Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, watched Moses judging the people alone from morning until evening and proposed a radical restructuring of the judicial system. He recommended appointing judges over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. But before Moses could implement any of it, Jethro added a crucial caveat: "If you would do this thing" — go first and take counsel with the Omnipotent.
The Mekhilta zeroes in on this condition. Jethro's advice was practical, sensible, and efficient. Any management consultant would approve. But Jethro understood something that pure pragmatism misses: in Israel, no institutional reform proceeds without divine authorization. The plan had to be presented to God before it could be presented to the people.
The text draws out the stakes with stark clarity. "If He consents to you, you will be able to bear up. If not, you will not be able to bear up." This is not polite religious language. It is a statement of operational reality. A judicial system that God endorses will function. One that He does not endorse will collapse, no matter how logically sound its design.
Jethro's wisdom, then, was double. He saw the structural problem: one judge for millions of people was unsustainable. And he saw the spiritual requirement: the solution had to come with God's approval or it would fail. The Mekhilta preserves this moment as a model for all leadership decisions in Israel. Good ideas are not enough. Divine consent is the load-bearing element. Without it, even the most brilliant reform crumbles under its own weight.