We have pointed out that in Egypt, the people were compared to sheratzim, the non-elevating insects and lizards created on the fifth day. The people in Egypt seemed to be mostly a reactive rabble, with full lineages only given for the tribe of Levi. When they left Egypt, 600,000 men were cowed by a mere 600 chariots! Which might explain why the Israelites are described as leaving as chamushim, or “fivers” – like those swarming creatures created on the Fifth Day.
Perhaps we can understand that the creation of the people, who were symbolically “born” through the splitting of the waters, and going through the wilderness was as a sort of childhood and adolescence?
Alongside that growth in the people as a whole, we can also see a growth of individuals. It is in the wilderness that the text starts to talk about princes of the tribes, and newly-important lineages. Individualism is similarly born in the wilderness – from the bad (e.g. Korach and Zimri) to the good (Kalev and the daughters of Tzelofchad).
Could it be that the triggering event for creating individual leaders and people who thought for themselves, was Yisro’ssuggestion that judges be created across society? After all, those judges of 600,000 people would have numbered more than 80,000 people in all!
But isn’t this rather obvious (blindingly so, in hindsight): delegating authority is how new leaders are created, nurtured, and developed?
So why is it Yisro (and nobody else) who proposes that Moses delegates authority to judges?
Might it be because Yisro had always delegated?! After all, his daughters struggled to manage the herds and he had no sons. So when the stranger Moshe helps them out at the well, Yisro promptly sends his daughters out to chase the man down, so he could be welcomed into the family! In other words, the first thing we learn about Yisro is that he was a keen believer in delegating!
In other words, wasn’t delegation of authority and responsibility a core Yisro characteristic ever since we first met him?
Which might explain why, despite a direct command from G-d, Moshe does not disrespect the man who took him in, gave him a wife, and trusted him with his earthly possessions:
Moses went back to his father-in-law Jether and said to him, “Let me go back to my kinsfolk in Egypt and see how they are faring.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
Part of the reciprocal nature of good leadership is that respect flows both ways, and Moshe manages and delegates to the Jewish people in a similar way.
Was Yisro a role model for Moshe?