Blessed are the Introverts
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It is here that we get to the nub of the matter, namely, why? Why would God – why would anyone for that matter – choose an introvert for the single most important mission of our people’s history? Sure, Moses came from good stock, he was handy with a staff and being a Hebrew raised in an Egyptian household, he had a useful bi-cultural status. But why in the world would God choose someone with Moses’ verbal and emotional austerity to lead the people at this critical juncture?
I think the answer, or at least part of the answer, goes to the heart not only of Moses and the Exodus narrative, but of a Jewish notion of character formation. As will be made explicit in the book of Numbers, Moses was blessed with an abiding and singular humility. That our greatest leader was also our most humble ensured that in the role thrust upon him he would never be driven by ego, but rather by what was best for the people. In choosing Moses, God identified the one person who would always ask the big picture questions; a quality, significantly, that would even serve to check God’s own wrath when the children of Israel would sin time and again in the desert. Neither the whims of the Israelites, nor the frustrations of God would determine the course, but Moses, entrusted to lead our people, would bring Israel to the border of the Promised Land.
Moses was not only humble, he was quiet. There is, according to our tradition, a direct connection between wisdom and silence, as Ecclesiastes teaches, “The words of the wise are spoken in quiet.” (Ecc. 9:17) As Susan Cain and others have pointed out, there is absolutely no correlation between the quality of an idea and the number of words it takes to explain it. Verbosity, we all know, often serves to mask insecurity and incompetence. As the Talmudic aphorism goes, “When there is only one penny in the pitcher it makes most noise.” (Bava Metzia 85b) Or as my father would say to me and my brothers, and I now say to my own children, “Raising your voice does not make your argument any more compelling.”
It goes even deeper than wisdom. By choosing someone who was naturally introverted, God chose someone who would not be swayed by unfounded adulation or undue criticism, whose ethic would be shaped not by external pressure or perception but by an inner moral compass. It was for this very reason that Maimonides, when identifying the moral prerequisites of a king, points to Moses as the archetype. After all, the litmus test for anyone serving in a political office – in the Bible, in medieval times or this past week – should be the avoidance of excesses of pride, pettiness, the need for self preservation and unhealthy group think that far too often characterize public officials. Don’t get me wrong, extroverts are perfectly capable of moral behavior, but it is the one who stands humbly before God, loyal to the integrity of his or her own convictions that exhibits the root of ethical behavior. As Emerson famously wrote, “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” (Self Reliance)
What we all know, leadership and personal ethics aside, is that emotional maturity stems from an individual’s ability to make decisions for him- or herself and live with the consequences of those choices. When it comes to character formation, I think the most important muscle group – in matters of love, finance, professional choices or otherwise – is the ability to decide whose advice to take and whose advice to ignore. Blessed as I am to have had and to continue to have many mentors, teachers and family members, I know that the most important, most difficult, and thankfully best decisions of my life came by way of listening to some people and ignoring others, ignoring even those people who to this day I believe had my best interests in mind. We spend much of our lives looking at the world through other people’s eyes, but at the end of the day, only we ourselves can measure our authenticity, integrity and personal self-worth. Some of us are naturally inward-looking, others need to create space to get our bearings, but all of us need to establish Moses-like pockets of introspection and reflection in order to find our truest selves.
In hindsight, the wisdom of God’s choosing an introvert to lead our people through the wilderness seems obvious. Time and again – against Pharaoh, at the sea, receiving the law, bearing witness to the Golden Calf and beyond – Moses proves to be uniquely positioned for the task at hand. Whatever his weaknesses, and there were many, he was able to surmount them with God’s trust and the people’s trust intact because of this core quality. Ultimately, we know, it will be Joshua not Moses who will bring Israel to the land, and let’s not forget that for Moses to be successful he needed his brother and mouthpiece Aaron. To get from point A to point B it takes, as they say, a village. And whatever we may believe ourselves to be today, each one of us is capable of growth. Moses, although initially self-identified as not a man of words, de'arim, would go on to have his words fill the final book of the bible, D'varim. The options are not either/or, neither within Moses’ life, nor for all us today. But the lesson is clear. It is that still small voice, in the classroom, the board room, the staff meeting, the political arena and most of all, within each of us, that is so easy to overlook, that is often the bearer of the greatest wisdom and insight. May each of us take care to listen carefully, to hear that voice, and most importantly, to respond to its call.