“Parashat Yitro: What is this Thing You Are Doing to the People?” Rabbi Andrew Oberstein’s Shabbat Sermon

Rabbi Andrew Oberstein
Qabbalat Shabbat, February 14, 2025
Temple Israel of Boston

I think I must have mentioned here before that there are only two instances in the entire Torah where something is actually described as “not good” or “lo tov.”

 

Of course,

the Torah is full of both positive and negative commandments,

shaping our moral compass through an inherited vision of what is right and wrong.

 

But across the entire Torah,

throughout all five books,

there are only two moments when something is deemed to be worthy of the phrase “lo tov,” 

“not good.”

 

The first appears right at the beginning in the book of Genesis.

 

In this case, 

the message comes straight from God who teaches us in Genesis 2:18, 

“לֹא־ט֛וֹב הֱי֥וֹת הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְבַדּ֑וֹ” – 

It is not good for a human being to be alone.

 

This principle has formed the basis for our Jewish understanding of community today – 

human beings are not islands, 

we don’t exist independently of one another, 

we are inherently relational.

That notion is so fundamental to our understanding of being alive that it warrants the exceedingly rare warning of “lo tov,” 

– not good,

Lest we forget our responsibility to our fellow human being,

Lest we fall into the trap of believing we can navigate this life in utter isolation.

 

*****

 

The only other time the phrase “lo tov” appears in the Torah happens to be in this week’s parasha, 

Parashat Yitro.

 

This time, 

God isn’t the one teaching us what is good and what is not good.

 

It’s not Moses or Aaron or any of the Israelite prophets.

 

It’s actually not even an Israelite at all!

 

Rather, 

the second and only other time the phrase “lo tov” is used in the Torah is when it emerges from the mouth of a Midianite Priest named Yitro, 

someone who sits definitively outside the Israelite community, 

but whose words of warning became immortalized nonetheless.

 

*****

 

Yitro is Moses’s father-in-law,

The father of Moses’s Midianite wife,

Tzipporah,

And the namesake of this week’s parasha.

 

At the beginning of the portion,

We find Yitro paying a visit to Moses and his family.

 

Moses tells his father-in-law about all the incredible things God has done for the Israelite people. There are celebrations and blessings and it is, 

by all accounts, 

a beautiful and joyous family reunion.

 

Until the next day,

When Yitro sees the kind of leader Moses has become since leaving Egypt.

 

*****

 

The story finds Moses serving as the sole deciding judge over the entire people of Israel, 

with plaintiffs standing about him from morning until evening.

 

If anyone in the community has a dispute,

Moses is the only person authorized to hear it and to judge it.

 

And the traditional translation of what follows involves Yitro advising Moses to delegate the workload, 

to not spread himself too thin, 

to take action now to avoid burnout.

 

“לֹא־טוֹב֙ הַדָּבָ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֖ה עֹשֶֽׂה”, 

he tells his son-in-law.

 

The thing that you are doing is not good.

 

*****

 

And for years, 

I’ve read this text at face value.

 

For years, 

I’ve remarked at how ahead of his time Yitro was, 

advising Moses that leadership does not necessitate working 24/7, 

that sharing responsibilities gives everyone a much needed sense of work/life balance.

 

But all translation is interpretation.

 

And this year, 

I hear Yitro calling out something very different as being “lo tov.”

 

*****

 

What if Yitro’s warning is not actually about burnout, 

but about consolidation of power?

 

Moses is operating under an iron-fisted model of leadership. 

 

He is the end-all-be-all decision maker in the community. 

 

Yitro sees the danger not just to Moses’s wellbeing as the traditional reading tells us, 

but he sees the danger to the people living under this kind of rule.

He says to Moses,

“What is this thing that you are doing to the people? 

 

Why do you sit alone [on a kind of throne,] 

and all the people stand around you from morning until evening? 

 

Moses essentially says: 

I’m the one who decides all disputes. 

 

I’m the one who judges who is right and who is wrong. 

 

I’m the arbiter of Divine law, 

I’m the only one who can tell the people what God wants them to do. 

 

It all comes through me.

 

And only then does Yitro say, 

“לֹא־טוֹב֙ הַדָּבָ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַתָּ֖ה עֹשֶֽׂה”, 

the thing you are doing is not good.

 

The line that follows is often translated as, 

“You will surely wear yourself out,” 

but it could also be translated as, 

“You are surely being foolish and senseless and you will also cause this people to wither and fall. 

 

The weight of this is too heavy for you and you cannot do it alone.”

 

Not only because of burnout, 

but because this model of leadership is dangerous and destructive.

 

Our tradition believes Yitro’s words so strongly that we preserve his warning in our second and final “lo tov” of the Torah. 

 

We believe in his words so strongly that we name our portion this week after him.

 

We are a people who know the danger of a tyrant.

 

We are a people who know the slippery slope of acquiescing to the whims of one charismatic leader.

 

We have seen the trauma and disasters that ensue when one person sees himself as a people’s supreme leader, 

when people become afraid of resistance and its repercussions.

 

And we need Yitro’s message this year perhaps more than ever.

 

*****

 

We need a prophet, 

Jewish or otherwise, 

who can look in the eyes of a power-hungry ruler, 

who can call out a despot and say, 

as Yitro did, 

“What is this thing you are doing to the people?

[…]

The thing that you are doing is lo tov, it is not good.”

 

*****

 

I’m going to speak now about what I’ve been holding, what has been weighing on my heart so heavily this week as I’ve been studying this week’s parasha.

 

When the President of the United States believes that he acts with impunity, when he believes he can brazenly defy court orders, 

disrupting the system of checks and balances that has kept our democracy functioning for nearly 250 years, 

working outside the legislative process to issue a tsunami of executive orders targeting and harming the most vulnerable among us, 

we need Yitro’s message more than ever.

 

When the President of the United States decides for himself that the legacy of Transgender Americans must be swept into the dustbin of history, 

that the arts and academia are subversive and dangerous and need to be controlled by himself and his loyalists, 

we need Yitro’s message more than ever. 

 

When fear of retaliation allows corporations and institutions to follow suit, 

when that fear allows our obsequious elected officials to confirm cabinet members who hold radical and dangerous ideologies that are out of sync with the average American, 

we need Yitro’s message more than ever.

 

*****

 

Moses may have the reputation of being the greatest prophet in our tradition, 

but it is Yitro who speaks truth to power in this story, 

it is Yitro who points out the danger of unchecked unilateral control.

 

At the end of the day, 

both examples of things that are “lo tov” in the Torah have to do with the erroneous thinking that we can survive alone, or the mistaken belief that our society is not inherently interconnected.

 

Being a human is not a solo endeavor. 

 

And all the more so, 

being a leader is not a solo endeavor.

 

This year, 

I hear Yitro fighting against an isolationist ideology that threatens to topple the world order in irreparable ways. 

 

I hear Yitro begging the Jewish people to remember the foundational Jewish belief that we don’t bow down to idols, 

even if they  happen to sit in the Oval Office. 

 

I hear Yitro begging those in power to remember the interconnectedness of humanity, 

demanding of them, 

“What is this thing you are doing to the people? 

It is lo tov.”

 

The Israelites were blessed to have a leader like Moses who could hear this criticism and change his ways. 

 

I pray that one day the leaders of both the United States and Israel will soften their hearts and heed Yitro’s call, 

understanding the importance of checks and balances, 

and understanding that servile obedience to a supreme leader poses an existential threat to a nation and its people.

 

And until that day arrives, 

we will look to Yitro for guidance, 

finding within ourselves the courage to call out what is “lo tov” in our own society.

 

In Yitro’s final plea to Moses, he argues that if Moses changes his autocratic leadership model, 

then not only will he be able to stand up tall, 

but also the people will be able to find peace.

 

And Moses, in his wisdom, and with God’s blessing, heeds his father-in-law and does just as he had said.

 

May this be true for us once again, 

speedily, 

and in our days. 

 

And let us say, 

Amen.