Walter Isaacson, in his book Steve Jobs, tells the famous story of Jobs’ “reality distortion field.” Employees coined that phrase because Jobs could convince brilliant engineers that impossible deadlines were possible.
Brilliant, skeptical people would enter a meeting convinced something couldn’t be done. An hour later, they would leave believing it could. Sometimes Jobs was right. Sometimes he was spectacularly wrong. The remarkable thing was not his predictions; it was his ability to reshape what people believed was possible.
What do we do when charisma eclipses conscience? Deuteronomy explores the role of the dream-diviner like Jobs. “If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner, saying, “Let us follow and worship another god”—whom you have not experienced—who gives you a sign or a portent named to you comes true, do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For the ETERNAL your God is testing you to see whether you really love the ETERNAL your God with all your heart and soul.”
The danger isn’t simply the leader who offers misdirection with promises and wonders. The danger is the leader whose gifts are so extraordinary that we forget to ask Should we follow where he is leading?“
Notice how close that is to Deuteronomy. The Torah is startlingly realistic. It does not say the charismatic leader is always wrong. Even if they are astonishingly successful, like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, and even if the signs they offer seem to work, you must still ask where they are leading you.
The concern is not limited to those captains of industry. There are religious leaders, political leaders, and influencers who promote their visions, sometimes supported by successes, other times believed beyond rational belief.
The danger to society is not simply deception by obvious frauds. It is the extraordinary person whose genuine gifts tempt us to surrender our independent moral judgment.
A dream-diviner is anyone who says, Follow me, and I will restore the nation. Follow me, and I alone understand what is happening. Follow me, and I will make us whole again.’ In Deuteronomy, Moses’ question is not whether the leader is persuasive. It is whether our devotion has quietly shifted from God to power, from covenant to tribe, from truth to certainty.
Numbers 15:30
Every one of us must ask: Am I living in anyone’s reality distortion field? That question transcends politics, technology, business, and religion, and it lands squarely on Deuteronomy’s concern: What do we do when charisma eclipses conscience?
Rabbi Evan J. Krame
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