Reply To: Short & Sweet

Yisro: Allowing Others to Grow

When Yisro saw Moshe spending all day answering the Shailos of Bnei Yisroel, he expressed disapproval. He rhetorically asked Moshe: ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ???? ???, “What is this that you are doing to the people?!”

The common interpretation of this Passuk is that Yisro was concerned that his son-in-law was overexerting himself by trying to answer all the questions that were brought before him, and that Moshe would eventually wear himself out.

However, R’ Dovid Feinstein suggests another explanation. It is telling that Yisro does not ask, “What are you doing to yourself?” but rather, “What are you doing to the people?” Yisro was concerned that by making himself the sole Halachic authority to whom all the Jews had to come with their problems, Moshe was preventing other gifted Jews from realizing their own potential.

It is as if Yisro was saying, “If you keep on like this, everyone will think that you are the only person capable of being a judge, since you’re the only one who has learned directly from Hashem. No one else will ever bother to try to become a Halachic authority if all of the questions go to you. Even though no one can be just like you, you shouldn’t rob them of the opportunity to become all that they can be.”

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