Parashat Yitro

Parashat Yitro
Shevat 22, 5773 ~ February 2, 2013
by Danielle Elkins

          Three years ago while studying Parshat Yitro in Rabbi Davies Torah class,  a certain possuk caught my undivided attention.   The possuk demanded of me further exploration, so that is what I did.  As I read Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch’s ideas on this possuk, it was as if the truth pierced through my body.  These words validated my thoughts and beliefs in so many ways.  The possuk of that year started my thirst for constantly seeking those moments of brilliance that can be found in studying Torah. 

          For the past year, I have pondered the following possuk from Yitro,  “Moses sent off his father-in-law, and he went to his land (or even home)” (18:27).  Why would Moshe send his father-in-law away, and why would Yitro not argue, leaving us always wondering did Yitro go home? Did Yitro enter Eretz Israel with the rest of the Hebrew nation or did he stay in his land?  Was Moshe upset with Yitro?  Was Yitro not completely dedicated to the Jewish people?  These questions being open ended make us question Yitro’s loyalty and even his heart.  It is very unsettling to me.  So for the past year, I have contemplated and researched in order to find some understanding.  Here is what I found.

          Yitro seems to have the kind of moment I described above when I was reading the parsha three years ago, but at a more magnificent level which we cannot comprehend.   “Yitro rejoiced over all the good that Hashem had done for Israel,...” (18:9) The translation we are given is rejoice, but the Hebrew word is really very mysterious.  There is a totally different word in Hebrew for rejoice.  This word is only used once in the whole Torah and even the letters only correspond once elsewhere which is in the book of Job.  “If the earth is upon me than you will yell out and the mounds together will cry out.”  “Together” is the translation of this word with similar letters.  Artscroll points out the word comes from Aramaic “alluding to the word prickles.”   In short, the word rejoice doesn’t seem to fully describe the meaning.   Prickles is sharp, and when the Truth hits you it can be sharp.  It cuts straight to your core.  Yitro’s life journey to this moment seems to all come together.  Hashem is the one and only.  He believed, searched, and even acted on this belief his whole life, but now in this moment he knows it.  Belief and logic are united.  Yitro’s experience is so unique the word used to describe his feeling is never used again in all of Tanakh.  Interestingly, Rabbi Leubitz found a similar root in the Sheva Brakot blessing which is said at the end of a meal celebrating a wedding, a union. 

          With this idea in mind and our knowledge of Moshe it makes no sense why Moshe would send Yitro away.  Yitro is home.   Moshe says such harsh words to Yitro suddenly after a long chain of positive events.  How could Moshe say it and why would Yitro leave?  It is not consistent with what we know of the character of either, or the story leading up to this possuk.

          Going back twenty-seven psukim to the beginning of the Parsha,  Yitro is described bringing Moshe his family.  Moshe responds:  “Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he prostrated himself and kissed him, and each inquired about the other’s well-being;”  They go in a tent together where Moshe describes everything that “Hashem had done to Egypt for Israel’s sake..”(18:8) and then “Yitro rejoiced”(18:9).  Yitro then makes an offering for G-d, and then Yitro eats bread with Aaron, the elders of Israel before G-d.  Only then do we see how Yitro helped Moshe establish a system of judges and leaders.  By establishing this “...then you will be able to endure, and this entire people, as well, shall arrive at its destination in peace.”  All these positive events and interactions, and then Moses is going to just send Yitro away.  Yitro just helped us become a lasting people who will arrive at our destination in peace, so he should be sent away? 

          In going back through the text the greatest clue that seemed almost brainwashing was Yitro constantly being referred to as the father-in-law of Moshe.  Yitro is only mentioned without father-in-law in possuk 9 and 10 which is where Yitro rejoices and praises Hashem.  This is extremely interesting with the knowledge that Yitro is never referred to without father-in-law anywhere else in the Parsha.  I wonder in the whole Torah?   In possuk 9 and 10,  Yitro stands alone with his personal connection with Hashem.  The phrase father-in-law is used thirteen times.   We get it.  Yitro is Moshe’s father-in-law, but do we really understand.  Yitro and Moshe have a relationship.  The redundancy of the word is begging us to really acknowledge their deep connection. 

          It is amazing the similarities of the paths of these two men.   Both men grew up in   pagan, non-Jewish environments.   Unlike the rest of the Israelites, they had never been slaves.  These men were wealthy, and both gave up their wealth and status to be with their people.  We could stop right there and realize what it must have been like for these two men to finally have discussions with someone who had a comparable breadth of knowledge, experiences, and viewpoints.   Moshe and Yitro had a greater probability of meeting in Egypt than both finding the same Truth in the Wilderness.  Moshe and Yitro are always “other” within the communities they live.  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks describes Moshe’s otherness in Exodus: The Book of Redemption. Both men even had to flee their past worlds for fear for their lives.  Moshe when he killed the slave master, and Yitro, an advisor to Pharaoh, when Pharaoh started to create a plan to get rid of the Jews as is stated by the Midrash.  They both find sanctuary for a time together in Midian before the Exodus.  Interestingly, both Yitro and Moshe have many names.  They share a common name, Chever, which means friend.

          All this does not help me understand why Moshe would “send” Yitro home.  I must not fully understand the meaning of the word send, vayishlach in Hebrew. In the context of the story it must mean something positive. There are opinions that it didn’t happen right at this time, but the point is we are given this possuk at this point.   It has meaning in the order in which it is received.  Rabbi Davies looked up on his computer every time Vayishlach appears in the Torah.  It appears 32 times.  We discovered in all cases, Vayishlach takes the meaning of either messenger, gifting, and even salvation.   Here are two of the psukim. 

“Then he sent out the dove from him to see whether the waters had subsided from the face of the ground.” (8:8)

“So Pharaoh sent and summoned Joseph, and they rushed him from the dungeon.” (41:14)

          Rashi and Sforno believe Yitro went to convert his family.  In my opinion Yitro went to his land because that was his task.  Yitro would not argue with Moshe.  If Yitro was needed to go back to his land, then that is what he would do for the good of the Jewish people.  Yitro heeded Moshe’s words, just as “Moshe heeded the voice of his father-in-law, and did everything that he said.”(18:24)  This happens just prior when Yitro explains how to set up a system of judges.  Moshe is saying not as an abrupt ‘leave,’ but as an urgent ‘Yitro go to your land and do what you were meant to do on this earth.’  Yitro would not respond with words, but with action.

          In the past, I did not like the idea of Yitro not entering the land of Israel with his people, the Jews.  Now, it makes more sense to me that like Moshe, Yitro did not enter Eretz Israel.  Their lives paralleled in the past, and so should their ending with only their descendants entering the land.  Their work was for the benefit of others.

          By taking a deeper look at key words such as “rejoice” and “send”, as well as the repetition of words like father-in-law, it adds more understanding of the events taking place.  With this added knowledge we learn more about the emotions of the people involved and the actual tone in which the words are said.  Now we are not just reading the words, but can actually see and hear this beautiful interaction between Moshe and Yitro.

          In today’s world of Hashem being hidden from us, we often overlook and even ignore the mysterious form of the word “rejoice”.  The prickles are there, the truth is felt, but we mostly ignore these moments.  Most have had this feeling at some point in different ways. People are always telling stories of standing at the Kotel, meeting their soulmate, or even finding their home.   I wonder how different our lives would be, if we connected these moments of prickles and connection to the Divine? 

Shabbat Shalom