Комментарий к Шмот 18:14

מדוע אתה יושב לבדך?, why are only you dealing with public affairs?

מדוע אתה יושב לבדך?, and as a result of your being the sole judge the entire people have to stand in line before you from morning to evening.

(Exodus 18:14) "And Moses' father-in-law saw": What did he see? He saw him sitting like a king sitting on his throne and all paying attendance upon him, whereupon he said to him: "What is this that you are doing to the people? Why are you sitting alone?"

אשר הוא עושה לעם, “what he was doing to the people.” They were making one another impatient. On the one hand, the common people were forced to stand in line most of the day waiting for their turn. On the other hand, Moses was becoming more and more weary having to deal with so many disputes.

וכל העם, and all the people who for whatever reason need your private services have to wait in line from morning to night?

?מדוע אתה יושב לבדך, “why are only you seated?” Yitro did not criticize Moses for sitting and the people having to stand; he meant that if Moses would delegate some of his tasks there would not be such long queues. The Torah itself expects the litigants to be standing, as we know form Deuteronomy 19,17: 'ועמדו שני האנשים אשר להם הריב לפני ה, “and the two men who have a dispute are to stand in the presence of the judges;”Besides, it would not have been appropriate for Yitro to chastise a great man like Moses, someone who was even addressed as “my master” by his own brother Aaron who was three years his senior. (Compare Numbers 12,11) The verse in front of us has to be understood as follows: “what made you decide to shoulder the entire burden of judging all the people’s problems all by yourself, without assistance from anyone? You would do well to appoint junior judges that can share the burden with you, so that you would only have to deal with the litigations that these juniors could not find a proper solution for. All this will result in your burden being decreased so that you do not break down under it prematurely. Moses had first misunderstood his fatherinlaw as being critical that he alone remained seated throughout these proceedings. This is why he had replied that the people had come to him; (verse 15)

מן בקר עד ערב, from morning till evening. Yitro meant that “even if you were to sit here from morning till evening you could still not cope with such a load.”