Parshat Yitro
Mina Cohen
Yitro is the blockbuster parsha and actually the subject of a classic movie starring Charleton Heston as Moses called the Ten Commandments made in 1956 directed by Cecil B Demille. It’s probably the most dramatic and of course among the most important parshas in the Torah so why is it called Yitro and not Aseret Ha’Dibrot (10 Commandments), Hukkim (laws), Matan Torah (giving of the Torah)- you get the idea.
Instead this parsha is named for Moses’ father-in-law and his name means “his addition”. Yitro or Jethro is not an integral part of the Jewish people, was not part of the Exodus, and did not receive the Torah at Sinai. He was a priest of a pagan religion who arrived at the Israelites’ encampment after hearing about miracles and wonders they had experienced when leaving Egypt and brought Moses’ wife and two sons.
So what about that addition thing. What did Yitro add? Our torah is believed to come directly from God. Only Yitro’s section is referred to as an addition, so what could have been so important to add to divine wisdom?
When Yitro arrived in the Israelite camp, he watched as Moses served as a one-man judicial arbiter for the entire Israelite community. He listened to disputes such as someone put something next to my tent, my husband is unfaithful, my children don’t behave, I was sold shoddy goods, etc. etc. etc. Yitro asks Moses, “Why do you sit alone, and the entire people stand about you from morning till evening?” Moses responded “The people come to me to seek God. When they have a matter of dispute they come to me and I judge between a man and his fellow. I teach them the laws of God.” Yitro’s response is “It is not good, this thing that you are doing. You will wither away, both you and this people who are with you, you cannot do this alone.” Yitro went on to suggest that Moses select from among the people, able men, those that fear God, men of truth, who abhor profit, and appoint them as arbiters and judges.”
According to Yitro’s plan, Moses would continue to teach the people the laws and instructions, the path they should follow, and the deeds they should do. But the application of these laws to the daily life of the people, should be delegated. Moses accepted Yitro’s plan.
So there are two sections to this parsha, the practical advice of a Midianite priest and the revelation from God at Sinai. Governing is not specifically Jewish. Jews have had many forms of leadership from prophets, elders, judges, and even some kings. Governing by Yehudah Ha’Nasi in Israel under Roman rule and the Resh Galuta in Babylon during exile, by local councils, and oligarchs, and currently by a fragile and worrisome elected Knesset in modern day Israel. There is nothing specifically Jewish about political structures. What is specifically Jewish though is the covenant at Sinai, and whether you accept the idea of choseness or not we can learn practical politics from Yitro.
There is one common theme, delegation, distribution, and ultimately democratization. When Yitro says “What you are doing is not good” it is one of only two times in the entire Torah where the words “LO TOV” not good appear. The other is in Bereshit when God says to Adam, “it is not good for man to be alone. He needs a helper.” So God creates Eve.
Yitro suggests some numbers for Moses to select the judges. I’ll leave that for Raven to parse out in a future d’var torah. One in every adult male Israelite was expected to undertake some form of leadership role. God says “Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for me a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Yitro was a Midianite priest. In the ancient world there was nothing extraordinary about being a priest. Every nation had priests and other holy men. What God was saying to distinguish Israel was that it was to become a nation every one of whose members could be a priest, each of whose citizens was called on to fear God, be men of truth, who abhor profit.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells the following story:
I vividly recall standing with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (z’l) in the General Assembly of the United Nations in August 2000 at a unique gathering of 2000 religious leaders representing all the major faiths in the world. I pointed out that even in that distinguished company we were different. We were almost the only religious leaders wearing suits. All the others wore robes of office. It is an almost universal phenomenon that priests and holy people wear distinctive robes of office to indicate that they are set apart (kadosh-holy). In post biblical Judaism there were no robes of office because everyone was expected to be holy.
But is that true Jews are a kingdom of Priests? The Kohanim were an elite within the nation, members of the tribe of Levi, descendants of Aaron the first High Priest. There never was a full democratization of the priesthood.
Rabbi Sacks goes on to give us some commentary on this. The word Kohanim, priests may mean princes or leaders (according to Rashi and Rambam). Or it may mean servants (according to Ramban and Ibn Ezra). This is precisely the point- the Israelites were called on to be a nation of servant-leaders. This results in the phrase: Kol Yisrael arevin zeh be-zeh “All Israelites are responsible for one another. Jews who did not leave leadership to a single individual but were expected to be both a prince and a servant, This may be why Jews historically have been hard to lead. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel famously said “I head a nation of a million presidents.” Perhaps this is why Jews have had an impact on the world out of all proportion to our numbers. We make up 1/5 of 1% of the world’s population but make up an extraordinarily high percentage of leaders in any given field of human endeavor.
We have to work together if it’s to solve economic problems, environmental problems, digging out possible survivors from a devastating earthquake, or caring for each other in our local community. So I applaud whoever named the parshaot, giving this week’s parsha the title Yitro as we have much to learn from his wise advise to Moshe rabaynu.