Behälothecha: Who and what to follow

Behälothecha: Who and what to follow

The root of Behälothecha.  is äl, rise up, as in äliya, the ascent to the Promised land.  The word is first  used to describe the lighting of the menorah, the Promthian act of illumination,  the cooperation between human effort and the miracle of fire, that allows vision and hence direction.

Much of the parsha is about direction.  The movement of the  cloud covering  the Mishkan determined whether the people stayed put or moved on.. The camp was organized in terms of the positions of the tribes and parts of the Mishkan,  and their order of advance.  Trumpets that communicate a direction  are described.

But there is ambiguity about the decision process.  When Moshe tries  to convince Jethro, the Gentile, to join the Hebrews, as a final argument, after  Jethro  declares that he will return to his people,Moshe says:
And he said: ‘Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be to us instead of eyes.וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אַל־נָ֖א תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֑נוּ כִּ֣י ׀ עַל־כֵּ֣ן יָדַ֗עְתָּ חֲנֹתֵ֙נוּ֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וְהָיִ֥יתָ לָּ֖נוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם










Moshe offered Jethro the job of piloting the people through the desert. Jethro, who lived in the desert had experience in the matter.  But this is also the Jethro who counselled Moshe to create a judicial hierarchy.
In this parsha we have the creation of a council of Elders when Moshe despairs of leading this demanding, rebellious nation.  Perhaps this is Jethro's insight about direction.  He understands how hard leadership is for both the leader and the led.

What should  I follow? My heart- with its wispy, risky  visions? My head- filled with reasons  that become justifications for any action or inaction?  My tradition - no better or worse than any other tradition, spiced with nonsense and corruption?  Science- the ambient religion of shifting models?  My self - its all I've got, but when I take away all these other factors, what is left?