The modern world tends to think that if a person is suffering under stress, the right solution is therapy, along with perhaps learning some coping mechanisms, engaging in meditation or taking medication.
People who are married or who have deep friendships know that there is a better solution, if you have others with whom to share the load. A problem shared, as they say, is a problem halved. But sharing with friends and family relies on people who genuinely care about each other, which may be harder to find in our modern world, especially in places where therapy is considered the ideal solution.
Stress, of course, is hardly a new phenomenon. Neither is snapping under pressure. Even the great Moses breaks, (Num 11) begging for G-d to kill him:
I cannot carry (massa) all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!”
G-d’s answer is to unburden Moses, by sharing the load, the massa:
Then G-d said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that is on you and put it upon them; they shall share the burden (massa) of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone.
Here’s a crazy thought: What if G-d is only following His own advice? After all, earlier in the Torah, G-d commands:
If thou see the ass of him that hates thee lying under its burden (massa), and wouldst forbear to unload it, thou shalt surely unload it with him.
Moses is suffering under the load. G-d does not unload Moses directly – instead, He finds a way to share Moses’ load with 70 other people.
But why do we think that sharing with others is the same as unburdening a donkey? Because the Torah also uses the same word, massa, to refer to the burdens on the priests, the Cohanim. E.g. Let Aaron and his sons go in and assign each of them to his duties and to his burden (massa).
Here is the key: nobody can relieve the burden of the priests – their jobs are their jobs, and nobody else can do them. But priests have the benefit of being a large familial team, people who are commanded to work together. And the common use of the word massa suggests strongly that priests should actively work to make each person’s burden manageable.
Teamwork takes the place of therapy. Sharing the load works for the priests, and it works for Moses. By commanding both, G-d seems to be modeling the ways in which we can (and should) help others with their stresses and challenges. We are treat them at least as well as we treat an overburdened donkey.
There is, of course, a larger lesson as well. Nothing important can actually be done by just one person alone. Even if a person has world-changing ideas, he or she needs listeners and readers, publishers and re-tweeters. It is not merely that loads should be shared: to be effective, loads must be shared. All great accomplishments require teams just as surely as they require inspiration and hard work.