{"id":55560,"date":"2019-05-15T14:09:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T11:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55560"},"modified":"2022-12-07T18:47:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T16:47:28","slug":"dr-seusss-torah-on-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dr-seusss-torah-on-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Seuss\u2019s Torah On Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[402,704],"acf":{"old_id":"55560","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39525,"related_cahpter":"220","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Bad leaders fills the vacuum when good leaders don\u2019t step up","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a striking and curious parable about leadership in Judges 9, a nominating committee of trees seeks a ruler. They go to three fine species: the olive, the fig and the vine. Each rejects leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, \u201cReign over us.\u2019 But the olive tree replied, \u2018Have I, through whom God and men are honored, stopped yielding my rich oil, that I should go and wave about the trees? So the trees said to the fig tree, \u2018You come and reign over us.\u2019 But the fig tree replied&#8230;So the trees said to the vine, \u201cYou come and reign over us.\u201d But the vine replied&#8230;Then all the trees said to the thornbush, \u201cYou come and reign over us.\u201d And the thornbush said to the trees, \u201cIf you are acting honorably in anointing me king over you, come and take shelter in my shade, but if not, may fire issue from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!\u201d (Judges 9:8-15)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s clear that each tree believes it nobility and distinction lies in what it produces \u2013 a product of honor, sweetness or happiness, and that leadership is just \u201cto wave above the trees.\u201d To sway is to flip-flop, to go with the wind, to not take a position, to not move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The nominating committee is ineffectual because they don\u2019t persuade individual candidates. They simply move to the next candidate. They eventually turn to a bramble that has no shade (but promises that it does!), no roots and no fruit. The bramble agrees on one condition. It must be appointed honorably and not just as a last ditch-effort to put someone in place. Otherwise, the bramble will do what brambles are good at: setting other trees on fire. Bad leadership destroys.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nogah Hareuveni in <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tree and Shrub in Our Biblical Heritage<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> makes the case that this bramble, the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">atad<\/span><\/em><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is not a rolling tumbleweed but a tree called the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ziziphus Spinachristi<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, brought to Israel by way of Africa. Although the tree offers much shade and height, it is known to be harmful to fruit trees because it chokes them from the roots. Leaders may look good, but they can destroy ecosystems beneath the surface.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The message of the parable couldn\u2019t be clearer. Bad leaders fills the vacuum when good leaders don\u2019t step up. Often we\u2019d rather have bad leaders than no leaders so that we have someone else to blame for our troubles and someone else to make our communal decisions. Giving up that autonomy, the parable teaches, has a steep price because when leadership gets really bad, good leaders are afraid to step in and take responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[For a full treatment of this parable, see Erica Brown \u2018Where have All the Leaders Gone?\u201d in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Rav Shalom Banayikh<\/em> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Ktav, 2012)]<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55561,"id":55561,"title":"jud9-seussian tree","filename":"jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dr-seusss-torah-on-leadership\/jud9-seussian-tree\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud9-seussian-tree","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55560,"date":"2019-05-15 11:08:27","modified":"2019-05-15 11:08:49","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":609,"height":759,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","medium_large-width":609,"medium_large-height":759,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","large-width":609,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","1536x1536-width":609,"1536x1536-height":759,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","2048x2048-width":609,"2048x2048-height":759,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","post_full_size-width":609,"post_full_size-height":759,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-337x420.jpg","home_baner-width":337,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Dr. Seuss\u2019s Torah On Leadership","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Bad leaders fills the vacuum when good leaders don\u2019t step up","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":55561,"id":55561,"title":"jud9-seussian tree","filename":"jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/dr-seusss-torah-on-leadership\/jud9-seussian-tree\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud9-seussian-tree","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55560,"date":"2019-05-15 11:08:27","modified":"2019-05-15 11:08:49","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":609,"height":759,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","medium_large-width":609,"medium_large-height":759,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","large-width":609,"large-height":759,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","1536x1536-width":609,"1536x1536-height":759,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","2048x2048-width":609,"2048x2048-height":759,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree.jpg","post_full_size-width":609,"post_full_size-height":759,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud9-seussian-tree-337x420.jpg","home_baner-width":337,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109746,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55560\/revisions\/109746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}