My Organization was Setback because I Didn’t Follow the Maharal

By Rabbi Binyomin Fishman

Recently in my organization, we needed a large amount of work to be done in order to accomplish a specific goal. After discussing it with the administrative director, we decided that we needed to hire an assistant to take care of it. After deliberating, he said that his sister would be available. She had been unofficially helping the organization with small tasks for a while, she had the skill set necessary in order to accomplish the job, and she was willing to help. Over a period of the three of us met, evaluated her ability to do the job, discussed the specific role she would have while working with myself and the director, and set up an evaluation system.

Yet I found that we significantly missed major deadlines in the project which resulted in our not accomplishing the goal. The delays were caused by serious lack of understanding between us. I was confounded: Where did we go wrong? I thought we had taken all appropriate steps to prevent problems. The administrative director had even taken notes at the meetings and had emailed them to everybody, in order to avoid miscommunication.

Then I remembered a famous idea of the Maharal. Rav Yehuda Loew, better known as the Maharal of Prague, ranks as one of the most prominent Jewish leaders and thinkers of the past 500 years whose impact is still felt today. Even modern day Prague has a statue of him put up by the non-Jewish government in recognition of his long-lasting influence.

Although he left his imprint on almost every area of Judaism, his influence is most felt in the realm of philosophy. He expounded concepts which have become the cornerstone of almost all subsequent Jewish thought. In many instances, he took existing words and infused them with meaning in order to express his ideas, subsequently enriching our lexicon. (A secular parallel, on a significantly more minor scale, would be Steven Covey’s influence through his “7 Habits” which has brought us such concepts as “paradigm shift” and “synergy.”)

One of the Maharal’s most famous ideas is the relationship of “Chomer ” and “Tzura”, the raw material and the shape it has. Every item contains both parts. A silver goblet, for instance, has a “chomer ” or material of silver, and the “tzura” or shape of a cup. You cannot have a practical utensil if you only focus on one area and not the other. If you craft a beautiful but use a very cheap material, it won’t last long. Likewise, if you use a metal but have shoddy craftsmanship, the goblet will be almost useless. Using this framework, many areas of Jewish thought can be explained much deeper and with more clarity.

Reviewing our failure, I realized that I had neglected this point. During our negotiations, we had focused on the “chomer” – was the candidate “organized” and “efficient”? Was she willing to “take responsibility for the project?” And so forth. The answers were duly and even written down, but the understanding was all in the realm of “chomer”- the material. The miscommunications came from a difference in “tzura” – in the way each party perceived the information.

When I said that her role was to take responsibility for the project, and I would provide her with resources, I intended that she would be in charge of the project. Of course, there was the expectation that she would be in touch with me to ask questions and receive help and direction as needed. For the most part, however, she would be on her own, developing the project from her own perspective, and I would be able to focus on the multitude of tasks to which I needed to attend. This is how I work with other assistants, and such delegation with a laissez-faire approach has enabled me to be more effective and efficient. 

She, however, envisioned that her responsibility for the project meant assisting me – doing paperwork and making phone calls so that I could do the project. She expected me to be focused full time on our project, with her being available to do the technical details. Therefore, to the extent that I wasn’t telling her specific things to do, she was doing other projects – important and beneficial ones related to the smaller tasks with which she had been helping out, just not related to this specific project for which she was hired. When we discussed the failed goal, she was quick to point out that she felt she had carried out her responsibilities 100%; I just had been slow in giving her the directions she needed to accomplish the goal! We both had agreed she would be “responsible for the project,” and had even listed specific related tasks for her to do – we had agreed on the "chomer". Our overall perspectives on her role, the “tzura” we each gave it, were vastly different with unfortunate results. On a smaller this held true for other areas of miscommunication – we simply used the same terms while having vastly different understandings.

Looking back, I realized that she didn’t even want to take on the role I had in mind. She was happy being given specific tasks to accomplish, without requiring a major investment of thought and analysis. She is totally entitled to have that approach, and she is indeed quite good at what she does, but I would have never hired her to take on this project if I had realized her frame of mind. We could have avoided this failure by spending more time initially discussing the concept of what we are doing, and by really hearing from her what her expectations were. (It should also be mentioned the discussions were all in Hebrew. Although I speak solid Hebrew, it is easy for nuances to get lost in translation. Thus we should have been extra careful to make sure we were “on the same page” – which does not translate to “al daf!”)

As mentioned earlier, the Maharal’s impact has lasted for hundreds of years while revolutionizing our perception of how the world works. I was reminded by him to focus both on the “chomer” and “tzura”, both the information as well as the understanding and perception behind it. This will help improve communication in order to increase mutual understanding and obtain maximum efficiency.

Rabbi Binyomin Fishman is the Associate Director of Bonayich Youth Program and Adult Education, focusing on building vibrant Judaism in all levels of the community. He lives in Tel Zion/ Kochav Yaakov, Israel. For feedback, or to find out more about his projects, contact him at [email protected]. Permission is granted to reproduce in any form provided that the article is presented in its entirety, including this endnote.