[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[Yitzchok Levine]

I have always pictured Moshe Rabbeinu as a 
"giant" of a man with tremendous abilities. After 
all, he had the clearest revelation of HaShem of 
any of the Neviim. Yet on the Pasuk

18: 24 Moshe hearkened to the voice of his 
father-in-law and did all that he had said.

RSRH writes

24 Nothing could be more instructive than this information regarding the
first State institution of the Jewish people, coming just before the chapter
on the Lawgiving. Moshe’s stature as a lawmaker was so small, and his
talent for organizing was so inadequate, that he had to learn the basics
of state organization from his father-in-law. This man Moshe worked
himself to exhaustion and could not, on his own, organize such a basic
institution, or one similar to it, so beneficial to himself, to the people,
and to the matter at hand. This man, who needed Yisro’s counsel to
appoint judges, could not have invented statutes and laws and given
them to the people. This man was strictly the faithful instrument of
God; he told the people God’s Word — and nothing more.

I find this description of the abilities of Moshe 
Rabbeinu difficult to reconcile with my "gut" 
impressions of him as a "giant" of a man.  On the 
other hand, I have wondered from time to time why 
Moshe himself did not institute a system similar 
to the one suggested by Yisro before Yisro arrived.

I would be interested to hear what others think about this.

Yitzchok Levine 
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