The source of power

There are people whom we call natural leaders. We all know them. However, pinpointing the qualities that unite them is becoming much more challenging. We can see the first signs of
the type of leadership from the way they see the initial source of the authority.

Essentially, we have two main choices: the origin of the authority. If we try to look into it, we will realise that there are two clear possibilities, which are that the authority is either Divine or coming from the people. Both of these are easy to identify and see. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the proper leader will recognise the Divine origin of the authority.

Our sages always tell us that in a binary choice, we will see three options. Although it sounds like something hard to understand, we will see that we acknowledge it in our language and all the attitude that comes from it. We call it a grey area. Grey area is a fusion of two options; it is not just something monolithic, but rather a variety of opinions.

Let us look into the story of the leadership in the building of the Tower of Babel. We will very quickly learn that Nimrod was in a position of leadership at that time. Who is Nimrod? Where did he come from? What do we know about him?

As we explore both written and oral tradition, let us start with the written Biblical description of Nimrod. His lineage is clear – Noah, Ham, Kush and Nimrod. Nimrod is described as a strong man and mighty hunter. Since the whole episode is happening after the Flood, we can assume that Nimrod was allowed to hunt animals for food, not just for “sport”. No wonder he had to be strong.

We know that there are no extra words in the Torah. So my question to you is, why do we need to have such a detailed description of Nimrod? What can we learn about him, and why is it important? Let us look at it again. Strong man is rather interesting as there is no reference to what kind of strength – physical or mental? We can clearly assume that it is a reference to both.

Next, let us look into the mighty hunter reference. We can see in the text that it is repeated twice – once as a description of Nimrod himself and the second time as a reference to saying to “mighty hunter like Nimrod before the Lord”. Each word matters, therefore let us look into the word before. The translation is correct, yet the saying “lost in the translation” is applicable here. In Hebrew, it is the same word for before as “in the face of”. Although subtle in our everyday life, we always remember that the words of the Bible are precise.

Now, let us see it again. Nimrod was a mighty hunter who was able to provoke God. Looking into the use of provoke in our everyday language, we see that it is doing something on purpose to stir a strong reaction (with the most commonly used for a negative reaction). Even when we are talking about the thought-provoking outcome, we are not talking about a discussion, but rather a strong statement.

And the final piece of the puzzle for this is in the lineage – Nimrod is a grandson of Ham. Unlike his grandfather Noah, Ham did not walk with the Almighty. On the contrary, Ham is the one who saw Noah in a vulnerable situation, and instead of helping his father, he decided to humiliate him. Furthermore, Ham was far from ashamed of it, as he boasted about it to his brothers. This is the reason for Ham and his generations to be cursed. Cursed to be a slave.

Nimrod seems to be following the same line, as there is nothing to indicate otherwise. However this slave is becoming a mighty hunter, provoking God. Provoking, not repenting. You might ask yourself, how can he be a leader of the big project, and why would anyone follow him? However, the answer is very clear and confronting – we all fall for smooth speech, which is working like an entrapment in forming our views.

Slogans might make us feel good; however, we need to learn through asking hard questions and looking for clear answers. The key is to always ask for the costs of any policy, in both financial and especially human impact. And always consider the alternative to it. However, we see the failure of the latter time and time again. It has never been as clear as nowadays, when ideas of smooth-talking people provoking God are everywhere.

Now it is clear that Nimrod was the one who thought that he could reject the Almighty and get into a position of power based on his mighty hunting abilities. In my opinion, the majority of the people who fell for Nimrod’s ideas were the ones that we have defined as a grey area at the beginning of our discussion. They saw that the Almighty had given Nimrod such great skills, but failed to recognise the abuse of them by someone with bad intentions.

Let us continue to learn the story of the Tower of Babel, taking a further dive into the leadership and thought process in this building project.