A trail in the woods is an odd place for a lesson in leadership. The path winds through a eucalyptus forest along Pomerado Road between Interstate 15 and Poway. At midday, light splays from the high branches to the damp and darkened floor. You can hear frogs along a creek and traffic somewhere. You pass abandoned bicycles, a crude paintball battlefield and a Mustang carcass perforated by hundreds of bullets.
Modern life is hard to escape.
As you climb out of the trees and up a hill of coastal sage, you'll happen upon 36 mysterious clay tablets. The Talmud, he explains, describes 36 righteous souls who live in every generation, upon whose shoulders the world rests. These are ordinary people who live lives of humility, anonymity and often poverty. Their peers seldom recognize them as leaders. Indeed, some lamed-vov are unaware that they're among the 36.