1. YOU Can Do It: Adding D’var Torah to your
Leadership Toolbox
Rabbi Arnie Samlan
arnolddsamlan@gmail.com
www.jewishconnectivity.com
@JewishConnectiv
Podcasts: Meet me at the Tzomet (Intersection) on the JCast
Network

2. What Does a D’var Torah Do?
• Inspires
• Motivates
• Links the work ahead to a higher purpose
• Teaches new information or insights
• Moves us to action

3. Mind Mapping

4. Mind Map of a D’var Torah

5. Working Backwards
In this week’s Torah reading, we learn that Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, traveled from his home in the Land of Midian into the
Sinai Desert, bringing Moshe’s wife, Zipporah, and their two sons to be reunited with him. The details of why Zipporah and their
sons had been “sent away” by Moshe are unclear. Curiously enough, the Torah’s narrative focuses on the interaction of Moshe
and Yitro, rather than on Moshe’s reunion with his own family. Indeed, the text mentions Moshe going out to greet his father-in-
law with no mention of welcoming his own wife and children, perhaps because the story that transpires has ramifications for the
entire community, while his reunion with his wife and children was a more personal event.
Yitro, a priest in Midian, hears from his son-in-law the events of the Exodus from Egypt. He acknowledges the greatness of the
God of the Hebrews, even going so far as to offer sacrifices. And then we get to the core of the story:
Yitro sees people coming before Moshe from morning to night seeking Godly guidance, including matters to be adjudicated. Yitro
springs into action, first identifying a problem — that this way of working will lead to burnout, both by Moshe and by the people
he seeks to serve. He prescribes a course of action: appointment and training of judges and sharing authority with them. The
Torah narrates the implementation of the plan, and implies that the new system was evaluated as being successful. With that,
Yitro’s work of reuniting the family and his recommendations to Moshe are done and he returns to Midian.
What do we learn?
Yitro is an example of what a good consultant does: analyze the problem, suggest resources and solutions, evaluate its success
and ultimately, move on. And while perhaps the modern practice of consulting doesn’t directly owe its founding to the Torah,
Yitro shares many characteristics of today’s consultant.
Leaders don’t burn out alone. When a leader burns out, so does the community s/he leads. Communities have good reason to
take care of their leaders.
Good ideas are good ideas, whether they emanate from one’s own community or from another. In our Torah portion, Moshe leads
the Jewish people to adopt best practices recommended by Yitro, whom the Torah describes earlier as the priest of another faith
community.
Ultimately, the take-away from the incident is about diffusion of leadership. From this story on, leadership and authority in the
Jewish community will not be concentrated in one person and one person only. This diffusion of leadership and authority has
become even more pronounced in our generation, along with an increasing diffusion of knowledge.
Where a generation ago, only a small percentage of people had access to broad amounts of information, and high level Jewish
knowledge was limited to the upper echelons, knowledge is now at everyone’s fingertips. The Internet and its vast storehouses of
information have evened the playing field. In the Jewish world, both publishers and technologies have put previously inaccessible
information within reach of everyone. The result is a desire on the part of increasing numbers of Jews to set their own path,
individually and communally. They want their paths to be informed by authoritative, knowledgeable Jewish guides, not dictated
by Jewish authorities.
In this way, Yitro seems very contemporary. He argues for decentralization and for empowering a greater number of people.
Instead of one person serving as God’s spokesperson, he advocates spreading that role. What we can see is a change in the role of
the rabbi from that of authority figure to that of a facilitator of Jewish learning, living and decision making — just a logical
extension of the process Yitro introduces in the parasha.

6. What’s YOUR D’var Torah?

7. Some great places to pick up text:
• Books:
– Talmudic Anthology
– Words of Wisdom
– Great Jewish Quotations
– Jewish Wisdom
• Websites:
– www.on1foot.org,
– www.torahtexts.org