Parshat Nitzavim-Vayeilach,Rabbi David Hertzberg

Admiral Horatio Nelson was England's greatest admiral. During the Napoleonic wars all that stood between England and Napoleon's forces was the British navy. On land, Napoleon seemed invincible. The place to stop him was at sea, where England held the advantage. The climactic battle arrived on October 21, 1805. After receiving reports that the French fleet was heading for Gibraltar, Nelson ordered his fleet to position itself between Cape Trafalgar and Cape Spartel and await their arrival. Thus, the stage was set for the epic battle of Trafalgar.

The French were soundly defeated that day with a loss of 18 ships, 5,800 lives and 20,000 men who became prisoners of war. The British lost no ships but did lose 1,690 lives, including Admiral Nelson. Although the battle is famous for many reasons, it is perhaps best known for Nelson's famous exhortation delivered to his fleet through signal flags, immediately prior to the commencement of the battle. To inspire his men to give the battle their all and to emphasize to them the critical importance of the battle, Nelson, on his ship the H.M.S. Victory, ordered Mr. Pasco, his chief signalman, to send the following message: "England confides that every man will do his duty."

However, as Providence would have it, Pasco informed Nelson that there was no signal in the ship's telegraphic vocabulary book for the word "confide." To signal the word "confide" with flags the signalmen would have to spell it out letter by letter. Pasco therefore suggested that instead of "confide" the admiral should use the word "expects," for which there was a signal in the book. Being that time was of the essence, and Nelson still had another message to transmit, he approved of the change and thus the most famous message in British naval history became, "England expects that every man will do his duty."

An important aspect of this story is the role timing played. Nelson needed to transmit his message before the battle actually began, for after it began it would be impossible to see the message. Yet he had to transmit it close enough to the battle's commencement for the message to resonate with his fleet. Had Nelson transmitted the message too early it would have lost its meaning and sense of urgency. Had he sent it too late it would have simply been lost.

In this week'sparsha the mitzvah of repentance is highlighted (Perek 30: 1-14). The Haftorah to this week'sparsha quotes fromHosea (14:3): "Take with you words and return to G-d "Chazal comment that the Hebrew word for "words" - devarim - can also be read as dovrim -speakers (See Yalkut Shimoni Hosea 533). According to this reading the Navi intended to instruct Bnei Yisrael to take with them into exile rabbinic teachers who would rebuke them. Through such rebuke Bnei Yisrael would be inspired to repent. From this we see that a crucial factor in repentance is the presence of leaders who are skilled in the art of rebuke.

One of the keys for rebuke to be effective is proper timing. The Mishneh Berurah (260:9) describes an interesting example. The Shulchan Aruch instructs a person on Friday close to evening to gently ensure that members of his family are fulfilling the various preparations necessary for Shabbat before Shabbat begins. The Mishneh Berurah explains that the reason these questions are asked close to night is twofold. First, this allows sufficient time prior to sunset for the mitzvot to be fulfilled with time remaining to accept Shabbat early enough to fulfill the mitzvah of extending the Shabbat. The second reason is that it is late enough in the day so that members of the household will not procrastinate in the fulfillment of these mitzvot, thinking that they still have plenty of time to fulfill them later. From this halacha we see the importance of timing when one needs to encourage or rebuke another person - to do something good or desist from doing something bad.

Leaders must bear this rule in mind at all times. Whether they are encouraging their followers to put extra effort into a project or constructively criticizing them about something they did, leaders must time their words carefully. Leaders who fail to consider timing when delivering their words will often fail. However, leaders who time their words carefully will ultimately have more time to lead.

For the past six years I have enjoyed writing this column and have been very appreciative of the comments readers have e-mailed me or told me in person. But at this time I am looking forward to working on other creative projects. To allocate the time needed for these projects I will no longer be writing a weekly column. Rather, I will bezrat Hashem write this column once a month, appearing on Shabbat Mevarchim.

Rabbi Dr. David Hertzberg is the principal of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Middle Division. Comments can be emailed to him at mdrabbi@aol.com.

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Parshat Nitzavim-Vayeilach , Rabbi David Hertzberg