07 Feb YISRO: UNDERSTANDING OUR RABBI

After the momentous
events of the Exodus and
the splitting of the Red
Sea climaxing with the
drowning of the nine million
Egyptians who pursued the
Bnei Yisroel, Yisro, Moshe
Rabbeinu’s father in-law,
came to the camp of the Bnei Yisroel deep in
the desert to greet him and to bring back to
Moshe Rabbeinu his wife, Tziporah, and his
two children, Gershom and Eliezer. The Torah
tells us that Yisro witnessed a typical day of
Moshe Rabbeinu’s. As the Torah records,
he saw, “Vayeishev Moshe lishpot es haam,
vayaamod haam al Moshe min ha boker ad
haarev,” that Moshe sat in judgment over the
Bnei Yisroel and they stood in waiting for his
attention from the morning until the evening.
The posuk continues that Yisro was dismayed
and troubled at this sight. “Vayomer chosein
Moshe eilav, ‘Lo tov hadavar asher atah oseh.
Navol tivol, gam atah, gam haam hazeh asher
imoch ki chaveid mim’cha hadavar. Lo suchal
aso’hu l’vadecha’ – And Moshe Rabbeinu’s
father in-law told him, ‘It is not good what
you are doing. You will wear yourself out,
together with the people that are awaiting your
service. This matter is too hard for you. You
cannot handle it all by yourself. The Torah
continues that, with the approval of Hashem,
Moshe Rabbeinu instituted a system of

assistants numbering 78,600 people. Imagine!
Moshe Rabbeinu attempted to do a job that
needed the efforts of an additional 78,600 very
capable helpers.
While this is a fascinating historical story,
we must understand that the Torah is written
to teach us lessons for all time. Therefore, it
would behoove us to mine from this Biblical
story a very contemporary message for our
time.
In many Shuls across the globe, we expect
an inhuman amount from the Shul Rabbi. We
expect them to have well-prepared sermons
with both scholarly Biblical and Talmudic
references and at the same time they should
be up on all current events and community
challenges; we want them to have a proper
variety in their discourses of lomdus, agadata,
and halachah, with the proper amount of
humor and stories dashed in; we want them to
service the men, the women, the teens; they
should give a Daf Yomi but also cater to the
people who are not up to the Daf Yomi; their
pastoral care should include hospital visits
not only to the members but to the members’
parents; not only should they take care of the
funeral arrangements and the eulogies, but
they should make sure about the proper care
in the house of mourning (even when there
are concurrent houses of mourning during
the same week); we want them to solve our
Shalom Bayis problems and help us get our

children into schools when they are kicked out
because of misbehavior.
We want them to help them with their
unemployment, help them write a will – being
well versed in both the halachic law and the
law of the land; we want them to be available
for an unveiling – and would they please write
a nice poetic formula for the tombstone. We
want them to take over the bulk of fundraising
and share dinner preparations besides being
up on all the latest shul politics. At the same
time, we want them to be up-to-snuff on all
community related affairs such as the eiruv
and the mikvah, all the institutions of kashrus
in the town, and we want them to be very
involved in the Vaad HaRabonim of our city.
We expect them to be punctual and not miss
the shiurim – for consistency is the key – but
at the same time we want them at every one
of our weddings, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs,
brisim, pidyon habens, vorts, and l’chaims.
And…it would be nice, if the Rabbi feels
close enough, that he attends those of our
grandchildren as well. When the sane person
hears all of this, he hears an echo of Yisro’s
words, “Navol tivol – You will grow weary.”
The Panei’ach Raza offers three
interpretations of the words “Navol tivol.”
First, he explains on the simple level it means
‘nafal tipol – the leader will fall apart!’ Burnout
is the obvious result of trying to do too many
things at one time. His second interpretation
is that it means ‘irbuvia – confusion.’
The source for this is what Hashem says
by the generation of dispersal, the dor
haflaga, “V’navlah shom sifasom – I
will confuse their language.” For, if the
Rabbi tries to do too many things at the
same time, everything gets mixed-up and
everything starts to suffer. Finally, in his
third explanation, the Panei’ach Raza says
that it means the Rabbi will become old
before his time. As Sarah Imeinu said,
“Acharei v’losi hoisa li ednah – After I
became old and withered, shall I become
rejuvenated?” And, indeed, we find
many middle-aged Rabbis getting gray
and wrinkled from the overwhelmingly
impossible demands put upon their time.
It is noteworthy that only Yisro noticed
this problem. Furthermore, Yisro points
out that he wasn’t just concerned for his
son in-law’s welfare. But also “gam
ha’am hazeh – for the nation as a whole,”
meaning, if three million people have to
wait for the services and litigation of one
person, it will lead to many frustrated
people indeed. For, rather than having to
wait in long lines before their queries are
dealt with, quite a few people will abstain
from seeking assistance at all.
This explains the puzzling phenomenon
of many a Rabbi who tries to be a
superman yet, when general membership
meets to assess his rabbinical report card,
they decide that he isn’t doing enough.
While on the surface this is preposterous,
the truth is, because there is so much to
do, some things just won’t get done and,
being human, he might miss on certain
vital services.

I remember many years ago, I was saying
a Daf Yomi on a page of Talmud that had
quotations from over twenty verses from all
over the Writings of the Prophets. Since the
Talmud has no punctuation (and I had no time
during the day to memorize the punctuation
for all of these rare verses), I read some of the

verses with the wrong punctuation. With self-
righteous indignation, one of the attendees

came over to me afterwards saying that he was
embarrassed that his Rabbi didn’t even know
how to properly pronounce the psukim. I told
him that I’d try to do better. The next time I
didn’t have ample time to memorize verses, I
came in with a copy of the Talmud that has
the punctuation inside it. This prompted an
immediate response from yet another member
who came over to me afterwards stating that
he was ashamed that his Rabbi should have
to give a lecture from a student’s edition
of the Talmud! Such are some of the petty
challenges of the Rabbinate.
While one of the aims of this article is to make
for more savvy and understanding balei battim,
it also is to look at what Yisro’s suggestion
was to solve the problem. In essence, he said,
the key is delegation. We live in a time of
specialization. We must realize that not every
Rabbi is skilled in the art of Shalom Bais, or
helping the family with a severe addiction –
whether it is drugs, alcohol, or gambling. And
although we feel that since we are paying dues
we are entitled that our Rabbi should take care
of all of our problems (and that we shouldn’t
have to go out of network – so to speak), that is
just being unrealistic and unfair. It is equally
wrong to expect that our Rabbi should be able
to maintain a full host of prepared lectures and
yet be a social butterfly at all of our various
simchas. Nor is it fair to expect that our
Rabbi should be a lamdon like Reb Chaim, a
master of parables like the Dubno Maggid, a
storyteller like Rabbi Krohn, and a posek like
Reb Moshe – all in the same person. Learn
your Rabbi’s strengths and figure out how to
delegate the rest. If it’s not your Rabbi’s forte
to fundraise, allow him to minister to the flock
with his G-d given talents and get others to
collect his salary.
By realizing these realities, we will also
ensure that we will have a healthy and
productive leadership who will be a better role
model for our families and ourselves and be
more able to help us succeed in our collective
avodas Hashem. May it be the will of Hashem
that, in the zechus of our learning from the
ways of the Torah, may he bless us with long
life, good health, and everything wonderful.