Rabbi’s Message: February 11, 2025
I have been watching a lot of Star Trek recently.
I have a deep love of Star Wars - I wrote at least one thesis as the original trilogy as my background “music” - but with all of the anxiety that currently fills my news feeds these days, Star Trek is my preferred space opera.
Established by nice Jewish boy Gene Roddenberry in 1966, Star Trek was originally a response to the Cold War. Inspired by Gulliver’s Travels and Wagon Train Westerns, Star Trek is a space adventure and morality tale wrapped into a single, submarine-capsule of a series. Growing up in Virginia, where many of the parents would take turns teaching the synagogue’s teens, it was also how we learned ethics from our teacher, Frank Kohn. We would watch an episode of either the original or the Next Generation shows; and then we would discuss the ethical issues that arose and the Jewish values we could find in Gene Roddenberry’s modern morality tales. The problems that the crew faced were varied - how to communicate with a comet or set boundaries with a never ending number of tribbles. However, when one stepped back, the path to the solution was often the same.
This week’s Torah portion, Yitro, establishes that same path. In it, Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro (or Jethro) travels through the desert to visit his daughter and her newly formed people. Yitro watches as his son-in-law, Moses, adjudicates problem after problem that the Israelites bring to him. Yitro observes the wide variety of issues brought before Moses; he sees how unsustainable and ineffective this leadership style is. So, he suggests a change.
If you tap into the wisdom of your community, the outcomes will improve.
Kirk is a better captain because he has Spock to balance out his impulses. Guinan helps Riker come to self-realizations that improve his relationships and his leadership. Picard works more effectively after he consults Deanna Troy or gets “real talk” from Dr. Crusher. Each of these leaders is better because of their surrounding community. And for Moses? Yitro advises him to access the wisdom of the seventy elders within the community of tribes. And it works.
Yitro creates a vision for the future with Moses that ties co-creation and cooperation to the success of the Jewish people in the wilderness and beyond. Moses, overwhelmed and exhausted by the stresses of his current situation, cannot see beyond the problems literally lined up in front of his face. But his father-in-law Yitro (Jethro) can. By encouraging Moses to collaborate with his community, to partner with them in his leadership, the experience of their journey through the wilderness improves for all of the Israelites. This doesn’t mean that it is free of episodic drama. But it does mean that they begin to learn how to rely up each other for support and wisdom.
As we feel the turning of the society around us, and all of the challenges that that brings as we walk into this strange new world, the lessons of Yitro (and maybe what it inspired in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek) remains a guiding light. Solutions are to be had if we can only but face the problems together.
