Rabbi's Chayva's Chat

The following is adapted from Rabbi Chayva's drash (sermon) last Shabbat.

The first movie I ever loved was "Beauty and the Beast." The music, the love of books, and the heroine all appealed to my young self, and the film's motifs come to mind often. I recently found myself reflecting on the mussar value of gevurah, strength, who is embodied in Disney lore by the infamous Gaston. Jewish tradition, of course, doesn’t have Gaston, so who is our model of gevurah, of strength? 

Rabbi Judy Shanks would say that in Parshat Devarim, we see that it is Moses. “As he reaches his final days,” she writes, “Moses both exploits and contains his undiminished gevurah. He implicitly accepts God’s decree that Joshua will take the mantle of leadership and lead the Israelites into the Land. It takes internal strength, fearlessness, and a reining in of the ego to offer unvarnished accounts of moments of his own weakness and failures of leadership. With his words and his silence, Moses seems to forgive himself for his mistakes, while simultaneously extending forgiveness and chesed, lovingkindness, to those standing before him who have stumbled before and will surely stumble again.” What a beautiful way to be strong.

The first thing Moses speaks of in Deuteronomy is not the parting of the sea, the receiving of the Torah, or the many frustrating years lost in the desert. No, he speaks of the time when he was unable to manage his leadership responsibilities. He harkens back to the moment in which his burden became too great and he had to set up a tiered system of judges and governors. His strength, his gevurah, showed not in his ability to govern an excessively large, complicated, and argumentative group, but rather in being able to accept help and collaborate.

This is not to say that Moses is perfect. After all, he does criticize and complain about the people’s bickering frequently, and there are multiple stories of protests against his leadership style. We see in Moses both sides of good gevurah, and sometimes a little too much gevurah - he can be judgmental of the people, heavy-handed in his governance.

The danger of too much gevurah is excessive harshness - aggressive and overbearing, with the potential to demean or alienate others. But too little gevurah and one will get walked over, which will leave you feeling too small, vulnerable, perhaps even blaming and abusing yourself for how things played out.

Neither extreme is acceptable. And though Moses is a great model to have, we often think of him through Torah study. I'd like to offer another lens - a more spiritual setting to meditate on inner strength.

The second blessing of the amidah is called the Gevurot blessing, because it speaks to all of God’s strengths:

Sustainer of the living with lovingkindness, One who gives life to all things/to the dead with great mercy, Supporter of the fallen, and Healer of the sick, and Releaser of the imprisoned, and Fulfiller of God's faithfulness to those who sleep in the dust. Who is like You, Master of mighty deeds, and who can be compared to You? Sovereign who causes death and restores life, and causes deliverance to sprout forth.

To paraphrase a Talmudic rabbi, we are not obligated to live up to all of these traits, but neither are we free to stop trying at all. I’d like you to ask yourself what you will identify as your gevurah, and what gevurot, what strengths, you see in others. Where do you see yourself accepting help, recounting your life, pulling back your ego to be able to share something meaningful like Moses? Where do you see others being somech noflim and matir asurim, supporting those who are in a low, dark place, helping them find a way to be released from the prison of self-torment? Who is bringing a sense of healing? Who stood by you when you slept in the dust?

The Gevurot blessing concludes with Baruch atah Adonai, mechayei hakol or mechayei hametim, depending on which prayerbook you prefer. Blessed are you, Adonai, who gives life to everything, gives life to those who lack it. This is the impact of gevurah, the great life-giving strength. May your inner strength sustain and free yourself and others in the weeks and months to come.