Shemos Chapter 18 – Transcript

Shemot Chapter 18: Yitro’s Visit and the Establishment of Judicial Hierarchy

Geographic and Narrative Context

Today we are reading Shemot’s Chapter 18. The context of this chapter is still within the sequence that I’ve called the sequence of stories of the desert, Midbar stories within Sefer Shemot. As the story here makes clear that Israel came to the Midbar, so that’s the location in which Moshe is now. But it’s important because this is not always the way in which it’s described the place where they were, so it seems to be important that he’s coming to the Midbar.

And also another word that we have is that he’s coming to Har Ha’Elohim, he comes to the mountain of God. This is the mountain that we already mentioned in Parshat Shemot in the context of the burning bush and the context of Midyan, where Moshe came to Har Elohim Chorev. Here it doesn’t have its proper name Chorev but is just called Har Elohim.

And it’s important because although we know this as maybe the Har Elohim because of the story in the next chapter, which is the story of Ma’amad Har Sinai, over here it’s Har Elohim because it’s a divine mountain. It’s where he meets the divine, as we’ll see also in this story. There is a concept over here of lech’ol lechem lifnei Elohim – to eat bread before God, and that must mean something like before the mountain where God is set to rest or something like that.

So he’s coming to the Midbar, and he’s coming to the Midbar, the place where Moshe is resting, or really we should say camping. There’s the concept of a military camp, like he’s in a camp here. And where there is also some kind of divine presence, some kind of place where God is, and he’s coming to that.

The Two Purposes of This Chapter

Connection to the Past: Recognition of Divine Superiority

The next story of course in the book is the story of Ma’amad Har Sinai and I think there’s a lot of relation between this story and the next story, and this has to do with what we’ll discuss as the purpose of this story. This story has two or three purposes.

The first purpose is the most explicit one, as it begins with and relates to the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim which was just finished, and even more particularly to the Shirat HaYam which we’ve just had at the end of the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim. And in the Shirat HaYam it said long sentences about how all the nations around became afraid, feared the power of these people going out of Mitzrayim now that they’ve won over the Egyptians and the Yam Suf.

And this is a point quite important to the stories here. We see them later also in Sefer Yehoshua, stories of Rachav and so on. It’s important for the Torah to tell us how all the nations around were afraid, and this is probably somewhat something of the point of the great miracles, the great victories of Kriyat Yam Suf, in order that they should be afraid of them and they therefore should allow the Bnei Yisrael to do what they want to do. So that’s one point.

There’s also a slightly deeper point in this, slightly more intellectual or spiritual or theological point, which is that Yitro is not only a military leader, he seems to have military leadership or at least some kind of knowledge of the territory. As we see in Parshat Beha’alotcha, that Moshe asked him that he knows, which means something like, you know how we encamp in the Midbar, he’s lived around the desert, he must have known how to navigate in that territory, and Moshe asked him to help them, to be their guide, so he must have had that.

Also, besides that, he is the priest of Midyan, so he’s considered some kind of theological authority, he has some knowledge of how to access the divine and how to maybe even also organize people around the divine as we’ll see. He seems to give Moshe advice relative to this.

So this is also important because the Torah, as we see very explicitly in the stories of Pharaoh and Yetziat Mitzrayim, wants not only to have the nations be afraid of the military prowess of the Jewish people, but also to admit to the primacy, to the superiority of their God over the other gods. This is the language that Yitro says, and this is what was explicitly wanted from Pharaoh and from all the stories of the plagues.

We do not entirely get this out of the mouth of Pharaoh. We do get a little bit of admission, Hashem hatzadik and Hashem hara’im and so on, but we do not get Pharaoh himself to admit that Hashem is greater than their gods. But Yitro, he stands in for this. Of course, there’s no point in us saying that our God is greater than all gods. Of course we say that. It’s important to have the people that worship the other gods, or the people that are some kind of experts on the divine, to say that.

And Yitro is the representative of this point. He’s the outside priest that knows how gods work and so on, and he is seeing from the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim that our God, Hashem, is greater than the other gods. So that’s another very important aspect of this first part of the story.

Connection to the Future: Establishing Judicial Hierarchy

The second purpose of the story is really the second half of the story, which is the story of Yitro telling Moshe to organize the sarei alafim, sarei me’ot, and so on. There’s all these levels of sarim – sarim means something like princes or elites, generals, leaders. And creating a hierarchy of intermediaries between Moshe, who has direct access to God, and all the people around him.

And this is a very important purpose, and I think we’ll see also in the story of Matan Torah itself as well as in some later stories. Again in other ways it’s important to have a source for the authority of the hierarchy and specifically of the intermediate levels of the hierarchy. Right? Because in some sense everyone agrees that if God comes and tells you something or if God has a prophet that directly speaks in his name, he has the authority and we should ask him for advice, we should follow his laws and so on. But that’s not really enough at all to create a community, create a nation, if you want.

In order to create a functioning community, there needs to be also all these levels of intermediate power. And this is, as it’s presented here, the reason for this is at least primarily because it’s not possible, both from the side of the leader and on the side of the people, to be directly led all the time from this chief, like highest authority, who has direct access to the truth or direct access to God. It’s too much work.

And we can understand this also not only in the sense that Moshe will be tired but also in the sense that people need some kind of structure. People need some kind of set rules to look forward to, to be able to rely on. It’s hard – it’s like every day we’re going to do whatever God tells us today. That’s a way in which it’s very hard to create continuity and community and structures that people can take for granted. So we need this.

Now the problem is that there’s always a problem of authority for that, because the authority of God or a direct prophet is obvious. On the other hand, if everyone just wants to do whatever is correct in their eyes, that’s also obvious. This intermediate thing is not obvious because you want some hierarchy, some set of rules, some set of people who are in charge of those rules, and you do want them to have authority. They shouldn’t be seen just as, you know, just whoever is the strongest guy in this block today. You want him to have the divine authority, but the divine authority is the one that has it directly.

So there’s many stories that describe the delegation of divine authority to these intermediate levels. There’s the story here, there’s the story in Beha’alotcha, there’s the story in Matan Torah itself, and more than once discusses this point, and it’s an important need. And here it’s presented as this advice that Yitro gave to Moshe because otherwise both him and the people would wither away, would get tired, they would not survive it.

And this is of course where the second half of the story really connects to the coming story. So the first half of the story which is Yitro being impressed by the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim and admitting that Hashem is greater than the other gods relates to what’s past, to the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim where we’re coming from. The second half of the story where Yitro gives the advice for creating all this hierarchy is connecting with the future, the coming story which is the story of Matan Torah and the story of the laws, Mishpatim, which involves creating judges and so on.

Detailed Analysis of the Text

So that was my overview, now we’ll go through the stories, the notes, the more particular structures that they have.

Yitro Hears and Responds

The first thing is that Yitro hears what Elohim, and this is important, Elohim did to Moshe and Yisrael. So it’s interesting, he heard what Elohim did for Moshe and for his people, and this is because, and maybe this is not what Yitro heard, this is what we are saying: ki hotzi Hashem et Yisrael miMitzrayim – that Hashem took out Israel from Mitzrayim. Okay, something to notice.

The Return of Tzipporah and Her Sons

So what does he do since he heard this? He takes Tzipporah, Moshe’s wife, achar shiluche’ha – who was sent away. Of course, this is a note to answer our question: what do you mean if Tzipporah is his wife, why is she with him? Apparently, although we learned that Moshe took his wife and children on the donkey when he took them from Midyan back to Mitzrayim, at some point he sent her away.

Shiluchim usually, and specifically between a man and a wife, means divorce. And we don’t have the source for this but we understand – in other words it’s not written in the Torah but we understand – that Moshe and Tzipporah were divorced. But maybe it’s not like an official divorce in the sense that why is he bringing her back? He sent her away. So it’s like reality of divorce maybe without the official divorce.

And her two sons, same thing. So when you send away a wife, you usually send her away along with her children. Custody – the idea of custody wasn’t the idea then.

And it’s interesting that somehow now we have the recital of the names of her two children and the reasons for the names: Gershom ki ger hayiti be’eretz nochriya – Gershom because he was a stranger in a strange land; Eliezer ki…

Moshe’s Family Reunion

The name Eliezer means “because Eliezer, my God of appearance, has helped me and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.” The first name, Gershom, we already had this name and the explanation in Parshat Shemot when it talked about Moshe marrying Tzipporah and having a child. The second one, we sort of could have assumed that he had another child, or maybe not, because there’s the story of Tzipporah making the brit milah for one of her sons. Maybe this was the same son. Maybe we don’t really know. It doesn’t say that he made a brit before, in any case. But here we know that he had a second son, and named him Eliezer.

Now, this part of the story also shows us another aspect of the story, which is Moshe’s reunification with his family. It seems to be an interesting point. Although we don’t have a lot of information about Moshe’s personal life—it’s not the point of these stories—there is something where his children, his wife, was sent away, and here he’s getting her back, she’s coming back to him. There might be some symbolism in that or some connection with that.

The Formal Diplomatic Meeting

So he comes with his children to the desert, to, as we discussed, how the location is described. And he says to Moshe, “Ani chotencha Yitro ba elecha“—I, Yitro, am coming to you. This saying is interesting. It’s probably some kind of—I think that should be seen as like a formal diplomatic announcement. Like, I’m here. You can understand that means something like you send a message or a note with that. But I think there’s a formal meaning to this. Like when you come, you enter a different country to a king or something, you have to—there’s like you announce yourself. Of course, Moshe knows him, and if you would meet him you would see him, but it’s important that there’s like this diplomatic meeting with all the formality.

And Moshe goes out, so goes out of the camp towards him, kisses him, bows down to him, speaks—which means they have like a formal, it’s formal or like pleasantries, they exchange pleasantries. And he brings them into his tent. And Moshe tells Yitro everything Hashem—and here there’s only Hashem—et kol asher asah Hashem l’Pharaoh u’l’Mitzrayim al odot Yisrael—and all the troubles that they found on the way and how Hashem saved them.

So it seems although Yitro heard, Moshe told him, and probably added the details. Like he heard some general news but didn’t really hear what was going on. And vayichad Yitro—which probably literally means he was happy—al kol hatovah asher asah Hashem l’Yisrael—on all the great things that Hashem did to Yisrael and saved it from Mitzrayim.

Yitro’s Formal Acknowledgment

And he says—and this is again a formal thing—so there’s something internal, he’s happy about it, but he says, he makes this proclamation: Baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem asher hitzil etchem miyad Mitzrayim umiyad Pharaoh. Atah yadati—and now I know. Knowledge means something more like I recognize. Ki gadol Hashem mikol ha’Elohim—that’s an unclear statement. I mean, whatever it means exactly, maybe he’s acknowledging that the Mitzrim deserved the punishment, they were suddenly like they had some purposeful intent in what bad things they did. It’s not clear. But in any case, this is the important thing: he gives the explicit praise to Hashem. So this is like analogous to the Shirat HaYam, where you give explicit praise. He gives explicit praise and praises Hashem, and acknowledges—not only praises, but also recognizes him. He recognizes him as the greatest God.

And takes olah u’zvachim, right? Olah u’zvachim, which you eat together. He brings it l’Elohim—interesting, not Hashem—and Aaron and the elders come to eat with him. So where’s Moshe? He’s not here eating. But in any case, Aaron is coming, and they make a party, basically.

Okay, so that’s the end of the first part of the Yitro story.

The Judicial System: Moshe’s Burden

And here we have the second part, and the second part is noted, marked by an explicit time transition. It’s tomorrow. Of course, it could have happened the same day. The point of these transitions is always to show that there’s a new story, there’s a new thing, it’s connected somehow with the previous story. So we assume that he slept over there.

Vayehi mimacharat—and in the morning, tomorrow, vayeshev Moshe lishpot et ha’am—Moshe sits down to judge the people. And to judge, as we’ll see, has a broader meaning than just to judge. Vaya’amod ha’am al Moshe—and they stand over Moshe. They stand before him. They wait on him from morning to evening.

And Moshe’s father—choten Moshe—sees this. And he tells him, what are you doing? Madua atah yoshev levadecha v’chol ha’am nitzav alecha—why are you sitting here alone and everyone is standing over you? Another word which we find sometimes.

The Expanded Role of Lishpot

And Moshe tells him. And of course this conversation is again repeating something that they already saw. He saw what they’re doing. It’s not like he doesn’t really know what they’re doing, but he wants Moshe to tell him and to have this explicit conversation about what is going on.

And we do see here a much broader explanation of what lishpot et ha’am is. So lishpot in the description was just lishpot et ha’am. And here Moshe speaks and tells us what this means. He says, ki yavo elai ha’am lidrosh Elohim—they come to me, lidrosh Elohim. If they have something, they come to me. V’shafati bein ish u’vein re’eihu—that’s the only time where v’shafati, to a man and his friend, have a debate, have some legal dispute, I judge them.

But besides them, they come lidrosh Elohim. And lidrosh Elohim might mean also, as we saw, for example, we’ll see later in Parshat Mishpatim, ad Elohim yavo dvar shneihem—sometimes when people have a dispute, we don’t know who is correct, we go to the God and some kind of divination which says who is right, who really did what. Like Rivka went lidrosh Hashem, something like to get an oracle to find out what is going on.

And then there’s a third thing: v’hoda’ati et chukei ha’Elohim v’et torotav. So this is important. Besides for him being mishpat, he’s really teaching also. Of course we can say he’s teaching regarding the cases that come before him, but it does seem to me a more general thing that he needs to teach them.

Yitro’s Proposed Solution

V’choten Moshe—now you’ll see that he stops being called Yitro. He’s only called choten Moshe. Choten Moshe, in this whole second half of the story, choten Moshe tells him, lo tov hadavar asher atah oseh—this is not good. Navol tibol gam atah gam ha’am hazeh asher imach—you will wither, you and the people. This is too heavy on you. Interesting, we had heaviness or something that Pharaoh was all the time. Lo tuchal asoto levadecha—you can’t do it yourself.

So I’ll give you an advice. This is what you will do, and may God be with you. Heyeh atah la’am mul ha’Elohim—you be, and mul, I think, means you will be close to Elohim. You will be for them, representative to Elohim. You touch God for them. V’heveita atah et hadevarim el ha’Elohim—and you will tell them, v’hoda’ata lahem et haderech yelchu vah—you will let them know the way they will go. I think sometimes interpreted to mean that it has like a sense of the ways in which you go, which is a metaphor for following the laws or following the Torah. And this context could also be literal, because the Elohim, the Anan and so on, were literally leading them the way in the desert. But that’s what you will do.

Appointing Judges

And then what will you do? So here Yitro really is separating the different functions, as you understand. He’s separating the different functions that Moshe was doing. So the part of you will tell them the laws, you will guide them. But v’atah techezeh mikol ha’am—you will see to take, you will see from the entire people, anshei chayil, yirei Elohim, anshei emet, son’ei vatza—people who have a list of four attributes. So strong, honest, and people of integrity. That’s what it boils down to.

V’samta aleihem sarim—and you will make them princes. You will make them sarim over them. Sarei alafim, sarei me’ot, sarei chamishim—however we understand this. V’shaftu et ha’am b’chol et—and they will judge the people all the time. So in other words, when there’s a specific debate between people, people have a dispute, then they will judge it. V’hayah kol hadavar hagadol yavi’u elecha v’chol hadavar hakaton yishpetu hem—all the big things they will come to, but the small things they will still be able to judge themselves. So they will judge based, of course, based on the laws that you told them.

So we split the thing. You’re going to tell them the laws. Then when there’s little disputes, they will judge. This is a great thing. They’ll have to come to you, and therefore they’ll make it easier on you. They will carry the burden with you. Im et hadavar hazeh ta’aseh—if you’ll do this, v’yacholeta amod v’gam kol ha’am hazeh al mekomo yavo v’shalom—then you’ll be able to stand and everyone will be in peace.

Implementation

So this is Yitro’s solution. And Moshe follows it. Vayishma Moshe l’kol chotno vaya’as kol asher amar—Moshe does everything Yitro did. Vayivchar Moshe anshei chayil mikol Yisrael—he finds anshei chayil mikol Yisrael. We skip the other three attributes. Anshei chayil means something like men of power, of courage. Vayiten otam rashim al ha’am—and he makes them heads on the people. And that’s what they do. They judge the people. They bring the hard cases to Moshe, and the small cases they take themselves.

Conclusion of the Narrative

And we finish the story. Vayeshalach Moshe et chotno vayelech lo el artzo—Moshe sends off his father-in-law and he goes back to his land. Of course there’s a slight problem with this, because later in Sefer Bamidbar, Yitro is still there, or someone has a different name. But that’s a different discussion. But I don’t think it’s a great problem, because we know that the tendency of stories in Tanakh is to try to be complete. So we have a complete story from when Yitro came until when he left. It doesn’t necessarily mean that every detail that happened, happened in this order, or that this is exactly when he sent him away, the chronology. It’s just that the story should end so he should be able to go to the next thing. But it could be that really this sending away happened later. It could be that the whole story happened later, as some other people claim. But that’s at least enough to explain this last pasuk that says that he sent him off.