When Moses came across the Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he looked up & down & did not see a man. He saw other people, but he did not see anyone who would protest. He became the man.
Quick D’var Torah – Parashat Shemot
Moshe grows up in Pharaoh’s palace—raised as a prince, educated as royalty, and far removed from the daily suffering of his people. Yet he knows who he is. At some point, he decides he must go out and see what is happening to the Jews.
When he does, he witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. The Torah tells us something striking: “He looked this way and that, and he saw no man.”
There were people around—going about their business, talking, passing by—but no one willing to stop and say, “This is wrong.”
Moshe wasn’t looking for people. He was looking for a man—someone prepared to take responsibility. When he realized no one else would act, Moshe understood that he had to be that man.
This idea later becomes a teaching in Pirkei Avot: “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.”
Moshe was not eager to lead. He was one of the most reluctant leaders in our history. At the burning bush, he argues with God for days, trying to avoid the mission. Even then, he is hoping someone else will step forward. But no one does.
Leadership, the Torah teaches, often comes not from ambition but from moral necessity.
There’s a famous line attributed to Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Evil succeeds not because it is powerful, but because decent people remain silent.
I was reminded of this recently while visiting Bulgaria. Bulgaria was officially allied with Nazi Germany, yet the Jews of Bulgaria proper were never deported. When fascist officials secretly began rounding up Jews, the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church discovered the plan. He went to the train yard, lay down in front of the locomotive, and said, “The only way this train moves is over my dead body.”
The deportation stopped.
Where there was no man—he became the man.
That is Moshe’s lesson to us. When we see dishonesty in business, injustice in society, or moral cowardice in our surroundings, we cannot wait for someone else to act. What one Jew does reflects on all Jews—an observant Jew is always an observed Jew.
Moshe looked around. He saw no one else willing to step up. So he did.
Something to think about.
Leave a Reply