The desire for power

In The Wisdom of Avos, Rabbi Yisroel Miller makes a striking observation:

“Sefarim and teachers of mussar speak extensively of the pitfalls of kavod (honor) and status-seeking, but for some reason they do not warn us so much about the natural desire for power—to be the person who gives orders and not the person who must take orders from others”.

According to Rabbi Miller, the mishnah at Avot 1:10 addresses this issue, where Shemayah teaches:

שְׁמַעְיָה אוֹמֵר: אֱהוֹב אֶת הַמְּלָאכָה וּשְׂנָא אֶת הָרַבָּנוּת, וְאַל תִּתְוַדַּע לָרָשׁוּת

Shemayah would say: Love work, hate mastery over others, and avoid intimacy with the government.

With respect, this is not what most people would regard as a warning about “the natural desire for power”—and I wonder whether this concept is an anachronism: “Natural desire for power” very much like a 19^th century concept: “The will to power”. The will to power is a concept popularized by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900); it is a shorthand term what Nietzsche believed to be the main driving force in humans.

The Tannaim in Avot do sometimes speak of power relationships. Apart from Shemayah’s teaching, we find Rabban Gamliel ben Rebbi’s caution about avoiding those in authority (Avot 2:3). There is also the tantalizingly unclear teaching of Rabbi Yishmael at Avot 3:16, which speaks (according to some commentators) of one’s dealings with those who hold more or less power than oneself. But there is no obvious recognition in Avot of the “will to power” and how to resist it.

On the positive side, Avot is full of encouragement to be truly humble—a highly-valued human quality that is incompatible with man’s quest for power. Perhaps the message of “do be humble” is more acceptable to Torah students than “don’t lust after power”.

One final reflection: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks frequently emphasised the difference between influence and authority. Authority is the prerogative of Friedrich Nietzsche the office-holder to make decrees and enforce decisions—but influence, often without the accoutrements of formal office, can be where the real power lies. Examples include that of the Vilna Gaon, whose influence throughout Eastern European Jewry was immense even though he held no formal rabbinical post, and the Ba’al Shem Tov, inspired what evolved into modern chassidut.

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