Whenever people do things together, we say they are acting in concert. But those concerts can be atonal, uncomfortable, even unsavory.

The hostages who were kidnapped to Gaza are being freed in exchange for many prisoners who were jailed for committing crimes, some violent, even deadly. It feels uneven and unfair.

And yet the exchange is being accomplished by enemies acting in concert with one another. Each side understands the value of the exchange for themselves, and has decided that despite the cost, the gain is worth the loss.

The word concert draws us in, regardless of our musical tastes. But a concert isn’t always beautiful. Sometimes the sound is jarring, shaking us out of our complacency.

I drove by a church sign today that advertised a series of lectures entitled Incompatibility. My thoughts immediately went to the human exchange happening in the Middle East. Are Hamas and the Israeli government incompatible? Yes. Can they decide to agree on a course of action, despite their incompatibility? Yes.

Incompatibility isn’t the problem. The problem is an unwillingness to work in concert, to strive to attain an end that is acceptable and positive for all involved.

Last week, I attended a performance of Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The orchestra was top notch and the music stunning, but it was the conductor who stole my heart.

He didn’t use a score or a baton. He stood on his tiny podium, seemingly drawing the music out of the instruments all by himself. He used his entire body, cajoling the music out of the orchestra, commanding one moment, sweetly encouraging the next. He didn’t conduct; he created.

I keep going back in my mind, wondering how much of the performance was the musicians, how much the quality of their instruments, and how much was him. What would it have sounded like without him?

Leadership matters. It matters in an orchestra, and it matters in governments. It mattered in the Torah’s telling of the Exodus from Egypt, in which Pharaoh faltered as a leader and Moses, with God’s help, excelled.

Leadership matters every day, in small, seemingly insignificant moments and in sweeping, important moments.

When our leaders falter, when they fail to acknowledge that their job is not to win for themselves but rather to improve the lives of their people, we the people must speak out.

It is our job to speak truth to power, to teach leaders that acting in concert with their adversaries can be both positive and effective. That winning is not the goal.

The goal is a better world. One that is safer. Healthier. Happier. One in which we can trust our leaders to do the right thing. Only then, will we hear the music of a meaningful, global concert.