Yithro: Objectivity

Yithro: Objectivity

Yithro is an outsider.  He had not been among the slaves in Egypt and he had only heard about the miraculous, victorious crossing of the Suf Sea. He is not among the descendents of  Isaac and  Jacob. No promises about the future in a land of milk and honey await him. 

The Israelites had seen themselves chased out by the Pharao (13:17).  Yithro sees that  Gd  has redeemed  them (18;1), and  thus kept the promise.  The people see the crossing of the red sea as  an excellent military strategy.  Yithro sees it as just retribution (18;11) for casting the Israelite sons into the river, and is thus evidence for  Divine justice.
a
Yithro also sees Moshe from a different perspective. He also sees Moshe as a human with faults; a  man who left his wife and children to accomplish the mission.Yithro is  able to see the burden  Moses cannot bear. Moshe cannot continue to deliver this ad hoc justice.  The situation needs a bureaucracy, perhaps similar to the one they just left in Egypt.  The revolution is over, now  the Israelites must create an establishment.

The founding principles, the ten commandments, come in a sound and light show, surrounded by warnings against physical trespass ( do ot approach the mountain under penalty of death) that translates, evetually,  into conceptual warnings against violating the law ( under penalty of, usually, the same death: stoning)


Part of Moshe's greatness was that he took advice, and translated it into effective action.