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1. THREAD: It's unfortunate that this is necessary, but I need to do a mini Twitter shiur/class on authentic Jewish leadership. This is in no way comprehensive, but there is one point I think is ignored far too often.
2. For far too many individuals, "leadership" means nothing more than amplifying what constituents want to hear or parroting a preferred party line. It's not unlike how many employ "courage," as I described here.
3. The point I think people ignore is that the first requirement for any authentic Jewish leader is to follow the Torah / Divine Will, *especially* when it's at odds with one's personal preferences.
Let's see some examples
Let's see some examples
4. First up is Moses, whose disobeying of God's command to speak to the rock cost him the opportunity to enter the land of Israel 
5. Next, we have King Saul who wanted to satisfy the people more than fulfilling God's will. Note Samuel's admonition at the end: Because Saul rejected the word of God, God rejects Saul as king.
6. Finally, we have King Solomon who broke the Biblical rules prohibiting kings from having too many horses and too many wives
7. The Talmud even cites King Solomon as the reason for why the Bible doesn't include reasons for commandments. Two times it did, King Solomon tried to outsmart the Torah saying the reasons didn't apply to him, and he was wrong both times.
8. The Midrash in Exodus Rabba 6:1 expands on this theme at length. I won't quote the whole thing, but these passages convey the general idea of how trying to "be wiser than the Torah" is a Bad Thing.
9. For this reason, I interpret Maimonides homiletically when he lists the chain of the oral tradition from Moses onwards. Note how after David is Achiya of Shilo who was from the gen of Moses. I suggest Solomon gets skipped bec he thought he was above the law.
10. Jewish leadership means leading by example. קשוט עצמך ואחר כך קשוט אחרים - "adorn yourself first and afterward adorn others". In B. Sotah 21b one of the definitions of a "cunning wicked" is "someone who is lenient for himself while being strict on others."
11. You can't be in a position of religious leadership if you yourself think you're above the law or that you know better than Torah because you can't tell others to be committed to a system to which you yourself are not committed.
12. To put it another way, if you're going to disregard parts of Torah that you don't like, you can't complain when other people disregard the parts which you happen to think are more important. Torah is a whole, you can't add or subtract from it
13. I understand that people feel conflicted about many parts of the Torah for various reasons. I am not even going to judge here those who prioritize their own sentiments over the requirements of Torah.
14. But what I *am* saying is prioritizing personal sentiments over the requirements of Torah is an automatic disqualification for a position of authentic Jewish leadership. \fin
