Menachot 51 - The Pancake Stops Here

0:00Hey there, and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one responsible page of Talmud each day. And on today's page, in the Khot 51, Theravais asks a great question. Let's assume God forbid that the High Priest dies. But they asked happens to the griddle cake offering. He was supposed to sacrifice daily. It sounds like kind of a minor, like super into it's a lot of a question, but it actually has profound and super relevant consequences. So here, let's have a listen to what the rabbis are asking. If they did not appoint another High Priest in his stead, the Talmud asks, from whose property was the griddle cake offering brought and sacrificed? Rabbi Shimon says it is brought and sacrificed from the property of the community.

1:01Rabbi Huda says it is brought and sacrificed from the property of the heirs of the High Priest. And for the duration of the period until a new High Priest was appointed, the griddle cake offering was sacrificed as a complete 10th of an affine flower. If we zoom out of our narrow halachic confines for a minute, the question at hand is this. What really is leadership about or how should we think about our leaders is a leader, just an ordinary person, which means that when he dies, his heirs take up all of his obligations just as they would any other person or is the leader by ascending to the position. By ascending to the position of leadership, somehow sanctified by it, seen no longer as a mere mortal, but as the embodiment of his duties, which means that at the moment of his passing, his debts and obligations are a matter for the public at large. It won't surprise you at all to hear that the rabbis jump in and debate this idea fiercely.

2:02As well they should, because leadership, our wise ancestors realized wasn't monolithic, wasn't some function you could clearly define. Here for example is the late great Rabbi Jonathan Sachs on leadership. In Judaism he wrote, leadership is less a function than a field of tensions between different roles, each with its own perspective and voice. A musical form defined as the technique of combining two or more melodic lines in such a way that they established a harmonic relationship while retaining their linear individuality. It is this internal complexity that gives Jewish leadership its vigor, saving it from entropy the loss of energy over time. A men to that. And we, sadly, live in a time in which leadership is at an all-time low. Both because leaders, the world over, are reveling and divesting themselves of the quiet dignity once associated with their office. And also because voters, the world over, are eager to treat their leaders not with mutored

3:04or even maybe begrudging respect, but with zealous venom mocking them and doing their best to disrupt their lives and dismiss their contributions based on nothing deeper than shallow partisan affiliations. Long then, and just in time, comes our duff, our page of Talmud teaching us a better way of being in the world. Treat our leaders, the Talmud tells us, as both fallible humans and as embodying the very elevated office they occupy, demand of them their dues, hold them to the same standards you would have any other human being, but at the same time understand that as leaders, there are no longer ordinary human beings, but parts of something much greater, something we need to preserve and revere if our institutions are to keep and are polity to persevere. If we can learn to show our leaders both criticism and charity, to give them the respect they deserve while demanding the attention and care we require, only then do we have a chance of building better, stronger and more sustainable communities.

4:24This has been Take One. If you enjoy this show and I hope that you do, you are really going to love the new-ish book by me, called How the Talmud Could Change Your Life, surprisingly modern advice from a very old book, you can order it now at your local bookstore or directly from the publisher just by clicking the link in this here podcast description, or you know, through that big online store whose logo is a smile. Please go and rate and review Take One and Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to our weekly newsletter at tabletm.ag slash Take One newsletter. Take One is a tablet studios production, the show is hosted by me, Leah Lieberts, our executive producers Josh Cross and the show is produced and edited by Josh as well as by Quinn Wall. For more information go to tabletmag.com slash Take One or email us at podcasts at tabletmag.com. I hope we have made your day a little bit more Talmudic.