Leadership Models: National vs. Tribal

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1. Opening Themes in Sefer Shoftim

   Rabbi Michael Hattin

   This article adresses some of the major themes of Sefer Shoftim: 

   1) The limitations of the great conquest of Yehoshua and the need for ongoing inhabitation of the Land 

   2) The unified national model of leadership versus the local tribal leadership model 

   3) The less direct means of communication with God during the period of the Judges.

2. The Victory Over Midyan

   Rabbi Michael Hattin

   Gideon's brief but disturbing exchanges with the people of Sukkot and Pnuel highlights an ongoing problem in the book of Judges: The feeling among certain tribes or even towns within tribes that unless direct and immediate benefit was to accrue to them for their participation in the larger conflicts, they would much prefer to sit it out and leave the fighting to someone else, namely, their compatriots that were more directly threatened by the oppressor. The tribes still had a very long way to go in forging a national identity that could transcend narrow partisan concerns to address the greater issues and threats of the day.

   The Midianites raise the possibility of Gideon being a king, a possibility that the people subsequently raise, but Gideon refuses because he feels that such innovations will have the effect of shifting communal and national focus away from serving God to instead concentrate it upon man.

   The end of Gideon's life is marred by the episode of the golden Ephod, but his victories are remembered and referred to throughout Tanakh.