[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Yitzchok Levine wrote:
> 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.
> ...
> 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.

Whenever my children (or other people) point out that a particular person is unusually weak in a certain trait, I try to point out that everyone is strong in some areas and weak in others. Often, I use this very example to show that even Moshe Rabenu lacked certain skills.

I'm unclear what would lead one to think that Moshe Rabenu excelled in every possible thing. We know, for example, that he was not the best public speaker. The exact nature of this weakness is subject to debate, and need not be gone into here. My only point here is that he was not perfect in all skills.

Given that he was not perfect, I'd like to focus on this particular weakness. For example, I don't know whether or not there are any sources which tell us whether his artistic abilites were above or below average. But that's just an example. The real question is this: Are there any sources which suggest whether his <<< talent for organizing >>> (to use RSRH's phrase) was above or below average?

I believe that yes, there are several arguments one can use, to show that even if Moshe was not a superman, he still might have been able to come up with this idea himself, without Yisro suggesting it.

If a judge today would try to resolve a child custody battle by suggesting to split the child in half, everyone would recognize this to be a trick. This is not necessarily because we are so very intelligent nowadays; it is also due in good measure to our knowledge of history and how Shlomo Hamelech already used this ruse.

Similarly, I think that before we can proceed in this topic, it is critical to know the history of world court systems. Is it possible that at this point in history, no one in the world had yet established a system of higher courts and lower courts? If such systems were common throughout the world, then Moshe should have thought of it too. But if no one had yet come up with this idea, then Yisro's genius at organization should be no more surprising than Betzalel's artistic abilities.

Here's another idea:

The man who came up with this system (Yisro) was not a stranger to Moshe Rabenu. Moshe married his daughter, and lived with him for several *decades* prior to this incident. I would imagine that much of Yisro's chochma (as in the phrase "chochma bagoyim - taamin") would have been learned by his son-in-law.

But I think it is possible that the hierarchy suggested by Yisro was a truly new idea, as revolutionary as the ideas of Plato or Aristotle. Perhaps Moshe did indeed learn everything that he could from Yisro during those decades, but this idea was new even to Yisro. Even Yisro did not think of this idea until Moshe's dire situation demanded a truly new solution.

In fact, please note Yisro's words, "You'll wear yourself out!" Perhaps Yisro saw that this erosion had already begun; if so, this could be an excellent reason why he was able to come up with an answer which escaped Moshe.

And a third idea:

I wrote above of the many years Moshe spent with Yisro. What about the many years he spent with Paro? I have strong (but admittedly vague) memories of many Chazals which attest to Hashem's designs, that He chose to have Moshe grow up in the royal palace, specifically to learn leadership skills. It seems to me that one of the most basic leadership skills is that of delegating various tasks to one's underlings. Is this not *exactly* the problem that Yisro solved? If so, then the real question is not "Why was this giant unable to figure it out?" (as RYL asked), but rather, "Did he forget what Paro taught him?"

Akiva Miller

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