The Courage to Accept Help
In this month’s Torah portions, we will escape slavery in Egypt, cross the Red Sea into freedom, and receive Torah at Sinai. Among these climactic moments, though, one relatively mundane one stands out to me: just before Moses ascends Mount Sinai, he encounters his father-in-law Jethro in the desert. Jethro sees how the people come to Moses to solve their every dispute and answer their every question. He notices how run-down Moses is, only months into a lifetime of leadership. He says to Moses: “The thing you are doing is not good…for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.” Then, Jethro helps Moses set up a system of magistrates and judges to help him lead the Israelites.
We don’t know why Moses needs someone else to tell him that he needs to let others help. Perhaps he is so caught up in his tasks that he doesn’t have any space to reflect on his burnout. He could be afraid that if he asks for help, people won’t show up for him. Maybe he’s too proud to admit that he can’t do it all on his own.
It’s not difficult to relate to Moses at this moment. We, too, often need to find tremendous courage to ask for help and to accept it.
We learn later in the Torah that “Moses was the most humble man on all the earth.” So, if Moses struggled so mightily to ask for help and receive it, where does that leave the rest of us?
Many of you remember when I sprained my foot last year. If you had asked me that day, “What will be the hardest part of being off your left foot for a month while living alone?” I probably would have answered, “Getting dishes down off the shelves I can’t reach.” But that wasn’t the hardest part–the hardest part was asking friends to come help me get dishes down.
This month will have joys, challenges, successes, setbacks, and struggles. May we all be as humble and brave as Moses and open ourselves to receiving help and support from one another.
– Rabbi Sienna Lotenberg
