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By Rabbi Shloime Lindenbaum
ואתה תחזה מכל העם אנשי חיל וכו’ (פרק יח פסוק כא)
Yisro advises Moshe that instead of him judging the entire Jewish people by himself, he should establish smaller courts to deal with the simpler cases. Only the most difficult cases will be brought to Moshe, after passing through four other levels of courts. Rashi points out that although this happened after Moshe came down from הר סיני with the Torah, the Torah does not always write things in the order of when they happened. The נתיבות שלום asks, why did the Torah pick this instance to switch the order of the stories? What is the Torah trying to tell us by placing this advice of Yisro specifically before the receiving of the Torah? He answers that Yisro’s suggested system was one that built a many-tiered judicial system that revolved around Moshe, the direct connection to Hashem. This system also involved many representatives from Klal Yisroel to serve as judges. This united everyone in a common system that centered on Hashem’s teachings to Moshe and to the Jewish nation. By placing this story before receiving the Torah, we learn that a prerequisite to קבלת התורה is unity of all Jews with focus on a common goal of understanding and fulfilling the word of Hashem.
וירא העם וינעו ויעמדו מרחק (פרק כ פסוק טו)
After the incredible experience of מעמד הר סיני, the Revelation at Sinai, the Pesukim describe that when the Jews saw this they shook and stood far away. Rashi says that the expression of וינעו in this context does not mean shook, rather it means to sweat in trepidation. The Baal Haturim, however, takes the word literally and says that they physically shook out of awe and fear. He says that this is why we shake and sway when we learn Torah, because that is the fashion in which we received it. We see from the Baal Haturim how every time we learn Torah, we are accessing מעמד הר סיני and almost experiencing it again, to the point that we try to imitate the physical actions of the Revelation.
