[Avodah] role models

[Eli Turkel]

Rav Soloveitchik had a drasha on last week's parsha that Yehuda and
Yosef were fighting over "malchus". Yehuda repressents gevurah, one who
can sin and do teshuva and rise again after defeat. Yosef represents
"tzaddik" who
is able to resist temptation from the beginning.
G-d decided that the appropriate model for a king is yehuda and eventually
King David
who demonstrated the real teshuva after Bat Sheva.

Thus, the answer of a role model is that there are many types of role models
that
fit different personalities and situations. Yosef HaTzaddik is a beautiful
role model
but ultimately was not chosen to be king. Children (and adults) need to
learn that there are
many ways to worship G-d and not just what appears in gedolim books. I have
seen a
number of times the explanation that the Torah consists of 613 mitzvot to
give everyone
a chance to choose what area to specialize in. Thus, while everyone is
required to keep
all relevant mitzvot one can choose to be extra careful in some area that
fits each person.

I remember a story about some gadol that saw a rich charitable man starting
to get up early,
learn and eat little. The rav went to him and said that the rich man
provided goods for the
army. What happens if someone leaves the cavalry to join the artillery. The
rich man answered
that the soldier would be shot. The rav responded that the rich man was
assigned to give charity
and would be "shot" if he deserted to the poor scholar role.
The rav later explained to his students that he was afraid that if the rich
man started skimping
he would feel that the poor could do with even less.

Thus, IMHO the problem is not that role models are too rosy etc. but rather
that there is a lack
of choices in role models


-- 
Eli Turkel
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