By Elliot Shriner-Cahn
A month ago we had a Winter Seminar where the theme was activism and tikkun olam. We even discussed Nachshon’s story during the seminar. As we get settled into the new year (or semester) I want to ask you to spend some of this Shabbat thinking about how you can be like Nachshon in your life. How can you take action in a moment of stagnation? How can you lead from within the group? How do we move beyond the fear of failure to take action?
I’ll leave you with a couple more words from Judith Levitt. Hopefully they will inspire you as they did me. She wrote:
Nachshon becomes a model for leadership by taking that leap in front of, and while leading the way for, the whole community. Nachshon overcomes his fear and his doubts by taking a single step towards freedom. The great irony is that Nachshon is not concerned with being a leader, nor concerned with what anyone else is doing, just with what he believes is right. He doesn’t pontificate or sermonise, he just acts. He does what needs to be done without waiting to see whether people will follow (http://www.lbc.ac.uk/20090209847/Weekly-D-var-Torah/shabbat-beshallach.html).
I hope we all take the opportunity to act as Nachshon within all of our own communities.