Seeking Capable and Courageous Leaders: Thoughts on Parashat Yitro - Jessica Giordano, Rabbinical Student

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In another life, part of my job as a high school school teacher was running a leadership club on campus. To make things easy for the teachers who recommended students to join our club, there was even a checklist: was the student poor, average, or excellent in their responsibility, respectfulness, initiative, and maturity?

But selecting strong leadership is not always as easy as checking boxes, and the real-life implications of choosing trustworthy leadership in our governments and societies are more pressing than ever. Fortunately, there is a Jewish tradition that guides our community through the practice of investigating leadership to ensure that certain values-based standards are upheld. This week’s Torah portion, Yitro, speaks to these issues and allows us to learn from them.

In this week’s parsha, Yitro comes to Moses and offers him guidance. To recap, the Israelites just crossed the Sea of Reeds and are facing the question of how to run a new civilization. Yitro advises Moses on leadership, encouraging him to seek out capable and trustworthy leaders, who he calls

But what does it mean to be capable and trustworthy? We learn from the Ramban that “anshei-chayil” refers to those who can lead the masses.

He continues, claiming that there are different qualities of leadership for different situations: for war, a good leader is strong, alert, and adept in the arts of battle; for legal issues, a good leader is wise, alert, and fair.

It is clear from the Ramban’s commentary that there are certain leadership characteristics that are necessary in any given situation – the Ramban specifically cites “alertness” as being a key trait for leadership of the Jewish people.

However, it is also evident that according to the Ramban, effective leadership is situational. In other words, we need different types of leaders during different moments. What makes one person an excellent teacher might not make them a gifted sports captain; what makes another person a great CEO might not make them a distinguished judge.

In the parsha, Yitro accounts for this variability during his discussion with Moses. He advises Moses to seek out leaders, directly telling Moses

This is the heart of the issue – true leaders acknowledge their own humility, accept guidance, and surround themselves with people who are aligned with the community's values.

In our modern world and in the Torah, leadership is complicated. It often requires balancing the greater good for society with the needs of individuals. And the timely question remains: how do we move forward when our leadership is not held accountable for their behavior? Leadership is not just an elected position of power; it is also those who are being led taking action when human rights are violated or when a leader is failing. It is difficult to be like Yitro – telling a leader that they need to accept help or take a different path requires courage. But it is also necessary to ensure that we empower the leaders that our tradition demands.

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