That Moses’s name does not appear in this week’s portion of the Torah is important in that it shows that no one is indispensable. We can all be replaced. This does not mean that we should do nothing. We have a job to do. We might not complete it but we still have to do it.
Quick Devar Torah — Parashat Tetzaveh: The Disappearing Leader
In this week’s parashah, Tetzaveh, something striking happens:
Moshe’s name does not appear even once.
This is remarkable. From the moment he is introduced in the Torah until his death, Moshe dominates the narrative — the redeemer, lawgiver, teacher, and greatest leader we ever had. Yet in the portion dealing with the priestly service — the ongoing spiritual life of Israel — he vanishes.
Why?
Many explanations are given, but perhaps the deepest lesson is about leadership itself.
Moshe understood something few leaders ever accept:
Leadership is a mission, not an identity.
He knew he was a servant of God, not the center of the system. The Torah had to survive him. The nation had to function without him. Therefore in the parashah that establishes the permanent institutions — the daily offerings, the priesthood, the continuity of Jewish life — the leader steps aside.
The system matters more than the personality.
A true leader prepares the day he will no longer lead.
History gives us a famous parallel. After the American Revolution, many expected George Washington to become a lifelong ruler. Instead, he voluntarily stepped down after two terms, establishing that no person is indispensable to the nation. Only much later, after Franklin Roosevelt’s four elections, was the limit formalized in the Constitution.
Moshe lived this principle thousands of years earlier.
He raises Yehoshua.
He trains others.
And in his greatest institutional achievement — he disappears.
Because Judaism is not built around a man.
It is built around a covenant.
There is a famous saying often attributed to J.P. Morgan:
“The cemetery is full of indispensable people.”
Parashat Tetzaveh teaches the Torah version:
You are necessary for your task — but never necessary forever.
A leader takes responsibility for the present
and prepares others for the future.
That is not the weakness of leadership.
That is its greatness.
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