Dvar Torah: Jethrotics and not Socratics
There's a piece that Jews in Synagogues run through … actually, there are many such pieces but I have on in mind one read on Shabbos. I am thinking of an Aramaic piece from the Zohar (va’Yakhel) that in most modern Siddurim is included just before the crying of the Sh'ma Credo immediately preceding the reading of Torah on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim …
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בריך שמיה דמרי עלמא …
Blessed is the Name (or
Bend the Knee to the Name or
Have Gratitude to the Name)
of the Master of the Universe.
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It talks about what S/He rules over and admonishes us not to rely on mere Mortals (לא על אנוש רחיצנא) or even to sidle up to them (ולא על בר אלהים סמיכנא) but to our Heavenly God, whose Torah and Prophets are Good. Most of the faithful race through the unfamiliar-to-most-Aramaic words to arrive at a song … mournful or marchlike, depending on the Group. It's likely to be familiar to most readers, here ביה אנא רחיץ. ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y2ZgGxhINk
But Jews are not discomfited by paradox and in Pirkei Avos, they're admonished just the opposite … to learn from every mortal …
איזהו חכם? הלומד מכל אדם! …
Who is wise? A Person who learns from everyone.
So which is it or is it another one of those Talmudic לא פלוגתיא … ‘If you look at it just right, you'll see the difference in apparently paradoxical thoughts is only superficial’ and do not constitute counterexamples, at all.
I mention this for Parshas Yisro, thinking that this reading is among the few in Torah where human-to-human teaching is done … Aaron and Ziporah do a bit when Moshe is getting fetchata’d , Tzippie helps him through his circimcision haemophobia (see, below) and God does the Big Teaching of the Kikayon in Yonah ... but this one is special. Yisro, qua Father-in-Law and Grandfather (I am both … thus, I claim it as MY PARSHA! <-(-;)- … napping in my tie and beret au nom du grandpere or not!), counsels Moshe on structures that might keep him from biting off more than he can chew. Moshe, famously, is trying to be everything to everyone and Yisro intimates that he'll fall under the weight of these responsibilities if he fails to institute organization … Officers of the 1,000's, and 100's and 50's and 10's to deal with the details of the big principles (like the Ten Utterances, later in the reading) that he will speak to them from the Volcanic Mountain shooting off sparks out of the three-fold and dense-dark fog (חשך, עב וערפל).
I thought it appropriate, then, to look at the teaching. Let me add, it is different that Socrates browbeating Charmides or any of Socrates other hot young graduate students … I think of Yisro as the Great Teacher.
Shmos/שמות 18 … Good Teacher/Good Student
- Yisro hears about all the good stuff that God has done for "Moshe and Israel."
- Yisro gathers up Ziporah and Gershon and Eliezer and treks off to find Moshe … the Buddha left his wife just before their first child was born in order tio save his suffering people in Egypt … the Buddha because he wanted to become a peripatetic preacher is mindful of his son-in-law feeling like a Ger and naming his firstborn Gershon.
- He names his first son, Gershon, after recognition of his Ger status … his being not even a Landed Immigrant in foreign Midyan.
4. He is similarly mindful of his naming his second son "God helps" … Eliezer … and of his son-in-law's history, escaping Pharaoh.
5. Yisro goes to Moshe … doesn't beckon him to come to Midyan … he recognizes the complexities of being the Other and loads up his portable classroom to bring the word to his Son-in-Law.
6. Yisro introduces himself … "I am your Father-in-Law, Jethro, who has come to you. And this is your wife and her two children." He doesn't approach Moshe with questions of alimony or child-support: "Hey, remember these!" No. The teacher approaches respectfully.
7. Moshe reciprocates and lays a big kiss on his Father-in-Law and invites him into his tent.
8. Moshe fills him in on the travail in and leaving Egypt.
9. Yisro expresses happiness for his successes.
10,11. Yisro offers gratitude/blessing for the God who so helped his people and recognizes God as great. Midrash has it that he was also a monotheiest.
12. Yisro throws a party and Aharon and the Elders come, too. Good things happen? Party, Party!!
13. Next day, Moshe solves legal dilemmas with the people from morning to night. Yisro watches.
14. From these visuals, Yisro begins with a simple question: Why do you sit alone and all the people tower over you morning till night? (Notice how he doesn't go beyond "A good question about the observable" … the hallmark of Science.)
15. Moshe misses Yisro's central point and responds "For the people comes to me to seek God."
16. Moshe answers with two points: (a) When a "matter" arises, I judge between a person and their neighbor. (b) And I teach them God's statutes and Torah.
17. Yisro says: I differ … I think this is not good.
18. Yisro: You'll certainly fail as you've taken on too much.
19. And here we see quite a nice phrasing: שמע בקולי: איעצך … "listen to my voice: I'll make a recommendation for you." Yisro doesn't say: 'follow my recommendation' but is satisfied with 'listen me out and I'll advise you and you’ll take what you want.' Cool! Yisro advises Moshe to give up (a) the judging of torts between complainants … 'stick to the Godly stuff, Moe!'
20. Yisro goes on: Instruct them in the Ways of God … that’s your gig!
21. And, then, you vet "god-fearing men, men of truth, who hate corruption" (Aside: Trump could use a Father-in-Law!) and appoint them to courts with varying responsibilities … for the 10's, 50's, hundred's and thousands of subgroupings.
22. Yisro continues: "And they'll judge the people day-by-day and they'll rule on such small matters … “it will lighten your load and they shall carry that load with you." What a wonderful phrasing at the end. והקל מעליך ונשאו איתך … it will lighten your load and they shall carry (that load) with you.
23. Yisro ends by noting that: "If you do this and God concurs, you will be able to stand up (to your tasks); and the people, too, will come to rest/peace in their roles."
Geez! Quite a Master Class.
And Moshe was convinced, sent his Father-in-Law with his task completed home to Midian, and they all lived happily ever after. Now that’s a good teaching.
Do we learn only from God? Do we learn from folk whose journeys intersect our own?
Father-in-Law and Grandpa Yisro, to my way of thinking, deserved the naming of a Chapter of Torah in his honor.
Aside: So much of teaching is dependent on the spontaneous reaction to present needs and the recognition of the particular needs of one's students. When I ran a school for disturbed and delinquent inner city high school kids in the mid-70's, I had two requirements of my staff. Fearless engagement was one. Teachers were asked in the face of a confrontation between two students to put their hands in their pockets and walk between the combatants. Secondly, they were asked to walk into classes without preparation. The school secretary was given the task of writing and locking up lesson plans out of sight of teachers but on-the-ready for state inspectors. I'm confident the statute of limitations is passed for my little larceny. (See, "Not Confronting the Resistance in a School for Disturbed Kids," in Michael O'Loughlin: Psychodynamic Perspectives on Working with Children, Families, and Schools (New Imago) 2014.)