Omer 2025 Day 47

Day 46 | Day 48

Day 47: Tevye the Dairyman by Sholem Aleichem
Hod in Malchut, Glory/Humility in Leadership

If you love Fiddler on the Roof, you'll love the source material. The stories of Tzeitel, Hodl, and Chava are well-known from the play/film. Tzeitel, the eldest daughter, rejects the financial comfort of an arranged marriage in order to marry for love. Hodl also marries for love and does so within the Jewish community, though her chosen husband applies Jewish teaching broadly in support of workers' rights, and she leaves her family to support his work. Chava finds love outside the Jewish faith and follows her heart, despite being cut off from her family and the Jewish community as a result. Their story, taken together, shows a progression of boundary-pushing, testing the limits of what Tevye (and the community) will accept.

What I love about the book is that it continues telling the story of the fourth and fifth daughters. The clean narrative of the first three becomes a little messy and starts to turn back on itself, revealing a cyclical nature to the story. The fourth and fifth daughters, Shprintze and Beilke, also find themselves contemplating love, comfort, and social order as they prepare for their own marriages. Their stories are each heartbreaking in their own ways. Beilke, in particular, highlights the ways that our responsibilities to our family and our community change over time.

What strikes me most about Tevye in these later stories is the way he embodies glory and humility in leadership. At first, he is certain that he knows what will be best for his daughters. At first, he is a poor dairyman who dreams of becoming rich. By the end, though, he is much more willing to trust his daughters, even when their decisions confound him. He learns to accept uncertainty. He takes pride in his place in life and values the hard work that has made him a pillar of his community, even if it has not made him a rich man.

We live in a world of leaders who are increasingly polarized idealogues. We harden our positions, believing that strength comes from unwavering conviction. But Tevye's daughters teach us to question the status quo and advocate for ourselves, and Tevye teaches us to let our traditions help us grow and change, rather than hold us back.

Bonus reading: For a "behind the scenes" look at Tevye and the writings of Sholem Aleichem, check out The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem by Jeremy Dauber.

Omer 2025 Day 46

Day 45 | Day 47

Day 46: Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
Netzach in Malchut, Endurance in Leadership

This book was recommended to me by a colleague and it did not disappoint. It tells the story of the Endurance and its crew of 27 men, led by Sir Ernest Shackelton, as they attempted an expedition to Antarctica. The ship was trapped and then crushed by ice and all 28 men abandoned ship to camp on the ice until the currents could push them closer to land and they could hopefully row their three ship's boats to land. Since it's a matter of history, I don't think it's a spoiler to tell you that all 28 men survived the voyage, in large part because of Shackelton's leadership. From his initial choice of crewmen who would complement each other's skills and personalities, to his management of potentially undermining crewmembers, and, of course, his life-and-death decision-making, Shackelton led his men with a sense of responsibility for their lives that often flew in the face of their dire circumstances. He spent time building trust and camaraderie that ultimately helped them endure unimaginable hardship together.

Omer 2025 Day 45

Day 44 | Day 46

Day 45: Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman
Tiferet in Malchut, Compassion in Leadership

This children's book really demonstrates why Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in US history. She is able to distill big concepts, like compassion and difference into a compelling story. The illustrations by Loren Long are really the key to bringing Gorman's words to life. 

The book is a call to action, not just for kids, but for us all, to be leaders in our communities. Gorman's character in the book demonstrates leadership not just by doing the work of improving her community, but by bringing others into that work with her. Their leadership is rooted in compassion for the people around them. They see litter and are compelled to clean it up. They see people who are hungry and are compelled to feed them. They see outcasts and are compelled to welcome them into the community. In the book, it seems so obvious that those are the right steps, but we all know how easily we walk past these things every day without acting. 

Especially in our current political climate, I look to this book for a vision of a world with compassionate leaders, with people who thought of others and let that guide them into action.