Last Saturday, my son Benjamin became a Bar Mitzvah. His Torah portion is Yitro. I would like to share his D’Var Torah which was packed with insight about participatory government as well as the taking and giving of good advice.

My parsha is Yitro. It comes right after B’shallach, in which the Israelits left Egypt by the Reed (Red) Sea. In a nutshell, during Yitro, Moses’ Father-in-Law says, “Oy! What the heck are ya doin’?” and tells Moses to correct himself by appointing judges. “Sheesh. Dumb kids!” After that, God apparently thought that Moses should beef up, because God sent Moses up and down Mt. Sinai three times. Finally, God gives Moses and the Israelites the Ten Commandments.

Most normal people with this parsha would choose to talk about the Ten Commandments; but then again, my family is far from normal (although apparently we rank only 5th most eccentric by Ellen’s standard [Ellen is his Hebrew tutor]). I chose to focus on the creation of the judicial system and God’s apparent need to repeat Himself.

Once, they got out of Egypt, Moses apparently thought he should do everything, including settling everybody’s disputes, no matter how petty. So if two people were arguing over hummus and pita, Moses had to decide who was right. And if someone had murdered 20 people, they might have to wait for Moses to decide the hummus and pita caper before he could pronounce judgement on him.

Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, shows up and thinks this is stupid. He realizes that Moses can’t decide every dispute, and he should appoint judges to handle the petty cases, leaving the major cases for Moses to decide. Moses takes Yitro’s advice and they create the foundation for our modern judicial system today.

I think that we can all learn a lesson from Moses: it is not always bad, in fact it’s usually positive, to try other peoples’ ideas even though it is not easy. Of course, a contributing factor to Moses’ ability to take Yitro’s advice was Yitro’s ability to present it. Yitro realized that telling Moses he was wearing himself out wouldn’t affect him; so instead, Yitro said that he would also wear the people out, which of course got Moses’ attention. Moses was so selfless that the only rationale he would lsten to was about the people. Yitro knew Moses was a righteous man (he was married to his daughter, Zipporah, and had lived with them for years). So he knew how to persuade Moses. Yitro teaches us the lesson: “to get someone to accept your idea, exploit their weaknesses.”

Another thing that I enjoy about this Torah portion is how it was a precursor to participatory government today. In this Torah portion, Yitro tells Moses that to keep his people together, Moses needed to have a council. Moses selects worthy men from each tribe to assist him in judging the people. Moses before Yitro’s advice is technically a tyrant or a king; maybe a nice one, but still a tyrant or a king because he controls everything. Once he takes Yitro’s advice, however, he’s giving other people a chance to participate in their governance.

Finally, we get to the matter of who trusts the people more: Moses or God? Specifically, I am referring to when God makes Moses hike up Mt. Sinai, then go down and warn the people to not touch the mountain, stay pure, etc., then go back up Mt. Sinai, and then tells Moses to do the exact same thing all over again. Moses responds, “They’re not going to come onto the mountain, because I told them not to.” While it might be possible that Moses just didn’t feel like hiking for the rest of his life, let’s just assume he was like my Dad. For those of you who don’t know my Dad, he runs hundred mile races. I think it wasn’t about hiking, it was that Moses trusts the people more than God does.

Moses defends the people, saying, “I told them already. They won’t do anything bad.” But God says, “I’m not so sure.” Also, I wonder if Yitro is a better advice-giver than God, because when Moses doesn’t understand, Yitro changes the way he says things, but God just repeats the same thing over and over.

Becoming a Bar Mitzvah means that I get to be a full blown member of the Jewish community and Temple Beth Shalom. TBS is like a second home to me. Some of my best friends are members here and I always feel happy when I am here.

My tzedakah project is to collect used eyeglasses for people who can’t afford new ones. I will be donating them to New Eyes for the Needy. If you have spare eyeglasses you would like to donate you can contact me to arrange a pick up. My tzedakah project relates to my Torah portion because Moses is sort of blind to what is going on, and Yitro had a vision for how things could work better.

To donate eyeglasses for Ben’s tzedakah project, email me, his mother at laurenreichelt@gmail.com.