Sophia Stepansky, National Ambassador of Education, New Jersey NCSY.
By Sophia Stepansky, National Ambassador of Education
Imagine you are running for school president and a good friend of yours decided to enter in the race. All of a sudden your friend has become your adversary. Without even noticing it, you start to think of your friend as the enemy, then you start to act hostile towards your friend and will do derogatory actions to make yourself in the lead in the campaign. In a short amount of time you totally changed your outlook on your good friend. Why did this happen?
The same exact thing actually happened to the Pharaoh of Egypt (well not exactly…he didn’t run for school president)! When Pharaoh had two dreams that were ambiguous he got a Jewish boy, Yosef, to interpret the dreams. Yosef said the dreams represented the successes and tribulations that the land will go through. After Pharaoh heard that he said, “Since G-d had informed you of all of this, there can be no one as discerning and wise as you” (Genesis 41:39). Pharoah outright admitted that he believed G-d existed, yet years after Yosef had helped Egypt, when Pharaoh was asked to send the Jews out for a trip to serve G-d he said “Who is G-d that I should listen to His voice? I do not know G-d” (Exodus 5:2). In such a short span of time the ruler of Egypt went from believing in a G-d to denying Him! Why the sudden change of heart??
There is a concept in Pirkei Avot that says you should be careful when becoming friends with people in government positions, because person in the government are only interested in the friendship when it benefits them. A person in a position of power cannot be trusted because the craving to have authority and control will take over, even though the person in authority should be nice to those who helped him out before. This shows the extent of what power can do to a person. If not careful leadership can corrupt. Therefore next time you find yourself in a position of authority make sure that you don’t act for the sake of gaining more power, because in the conquest of power only follows irrational behavior.
Shabbat Shalom!