מדריך/Madrich

Leading by Example

This week’s parashah, Eikev, is replete with the root word /דרךderekh, ‘way’, particularly in reference to the ‘way of God’.

The ‘way of God’ is understood here as the ‘word of God’. Thus the people are being admonished for having abandoned God’s way, meaning God’s command: “You have quickly abandoned the way the Lord had commanded you”. At the same time, Moses implores the people to walk in ‘God’s ways’, meaning to heed His commandments: “Keep the commandments of the Lord, your God; walk in His ways”.

If these ‘stiff-necked people’ as Moses calls them, have not heeded the ‘word of God’ since their inception as a nation, why persist is asking them to follow the ‘way of God’.

The Rabbis here introduce a radical understanding of the ‘way of God’. Commenting on the closing words of our parashah, “To walk in all His ways”, they explain: “As God is gracious and compassionate, so should you be, as God is just and loving so shall you be…”. The Rabbis proceed to provide biblical examples of God’s actions:

As He clothes the naked, for it is written: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin, and clothed them, so should you clothe the naked. The Holy One, blessed be He, visited the sick, for it is written: And the Lord appeared to him (Abraham recovering from his circumcision) by the oaks of Mamre, so should you visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be He, comforted mourners, for it is written: And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac his son, so should you comfort the mourners. The Holy one, blessed be He, buried the dead (Moses), for it is written: And He buried him in the valley, so should you bury the dead.

For our Rabbinic tradition, the divine ‘way’, more than the divine ‘word’, exemplifies Torah.

As parents and educators, we know that our actions speak louder than words. Significantly, it is in this parashah, upon whose words, ‘God’s ways’, the Rabbis are here commenting that Moses says to God if You fail to bring these people into the ‘promised land’ your ‘way’ will undermine your ‘words’.

In our High School we engage our students in a program called hadrakhah, from the word derekh, meaning ‘way. As they become madrichim, guiding their peers along the ‘way’, we ask them to ‘lead by example’.

The word ‘educate’ comes from the Latin root word meaning ‘to lead’. The word Torah, horah (parent) and morah (teacher) share the same root word meaning to instruct, in the sense of demonstrating, ‘showing the way’, through example.

We cannot ask of our children and students what we ourselves do not do. And, it is in walking the talk rather than talking the walk, ‘way” more than ‘word’, that they, like we, become moreh derekh – showers/teachers, ‘exemplars of the way’.