Kommentar zu Schemot 18:13

ויהי ממחרת AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW — This was really the day after the Day of Atonement: so have we learnt in Siphré (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 18:13:1). Since the Day of Atonement is not mentioned anywhere in this section that deals with the Giving of the Law what is the force of ממחרת? i. e. in relation to what particular day in the history of the Law-giving is the term ממחרת, “on the morrow”, used? It means the morrow after he (Moses) descended from the Mount Sinai, and you must admit that it is impossible to say that this was any other day but the morrow after the Day of Atonement because, before the giving of the Torah, one could not say, (v. 16) “and I do make them know the statutes [of God and His laws]” (which are part of the Torah), and from the day when the Torah was given until the Day of Atonement Moses did not sit down to judge the people, since immediately after the Torah was given he ascended the mountain and descended only on the seventeenth of Tammuz when he broke the tablets in pieces. On the next day he again ascended the mountain early in the morning and stayed there eighty days, descending on the Day of Atonement (cf. Tanchuma כי תשא, Rashi on 33:11, Deuteronomy 9:18 and 10:1). Consequently this section is not written (placed) in its chronological order, for this paragraph commencing with ויהי ממחרת and ending with “Moses let his father-in-law go and he (Jethro) went his way into his own land” was not said before the second year after the Exodus. For even according to the view of one who says that Jethro came to Moses before the giving of the Torah (Avodah Zarah 24a) his dismissal into his own land did not take place until the second year, for it is stated here (v. 27) “Moses let his father-in-law go”, and we find in the account of Israel’s journey through the wilderness beneath their banners (which according to Numbers 10:11 began in the second year) that Moses said to him, (Numbers 10:29, 31) “We are journeying etc…. Forsake us not, I pray thee”. Now if this incident happened before the giving of the Torah (including Jethro’s departure) where do we find it related that he returned after he had let him go and he had taken departure? And if you object that there (in the section in Numbers which Rashi has quoted as evidence that Jethro’s departure took place in the second year) it does not mention Jethro at all but Hobab, and that the latter was not Jethro but the son of Jethro, then I reply that Hobab is identical with Jethro and not his son, because it is written, (Judges 4:11) “of the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses”.

AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW, i.e., on the morrow of the day on which they held the above-mentioned [feast], THAT MOSES SAT TO JUDGE THE PEOPLE. In the Mechilta, the Rabbis have said:⁸¹Mechilta on the verse here. “On the morrow. That is, on the morrow after the Day of the Atonement.” Now the intent of the Rabbis was not that on the morrow alludes to the Day of Atonement, for Scripture has not mentioned the Day of Atonement at all that it should now refer to it by saying on the morrow thereof. Nor is the term on the morrow to be understood literally, [i.e., the day after the Day of Atonement], for they did not eat on the Day of Atonement, that is, if they observed such a day in the first year before they were commanded concerning it.⁸²“It is impossible to say that they observed the Fast of the Atonement in that first year, since the people were not commanded therein until Moses came down from Mount Sinai for the third time, which was on the Day of Atonement itself” (Mizrachi). Moreover, it was on the Day of Atonement that the second Tablets of the Law were given. On the following day, Moses came and he spoke to the children of Israel, and he gave them in commandment all that the Eternal had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.⁸³Further, 34:32. It thus could not have been a day on which he sat to judge the people, when the people stood about him from the morning unto the evening. It is also impossible to say that this was on the morrow of the Day of Atonement of the second year, for after the Israelites journeyed [from Sinai on the twentieth day of Iyar in the second year (Numbers 10:11)], Hobab [i.e., Jethro], said, I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.⁸⁴Numbers 10:30. And even according to what Ramban has written above on Verse 1, i.e., that Jethro listened to Moses’ plea to stay with Israel and he did not leave them, it is nevertheless obvious that at that time, he intended to leave them. The narrative contained in this section concerning Jethro’s advice to Moses on the delegation of power in the administration of justice, could thus logically not have taken place on the morrow after the Day of Atonement in the second year, some four and a half months after they journeyed from Mount Sinai (Kur Zahab).
Rather, the intent of this Beraitha, [i.e., the Mechilta quoted above, “on the morrow after the Day of Atonement”], is that it was some day after the Day of Atonement, since Moses had no free day on which to sit in judgment from the day they came to Mount Sinai until after the Day of Atonement of that first year.⁸⁵Immediately after the Torah was given on the sixth day of Sivan, Moses ascended the mountain and remained there for forty days. When he descended on the seventeenth of Tammuz and found the people worshipping the golden calf, he broke the Tablets. On the next day, he again ascended the mountain to pray for G-d’s forgiveness, and stayed there forty days, which terminated on the twenty-ninth day of Ab. On the following day, he was told to come up to the mountain to receive the second Tablets. He again spent forty days there. Consequently, this forty-day period terminated on the tenth of Tishri, which is the Day of Atonement. Thus, from the time the Torah was given till after the Day of Atonement in the first year, Moses had no free day on which to sit in judgment, as is described in this section of the Torah. For the sources on the above dates, see Rashi here, and in more detail, further, 33:11, and Deuteronomy 9:18.

ויעמוד העם על משה, waiting till he would find time to address their individual problems after he had finished dealing with the collective problems pertaining to the whole community and had finished listening to the people’s dignitaries.