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Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just - The Servant and the Sovereign: The Ethics of Authority 3.30.26 · Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha

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  On page 458, talking about the fact that if a person chooses
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  positions for the wrong reason, it's not going to work out.
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  So and the way he says that a person should despise or not be
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  impressed by the position by an Abanutu, which means authority,
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  which means even being in a position of a rabbi that should
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  not be a beat you. You know you're you're a be all
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  and all is I want to be in that position.
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  Why? Because he run for that
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  position. Calvo runs away from you, he
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  says, and he says I will give you the second bomb line for for
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  David Olam out the that's a heart of Sarah birds.
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  Should I run after positions of prominence Llama pen Marta
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  Sebajita. What are you going to do once
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  you get that position? The Maharbani Michelina has a
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  lot Mata Mashivam nothing is not asking you questions as if we're
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  a big deal and I got the answers.
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  In other words, people love in their minds, oh, I'm going to
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  get there one day, I'm going to be that.
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  And then they get there and there's all the realities of
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  being in that position, performing that are really same
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  performing exactly. They're trying to perform in
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  that position, which are much more difficult than they
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  imagined. And they say one second, what I
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  want this so badly. Here's some strange reality.
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  People covet certain things. Yeah.
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  Once they're in that position, they don't really feel
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  constantly that enjoyment that they covered.
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  It's just not the way it is while you're there.
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  All right? There are some perks, yes.
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  There's some Providence, yes, People say his name, but it's so
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  many difficulties, so much levels of lack of covered ones
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  in that covered position. So many moments of
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  embarrassment, so many moments when they don't feel like
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  they're getting enough honor. It doesn't really actually spray
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  his worth being in that position.
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  So the coveting, I'm dying for it.
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  Imagine I'm sitting in that chair.
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  Imagine I'm that guy. Imagine I'm speaking over there.
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  All those things go through their mind and once they have
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  it, it's not as pretty, not as beautiful, not as amazing as
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  they think it is. In fact, it carries a lot of
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  areas that they have to catch up on.
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  That's the way it is. Now you go to one of these
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  people and you ask them, is that the case?
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  They won't notice. Why would they notice?
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  Because there's still parts of their life and they're still
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  coveting even while in that position.
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  They're forever coveting a little more.
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  So they will not be able to tell you whether being in this
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  position is worth it or not because they're really working
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  on covering a little more just the way they are.
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  They're looking for more. So they can't tell you.
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  But if you get them an honest moment and they would stop by
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  the finish line, in my humble opinion, they revealed to you a
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  lot of these things are not so awesome.
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  You're fine. But after many years in that
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  position, a lot of them don't seem to have the same drive, the
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  same desire, the same motivation to continue.
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  Why not? Because they're there.
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  But so now they're going to drop the position.
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  You're going to drop that position after 40 years.
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  Really. Or does that mean that means
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  they were so, so amazing it didn't give them the thrills
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  that they thought it would? And that's an indication that
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  the Cavold position that people seek are not really worth that
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  much. And in fact, instead put so much
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  pressure on the person to fundraise, to work, to live up
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  to the position. They limit where the person's
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  allowed to travel, how he's allowed to live.
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  All these things are limitations.
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  Aren't they aren't allowed, not allowed to build a house from
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  that year or something like that when you're in charge of an
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  organization raising money I. Don't know is that the case is
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  not true. He definitely very careful how
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  you spend that's for sure. The thrill was in the chase
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  thrills in the chase. Once you get there there's not
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  that much of A thrill. There's definitely instead all
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  these different areas to live up to.
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  So a person should not have in their mind any position that
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  they covered it all right, because instead they're going to
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  carry a lot of difficulty in baggage along the word.
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  Now. Old shaman 459 the beam in
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  Akmavi Shimagi 10 at home que de la anote MENA.
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  Anyone who accepts about himself a position of power in order to
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  get personal benefit. Ena ella, you ready for strong
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  words? Cano ET faze shenene megufa
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  chelisa. Strong words.
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  I don't want to translate them. You got them in English.
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  A person who's trying to get a position for the sake of the
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  power of the position. It's like an adulterer, which
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  means he's just looking for the pleasure of living.
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  It's such a ridiculous chase. It's unbelievable here.
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  God made these positions, any position of power in our
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  community, the Jewish world. What is a position?
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  A position is a place of service.
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  A position is evident, Hashem, a rabbi, president, board member,
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  board of trustees, a teacher, a Mora, all these people, they are
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  one thing. They have one title only one
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  time, evid Hashem, maybe two titles evid Hashem and every of
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  the people serving God and serving the people that we said
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  people that that's our entire task.
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  A task is to be a public servant and a God servant.
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  That's it. And how they're coveting it for
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  its sake. It's literally the equivalent of
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  adulterer completely missing a boat and the purpose of life.
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  That means he's going after the woman for the woman's, the way
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  he says it, the woman's body, which means for her as it, I
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  mean, he's covered in the position for the sake of the
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  title. It's an unbelievably ridiculous
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  covet, even though it's reality. That means you want to be a
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  principal of a school so you can have a title principal.
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  What's the job of a principal? To serve the students, the
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  parents not sharing completely, not the covering type thing
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  completely not a position at all.
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  And he's served but but but and that's a that guy that uses that
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  authority for the wrong reasons. Is it?
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  I agree. Yeah, yeah, I couldn't.
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  He's not only you with what not only is exactly not only is he
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  missing the boat on what the job is, he's doing the exact
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  opposite. They don't just say he's a bad
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  servant. They say he's an adulterer.
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  What are they saying? You miss using the entire
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  existence. You're taking God's position and
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  using of a personal use. When someone thinks of someone
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  who takes a donation, what do you think of a person who takes
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  a donation to a shoe and uses their personal use?
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  What do you think of that person, Mr. Taylor?
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  He's taking a donation to the shoe and using it to buy an
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  apartment in Florida. What do you say about that
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  person with this producer I want to farm?
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  But you think about a president of organization at the time, you
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  think it was much more than abusive power, abusive power to
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  the fullest extent. He's a borderline thief and he
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  miss he's a thief and he's a thief and he's misusing his job.
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  Had a conversation with someone recently and I said, you know,
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  you deal with the show money and charity money.
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  And my wife was telling me she's like, it's funny you talking
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  about this money, right? And you look at our bank
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  account. She told me I happened to be
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  that day I had overdraft. OK, It happens.
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  That's what happens to me. It's not because I'm poor.
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  It's just because of my style. I had overdraft fine in the
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  checking accounts. So.
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  So I have told Allen said he took all this money.
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  You're giving charity here. Yeah, here.
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  He's with money. And then you look at the account
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  and and it's on empty. I said checking account.
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  I said, you know what, I'm proud of that.
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  I'm very proud of that because it means these two things do not
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  relate give giving over charity and providing other people's
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  charity to other people and my own account, they should not
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  relate and there shouldn't be any sort of crossover.
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  And the fact that it's giving out people give you thousands to
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  give out. And so like that's really gave
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  me a lot of money to give out for 100 pesos, a lot of money to
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  give out for every Shabbat, a lot, a lot of money to give out
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  poem. And this hopefully does not
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  change, of course, should not change my personal account at
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  all. And there's no reason that I
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  choose because Michelle Bengal was tested with this test.
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  This is the ultimate test. You're in a position to be a
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  servant. You're not in a position to be
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  someone who builds on this. And this, by the way, although
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  it sounds obvious, sadly, it's a furthest thing from obvious.
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  Let me explain. If you find out that people are
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  lobbying for a position in a school, you find out that people
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  are fighting for a position in the Jewish business, sorry, in a
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  Jewish institution, that lobbying, or better yet, that
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  fighting in all honesty, is a person approaching his job the
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  wrong way. That's who it is.
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  Fighting for it, getting upset when they lose it is really a
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  misunderstanding of positions of power.
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  It's easier said than done. Fighting for a president
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  organization, fighting to be on the board, getting upset when
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  things happen, all that represents a lack of
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  understanding. With the purpose of position is
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  he brings an example. Amala Bilbao, Anita, KD, Kadosh,
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  hymen, Maha kola MI Dota, Lalu CHP.
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  If you do not have the proper character, don't take these
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  positions. Here's an important theme.
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  The opponent theme is, is that it's very difficult to be real
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  in this area. People do cover positions,
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  people do fight for positions. People do like honor.
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  You know, you have to work on the work and double work on your
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  character. Before you step into these
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  roles. You have to ask yourself, do I
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  care? And my name is in lights?
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  Am I getting excited or they introduced me as the president
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  of so and so the rabbi of this shoe, that school and this is
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  that make me feel good. If it does, could I have a
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  problem because there are? Why do people feel that way,
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  that it's the power? Well, it's a lot of work and
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  responsibility. In that position I give you
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  know, it works in this world and number one thing people want in
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  life is relevance. The number one thing people want
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  is to be noticed. And yes, it's a wild thing.
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  They will fight their life for positions of power.
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  Fight to serve. That's strange.
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  Why would someone fight to serve, right?
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  The answer is serve by them is misunderstood as Eamon Lights.
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  And they're willing to go to a million meetings, willing to
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  give millions of dollars, willing to give up all that
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  time, willing to lose out on vacations, even just for that
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  moment of being introduced to us.
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  So and so. The rabbi all.
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  The president all. I don't.
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  Think it's everyone? No, of course not everyone.
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  Definitely not everyone. But the misunderstanding is a,
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  is a is a big, it is an issue. Definitely not everyone.
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  I would never say it's about across the board.
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  The people, the many, many people, you don't know their
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  names. Many people are willing to do
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  small quiet meetings. I give that time.
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  So many volunteers and organizations, so many rabbis,
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  so many teachers, so many principals are not this way.
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  But you run the risk in this chase of this danger, and a
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  person needs to work and double work on the Medot.
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  The more they're in a position of power, the more they need to
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  work on themselves. If you are not in a position of
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  power, you need Mossad. If you're in a position of
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  power, in my humble opinion, you need double Mossad because you
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  need to really analyze why do I do things?
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  What gets me going? Is it the fact that people say
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  my name and know my name? Or is the fact and helping other
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  people, is it the fact that I'm all rule a leader?
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  Or is the fact that I can be there to pay respects and to
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  give them help and serve them and all those beautiful things?
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  That's the question. You have to answer that question
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  to yourself. And of course, from the
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  position, I can tell you that many, many times that you do
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  trip up on the coward part that many times you like when they
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  say your name definitely. But a rule, your drive still
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  needs to be and you like doing what you're doing.
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  It serves the people. If you got to a class and there
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  are three people and that bothers you because it's so
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  small and you're running your risk.
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  And if it bothers you because you feel like you wasting your
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  time, one thing you could be doing more over your time,
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  that's one thing. But if it bothers you because
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  it's three people and that means it's not a big deal and you're
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  running this risk, all right, if you give a speech and no one
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  gives you, not because it wasn't a good speech, but it didn't
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  make anyone feel good, but it still was a very impactful
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  speech. But no one's going to go home
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  and say the rabbi speech was over the top.
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  That's really something issue. If you care so much about the
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  wow, trust for the sake of the wow, it's an issue.
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  Of course you want them to like it and you want to resonate
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  something else, right? If your charity is only feels
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  good, people know about your charity is an issue, right, But
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  if you have a party or charity, it's private, it's great on and
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  on. You need to adopt A style that
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  says I have a servant everyone around me of God of the people.
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  I'm not here for the position. I will like the position.
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  I will live off to the position. I'm not here for the second
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  position. If you lived out lifestyle in
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  the mindset you're in good shape.
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  If not, if not, you're running a grievous and that and that risk
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  is they misuse of power. And it's a funny thing.
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  The greatest people in the world are the servants of Hashem.
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  The worst people in the world are those who serve themselves.
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  They could use the same position for these very different
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  outcomes. Serving Hashem, selfless
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  character, giving, kind, thoughtful, sensitive,
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  interested in lifting up other people, taking responsibility
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  for other people. Every good me dies on display
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  when you're a servant of others and God.
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  Those who serve themselves, arrogance, taking risk of being
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  dishonest, get angry all the time, are constantly insulted,
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  are so focused on themselves, they become a hollow existence.
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  They can't really provide, They can't really give good advice.
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  They're very biased. Everything that's not good,
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  every bad negative trait comes out when you're serving
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  yourself. And every good negative, I mean
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  good positive trait comes out when you're serving the people
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  and serving God. It's literally Paul opposites.
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  These two people cannot be in the room.
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  They're not in the same room. They're so different, yet
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  they're both carrying the same title.
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  There's one is using the title the right way and every good
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  beauty is coming out of him, and the other person is misusing the
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  title and therefore every negativity in the world can come
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  out from such a person. It's that clear.
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  You won't notice when you see them in that position, but you
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  will notice over time when you're dealing with them.
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  Which one becomes a dominant feature?
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  Their anger, their arrogance, talking about themselves,
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  conscious of their own relevance and all those things, or the
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  humility they're giving a generosity, a sensitivity, They
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  care, their proper advice, they are being on it.
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  That's the good side of a person, taking a position not to
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  serve himself, but rather to serve God and the people.
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  Stop with this.