Long Lines of Litigants/2

From AlHaTorah.org
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Long Lines of Litigants

Exegetical Approaches

Long Lines Were the Norm

Yitro's proposal – This approach fits well with Yitro's reaction, as were this an unusual event there would have been no need for him to propose his solution.
Special judgment days – R. Saadia and Cassuto suggest that there were specific days reserved for judging the people and that Moshe did not judge every day. R. Saadia thereby accounts for why there is no record of Moshe judging on the day Yitro arrived.1 According to their understanding, Moshe had time on other days to fulfill his other leadership responsibilities.
When did this story occur and why had Moshe not solved the problem on his own?
  • Before the Decalogue – Akeidat Yitzchak and Abarbanel. According to them, Moshe could not appoint judges until after the laws were given. For the fundamental differences between their approaches and evaluations of Yitro's suggestion, see Did Moshe Need Yitro's Advice.
  • In the second year, long after the Decalogue and laws had already been given – R. Saadia, Ralbag, Cassuto:
    • According to Ralbag, due to Moshe's high level of spirituality, he did not possess superlative administrative skills, and thus he needed Yitro's advice to help him realize the necessity of delegating some of his responsibilities. See Did Moshe Need Yitro's Advice.
    • R. Saadia and Cassuto, in contrast, by maintaining that the long line was not a daily event but was rather limited to the occasions on which Moshe judged, thereby significantly reduce the problematic nature of the situation.

Long Lines Were an Anomaly

There are two distinct variations of this approach, but they share the advantage of being able to explain why Moshe had not already acted on his own to solve the problem – see Did Moshe Need Yitro's Advice.

Recent Events

Recent events had caused a temporary increase in disputes:

Quarrels over the spoils from the Egyptian army at Yam Suf
Arguments regarding the spoils from Amalek
Sources:R. Yaacov Medan.3

R. Medan's suggestion is predicated on the assumption that most of the Yitro story appears in chronological order – see Chronology, and that Yitro arrived and observed Moshe shortly after the battle with Amalek. R. Medan posits that shortly thereafter things settled down and while the nation was encamped at Mount Sinai there was little need for additional judges. It was only in the second year, when the nation resumed their journey that complaints spiked once again and Moshe needed assistance.4

Disagreements over water quotas at Rephidim
Sources:R. Medan in an alternate possibility.5

According to this explanation also, the people's complaints and the need for additional judges arose only while they were in transit and not during the year they were camped at Mount Sinai.

A Backlog

There was a backlog from days that Moshe had not judged:

Cases had accumulated during Moshe's prolonged stay on Mount Sinai

According to the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael and Rashi, Yitro observed Moshe judging the people on the day after Yom HaKippurim (when he descended from Mount Sinai with the second tablets) – see Chronology.

Moshe had taken the previous day off to attend to Yitro

Chizkuni notes that this accounts for why the Torah specifies that "It happened on the next day".6