Parashat Devarim: Moses learns to lead

Hebrew

More than forty years after the fateful encounter at the burning bush, Moses no longer evades his mission by claiming a speech defect but rather uses the power of his speech in a final effort to bring that mission to a successful conclusion. Filled with concern about the Israelite’s future after his death, Moses gathers the entire nation for a concluding briefing, intended to prepare the generation of the wilderness for life in the land of Israel.  Moses not only retells the history of the people from the Exodus forward as we have already read it but, in his words, explains it. Actually, he sometimes changes it, adds to it and then leaves the explaining to us. I will focus the decentralization of authority and the appointment of tribal leaders to support Moses’s leadership.

The issue is mentioned three times in the Torah – in Parashat Yitro, in Parashat Beha’alotcha (Num. 11-13), and in Parashat Devarim. Are three different events being described or are these different angles on one or two events? It seems to me that these are indeed separate events, each a stage in the process.

In Parashat Yitro, before the revelation at Mount Sinai, Moses lacks experience in leading a free people. Until now, he had functioned as union boss in a show down against a stubborn industrialist. Apparently, he was not involved in the internal affairs of the people. Suddenly, they are free and all the responsibility falls on him. He tries to comply with the demands and collapses.

Fortunately, his father-in-law, Yitro, a priest of Midian and experienced leader, comes to visit, bringing Moses’s wife Zipporah and their sons. He immediately grasps the problem and recommends that Moses appoint people to handle the less serious issues (see Exodus 19). Moses agrees, and the text claims that he did appoint people. But it seems that they did not succeed in the role.

How dare I claim that they didn’t function? Simple. A year later, just after the Israelites leave Mount Sinai, they complain about the living conditions, and Moses cries out to God: “I am not able, I alone, to carry this entire people, for it is too heavy for me!” (Num. 11:15, Fox translation). At that point, Moses speaks only to God. God listens to him, and offers to gather elders and grant them some of Moses’s spirit, so that he will not be alone. Moses accepts the offer and his prophetic powers are shared with the elders who prophesy. Once.

Moses is not wise enough to take advantage of the elders’ proximity to the “street” in order to understand what was really bothering the people. The latter get slammed with a display of angry Divine power: first a huge surplus of quail meat and then a plague. 

In my opinion, this lack of communication was an important factor in the people’s disappointing response to the report of the tribal leaders who were sent to scout the land. In other words, the disconnect between the leadership and the people led to 39 years of wandering.

This brings us to our parasha, at the end of the wanderings. Moses refers that same early period, when it was still possible to think of an 11-day journey from Sinai to the border of the land (see Deut. 1:2), but tells a completely different story, in which he actually consults with the people, and together they help choose the “chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens, and officials for your tribes” (Deut. 1:15, trans: Revised JPS 2023 and hereafter).

What might explain this gap? Before I answer, I would like to refer back to two additional events at the end of Parashat Beha’alotcha: the prophecy of Eldad and Meidad and the complaint of Miriam and Aaron. When Joshua is concerned about Eldad and Meidad’s behavior, Moses is calm and answers “Would that all God’s people were prophets” (Num. 11:29).

Perhaps his support for widely-shared prophetic power encouraged Miriam and Aaron’s question: “Is it only through Moses that the word of the Lord is spoken?” (Num. 12:2). Either way, they too do not receive a measured response or substantive conversation, but rather a rebuke from Heaven.

His inability to talk to people leaves Moses isolated. Imagine him going home. Hesitantly, he begins to speak. Zipporah, Yitro’s daughter, listens, responds, and they talk for a long time. Slowly, Moses understands. It’s good to talk to people and it’s important to listen to them. He needs assistance, not additional prophets, but rather judicial and administrative support, and it is worthwhile to consult with the people. In the year after the Exodus, they have become more deeply familiar with the true qualities of their comrades, and therefore can participate in the selection of leaders.

But the process takes time. Before everything is ready, the “spies” are dispatched and return. The chasm cracks open. What is done, cannot be undone. However, in the years of wandering, Moses does have support. The heads of the tribes help rehabilitate the people, according to the terms of their appointment: “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger. You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear no one, for judgment is God’s” (Deut. 1:16-17).

Moses commands them to judge fairly and justly, without bias. His words echo in the haftara. The prophet laments and accuses, “Alas, she has become a whore, the faithful city that was filled with justice, where righteousness dwelt—but now murderers… Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves, every one avid for presents and greedy for gifts. They do not judge the case of the orphan, and the widow’s cause never reaches them” (Isaiah 1:21, 23).

But not all is lost. There is also a promise: “I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as in the past…

Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her returnees with righteousness”

 (Isaiah 1:26-27, trans: SMZ)