Hey there and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one responsible page of Tomlid each day.

And on today's page, Manachot 51, the rabbis

ask a great question. Let's assume, God forbid, that the high priest dies. What, they asked,

happens to the griddle cake offering he was supposed to sacrifice daily. It sounds like kind of a minor,

like super into a week, Talachie question, but it actually has

profound and super relevant consequences. So here, let's have a listen to what the rabbis are asking.

If they did not appoint another high priest in his stead, the Talmud asks, from whose property

was the griddle cake offering brought and sacrificed?

Rabbi Shimon says it is brought and sacrificed from the property of the community.

Rabbi Houda says it is brought and sacrificed from the property of the heirs of the high priest.

And for the duration of the period until a new high priest was appointed, the griddle cake offering

was sacrificed as a complete tenth of an effa of fine flour. If we zoom out of our narrow halakhic

confines for a minute, the question at hand is this, what really is leadership about? Or how should we

think about our leaders? Is a leader just an ordinary

person, which means that when he dies, his heirs take up all of his obligations just as they

would any other person? Or is the leader by ascending to the position, by ascending to the

position of leadership, somehow sanctified by it, seen no longer as a mere mortal,

but as the embodiment of his duties, which means that at the moment of his passing,

his debts and obligations are a matter for the public at large.

It won't surprise you at all to hear that the rabbis jump in and debate this idea fiercely.

As well, they should, because leadership, our wise ancestors realized, wasn't monolithic,

wasn't some function you could clearly define. Here, for example, is the late great

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