Principle 1: Leadership begins with taking responsibility.
Compare the opening of Genesis with the opening of Exodus. The opening chapters of Genesis are about failures of responsibility. Confronted by God with their sin, Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. Cain says, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Even Noah, “righteous, perfect in his generations,” has no effect on his contemporaries.
By contrast, at the beginning of Exodus Moses takes responsibility. When he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite, he intervenes. When he sees two Israelites fighting, he intervenes. In Midian, when he sees shepherds abusing the daughters of Jethro, he intervenes.
Moses, an Israelite brought up as an Egyptian, could have avoided each of these confrontations, yet he did not. He is the supreme case of one who says: when I see wrong, if no one else is prepared to act, I will.
At the heart of Judaism are three beliefs about leadership: We are free. We are responsible. And together we can change the world.
Principle 2: No one can lead alone. Seven times in Genesis 1, we hear the word “tov” (good). Only twice in the whole Torah does the phrase “lo tov” (not good) appear. The first is when God says, “It is not good for man to be alone.” The second is when Jethro sees his son-in-law, Moses, leading alone and says, “What you are doing is not good.” We cannot live alone. We cannot lead alone. Leadership is teamsmanship.
Rabbi Sacks isolates two important precepts - that we are expected to take responsibility as individuals, but act collectively. We are to induce others to follow in a moral direction - but how?
Setup and Understanding the Challenge of Dugma Ishit
How I Explain It To My Students
Everyone has a hero or role model – someone they look up to. In many ways, this is the simplest example of dugma ishit (often shortened to just ‘dugma’) – taking after someone you respect and trying to be like them. As you have become older, maybe you have seen this play out in your family among your siblings, or in children you babysit mimicking you – sometimes it can be irritating, but it comes from a deep place. Like it or not, we always make an impression on those around us.
Dugma means being conscious of how the example you set affects others. Dugma can also mean acting consistently with the standard. A teacher leading a class in an environmental project shouldn’t also bring plastic-wrapped snacks, and a madrich leading tefillah shouldn’t be distracted by their phone. We make these comparisons because they help us stay accountable to our values – but dugma is not a mallet to hit you over the head with, or a tool to make you feel good or bad. It simply reminds you of who you want to be. The goal is not to directly relate our modern situations to these personalities (i.e. ‘what would Moses do?!’), but rather to draw from their dugma to help us be better people and better Jews in the here and now.
How does dugma appear in our texts?
Rashi explained that since she was a convert as they, Sh’mayoh and Avtalyon, were converts. Since they themselves were converts they tended to deal with her as a full-fledged Jewess and had her drink the bitter water, but they were not correct for doing so. And so too, it appears in Yerushalmee of Moaid Koton (perek 3): The Yerushalmee asks what is דוגמא? That she was like them. She was a convert as they were converts.
Tosfos suggests another explanation of the word דוגמא as it is used in this Mishna. The Oruch explains that השקוה דוגמא does not refer to the Rabanan who said that she must drink the bitter water, but to the water that she drank water which was dyed so that it appeared as if it was bitter water, but they were not actually the bitter waters and they did not erase the Torah onto the water as is prescribed in Parsha Noso. Obviously that water did not have the power to verify whether she had committed adultery or not, but they gave her the water to drink in order to cause her to fear the consequences of her action.
אֵל תֵּצֵא יְחִידִי בַּלַּיְלָה, דְּתַנְיָא: לֹא יֵצֵא יְחִידִי בַּלַּיְלָה, לֹא בְּלֵילֵי רְבִיעִיּוֹת וְלֹא בְּלֵילֵי שַׁבָּתוֹת, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁאָגְרַת בַּת מָחֲלַת, הִיא וּשְׁמוֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה רִבּוֹא שֶׁל מַלְאֲכֵי חַבָּלָה יוֹצְאִין
With regard to the instruction: Do not go out alone at night, the Gemara states that this is as it was taught in a baraita: One should not go out alone at night, neither on Tuesday nights nor on Shabbat nights, i.e., Friday nights, because the demon Agrat, daughter of Maḥalat, she and 180,000 angels of destruction go out at these times.
“God has spoken once, twice I have heard this” (Psalms 62:12). From one verse, emerge several explanations. [However] in conclusion, a verse does not depart from its literal sense and meaning. Although the Prophets have employed metaphors, let each metaphor be explained simply, each statement fitting its context.
Compare Song of Songs Rabba: "until Solomon invented the משל, no one could understand Torah at all."
Allusions to Dugma-Adjacent Concepts
And Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: Service of Torah is greater than its study, i.e., serving a Torah scholar and spending time in his company is greater than learning Torah from him. Torah study is one component of a Torah life, but one who serves a Torah scholar learns about every aspect of life from his actions. This is derived from the verse that speaks in praise of Elisha, as it is stated: “Here is Elisha son of Shafat, who poured water over Elijah’s hands” (II Kings 3:11). The verse does not say that he learned from Elijah, rather that he poured water, which teaches that the service of Torah represented by Elisha pouring water over Elijah’s hands is greater than its study.
וְלֵימָא לֵיהּ: זִיל קוֹץ דִּידָךְ, וַהֲדַר אֶקּוֹץ דִּידִי! מִשּׁוּם דְּרֵישׁ לָקִישׁ, דְּאָמַר: ״הִתְקוֹשְׁשׁוּ וָקוֹשּׁוּ״ – קְשׁוֹט עַצְמְךָ וְאַחַר כָּךְ קְשׁוֹט אֲחֵרִים.
Let him say to him: Go cut down your tree, and then I will cut mine down. The Gemara answers: Because of the statement of Reish Lakish, who said: The verse states: “Gather yourselves together and gather [hitkosheshu vakoshu]” (Zephaniah 2:1), and this can be explained homiletically to mean: Adorn [keshot] yourself and afterward adorn others, i.e., act properly before requiring others to do so.
Conclusion
On the one hand, it took many generations for the idea of dumga ishit to be formulated and acted upon. On the other hand, it's always been a part of our national spirit.
The Kings of Israel (and Judah) suffered in this regard. Appointed as military and civic leaders, they failed to understand their aspirational and therefore illustrative role for the people. This is not to say that a King must be perfect - in fact, role models must be complex - but sermons can easily become hollow when faced with dereliction of duty and law. Each prophet comes in and preaches not only to the people, but also to the King - recognising that a ruler has an enomrous role. They are the 'consultants' whose advice is ignored, yet all too relevant. From this, we learn the challenge and boon of dugma:
Real dugma is constant, but proper dugma endures.