Rashi on Shemos 18:1: YISRO He was called YESER (from יִתֵּר “to add”) because he added (it was through him that there was added) a section to the Torah (beginning at Shemos 21ff).

There is an obvious question, which I saw asked by HaGaon Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi: Yisro’s complaint that Moshe would not be able to handle the load put on him by klal Yisrael seems to be an observation that anyone intelligent would realize. His solution of dividing up the judicial system into various courts also seems to be very basic. If that is the case, why did we need to wait for Yisro to come up with this idea? Why didn’t anyone else see the problem and offer this obvious solution?

I thought, “Was this really a problem?” Yes, in the secular world, Moshe Rabeinu’s system would eventually fail. However, in the world of the holy Torah, one would think that Hashem would give Moshe the ability not only to survive the volume of cases, but to thrive as well!

But what was Moshe’s goal in managing everything himself? Why didn’t he use the classical judicial system as eventually suggested by Yisro? The gemora in Eruvin (13b) tells us that because Rebbe saw the back of Rebbe Meir, he became even greater in Torah. However, Rebbe himself added that if he would have actually seen Rebbe Meir’s from the front, the holiness of his countenance would have given him the ability to soar to greater heights in understanding the Torah. Possibly, Moshe Rabbeinu understood that if the litigants would look at him, his appearance could elevate them to a higher spiritual level. This would be especially important for people who fell to the level that they had to go to Beis Din. Therefore, Moshe overextended himself to elevate Klal Yisrael.

If this is true, then why did Moshe acquiesce to his father-in-law’s suggestion? I would like to offer an answer based on human nature. There is an expression in English, “if you want to know what is on your son’s mind, take him out to the backyard and play catch with him.” The logic behind this is that when the son is having a good time, he will open up to his father, without even realizing it. However, if the father questions the son directly, he may subconsciously feel threatened (or even worse) and will often answer, “Everything is fine.” The indirect approach gets the parent past the child’s defenses so that the parent can find out what is really going on in their child’s life. Possibly, Moshe felt that if he told Yisro his real reasons for judging klal Yisrael in person, this information would become public and his future interactions with the people would be less effective.

However, one question remains: Why was Yisro’s idea so significant that a parsha was added to the Torah in his merit? Rav Ezrachi answers this question with an insight that I have personally experienced. During the years that I sat at the side of HaGaon Rav Moshe Halberstam ZT”L, there would often come a question that was so weighty it would require a precedent to rule on it. During those times, the Rav would grab my arm and say, “I need to have somebody else to agree with me! One is not allowed to decide this alone.” I mentioned this interaction to a friend of mine who also sat at the side of a Rav of a different segment of klal Yisrael, and he said his Rav would often say nearly the same words. In truth, if one looks in the halachic responsa, they are filled with rulings which end with, “I am willing to be lenient if there are a certain number of rabbis who agree with me.”

As an extension of this idea, Yisro told Moshe Rabbeinu that dividing the workload was not just a question of efficiency, rather it created a group of judges who gave the community at large a greater amount of Divine help. This in turn would possibly give the litigants more Kedusha than they would have received from Moshe alone. Even if the multiple judges reached the same outcome, there would be a dissemination of Torah thought on a special level, through the merit of involving others. This is what the chidush of Yisro was, which caused a new parsha to be written in the Torah.

We live in times when people find themselves in forced isolation. Sometimes it may be medically mandated, but other times it is from fear of the unknown. The Gemora tells us repeatedly about people who missed coming to the Beis Medrash and because of that they missed out on new Torah insights. What we can learn from the above is to do whatever we can to join a tzibbur in holy endeavors, which will help us grow spiritually.