Shabbos Parashas Devarim - 5774

Shabbos Parashas Devarim - 5774

Rabbi Hal Miller

Provide for yourselves men who are wise, understanding, and well known to

your tribes, and I shall appoint them as your heads. [Devarim 1:13]

This final book of the Torah is Moshe's "words", his repetition of the story

of how they got to where they were, and a retelling of many of the

commandments, including adding some not previously listed. It begins with an

interesting conundrum. Verses 9-17 are Moshe's reiteration to the people

about the appointment of judges and leaders. But this time, his telling has

some inconsistencies with how things occurred back in the parsha of Yisro,

where it actually happened. Why does Moshe recall things differently now?

Here in verse 9, Moshe recalls, "I said to you at that time, saying, 'I cannot

carry you alone.'" But in Shemos [18:18], it is Yisro who tells Moshe, "the

thing is too heavy for you, you are not able to do it alone." Here in our

verse, Moshe says that he told the people to select judges, but in Shemos [21]

it is Yisro who tells Moshe that he must choose these judges, and gives him

some criteria to use for the selection. Here in [15] Moshe says, " So I took

the heads of your tribes, men who were wise and well known, and I appointed

them as heads over you." But in Shemos [18:25] it says "And Moshe chose able

men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people." We are left with

three questions:

1) Did Moshe tell the people he could not do this alone, or did Yisro tell

this to Moshe?

2) Did Moshe tell the people to select the judges, or did he do it himself?

3) Did Moshe select the heads of the tribes, or did he appoint his selectees

to become the heads of the tribes?

Perhaps we could just chalk it up to an old man's failing memory. After all,

Moshe was only days short of his 120th birthday. But if this were the case,

would the Torah not have said something about that? The issue is not a

memory problem.

We could try to read the two sets of verses to mean the same things. For

example, in Shemos 18, when Yisro says "the thing is too heavy for you", it

could be that the words rang clear in Moshe's mind, and he repeated them to

the people later, in Devarim 9. When Yisro told Moshe "techezeh", it could be

translated as choose, or as discern, provide, or other similar words. When

Moshe came to implement, he might have applied Yisro's advice by 'providing'

via the choice of the people. It is harder to reconcile "And Moshe chose...

and made them heads over you" with our verse. But is this the right approach?

Either way, Yisro gave advice, Moshe implemented it, but in his own name.

What happened to the rule of saying things over in the name of the one from

whom you heard it? Can Moshe, the most humble man who ever lived, possibly

have suddenly had a vain streak and wanted some credit for a good idea?

Yisro too was known as being extremely humble. He might even have been

number two on the all-time list, but he was up against number one here. If

Moshe chose not to give 'credit' to Yisro, there had to be a reason. The

Torah does not give us one in simple interpretation.

We can see, though, from the incident of the spies that sometimes G-d allowed

the people to do something that was not necessarily the 'best' or 'right'

thing. Moshe tried to stop the people from the spy mission, but they

insisted. He argued, but eventually gave in. At no point did Moshe ever take

'credit' for the spy mission, although he did acknowledge some of the blame.

Could it be that here, Moshe knew that the need for judges was only because of

weakness in the people? Perhaps Yisro's idea really was not some wonderful

thing, but merely a way to make the best of a bad situation, a necessary evil?

If so, then maybe there was no 'credit' to take. Perhaps being connected with

this issue was in fact a negative, and Moshe took it on himself rather than

blame his father-in-law.

If this was the case, then Moshe's reiteration here in Devarim makes sense. He

implemented Yisro's plans earlier, but not in a way that would put Yisro in a

poor light. Now, when still could have cleared his own name, he chose yet

again to step down rather than to embarrass Yisro. A lesson for us all.