threaten mine. Your calling does not erase my place.

This is what makes shared leadership possible.

Leadership, the Torah teaches, must be:

• Shared — carried together rather than shouldered alone

• Safe — free from rivalry and hidden resentment

• Relational — strengthened, not weakened, by closeness

This lesson extends far beyond Moshe and Aaron.

When two parents see one another as true partners — not competitors, not correctors, not silent rivals — their children absorb faith more easily. They see trust modeled daily. They experience consistency rather than tension. They learn that leadership, like faith, can be shared without loss.

In a home where parents celebrate one another’s roles and stand together with generosity of spirit, faith does not have to be enforced. It is breathed in. And children who grow up within that safety do not merely inherit faith — they choose it, live it, and recreate it in the next generation.

From Moshe to Today – Faith Passed Forward

What we witness in the Hirshorn family is Moshe's leadership in modern form — not as theory, but as lived reality.

It is leadership practiced eye to eye: parents and spouses who do not stand above one another or above their children, but with them, present and grounded even in moments of unbearable pain.

It is leadership without cynicism: faith spoken honestly, without denial of loss, yet without bitterness or blame. Suffering is not minimized — but neither is God pushed away.

It is leadership rooted in God: not loud declarations, but quiet trust. A steady orientation toward Hashem that does not collapse under tragedy, because it was never built on guarantees.

It is leadership spacious enough for grief: love and faith are not used to silence pain, but to hold it. There is room for tears, memory, longing, and still — gratitude.

And it is leadership strong enough to transmit faith forward. Not by instruction alone, but by example lived day after day.

Their children do not speak in abstractions. They say simply, “We have good parents.” Their grandchildren are already absorbing that same language of trust and meaning.

This is the quiet miracle the Torah is teaching us in Parashat Shemot. When leadership is humble, relational, patient, partnered, and rooted in God, faith does not end with one generation.

It moves forward — chosen freely, lived authentically, and recreated with strength in the next.

This is the outcome of the Moshe leadership masterclass.

Moshe did not resist leadership.

He demanded that it be done faithfully — with humility, with patience, with partnership, and with deep respect for the fragile work of rebuilding faith.

And God answered him patiently and respectfully, guiding Moshe step by step, teaching him how to lead a wounded people back to trust in God, in themselves, and in the future.

We are still living that lesson.

Every time parents choose presence over control, partnership over rivalry, and faith over cynicism, the Moshe leadership masterclass is being lived again.

May this Torah be a source of merit and blessing, and may it stand as a dedication in loving memory of Ran, beloved son of Sara and Kenny — deeply missed, lovingly remembered.

And may it send strength and embrace to his wife Miriam, to his children, to his siblings, and to all those who carry his love forward. His life continues to illuminate the generations he touched.