{"id":152,"date":"2006-10-18T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-18T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/of-humility-and-hypocrisy.html"},"modified":"2006-10-18T13:45:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-18T13:45:00","slug":"of-humility-and-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/of-humility-and-hypocrisy.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Humility and Hypocrisy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Rabbi Stern<\/a> and Rabbi Grossman<\/a> correctly point to the hypocrisy of those who claim moral authority acting in immoral ways. But the issue goes deeper than that when we come to the question of people in positions of political authority.<\/p>\n

The charges against Israel’s President Moshe Katzav<\/a> would be deeply disturbing under any circumstances, no matter who he was. That we\u2019re talking about a political leader who is charged with the public trust makes them all the more distressing.<\/p>\n

Power corrupts\u2013we know that. It\u2019s why Jewish tradition suggests avoiding picking leaders who have ambition to power, guiding us to choose instead those who serve reluctantly, who see their leadership as a burden and responsibility.<\/p>\n

Of course it doesn\u2019t work that way contemporary society. Usually, our political leaders are highly ambitious, motivated, and ego-driven people with a talent for self-promotion\u2013important qualifications for getting elected, but not perhaps for holding office.<\/p>\n

I think this is why we see so many examples of public officials betraying the trust their positions entail, whether we\u2019re talking about a Tom DeLay, a Mark Foley, or a Moshe Katzav. In all these cases there\u2019s a failure of humility<\/em>\u2013of recognizing that public service means just that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good that the Israeli police<\/a> weren\u2019t too intimidated to go after Katzav. Sometimes our leaders need to be reminded that they work for us and not the other way around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Rabbi Stern and Rabbi Grossman correctly point to the hypocrisy of those who claim moral authority acting in immoral ways. But the issue goes deeper than that when we come to the question of people in positions of political authority. The charges against Israel’s President Moshe Katzav would be deeply disturbing under any circumstances,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOf Humility and Hypocrisy - Virtual Talmud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/virtualtalmud\/2006\/10\/of-humility-and-hypocrisy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Of Humility and Hypocrisy - Virtual Talmud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Both Rabbi Stern and Rabbi Grossman correctly point to the hypocrisy of those who claim moral authority acting in immoral ways. 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