You are correct, that judging halacha, and teaching Torah is not the “heavy” burden, as doing so is a good thing. So to also the opposite: doing halacha, and learning Torah is not a “heavy” burden, and doing so is a good thing. What the Torah is teaching here in this passage, though, is that judging halacha (and thus also doing halacha) alone, and teaching (and thus also learning) Torah alone, is what is called a “heavy” burden and “not good.” We should not be judging halacha and teaching Torah alone; and neither by implication should we do halacha and learn Torah alone. This is the implication of this passage with Jethro, and is from where the Master is drawing his warning to “no do as they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. This concept of a heavy burden being one in which judging/doing halacha and teaching/learning Torah alone – without Messiah – as the way in which one walks and teaches others to do the same, is repeated throughout scripture.

The particular Pharisees that Yeshua was warning against, were those that were making it difficult for people to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (which means to make true repentance unto Messiah) because they didn’t practice what they preached, and therefore had no compulsion to help their students in finding or walking in the Way in which they should walk.

Yeshua only spoke out against three traditions, at most four, of the Pharisees. We make a mountain out of a molehill, for this was common in the day (as it is today) to vigerously condemn one group or another based on whether or not one is keeping Torah. For the things Yeshua was against, he was not against them – not against traditions, customs, and oral law – for the sake of them being traditions, customs, and oral law; but for the mere fact that these particular ones caused the adherent to nullify the Torah. How much more so we should be fearful of engaging in traditions and doctrines and teachings of men that nullify the Torah as well. But of these few Yeshua was against, it was only because the results of carrying them out clearly contradicted Torah, and not because they were traditions.

The Pharisees were judging halacha and teaching Torah, but without walking in Messiah and teaching others to do the same, they were placing a burden on their disciples to do halacha, and learn Torah completely on their own – apart from Messiah (for when G-d said “it is not good for man to be alone” he was also referring to himself). Their hypocrisy only served to confirm the fact that they themselves had not yet made true teshuvah (repentance to Torah).

Could you provide reference for where it is written that we should not judge halacha or teach Torah alone?

You originally wrote, “to decide halacha and teach Torah, is the burden.” But it was the amount of effort (because of the multitudes he was serving), not the actual deciding and teaching.

In your response you wrote, “The burden is both judging halacha and teaching Torah – alone.” The problem with that idea is that Moses DID teach and judge others by himself, even after he appointed lower judges. No one helped him for the more difficult cases and he was accountable to no one other than G-d. This was no different than it was before he appointed lower judges. The only difference was that he did not need to work so hard in doing so, because the amount of work was lessened. This was the case because the easier cases (which were more likely the more numerous ones) were handled by others.

I agree we are to submit one to another and help each other with their burdens. We do not want to cause others to sin (or stumble). We should love G-d and love our neighbors (the summary of the law). The Pharisees were certainly hypocrites – they were not loving. They actually caused people to stumble, rather than helped them walk with G-d (Mt 23:13-15). That was part of the burden they laid upon men – they made it difficult for others to enter heaven (Mt 23:13). Christ spoke out against them because of the human traditions they taught (Mt 23:16-22) and because they were hypocrites (Mt 23:22-32). They were more concerned with appearance than with the inner man (Mt 23:25-28). They should have helped men be righteous, but their actions made this difficult. THAT was the burden Christ spoke out against (Lk 11:37-12:2).

I do not see the connection between Moses’ burden and the burden Christ spoke out against. As I said, Moses was still judging and teaching. The Pharisees also taught and judged and they did so with others. The people had no lack of teachers and judges. What they lacked was people teaching them to love G-d above all and love their neighbors. They had no idea how to be righteous because the Pharisees and teachers of the Law (as a rule) were not righteous, but hypocritical. That hypocrisy made it much more difficult for people who watched (and probably emulated) them to be righteous.

Saying “not the actual…judging, but the amount of judging” is the burden, is saying the same thing ultimately since from the Torah’s perspective, what is the burden in Moses’s case? He was doing it alone. We are not to judge Torah alone for ourselves, and for others (and as the Torah says he both decided cases AND taught them the way in which they should walk). The burden is both judging halacha and teaching Torah – alone. You say it’s the “amount” but that ignores the fact that the Torah emphasizes that Moses was alone. We are to be submitted to one another, and carry each others burdens, and not burden another with an expectation of Torah by refusing to help them walk in it. The Pharisees were telling people what to do, as they should have, but not helping them with it – why? Because the ones Yeshua confronted were hypocrites – they didn’t keep what they told others to do anyways, so how could they help another keep Torah if they themselves don’t?

The burden was the amount of work – trying to judge for so many people, not the actual teaching and judging, but the amount of it. Thus your whole premise is flawed.

You wrote, “These second-class converts would be responsible for determining halacha (getting circumcised/converted first) and learning Torah on their own, outside of a synagogue, ”

But Acts 15:5 says the Pharisees wanted the Gentile believers to follow the Law. verse 10 complains about a yoke the Jews could not bear. It can not simply be ” determining (coming to know) halacha (way of walking out Torah – of being a disciple) and teaching it.” If that was the case, then certainly being circumcised and following the Law would meet that, since as verse 21 tells us, Moses was taught in the synagogues weekly. But in fact, rather than being told to follow the Law, as the sect of the Pharisees wanted, they were told only a few things to avoid.