Aggada -- Translations into English; Bible. Old Testament -- Legends; Jewish legends; Midrash -- Translations into English
Although the installation of elders on Moses' part came to pass in
accordance with the command of God, still it was Jethro upon whose
advice Moses besought God to lighten his burden, and to permit him
partly to transfer the leadership of the people to others. [166] Hence
he did not conceal the name of the adviser, but announced it to all the
people, and immortalized him as such in the Holy Scriptures; for he
deemed it praiseworthy to appreciate duly the merits of others. [167]
It had, however, been part of God's scheme to reward Jethro for the
love he bore the Torah; and for this reason did He allow it to come to
pass that Moses had to have his attention called to the plan of
installing the elders through his father-in-law, that the Holy
Scriptures might devote a whole chapter to the plan of Jethro. [168]
This, however, is not the only reward for Jethro's piety, who, in his
love for the Torah, excelled all proselytes. A miracle occurred on the
very first day of his arrival in camp for manna in his honor descended
at the noon hour, the hour of his arrival; and, moreover, in as great
quantities as was wont to rain down for sixty myriads of Israelites. He
did not have to exert himself to gather the food, for it came over his
body, so all he had to do was to carry his hand to his mouth to partake
of it. [169] Jethro, nevertheless, did not remain with Moses, but
returned to his native land. Moses, of course, tried to persuade his
father-in-law to stay. He said to him: "Do not think that we shall
continue to move thus slowly through the desert, nay, we shall now move
directly to the promised land." Only to urge Jethro to stay longer with
them did Moses use the words "we move," so that his father-in-law might
believe that Moses too would enter the promised land, for otherwise he
would hardly have allowed himself to be persuaded to join the march to
Palestine. Moses continued: "I do not want to mislead thee, hence I
will tell thee that the land will be divided only among the twelve
tribes, and that thou has no claim to possession of lands; but God bade
us be kind to the proselytes, and to thee we shall be kinder than to
all other proselytes." Jethro, however, was not to be persuaded by his
son-in-law, considering himself in duty bound to return to his native
land. For the inhabitants of his city had for many years made a habit
of having him store their valuable, as none possessed their confidence
in such a measure as he. If he had stayed still longer with Moses,
people would have declared that he had absconded with all these things
and fled to Moses to share it with him, and that would have been a blot
on his fair name and that of Moses. Jethro had furthermore made many
debts during the year in which he came to Moses, for, owing to the hail
God had sent upon Egypt before the exodus of Israel, a great famine had
arisen in Jethro's home too, and he had found himself obliged to lend
money for the support of the poor. If he were not now to return to his
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