Moses and Middle Management
Drash On Parsha Shemot by Sid Goldstein
Shabbat Shalom.
What is middle management?
Dr. Alexander Keene, a professor from the Wharton School of Business defines it in his book The Middle Manager as, “The most thankless task of any business endeavor. The middle manager is often caught between a powerful executive who knows how things should be -and-a reluctant work force that doesn’t always want to follow policy. The middle manager has the unenviable job of trying to placate the powerful executive while attempting to achieve a significant level of productivity among the work force.”
Dr. Keene also suggest that middle management is an ancient endeavor. “It seems to have been around forever”, he says in The Middle Manager. “Yet, it seems difficult to pinpoint exactly when the concept was introduced. “But we as Jews have no difficulty understanding exactly where and when middle management begins. It begins with parsha Shemot.
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” said Moses to Hashem
When Moses asks, “Who am I?” it is not just that he feels himself unworthy. He also feels uninvolved. He may have been an Israelite by birth, but he’s had very little to do with the people Hashem wants him to save.
He had not grown up as an Israelite. He had grown up a prince of Egypt. He had been adopted as a baby by Pharaoh’s daughter. He dressed like an Egyptian, looked like an Egyptian and spoke like an Egyptian. He was also a Midianite. After fleeing from Egypt, he had made his home in Midian. He married a Midianite woman Zipporah, and was, we are told, “content to live there, quietly as a shepherd.”
We tend to forget that Moses spent many years in Midian. He left Egypt as a young man and was already eighty years old when Hashem first spoke to him. He had not lived among the Israelites. He had good reason to doubt that they would even recognize him as one of them. How could he possibly become their leader?
More important, why should he even think of becoming their leader? Their fate was not his. He was no part of it. He was only barely implicated in it. Remember, the one time he had actually tried to intervene in Jewish affairs – he killed an Egyptian taskmaster who had killed an Israelite slave. The next day Moses tried to stop two Israelites from fighting one another – that intervention was not welcomed.
“Who made you ruler and judge over us?” they said to him. These are the first recorded words of an Israelite speaking to Moses. He had not yet dreamt of being a leader and already his leadership was being questioned. It is not surprising- therefore- when Hashem selected him to lead the Israelites to freedom, he resisted.
Moses could see from the outset that this was going to be a miserable job.
Hashem said: “Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have seen that which has been done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:16- 17)
Moses, already seeing where this is going , has a retort.
“But they will not believe me nor heed my voice, for they will say, ‘God did not appear to you.’
Hashem, of course, has an answer. Throw your staff on the ground he says. Moses does and it turns into a snake. “This will let them know that I sent you.”
But Moses is not yet finished trying to avoid taking this bad job.
Moses said to God, “I beg You, God, I am not a man of words—for I stammer and am not swift of tongue.”
Hashem was getting impatient now. This was not the dialogue he was looking for. Powerful executives want their middle managers to get with the program. “Who has made man’s mouth or who makes one mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, God? And now, go!– I will be with your mouth and I will teach you what you to say.”
“Oh Lord,” said Moses. “Please send this message through someone else.”
Then the anger of Hashem was kindled against Moses. Moses was about to be told how things were going to go. “Aaron, your brother, will gladly speak for you. Behold! He is coming to meet you. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what you shall do. And you shall take into your hand this staff- with which you are to perform the signs.”
Reluctantly, Moses leaves his comfortable life in Midian and goes off to meet his brother Aaron. Moses related to Aaron all the words of God, as well as all the signs about which He had been instructed. Moses and Aaron went to Egypt, and they gathered all the elders of the Israelites. Aaron related all the words that God had told Moses, and performed the miraculous signs in front of the people. The people believed, and when they heard that God had observed their misery, they bowed down and prostrated themselves in thanks.
Initially they thanked Moses. The fact that Hashem had heard their pleas was good news. For now, the workforce was pleased with the Executive’s recognition of their plight. That pleasure was to be very short-lived.
Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what God, the God of Israel, has said: ‘Send forth My people, so that they may celebrate a festival for Me in the wilderness.’ “The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their work? Get back to your own chores!”
On that day, Pharaoh gave orders to the people’s Egyptian taskmasters. You will no longer provide the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. However, you must impose upon them the same quota of bricks as they met previously. Do not reduce it. For they are lazy; that is why they are crying out and saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God!’
The Egyptian taskmasters pressured the people and said, “You must meet your daily quota of work just as before, when straw was provided.”
Dathan and Aviram encountered Moses and Aaron standing before them as they were leaving Pharaoh’s presence. Dathan and Aviram said to them, “May God reveal Himself to you and judge you, for you have made us loathsome in the eyes of Pharaoh and Egypt- providing them with a sword with which to kill us!” (Exodus 5 :21-22)
Take note of this portion- Exodus 5:21-22- the first time the people complain to Moses that something that he did, following Hashem’s instructions, did not worked out well for them. Thus it’s all Moses’ fault. This will be come the recurring theme for the remainder of the Torah.
As a Middle manager, Moses must absorb the strenuous complaints of the work force. He is always committing one of the five following offenses: letting them down, putting them in danger, going back on his promises, acting power hungry, or simply being a lousy middle manager.
This stiff necked people, whom Hashem offers Moses three times to eliminate altogether, is not a group that is often willing to go along with the program. They are rarely happy- are when they are, it isn’t for long. Even when they receive Manna from heaven, they grow bored with it and dream of luxurious life they had back in Egypt. They often forget that they were slaves who had cried out for redemption.
To be honest, they don’t like the way they’ve been redeemed.
Moses, frustrated by the rebuke of the people he’s been sent to save, begins the round robin that will be the hallmark of his administration. Moses returned to God and said, “God, why have You mistreated this people? Why have You sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has made things worse for this people, and You have not delivered them!”
Enigmatic as ever, Hashem simply says “ You will see what I will do to Pharaoh: because of My strong hand–he will forcibly drive them out of his land.”
The Executive does not to show the middle manager the big picture. The first point here is not the actual liberation if the Hebrews. The first point is that Hashem has to establish that he is the most powerful God of all. Remember, this is a period of rampant polytheism. There are many, many Gods. Thus, when Hashem issues the command, Thou Shalt have No other Gods before me- It is a very valid representation of the period in which Moses and the Israelites dwell.
This drama has to be stretched out- much to the chagrin of both the people who want instant liberation and the middle manager who has to deal with their complaints.
The Executive’s purpose- Hashem’s propose- is to show the greatest nation on Earth-Egypt- that his power is absolute.
That will take time.
In his book “The Gift of the Jews” author Thomas Cahill says of Moses: “ Moses was a great leader. Despite his initial hesitation, he rose to the challenge of guiding a rebellious and often ungrateful people through many hardships. He was compassionate and resilient, placed in a difficult position and yet became dedicated to fulfilling his mission.”
Thus Moses became an excellent middle manager.
As such, he suffered a fate common to many of those who fill the position. He was let go just as the project was about to be completed. Worse yet, he had to train his own successor. As you can see, from the very outset, middle management was and remains a thankless and unenviable task.
