It happened five or six years ago. We were a group of educated and serious guys – teachers and lecturers, researchers and educators, and the task we were given was incredibly simple: “Move the flock of sheep from here to there.” The distance, a total of 30 meters. We looked at each other and thought “it’s easy… we, with all the degrees and certificates, what is it for us to herd sheep?”
Each in turn stood at the head of the herd and tried to make it follow him, but the goats did not respond to us. Not when we shouted at them “follow me”, not when we bribed them with vegetation, nor when we waved an index finger or a clenched fist in front of them. In different and diverse ways we tried to get them to follow us, but the herd did not move. The person in charge at the place gently hinted to us – “You are not standing in the right place”. But we, wise as we are, were not hinted at. “Shepherd”, we thought, is the one who leads the flock, isn’t he?
After a frustrating hour of firm leadership efforts, which did not move the herd even an inch, one of the members suddenly flashed a verse from the week’s passage. When Jacob sends flocks as an offering to Esau it is said – “And they sent the second as well as the third as well as all those who followed the flocks” (Genesis Lev, 20). The shepherd, as the Torah says, does not follow the head of the flock but rather follows it. The prophet Amos also describes his election to the prophethood while he was working as a shepherd – “And the Lord took me from behind the sheep” (Amos 7:15).
From that moment the task became quite simple. When you walk behind the herd, it is easy to identify its internal trends, it is easy to see the leading forces in it, to find the bull – the leading goat of the herd, join them and direct them straight into the corral. The shepherd listens to his flock, connects with his mentality, and only by doing so manages to lead him to the region of his desire.
All the leaders of our nation were shepherds – the patriarchs, the tribes, Moses, Saul and David. Before leading the people, they all experienced many years in leading herds – in following the herd. The respect and attention to the winds blowing among the sheep or goats allowed them to shepherd the flock successfully. This is what made them such great leaders.
A few years ago I flew to give a lecture in Eilat. Just before take off, the passenger next to me asked me – “Do you know the pilot?”. When I chuckled at the question, he wondered how I was willing to entrust my life to a man whose professional training, values, or state of health I knew nothing about. “You wouldn’t go into surgery without first finding out who the doctor is,” he said and was right.
The difference is simple, he hastened to explain to me – we trust a pilot and we don’t trust a doctor, because if the doctor fails we will be badly hurt but he will continue his life as usual. On the other hand, the pilot gets on the plane with us, he ties his fate with ours. We don’t need to find out anything about him. The knowledge that what happens to us will also happen to him is better than any test and allows us to trust him.
This is probably the reason why, in IDF combat theory, the commander runs at the head of the charging force and shouts “Follow me”. Not because of the personal example and educational value, but mainly because of the doubt that nestles in the head of every soldier – lest he be sent to charge into an unnecessary battle, or that the value of his life is not taken seriously enough.
When the commander stands in the line of fire even before every soldier, he instills in his soldiers the deep trust in the importance of the mission. The knowledge that “I am with him in trouble” and that “in all your trouble he is in trouble”, allows the soldiers to trust their commander and run with strength even in the face of the whistling of enemy bullets. The commander is indeed at the head of the force, but this is an unusual model, which is particularly relevant to the army, whose goal is to increase the soldiers’ trust in the commander. Like what makes us trust the pilot. But in other circumstances, the place of the leader or shepherd is actually after the flocks. That’s where leaders are supposed to go.
Under every fresh tree, a “Leadership” program has arisen today that offers a new path in which we will walk. The common image of the leader in these programs is that of a charismatic leader, walking at the head of the camp and shouting “follow me”. But this leadership model is fundamentally wrong and distorted. Before the camp marches only divine leadership – the pillar of fire or the pillar of cloud. The human leader is a “shepherd” who follows the camp. A leader who wants to march at the head of the camp starts from the premise that he is the sun of the nations while the people are merely a herd of goats. Well – it turns out that even on goats it doesn’t work…
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