“The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln” by Alonzo Chappel

Alonzo Chappel’s “The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln” may be ahistorical, but it’s also a revealing meditation on leadership. In this lecture, Rabbi Soloveichik argues that the painting captures an essential quality of Lincoln’s greatness: his biblical approach to leadership. In contrast to models of leadership that elevate the ruler above the people, Lincoln demonstrated how authority is inseparable from empathy, listening, and responsibility—a vision best expressed in the Hebrew Bible.