A Random Thought: I Don't Know

I was asked by my Rabbi to do the Torah portion for last Shabbat. During the week, as I read over it, something from one of the daily readings struck me. God had told Moses to start dividing up the land to the people according to their tribes and in proportion to their family size. Moses had relayed this to the people and had begun the process to divide the land when suddenly a couple of sisters had went before him on behalf of their father. Their issue was that they thought it unfair that because their father had no sons before his death, that he should be passed over, by being denied a possession. In their culture, all that a father had was passed on to the sons after his death. The firstborn received the larger portion, and after that, the rest would be equally divided between the other sons, however, there was never anything left to the daughter. This was an interesting question. Up until this time, nothing like this had ever happened. Moses, as a leader to an entire nation was expected to come up with a solution to this. Imagine the pressure felt by him. Everyone looking! Waiting! Listening! I can totally imagine the thoughts running through his head a he sought for an answer. I can also imagine the pride welling up within him, pushing him to blurt out something profound, that the people would be in awe and revere this wise leader. Many leaders today, under this same kind of pressure would seek for an answer from within, just as Moses probably wanted to. I believe many leaders, under this kind of pressure feel that they are almost obligated to have an answer for every person asking. The reality of it is that, you really aren’t. There is nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know”. No one has all the answers, not even Moses. In the midst of all this pressure, Moses did just that. He didn’t know, so he took it straight to God. After seeking God on the issue, His response was first that “the question these women asked is just”. He went on to give Moses guidance on how to answer this question, as well as other questions of that nature. From this, it can be understood that God never gives us all the answers because if He did, we would never seek Him. It is His desire that we come to Him for answers to our problems. Saying “I don’t know” when asked a question from someone does not make you any less of a leader. On the contrary, it makes you look more wiser in that you are smart enough to know where to get the right answer from, as opposed to just saying something that sounds wise to you. I believe that many of us can learn from this example from Moses.