It’s one of the most stunning scenes in the Bible, though it’s easy to miss. Moses, the man who speaks with God face-to-face, the liberator of a nation, is sitting from morning till night judging the people. He is the ultimate authority, the direct line to the Divine. And in walks his father-in-law, Jethro—a Midianite priest, an outsider—who takes one look at the situation and says, in essence, “You’re doing it all wrong.” It’s a moment of incredible audacity. A man of worldly wisdom offering a performance review to God’s chosen prophet. This encounter, placed right before the grand, earth-shattering revelation at Mount Sinai, seems almost jarring. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks unpacks this paradox brilliantly in his teaching on this week’s Torah portion, Yitro. What could a Midianite priest possibly teach the man about to receive the Ten Commandments? And what does this ancient lesson in management have to say to us today?
The question forces us to look at two seemingly opposite models of leadership presented back-to-back in this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, Jethro. On one hand, we have Jethro’s intensely practical, almost corporate, advice on delegation. On the other, we have the ultimate top-down directive: God Himself descending upon Mount Sinai to deliver His eternal law. The juxtaposition is intentional and brilliant. It sets up a core principle of biblical thought: there is a universal wisdom accessible to all mankind, and then there is a specific, covenantal truth given to the people of Israel. But as we’ll see, these two ideas are not at odds. They are two sides of the same coin, revealing a radical and timeless vision of what it means to build a holy nation.
Jethro’s critique of Moses is blunt and powerful. “What you are doing is not good,” he says. The Hebrew phrase is lo tov. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out, this exact phrase appears in only one other place in the entire Torah: in the book of Genesis, when God declares, “It is not good (lo tov) for man to be alone.” The message is unmistakable. We cannot live alone, and we cannot lead alone. To be a solo act, whether in life or in leadership, is fundamentally “not good.” It is a violation of our created nature.
Jethro’s solution is a masterclass in practical governance. He tells his son-in-law:
This isn’t just about making Moses’s life easier. It is a profound distribution of responsibility. It’s a plan to create a society where leadership is not concentrated in one man, but woven into the very fabric of the community. This is the world’s wisdom, the chochmah that a Midianite priest can see as clearly as anyone. Political structures, management techniques, and efficient organization are not exclusive to any one people. They are the common inheritance of humanity.
But just as we absorb this lesson in practical leadership, the narrative shifts to the awesome spectacle at Sinai. Here, God reveals the other half of the equation. While anyone can build an organization, Israel is called to a unique destiny. God tells them, through Moses, that if they keep His covenant, they will become His “treasured possession.” He then defines their mission with a truly revolutionary statement: they are to be a “Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation” (mamlechet kohanim v’goy kadosh).
In the ancient world, every nation had priests. Priests were a special class, set apart to mediate between the people and their gods. But God’s plan for Israel was to create a nation of priests. This is a total democratization of holiness and leadership. It means that every single individual is called to a sacred purpose, to a leadership role. This is the principle that later became known in Jewish thought as kol Yisrael arevin zeh ba-zeh—all Israelites are responsible for one another. We don’t outsource our spiritual lives to a select few. We are all on the hook.
This is what makes the Jewish people different. It is not about robes or rituals, but about a shared responsibility to bring holiness into the world. It is why we are called to be a “light unto the nations.” The practical wisdom of Jethro creates the structure, but the divine command at Sinai provides the soul. Jethro teaches us how to lead, but God teaches us why we lead. We can and should learn from the wisdom of the world, but our ultimate purpose, the moral and spiritual dimension of our lives, comes directly from Him.
This is the powerful synthesis of the Yitro portion. God doesn’t want us to be disorganized saints or rudderless visionaries. He wants us to build a society that is both righteous and functional. He invites us to learn from the Jethros of the world, to use our common sense and embrace the best of human wisdom. But He commands us never to forget that our ultimate allegiance is to Him. All human authority is delegated. All power is subject to His moral law. To be a member of this covenantal nation is to accept the call to lead, not from a position of power, but from a place of service and shared responsibility. It is a call to be a nation of servant-leaders, a kingdom of priests, building a society that reflects His justice and His holiness here on earth.
