Difference between revisions of "Appointing Moshe's Assistants/2"
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<p>Only the implementation of Yitro's advice (Shemot 18:24-26) took place in the second year, and Devarim 1 synthesizes the story of Moshe being unable to deal with the burden of the nation found only in Bemidbar 11 with the accounts of the appointments of assistants recorded in both Shemot and Bemidbar.</p> | <p>Only the implementation of Yitro's advice (Shemot 18:24-26) took place in the second year, and Devarim 1 synthesizes the story of Moshe being unable to deal with the burden of the nation found only in Bemidbar 11 with the accounts of the appointments of assistants recorded in both Shemot and Bemidbar.</p> | ||
− | <mekorot><multilink><a href="Akeidat43" data-aht="source">Akeidat Yitzchak</a><a href="Akeidat43" data-aht="source">Sha'ar 43</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak)" data-aht="parshan">About Akeidat Yitzchak</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="Abarbanel18-1" data-aht="source">Abarbanel</a><a href="Abarbanel18-1" data-aht="source">Shemot 18</a><a href="AbarbanelDevarim1" data-aht="source">Devarim 1</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Abarbanel" data-aht="parshan">About Abarbanel</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="Malbim18-24" data-aht="source">Malbim</a><a href="Malbim18-24" data-aht="source">Shemot 18:24</a><a href="MalbimDevarim1-12" data-aht="source">Devarim 1:12</a><a href="R. Meir Leibush Weiser (Malbim)" data-aht="parshan">About Malbim</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="HoilDevarim1-9" data-aht="source">opinion cited in Hoil Moshe</a><a href="HoilDevarim1-9" data-aht="source">Hoil Moshe Devarim 1:9</a><a href="R. Moshe Yitzchak Ashkenazi (Hoil Moshe)" data-aht="parshan">About Hoil Moshe</a></multilink>, <a href="http://www.herzog.ac.il/tvunot | + | <mekorot><multilink><a href="Akeidat43" data-aht="source">Akeidat Yitzchak</a><a href="Akeidat43" data-aht="source">Sha'ar 43</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Arama (Akeidat Yitzchak)" data-aht="parshan">About Akeidat Yitzchak</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="Abarbanel18-1" data-aht="source">Abarbanel</a><a href="Abarbanel18-1" data-aht="source">Shemot 18</a><a href="AbarbanelDevarim1" data-aht="source">Devarim 1</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Abarbanel" data-aht="parshan">About Abarbanel</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="Malbim18-24" data-aht="source">Malbim</a><a href="Malbim18-24" data-aht="source">Shemot 18:24</a><a href="MalbimDevarim1-12" data-aht="source">Devarim 1:12</a><a href="R. Meir Leibush Weiser (Malbim)" data-aht="parshan">About Malbim</a></multilink>, <multilink><a href="HoilDevarim1-9" data-aht="source">opinion cited in Hoil Moshe</a><a href="HoilDevarim1-9" data-aht="source">Hoil Moshe Devarim 1:9</a><a href="R. Moshe Yitzchak Ashkenazi (Hoil Moshe)" data-aht="parshan">About Hoil Moshe</a></multilink>, <a href="http://www.herzog.ac.il/vtc/tvunot/mega17_medan.pdf">R. Yaacov Medan in Megadim 17</a>.<fn>All of these exegetes split Shemot 18 and link the implementation of Yitro's advice to the account in Devarim 1. While Abarbanel and Malbim in their commentaries on Devarim indicate that Devarim 1 alludes also to the events of Bemidbar 11, this position is advocated most explicitly by R. Medan.</fn></mekorot> |
<point><b>Delay in Implementation</b> – According to this position, Yitro offered his advice already in the first year, but Moshe waited a year before acting on Yitro's advice, and did so only when he was overwhelmed by the burden of the nation at the beginning of the second year. The exegetes offer different possible explanations for this delay: | <point><b>Delay in Implementation</b> – According to this position, Yitro offered his advice already in the first year, but Moshe waited a year before acting on Yitro's advice, and did so only when he was overwhelmed by the burden of the nation at the beginning of the second year. The exegetes offer different possible explanations for this delay: | ||
− | + | <ul> | |
− | + | <li>Judges could be appointed only after the laws were received – Akeidat Yitzchak, Abarbanel Shemot 18, Malbim.<fn>It is not clear why according to them Moshe needed to wait until the second year – see <a href="Chronology – Shemot 18" data-aht="page">Chronology of Shemot 18</a> for the possibility that he waited until the completion of the giving of all of the laws at Sinai. What is clear is that their variation enables them to link all of Shemot 18, Bemidbar 11, and Devarim 1.</fn> Abarbanel posits that Yitro had assumed incorrectly that the judges could issue verdicts based on their intuition alone, even without a law code.<fn>See <a href="Did Moshe Need Yitro's Advice" data-aht="page">Did Moshe Need Yitro's advice</a> for the very different perspective of the Akeidat Yitzchak regarding Yitro and the value of his advice.</fn> According to him, Moshe's implementation differed significantly from Yitro's proposal – see <a href="Advice and Implementation" data-aht="page">Implementation</a>, and this is why Yitro's name is not even mentioned in Devarim 1.<fn>See <a href="MaaseiHashem5" data-aht="source">Ma'asei Hashem, Ma'aseh Torah 5</a> who critiques Abarbanel's theory and notes that the Torah states that Moshe followed Yitro's advice to the letter.</fn></li> | |
− | + | <li>Leaders were necessary only in preparation for entrance to the land of Israel when an organized army would be required and the nation would settle throughout the country – Abarbanel Devarim 1.</li> | |
− | + | <li>Assistants were necessary only when the nation resumed their travels because that is when complaints spiked – Hoil Moshe,<fn>The Hoil Moshe also notes that Moshe wanted to first hear all of the laws to be sure that they did not contradict Yitro's advice.</fn> R. Medan.</li> | |
− | + | </ul></point> | |
<point><b>Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11</b> – Same or Simultaneous – Malbim and R. Medan state explicitly that Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11 describe two separate sets of appointments. These are merged in the account of Devarim 1 because of their similarities and near simultaneity. This would seem to also be Abarbanel's position.<fn>See Question 8 in his commentary on Devarim 1. See also <a href="Moshe's Duties and Yitro's Advice/2#TwoofFiveRoles" data-aht="page">Moshe's Duties and Yitro's Advice</a> for a discussion of Abarbanel's position that the appointees in Yitro's advice filled not only judicial, but also military and administrative roles.</fn> Alternatively, this approach could maintain that the two stories describe the identical appointments from different perspectives, and that the appointees were given both judicial and administrative responsibilities.<fn>Cf. the analysis of Ibn Ezra above and the position of the Vilna Gaon cited in the note there.</fn></point> | <point><b>Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11</b> – Same or Simultaneous – Malbim and R. Medan state explicitly that Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11 describe two separate sets of appointments. These are merged in the account of Devarim 1 because of their similarities and near simultaneity. This would seem to also be Abarbanel's position.<fn>See Question 8 in his commentary on Devarim 1. See also <a href="Moshe's Duties and Yitro's Advice/2#TwoofFiveRoles" data-aht="page">Moshe's Duties and Yitro's Advice</a> for a discussion of Abarbanel's position that the appointees in Yitro's advice filled not only judicial, but also military and administrative roles.</fn> Alternatively, this approach could maintain that the two stories describe the identical appointments from different perspectives, and that the appointees were given both judicial and administrative responsibilities.<fn>Cf. the analysis of Ibn Ezra above and the position of the Vilna Gaon cited in the note there.</fn></point> | ||
<point><b>Parallels between Shemot 18, Bemidbar 11, and Devarim 1</b> – According to this approach, the account in Devarim 1 combines the background of Moshe feeling burdened from Bemidbar 11 with the implementation described already in Shemot 18. One can thus readily understand why the first part of Devarim 1 more closely parallels Bemidbar 11 (and not Shemot 18:13-23 which took place a year prior) and does not mention Yitro, while the implementation section of Devarim 1 parallels Shemot 18. See <a href="Table" data-aht="subpage">Table</a>.</point> | <point><b>Parallels between Shemot 18, Bemidbar 11, and Devarim 1</b> – According to this approach, the account in Devarim 1 combines the background of Moshe feeling burdened from Bemidbar 11 with the implementation described already in Shemot 18. One can thus readily understand why the first part of Devarim 1 more closely parallels Bemidbar 11 (and not Shemot 18:13-23 which took place a year prior) and does not mention Yitro, while the implementation section of Devarim 1 parallels Shemot 18. See <a href="Table" data-aht="subpage">Table</a>.</point> |
Latest revision as of 10:41, 3 September 2022
Appointing Moshe's Assistants in
Shemot 18, Bemidbar 11, and Devarim 1
Exegetical Approaches
In analyzing the relationship between the three accounts, the primary question is whether Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11 speak of events which occurred at totally different times, or of simultaneous and perhaps even the same events. The secondary question is which of the two stories (or both) is retold in Devarim 1.
Shemot 18 and Bemidbar 11 tell of different events, and Devarim 1 recaps only one of them. Shemot 18 describes the creation of a judicial system to assist Moshe with his case load in the first year in the desert, while Bemidbar 11 speaks of the subsequent appointment of seventy elders in the second year to share and ease Moshe's administrative burden. This approach subdivides regarding which of these two distinct stories is being retold by Moshe in Devarim 1.
Devarim 1 = Shemot 18 (and not Bemidbar 11)
Both Shemot 18 and Devarim 1 recount events of the first year, while Bemidbar 11 speaks of the events of the second year.
Devarim 1 = Bemidbar 11 (and not Shemot 18)
Both Bemidbar 11 and Devarim 1 recount events of the second year, while only Shemot 18 speaks of the events of the first year.
Same or Simultaneous Events
Shemot 18 + Bemidbar 11 = Devarim 1. All or part of Shemot 18 occurred in the second year at the same time as Bemidbar 11, and Devarim 1 combines the accounts of these two chapters into one story. For each variation of this approach, one must examine whether the events described in Shemot and Bemidbar are identical or merely simultaneous.
All in 2nd Year
Both Yitro's advice and its implementation (all of Shemot 18) occurred in the second year, and Devarim 1 merges the entire Yitro story with the story of Moshe's own complaints (Bemidbar 11).
Part in 1st Year
Only the implementation of Yitro's advice (Shemot 18:24-26) took place in the second year, and Devarim 1 synthesizes the story of Moshe being unable to deal with the burden of the nation found only in Bemidbar 11 with the accounts of the appointments of assistants recorded in both Shemot and Bemidbar.
- Judges could be appointed only after the laws were received – Akeidat Yitzchak, Abarbanel Shemot 18, Malbim.19 Abarbanel posits that Yitro had assumed incorrectly that the judges could issue verdicts based on their intuition alone, even without a law code.20 According to him, Moshe's implementation differed significantly from Yitro's proposal – see Implementation, and this is why Yitro's name is not even mentioned in Devarim 1.21
- Leaders were necessary only in preparation for entrance to the land of Israel when an organized army would be required and the nation would settle throughout the country – Abarbanel Devarim 1.
- Assistants were necessary only when the nation resumed their travels because that is when complaints spiked – Hoil Moshe,22 R. Medan.