“A spiritual leader must comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable.”
–Moses
Okay, so it wasn’t Moses. But it might as well have been, because truer words have never been spoken.
Yes, as human beings we expect our spiritual leaders to be there for us in times of sorrow. To run the funeral, be at the shiva, and chant the kaddish. To answer the difficult questions, visit the hospital, and work through the tangled dilemmas with a smile, an arm around the shoulder, and soothing words.
But our spiritual leaders have another job. To shake up the status quo. Help us get off our laurels, where we’ve been chillin’. Ask the difficult questions that we might not want to hear. Challenge us in our relationships, in our decisions, in how we spend our money and our leisure time. Help us rise to our highest selves by disturbing the comforts of the plateau.
Are we up for it?
So true. Makes principled rabbis pretty unpopular…
I agree, and I hope as a rabbi I can live up to the challenge.
A rabbi I respect a lot said that the problem with some kiruv professionals is that they so push the "Good on you for keeping the stuff you are now keeping" that they don't push towards full observance. And a lot of people figure that as long as they are doing OK at shul attendance, Shabbat, kosher, mikvah (and perhaps other barometer mitzvot) they do not need to improve in any area. I hope rabbis can succeed at pushing their congregants to be better in as many ways as possible.