You Cannot Do It By Yourself
Words of Wisdom with Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
This Dvar Torah was edited from one written by Rabbi Eli L. Garfinkel, the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey. He is a past president of the New Jersey Rabbinical Assembly, the author of the Gimme Some Torah commentary on Substack and the JPS Jewish Heritage Torah Commentary.
Photo by JJ Jordan on Pexels.com
Yitro, Moses’s father-in-law, (for whom the parsha is named this week) sees Moses judging all of Israel’s matters by himself, thus forcing people to wait from morning until evening.
He tells Moses that he will only succeed in causing the nation and himself to become weary.
What was so onerous about judging all those cases?
Is it not possible that Moses simply had such a brilliant legal mind that he could handle this formidable task?
Sforno argues that Moses was biting off way more than any human being could chew:
לֹא־תוּכַל עֲשֹׂהוּ לְבַדֶּךָ—You cannot all by yourself listen to the problems of all the leaders and subsequently to all the problems of the individuals who feel they need your personal attention, believing that no one but you can deal with their specific problems.
Sforno is saying that Moses had to deal not only with the nation’s pressing policy and legal matters, but also with the personal problems of many individuals.
These are separate domains that cannot— or at least should not— be handled by a single person.
Today, hundreds or even thousands of attorneys address the legal cases of a given area.
Though some lawyers are generalists, many specialize in a relatively narrow corner of the law, such as commercial, matrimonial, criminal, etc. Moses took it upon himself to decide all kinds of cases.
Moreover, handling people’s personal problems is a completely separate endeavor that differs greatly from deciding legal issues.
Would you want the person who arranged your company’s mortgage to also be your psychologist or mental health professional?
Sforno’s commentary touches on another issue.
He suggests that Moses believed only he could deal with the people’s personal issues.
There are relatively few cases where only one person can solve a given problem.
Anyone who says, “Only I can do it,” is probably lying to himself and his audience.
The entire episode is meant to emphasize Moses’s humanity.
He was not a superhero, and any miracles he performed came from God, not his own ability.
Moses had all of the personal defects that any human had, such as anger and impatience.
The one fault he seems to have escaped is arrogance: “Now Moses himself was very humble, more so than any other human being on earth.” (Num. 12:3)
The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) tells the stories of human beings and their struggles with human weakness.
Never be surprised that someone in the Tanakh has a human fault, for that is the whole point!
Discussion Questions:
- Why is it important that biblical characters have human faults?
- Describe a problem that can be solved by only one person in particular.
