In Perek 18, Pasuk 14, Yitro asks Moshe why he has to sit and judge for all the people every day. He says, "Why do you have to sit with all the people standing by you from morning to evening?"
Rashi, as usual, has a question. How could it be that Moshe sat and judged the people from morning till night? Did he ever have time to learn Torah, or teach the Torah to the people?
According to Rashi, the sages say that a judge who presides over a case honestly and justly is like a great tzaddik who has studied Torah all day.
Why else did Moshe judge the way he did?
Rabbi Hiyya says that it is not that he judged all day, every day, rather it is that he judged with complete fairness. (similar to rashis approach) Even if he judged for an hour only, he is considered as if he is Hashems partner in creating the world. In Bereshit, the creation of the world is described as, "It was evening and morning, one day" similar to the wording in this pasuk in Yitro.
ReplyDeleteThe sages also say that Moshe was a partner with Hashem in creating the world. Questions were brought unto this statement and this statement was further explained that BECAUSE Moshe judged the way that he did, which was only through righteousness and almost complete un-biased judgement ( only G-d is truly un-biased) he is said to be a partner with G-d, in creating the world. This teaches us that if we judge righteously we too could be counted as partners with G-d.
ReplyDeleteThe Chizkuni says that Yitro did not mean it literally. The whole reason Yitro brought it us was to point out that this was too much for moshe to deal with. There was too much judging for one person to deal with. By him saying "from morning to evening", it's only to support his statement. What he was really saying was that even if moshe were to sit there 24 hours a day, he could not get all that work done. It was simply impossible.
ReplyDeleteMoshe was serving as a "fillfor Hashem, who is the Ultimate judge. Just as Hashem takes no breaks when judging. Just as Hashem didn't take a break Moshe wouldn't take a break until he had other people to help him.
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