MOSHE’S HUMILITY
After their liberation from their Egyptian masters, the people of Israel faced several challenges: lack of water, food shortages, and, worst of all, a war: Amaleq’s attack. Of course, HaShem was with Israel, gave them water and food, and helped them to defeat Amaleq.
In this week’s Parasha, Yitro, there is an EXTRAORDINARY Pasuq (biblical verse) that, when read carefully, shows us one of the most wonderful qualities of our people. A virtue that might have contributed to our merit of receiving the Tora.
וישב משה לשפט את העם ויעמד העם על משה מן הבקר עד הערב
“And Moshe sat down to judge the people, and the people waited [to see] Moshe from morning till night “(Shemot 18:13)
Moshe judges the people, as an arbitrator or as a mediator, from morning till night. Then Yitro arrives and tells Moshe that he is not acting well and must delegate and assign more judges and minor courts. Moshe accepts the advice of his father-in-law and acts upon it. And if we stop to examine these words a little more carefully, we will discover something wonderful that will reveal to us the true character of Am Israel.
NO LAW, NO ORDER
In the history of mankind, many slaves rebelled against their owners and escaped into freedom. In the days of the Roman Empire (70 BCE), for example, the great gladiator Spartacus led the rebellion that allowed some 70,000 slaves to free themselves from Rome. But once they were free, the slaves “among themselves”, behaved with anarchy. The rebellion of Spartacus failed because there was no internal discipline. Everything was chaos, and the law of the jungle prevailed. With no Law and Order the rebellion collapsed.
Now let’s see again what our pasuq says. Just a few days ago the Hebrew slaves obtained their freedom. We are not talking about 100, 1,000 or 70,000 people. Counting women, the elderly and children, it is estimated that there were at least 3 million individuals. “Chaos” and “anarchy” was expected and predictable.
THE BEGINNING OF CIVILIZATION?
However, the individuals of the people of Israel decided to resolve their disputes and problems “among themselves” in an incredibly advanced and civilized way: they came to Moshe Rabbenu for mediation! Imagine two neighbors, two physically strong slaves, used to the violence of slavery and to solve their differences with their fists. The two neighbors have a problem: “This chicken is mine!” says one. “No, it is mine,” says the other one. Usually, in a society without law and order, the chicken will remain in the hands of the strongest! But incredibly, spontaneously and without Divine Instruction (there is no report of a Divine command as to how the people should resolve their internal conflicts), these slaves decided to settle their disputes in another way: waiting patiently in line, from early in the morning, for Moshe’s arbitration.
This might be the most relevant Pasuq of the Tora in regard to the exceptional virtues of the people of Israel.
THE BEST KEPT SECRET VERSE
And it leaves me thinking: So far, the Tora mentioned that HaShem was going to deliver Israel from Egypt; to take Israel as His people, and bring them to their ancestors’ land. But the Tora did not mention anything about HaShem giving them a Law…
Is this Pasuq hinting that Israel took the first step toward deserving the most extraordinary code of laws, the Tora, the law that comes directly from HaShem?
Something to think about
