The Problem with Deuteronomy
The book of Deuteronomy begins with "These are the words that Moses spoke to all of Israel on the other side of the Jordan..."
Ibn Ezra, one of the most biting and honest commentators, wrote that there is a secret to be discovered in these words.
Here's the secret:
If Moses was (past tense) on the other side of the river that he never crossed over, then the author(s) of this text were living in the land of Israel at some time in the future.
The Sages had a problem with this book, while ignoring the problems that the other books had as well. Their biggest problem is that Deuteronomy changes a lot of the narrative of the earlier books while having it appear that Moses is reminiscing about what transpired. Things are so wrong that they are almost different stories altogether.
One statement from the Sages was that "While the other four books were dictated by God, this book was written by Moses, Himself, and approved by God."
This was not an apologetic as much as a hint that something wasn't quite the same with this book.
The Establishment of a Legal System
In this week's parashah, we have Jethro, a Midianite, schooling his son in-law about how to set up a workable system of instruction and judgments. Exodus 18:17 begins with Jethro noticing that Moses is doing all of this himself, and that it's not really working. So the next several verses, Jethro instructs him. And in verse 18:24, it says that "Moses heard the voice of his father in-law, and did everything that he had said." He followed Jethro's recommendations.
It begins with Jethero warning Moses that "...it is a burden that you will not be able to do alone." (18:18)
That was the version from the Exodus author(s).
But when the book of Deuteronomy, written by different, and later, author(s), begins, we read something different. After an introduction of where he was while speaking, Moses begins (1:9) by saying, "And I spoke to y'all, at that time, to say, "I will not be able to, alone, bear y'all." and ends with (1:14) "And y'all answered me, "The thing that you have spoke of is good for us to do."
According to the Book of Exodus: no, Moses didn't, and no, the people didn't.
(Note: I use "y'all" as a second-person-plural form of "you" so that the plurality is evident.)
Not only is Jethro not mentioned, once he goes home near the end of this week's parashah, his name is not mentioned again, not even in the later books. It's as though the Deuteronomist(s) was not aware that he existed.
But wait, there's more!
Apparently, the author(s) of the book of Numbers also was not aware of the Jethro story, because in their version, it is YHVH who tells Moses to delegate his authority by establishing the same thing!
In Numbers 11:11, Moses complains to God that he cannot do it alone, and that the people are a burden to him (something we read of in Deuteronomy 11:9 and Exodus 18:18). And so God tells him to start delegating, and explains the whole setup, in Numbers 11:16. God's idea was that 70 people could handle the work, unlike Jethro's idea that the work would be spread about more, making the job even easier.
The Deuteronomist(s) doesn't detail the "Moses plan", but I think that it's safe to assume that it was based on what was in place during the time of its writing.
Conclusion
As I have stated elsewhere, many of the stories in the Torah have duplicates, some have triplicates, of the same story, just told from different authors and stitched together by later editors in order to present a quasi-unified nationalistic narrative.
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