When you look at the current administration governing the United States, do you find technical competence, moral character, or a sense of higher purpose beyond power itself? I believe that our country is endangered not only by a competence gap but also by a loss of reverence for higher purpose when skill and wisdom are set aside. We are left wondering why we are not governed by “wise-hearted” leaders? That is the leadership we were meant to have.
In the Torah, Moses calls to work “every wise-hearted among you.” He describes an ideal in which sacred labor is entrusted to those whose inner wisdom, moral character, and practical skill align with God’s command. In context, the Torah offers more than a directive about building the Mishkan, the holy tabernacle; it articulates a broader principle of leadership. Communal work is to be carried out by the chacham-lev—those who combine technical mastery with sacred wisdom. The classical understanding is that such individuals are endowed with a blend of skill, discernment, and elevated moral and spiritual stature.
Similarly, the governance of the world’s most powerful nation requires skill, knowledge, and moral elevation to build a better world. We should entrust our government only to people who embody these qualities. As current events remind us, our leaders are responsible not only for this nation but, in many respects, for the fate of the world.
Contemporary governance often falls short of the standard Moses set forth, and that tension is precisely what the verse illuminates. Countries afflicted by cronyism, nepotism, and patronage rarely sustain excellence or maintain even a semblance of moral and competent leadership.
As I watch the war in the Middle East unfold, I am unsettled. Cabinet officials appear ill-equipped for their roles. Department staff have been significantly reduced. The Secretary of Defense is a former television host. The Department of Homeland Security is led by someone whose professional background lies largely outside national security. The FBI director has dismissed personnel responsible for monitoring foreign threats. The Secretary of State seemed to blame Israel for starting the war. Our leadership seems to lack a coherent plan for what comes next.
Elsewhere, the Torah makes its demands for competence and character explicit in the political and judicial sphere. Moses instructs the people to appoint leaders who are “wise, discerning, and experienced,” and Yitro advises him to seek “capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain.”
Rabbinic tradition later systematizes these qualities, identifying wisdom, humility, reverence for God, hatred of unjust gain, love of truth, public trust, and an unblemished reputation as prerequisites for judges and leaders. In this sense, the Torah fully acknowledges that authority without knowledge, integrity, and skill distorts the very idea of political leadership.
The verse about the “wise-hearted” and the present reality of underqualified officials stand in stark contrast. The Torah articulates a norm: sacred communal tasks should be entrusted to those who are inwardly wise and technically competent.
Our government, with its sacred duty to preserve and protect democracy, has drifted from that norm. Modern politics often rewards performative traits like charisma, fundraising ability, and partisan loyalty, rather than the chacham-lev synthesis of expertise, moral seriousness, and devotion to a higher command that the Torah envisions.
Halakhically and ethically, the gap between “wise-hearted” leadership and contemporary reality should spur action rather than despair. The tradition does not assume that flawed leaders nullify the ideal. Instead, it challenges communities to cultivate genuine wisdom and skill within themselves, to hold leaders to standards of integrity and competence, and, where possible, to elevate or become leaders who more fully embody the qualities of chacham-lev.
Rabbi Evan J. Krame
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