Napoleon’s retreat from Russia has gone down as the most catastrophic military fiasco in History. It was not for lack of courage, strength, and ability that the French army lost. They were seasoned soldiers who had won many military conquests. The Russians on the other hand were highly unprepared. What happened?
It is a fact of life that we learn more from defeats than we do from successes. In his book, War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy makes a good expose of the situation on both sides but I’d like to share the insight of a certain Rabbi from a lost province of Russia. When he was asked for his speculation concerning the looming napoleonic invasion, right away the abnegating Rabbi made the disclaimer that he was not a prophet, but that he would volunteer this parable. “A nobleman driving a carriage drawn by four large horses was caught in a rainstorm. The carriage veered from the main road and the wheels sank in the mud. The man kept lashing his horses but to no avail; the horse were unable to budge the carriage. A peasant with three small ponies soon passed by and advised the nobleman to unharness the large horses and let his ponies do the job. The nobleman was skeptical: if his four strong horses couldn’t move the carriage, what could three scrawny ponies accomplish? But the peasant insisted. As soon as the ponies were harnessed, the peasant gave one stroke with his whip and the ponies dragged the carriage out of the mud. The astonished nobleman looked on incredulously and asked the peasant how his ponies could accomplish what four large horses couldn’t. The peasant asked him where he acquired his horses. The nobleman replied that they were bought from four of the world’s finest stables. …”That’s the problem!” said the peasant. “Your horses are rivals and feel animosity for each other. When one is lashed, the other three are happy and don’t try to help. My ponies might be small but they are brothers. When one is lashed, the other two try to save him with all their strength. Therefore my three ponies accomplished more than your four grown horses.” The Rabbi then explained that Napoleon’s army was comprised of many ethnic groups who have no interest in aiding each other, but that the Russian army was united behind the one goal of defending their homeland. Even a young child can break a single reed. But a bunch of reeds together is strong and cannot be broken. In other words, as the old adage goes, “If we don’t hang together, we will surely hang separately.”
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