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February 5, 2007/17 Shevat  5767
Parashat Yitro
Rabbi Neal I Borovitz
 
Time Magazine’s decision to proclaim “You” as the person of the year for 2006 reminded me of an often overlooked encounter between Moses and his father-in-law, Yitro, which precedes the focal point of this week’s Torah portion: the Revelation at Sinai. It also reminded me of a fundraising story that Rabbi Dick Israel, of blessed memory, used to tell.
A chicken and a salmon sit down in a Deli to share a meal. The chicken suggests: “Lox n’ Eggs”. The salmon responds: “That’s easy for you to suggest; from you the chef only needs a contribution, from me it’s a total commitment.”
In Exodus 18:14 Yitro asks Moses: “What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you act alone while all the people stand about you from morning until evening?” In verses 17 and 18, Yitro continues by saying: “What you are doing is not right! You will surely wear yourself out and these people as well. The task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.”
Moses offers total commitment to communal service and doesn’t even ask the people for a contribution. From the dearth of references to his wife and children from this chapter onward, we can assume that Moses the community leader has little or no time to be a husband, father or grandfather.

Yitro’s message to Moses is the antithesis of the Time Magazine description of the world in 2006. By making “You” the person of the year, Time was confirming that each of us has become so insular, so self centered and self absorbed that everything becomes about “me”. The “We, the People” with whom God makes His covenant in this week’s Torah reading, and the “We the People”, who, in the words of the American Constitution, came together “to form a more perfect union;” are less important than “me”.
Yitro points out that this self-centeredness can emanate from even the most altruistic of leaders. Neither Moses’ good intentions to be the intermediary between God and the people, nor his willingness to be the arbitrator of disputes between the people are healthy for him or the people.
Too often rabbis, including myself, act too much like Moses and fail to heed to advice of Yitro. “Rabbinic Burnout” is a very real problem in American Jewish life. So too is the lay leadership vacuum on every level and in every segment of organized Jewish life. Moreover, these two problems feed off each other. The more that rabbis and Jewish professionals assume the sole responsibility for maintaining Jewish life in our communities, the fewer lay leaders will take less and less ownership.
Yitro’s advice to Moses to share power and responsibility is a message contemporary Jewish leaders need to heed, not only for our own sake, but as Yitro tells Moses, for the sake of our people as well. Inviting more participation in Jewish communal decision making and leadership will require a rethinking of  our Synagogue and communal structures so that more people can make a contribution free from the fear that involvement will become an all consuming “total commitment”.
To paraphrase Hillel’s famous teaching of 2000 years ago (Ethics of our Fathers 1:14): “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?”
On this Shabbat Parashat Yitro I ask myself and each of you to consider the questions:
If I try to do it all myself, who will be with me? If I am unwilling to share power and responsibility, what am I?
If our goal remains to create a more viable and vibrant Jewish community that will be a light unto the nations; our answer to Yitro’s admonition to Moses must echo’s Hillel’s rhetorical retort: “If not now, when?”
 
Rabbi Neal I Borovitz, a member of UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, is rabbi of Temple Sholom, River Edge, New Jersey.

UJC Rabbinic Cabinet Chair: Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg
Vice Chairs: Rabbi Jonathan Schnitzer,  Rabbi Steven Foster,  Rabbi Amy Small
President: Rabbi Bennett F. Miller, D.Min.
Honorary Chair: Rabbi Matthew Simon
Vice President, Jewish Renaissance and Renewal: Dr. Eric Levine
Mekor Chaim Editor & Coordinator: Saul Epstein
Senior Consultant, Rabbinic Cabinet: Rabbi Gerald Weider
 
The opinions expressed in Mekor Chaim articles are solely of the author and do not reflect any offical position of UJC or the Rabbinic Cabinet.