Shabbat Yitro

Written by Debbie Young-Somers Thursday, 24 January 2008

This week we meet the Bible’s first management consultant.

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro comes out to the Israelite camp, and sees that things are a bit of a mess. Moses is trying to solve everyone’s problems, all on his own, and govern the running of the enormous Israelite camp. I think many of us, particularly in our line of work, know what it means to want to fix everything for everyone all the time.

Moses is considered the leader, maybe even the Jew, par excellence. The hymn Yigdal, based on the Rambam’s Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith, states, “No prophet has there been since Moses was our guide, who knew the Living God and came so close”.   Yet as we all know, even Moses didn’t seem to consider himself the perfect candidate for this honour. In the first parashah of Shemot, Moses lists for God the faults that he believes will hold him back from leading the Israelites out from slavery (Exod. 4:10). A major part of this is trouble with speaking: either some kind of speech impediment, or perhaps, as Rashbam suggests, he is no longer fluent enough in Egyptian to convince Pharaoh to set the Israelites free (though this would hardly seem to worry God, who himself hardens Pharaoh’s heart and makes sure he does not give in to Moses’ demands). Furthermore, his big brother is assigned to help him get the job done. That can’t be good for his street cred. As the baby of the family, I certainly wouldn’t like to take a sibling along with me to be able to get a job done!
After all this, when Moses has made it out of Egypt (with a little help from his friends, and siblings) he is still getting it wrong. At the start of this week’s portion, Moses receives the visit from his father-in-law. Now my own father-in-law is a lovely man, with whom I get on very well, but there is something slightly rankling when your partner’s parents try to let you know how things should really be done.  So in waltzes Jethro, and starts sorting out the mess that Moses has made of administering the camp. And to Moses’ credit, he listens, he takes it all on board, he is big enough to accept the criticism and implement the new ideas: he doesn’t have to do everything himself, delegation is good for everyone.
What a fantastic model of leadership! The Torah doesn’t present us with a perfect leader (although perhaps some of the medieval Jewish commentators would like us to think so), but a very human, imperfect man. Moses can’t achieve everything alone; he needs, and indeed accepts, help from outside. He has to delegate so that he can function, and so that the community can keep running. For those of us who sense in ourselves the need to fix everything all the time, and who find it hard to say no, Jethro has some important advice that we too should heed..The model that Jethro presents to us makes sense. No one person can be responsible for the community and for decision making, you have to delegate to others who are willing to do their bit too.

This is the first of two models that I think have a lot to teach us about communal leadership. The second comes in the portion in two weeks, Terumah. In Exodus 25, God asks the Israelites through Moses to make a sacrifice or offering to him, a sacrifice of something valuable, which will help in building the mishkan (the movable desert Temple). Contributions varied from gold to stone, and all those whose hearts were in it were encouraged to give. Rabbi Elizabeth  Tikvah Sarah reads this passage beautifully, and draws from it another view of community life. She writes:
When each person brings their offering for the building of the mishkan, then God dwells among them. In this sense, the mishkan is not a building, it is the community itself: When each person contributes their gifts for the creation of the community, then God dwells among them. And as Terumah clearly states: each gift is needed; the mishkan/community cannot be complete if any particular contribution is missing.

Leadership takes all kinds of people, with all sorts of faults. But perhaps the strongest leaders are those who can humbly hear the criticism of others, as well as the voice of their own self doubts, and learn to take the support offered. Leadership also cannot be a one-person show. It will usually exhaust the leader, and exasperate those they minister to.

Communities need all sorts of people, and they need to recognise all the gifts that their members have to bring to them. Of course not everyone wants to give, and sometimes we must learn to accept that their hearts aren’t in it. A part of leadership may be finding out where those gifts that are willingly given will best be received and made use of, so that the whole community can be empowered, and all can feel a part of a kehilla kedosha, a holy community, one that welcomes all, with their faults and their talents, and finds a way to build together.