Over the next four years the UK state pension age of 66 will rise to 67. In years to come it will have to keep going up so that we can retain the balance between the number of workers per state pensioner that we have now to 70 or 71!
The UK expects us to work for longer than the average in the OECD which is 64 years though Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Israel and Italy together with the USA make you wait until you are 67 as the UK soon will too.
You might like to be Sri Lankan – where you get your state pension at 55. Or Bangladeshi where the age is 59. But don’t rush there now if you are close to this age as the monthly pension in Sri Lanka is around £25 and in Bangladesh £33. (London Evening Standard March 2024)
Moses got to retire at the age of 120 according to our Torah. He was required to retire by God after he hit a desert rock to bring water in anger having screamed at the Israelites when he had been asked to speak calmly to it with faith that water would come out.
In the portion of Pinchas, just before the section that we read today Moses appointed his successor publicly – Joshua. It’s not certain what age Joshua was at this point. According to the Seder Olam Rabbah, the Second Century chronology of Jewish legendary history, working back from Joshua’s death at the age of 110 with the Promised Land well and truly settled, Joshua was 83 years of age when he first became the leader of the Israelites, older than Moses had been when he started back in Egypt. Calculations based on reassessing the stories of Joshua and when they are set in the Exodus journey suggest, according to Elihu Schatz in the Jewish Bible Quarterly (2013 Vol 41:1) that Johsua was 59 when he became leader. Either way he was not a young man at the time.
There are some undoubtedly elderly leaders of countries and major institutions around the world. They are not, with apologies to those here today who have reached these great ages, normally leaders of democracies where they have to bear the scrutiny of voters choosing their optimal leader. The oldest country leader currently is Paul Biya, President of Cameroon. He leads the table of veteran world leaders at 91 years of age – having been in power for over forty years. Mahmood Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority is 88 years of age having been elected for a four-year term in the last Palestinian election in 2005 and is still in power. King Salman of Saudi Arabia is the country’s absolute monarch at age 88, with his son Prince Mohammed bin Salman the de facto ruler, neither of them democratically elected. Joe Biden, at 81 does not even make the top ten of elderly world leaders though is clearly well beyond the age that most of us stop being in charge of things, let alone leading a country with all its complexities.
Our Jewish tradition admires the person who is able to let go of power and to pass it on to a worthy successor. Moses does so in our portion with grace and conviction. He lays both his hands on Joshua’s shoulders in front of the whole community and the high Priest Eleazar, who has taken over from his recently deceased father Aaron. Moses makes it clear that he is passing on his leadership without rancour, without recrimination and with his very best wishes for his successor. (Numbers 27:23)
In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 105b) Rabbi Yosei Bar Choni said ‘A person may become jealous anyone but never of their child nor their student’. It eats away at your soul to be jealous of those who succeed you. But it feeds your soul to take pride in their achievements and to help prepare them to be able to succeed you.
In our Haftarah today Elijah the prophet, recognising the he would no longer be able to fulfil the role that he had in the Kingdom of Israel, found and trained a successor, Elisha, upon whom we are told he ‘bestowed a double portion of his spirit’, generously readying him to succeed him (2 Kings 2:9).
King David is praised by our Rabbis for doing the same in passing on his monarchy to Solomon (1 Kings 1:47). His servants came to bless King David saying ‘May God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne.’ Again rulership passed on without envy or rancour.
Its impressive that that is what has happened this week in America, that Joe Biden understood that it was time to step away from his candidacy to run again as American President.
Leadership is a precious gift and a heavy burden. When you carry it you need to be able to give it your all. A good leader not only knows when the time has come to step back but has also prepared talented people to give more than they could give, to bring new ideas, to bring fresh energy and to renew visions, perhaps built on the values of their mentor, but different. Indeed good succession planning is the mark of good leadership. Holding on until what you are leading is adversely effected by your dogged continuation is poor leadership. It’s tough to do but to pass on the mantle as Moses, Elijah and King David and eventually Joe Biden did, with good grace is a great contribution to the world.
This is why our Synagogue ensures that we are well connected with Leo Baeck College, training Rabbis for the future. It is why we recruit and train talented staff members who can progress with us or even with other Jewish organisations to keep the Jewish future positive. It means that every committee or activity group in the Synagogue should have as one of its functions the nurturing of future leadership. It’s the same for any effective organisation or business.
Judaism does not admire the person who hangs on to power forever until they are removed from it by the course of nature, but rather those who think forwards and in the opening words of Pirkei Avot (1:1), train up many disciples.
