Parshas Yisro 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Feb 4
- 3 min read
והיה כל הדבר הגדל יביאו אליך וכל הדבר הקטן ישפטו הם והקל מעליך ונשאו אתך ... (יח-כב)
The parsha discusses how Yisro advises Moshe to appoint judges to work with him because if he attempts to do it all himself, he will collapse. The words "נבל תבול" weren’t only a warning about physical exhaustion. Moshe’s current system was unsustainable for the people as well; they will be left “standing from morning until evening,” spiritually and emotionally drained because their access to Torah guidance is bottlenecked through a single person. Still, the most difficult matters - "הדבר הקשה" - will ascend to Moshe for he is the ultimate posek, the one whose clarity and insight anchor the halachic system. By distributing the simpler judgments, Moshe is freed to focus on the profound, foundational questions that only he can answer. The result is a system where leadership is shared, but the highest level of Torah interpretation remains centralized in the singular figure of Moshe Rabbeinu, ensuring both efficiency and fidelity to divine truth.
The Gaon and Posek Hador, R’ Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt”l was often described as a “multifaceted genius” because he possessed a rare grasp of literally kol haTorah kuloh, as well as every facet of the natural world. His truly dazzling intellect gave him the unique ability to bridge abstract Talmudic theory and concrete physical reality. His time, though, was limited, and he often bemoaned the fact that he could not assist more people. He once told a talmid, “They think they’re helping me by shutting my phones off, but they are really killing me! They make it much harder for people with questions to reach me. What else am I here for if not to answer people’s questions and help them with shver sugyos (difficult topics) in Torah?!”
The following story was told over by the current Rosh Yeshivah of Torah Vodaath, R’ Yisroel Reisman shlita. A kollel fellow in Eretz Yisroel stumbled upon a very difficult, obscure shailah (halachic question). It wasn’t a standard question about milk and meat or Shabbos times; it was a complex reality that didn’t seem to have a clear precedent. Troubled by the issue, he went to his kollel in Jerusalem and approached the Rosh Kollel, a man of significant learning, and laid out the complexities of the case. The Rosh Kollel furrowed his brow and said, “Ah, a geshmake shailah! I have truly never heard such a scenario before. I cannot answer you on the spot, I need to be meiyen (delve deep) into the sugya. Give me some time.”
The young man waited, but his anxiety grew. That evening, he approached his local Rav, a seasoned community posek, yet the Rav’s reaction was identical. “What a difficult shailah,” he remarked, shaking his head. “I cannot give you a ruling yet. Come back tomorrow.” On his way home, he asked a third Talmid Chacham but he too, had no clue how to pasken.
When he returned home that night, his wife asked, “Nu? Did you get an answer?” The man shook his head disappointedly. “Nobody knows the answer. They all need time to research it.” She looked at him for a moment and then said, “Why don't you just pick up the phone and call Rav Belsky? You know him from when you lived in Brooklyn, correct?”
The young man hesitated. Rav Belsky was one of the greatest Poskim in America, a Rosh Yeshivah at Torah Vodaath, and a senior decisor for OU Kosher. He was surely overwhelmed with major communal issues. Was it right to bother him with a personal call from across the ocean? He thought about it for a moment and then, mustering his courage, dialed the number.
The phone rang, and to his surprise, Rav Belsky himself picked up the phone. The young man, a bit baffled by the unexpected voice on the other line, stammered for a bit but the Rav calmed him down. Soon, he was able to lay out the complex details of his unusual query. He waited for the silence, expecting Rav Belsky to also say he needed time to think.
Instead, Rav Belsky gave a warm laugh and told him, “You know, it is such an unusual shailah, I haven’t heard it in years ... and yet, you are the fourth person to call me with this exact question since yesterday!”
He then launched into a complicated but clear treatise, emerging shortly with a decisive ruling on the spot!
R’ Yisroel Reisman concluded: “There are so many amazing things to take out of this story - it isn’t just that Rav Belsky knew the answer or that all four Rabbonim knew who to call in time of need. Rather that all of them got through to him!”