A Dear Friend – Yitro
וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֱ-לֹקִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל עַמּוֹ כִּי הוֹצִיא ה' אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם (שמות יח, א).
Parshat Yitro is perhaps the most important parsha in the Torah, because it is the parsha in which the Torah itself was given, the parsha that describes the most significant historic event in the history of the world and Am Yisrael.
If that is the case, then how is it that this enormously important parsha is named after Yitro? Would it not have been better to call the parsha "Har Sinai", or something more holy and appropriate? We know that Yitro was not even present at Matan Torah (only those who experienced the שִׁעְבּוּד in Egypt were present), so why is the parsha of Matan Torah specifically named after Yitro?
Another question is why the Torah found it necessary to describe Yitro's recommendation to delegate judges over 1000, 100, 50, 10 … in close proximity to Matan Torah?
There is a machloket in Chazal (זבחים קטז,ע"א) whether this perek of Yitro visiting Moshe in the Midbar occurred before Matan Torah or after. Either way, Yitro was not present at Matan Torah, he either returned home before, or he arrived after. Similarly, the section on delegating judges is relevant, either according to the opinion it was suggested before Matan Torah, or after.
Why does the Torah combine this perek of Yitro with the chapters on Matan Torah in one bundle? Why could the Torah not have mentioned it later, say in sefer Bamidbar? Also, couldn't Moshe have thought of this idea of the judges himself? Why did it need to come from Yitro specifically?
In this shiur we are going to explore who Yitro really was. We are going to explore the action of hearing, שְׁמִיעָה, as it says וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ and the central function it played in Matan Torah. We are going to see how all of this is connected to the Mashiach. Finally, we are going to tie it in with current events and hopefully be inspired. So, take your seats, fasten your seat belts … as we embark on our journey into the Sinai Desert.
This is not the first time we have heard of Yitro, we encountered him earlier, in parshat Shmot, when Moshe fled Egypt to Midyan.
Yitro's title back then and again here, is כֹהֵן מִדְיָן. What does that mean? Literally it means he was the "priest of Midyan", but that translation does not adequately describe Yitro's vocation. The best way to describe it in simple English is that Yitro was the world's "head theologian". There was not one religion that Yitro did not know, from the bottom up, down to the very last, tiny detail. Yitro made it his life's mission to thoroughly explore every religion in the world in search of the "truth". At that time monotheism was not the predominant religion in the world, as it is today, most were polytheistic, what we call idol worship. Yitro knew every idol, every ritual, every ceremony, every symbolism, the whole shebang.
This wealth of knowledge is perhaps the main reason that he was one of Pharaoh's top three advisors (together with Bilam and Iyov). Yitro was a very important man in Egypt, with lots of wealth, influence and power.
When the Midrash (שמות רבה א, יח) speaks of Pharaoh hearing from his אִצְטַגְנִינִים that a male child was going to be born that would eventually destroy Pharaoh, it is referring to the above three, Yitro, Iyov and Bilam. Pharaoh consulted with them what action to take to prevent this. Bilam said to kill all the male children. Iyov remained silent (he abstained). Yitro was so horrified at Bilam's proposal that he stormed out of the room. Yitro was the moderate of the three. When Moshe was a small child and he was playing on Pharaoh's lap and as part of a game removed the crown from Pharaoh's head, Pharaoh asked his three advisors what this meant. Bilam said that it meant that baby Moshe was eventually going to depose Pharaoh and that Pharaoh should kill him immediately. Iyov (surprise) … was silent. Yitro said "Kill him? I have never heard of anything so preposterous. He is just a small baby playing baby's games". It was Yitro who suggested the test with the bowl of gold coins and the hot coals, that resulted in Moshe eventually being spared.
When Bilam suggested to drown all the male children in the Nile, Yitro angrily left the room and as a result, Pharaoh banished him. Yitro lost all of his wealth and power and fled to the backwater that was Midyan (where the Torah first mentions him). Yitro could easily have abstained, like Iyov, or even agreed with Bilam and then he would have retained his office. However, here we begin to see the essence of Yitro's character. Yitro valued one thing above all else – the truth. He scoured the earth in search of it. Yitro was a man of principles, he would not compromise his morals for money, like Bilam (who extorted Balak for more money). Yitro knew the difference between good and evil. Bilam was evil, he enjoyed being evil – that was his purpose in this world. As for Iyov, we will leave that to another shiur.
Yitro's lifelong search for the truth ended when Am Yisrael crossed over Yam Suf. In this week's parsha Moshe tells Yitro of everything that happened on Yam Suf, how some of the Egyptians were tossed about in the sea יֹאכְלֵמוֹ כַּקַּשׁ, some sank like lead צָלֲלוּ כַּעוֹפֶרֶת, etc. He asked Moshe who was tossed, who sank like lead and when he heard the answer, he realized that he had finally discovered the ultimate truth that he had been seeking all his life. Yitro knew these people, because as one of Pharaoh's top advisors, he had been privy to the classified meetings and discussions. He saw that the ones who had been involved with forcing Am Yisrael to make their own bricks with straw, were the ones that were tossed about like straw, etc. Each Egyptian was punished precisely מִדָּה כְּנֶגֶד מִדָּה for what they had done to Am Yisrael. The only ones who knew it were HKB"H, the perpetrators themselves and … Yitro.
Yitro had explored every other religion on the planet and never before did he ever encounter this attribute of מִדָּה כְּנֶגֶד מִדָּה until now. עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי גָדוֹל ה' מִכָּל הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי בַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר זָדוּ עֲלֵיהֶם (שמות יח, יא). It was this that made Yitro convert and become a גֵּר צֶדֶק.
But even before that, Yitro instinctively made a beeline for the Sinai Desert. Why? Because he heard something - וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ. What did Yitro hear? He heard about Yam Suf and Amalek. As soon as Yitro heard about Amalek, he packed his bag and headed off to meet up with Moshe. Why was Amalek the trigger?
Amalek knew they were not going to win the battle with Am Yisrael, but they attacked anyway. What could Amalek possibly gain by doing this? Rashi (דברים כה, יח) says that Amalek travelled a great distance on a kamikaze mission, for one purpose and one purpose only! To "cool the bathtub". After the Ten Plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea, Am Yisrael struck fear into the hearts of every other nation on earth. Amalek saw this and said "There is no way we can win the battle, but we are going to attack anyway, just to show that Am Yisrael are not as invincible as everyone thinks!"
When Yitro saw that Am Yisrael had lost their deterrent, he said "I will warm the bathtub again!"
In contemporary terms it is equivalent to the pope, the chief imam of Mecca and the dalai lama requisitioning a private jet to fly to Israel. As they land, they are whisked away by limo to Jerusalem, to the offices of the Chief Rabbinate. After a 1-hour meeting with the Chief Rabbi they hold a joint press conference, broadcast live all over the world. The pope begins "I John Paul the 17th hereby declare that I will no longer be known as John Paul. From today I will be known as Yosef Pinchas ben Avraham and I am going to study full time in Mir Yeshiva. Zei Gesunt!" Next up is the imam "I Abdul Rahman Aziz the 3rd hereby declare that from today I will be known as Avi Rachamim ben Avraham and Baruch Hashem I am going to be the first Lubavitch shaliach to Medina!" Finally, the dalai lama is up. "I Gendun Gyatso hereby declare that henceforth I will be known as Gideon Katz ben Avraham and I will be assuming my new position as the new chazan of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem". They all end with an uplifting rendition of the Carlebach version of "Am Yisrael Chai!"
What effect does this have worldwide? Billions of people from all over the globe contact the Chief Rabbinate to apply for a conversion! When everyone in the world saw that Yitro converted, they were rocked to the core. Yitro managed to restore יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם again in the entire world. When Yehoshua sends spies to Yericho, Rachav says that all the nations are trembling because of Am Yisrael. That was thanks to Yitro.
Was Yitro the only one to hear of Yam Suf and Amalek? No! Millions of other people around the world also heard about it, they experienced it. During קְרִיעַת יַם סוּף, all the water in the world "split". A Londoner sipping a cup of tea in Hendon, suddenly saw his tea splitting into two towers of Lipton in the cup. An Argentinian child having a bath in Buenos Aires suddenly found himself sitting with his rubber duck in the airspace between two heaps of water in the tub. A French chef in Paris suddenly saw his pot of Vichyssoise soup part midway, with the croutons piled in the center. Everyone heard about it, but the only one who really heard it was Yitro. For everyone else it was "Oh my! That's peculiar!?" and a moment later, they went about their regular business. Yitro heard it and it shattered his world, because Yitro was a man of truth and a man of truth cannot experience Yam Suf in his swimming pool in Midyan and continue about his regular business. It is not enough to hear with your ears, to truly hear, you to have to hear with your heart and your brain as well. Everyone in the world heard, but only two of them really heard – Yitro and Rachav.
Why was it necessary to preface Matan Torah with the story of Yitro? Because in order to accept the Torah, the prerequisite is an unsatiable thirst for the truth. Yitro's truth made him the best friend and ally of the only nation on earth to truly seek the truth – Am Yisrael.
In order to receive the Torah, it is not enough for us to hear the Ten Commandments, we need to hear them, not only with our ears, but also with our hearts and brains. This is what וְנִשְׁמַע means when Am Yisrael said נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמַע (more on this in next week's shiur). This is the second reason why Matan Torah is prefaced with Yitro.
The third reason is because of Yitro's recommendation to Moshe to sub-delegate the responsibility of judging Am Yisrael. Yitro saw throngs and throngs of people standing in line from morning to night, to get an audience with Moshe for a halachic ruling or a din-Torah. Yitro said "This is not right!" נָבֹל תִּבֹּל גַּם אַתָּה גַּם הָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר עִמָּךְ (שמות יח, יח). What does it mean נָבֹל תִּבֹּל? The mefarshim say it means to "lose strength", "to wither". Here we will present a different explanation. נָבֹל תִּבֹּל in gematria is גֶּזֶל דַּעַת.
To understand this concept, we need to explore a perush by R' Chaim Vital (שורש הגלגולים, הקדמה לו). According to R' Chaim Vital, Yitro was one of the gilgulim of Kayin.
We all remember the story of Kayin and Hevel. Both Kayin and Hevel were born with twin sisters, but Kayin had only one twin sister while Hevel had two. Kayin said "I am the firstborn, so I deserve double share, the extra sister is mine!" As a result of this argument Kayin killed Hevel and buried him in the sand.
R' Chaim Vital said that in order to do tikkun for this, Kayin's neshama had to undergo numerous gilgulim. One was the אִישׁ מִצְרִי that Moshe found beating an Israelite slave. Moshe killed him using the Shem HaMeforash and buried him in the sand, to do tikkun for Kayin burying Hevel.
Another is Yitro. One of Yitro's seven names is חֶבֶר הַקֵּינִי, alluding to his connection with קַיִן. By giving Moshe his daughter Tzipporah as a wife, Yitro was doing tikkun for Kayin who craved Hevel's extra sister as a wife.
It is not incidental that Moshe is a key figure in both these cases, since, according to R' Chaim Vital, Moshe was a gilgul of Hevel. The name מֹשֶׁה is rashei teivot for מֹשֶׁה, שֵׁת, הֶבֶל.
When Yitro says to Moshe נָבֹל תִּבֹּל, he is saying to Moshe "What you are doing is גֶּזֶל דַּעַת". This is a hint to Adam Harishon who stole from the עֵץ הַדַּעַת, which resulted in Kayin killing Hevel.
That is on a Kabbalistic level, but we can also understand it on a practical level. Yitro is saying to Moshe "By not making the Torah accessible to Am Yisrael you are stealing their דַּעַת". There are three categories of thought processes – חָכְמָה, בִּינָה, דַּעַת. The first חָכְמָה, is grasping individual concepts with your intellect. The second, higher, level בִּינָה, allows you to deduce one concept from another and to connect concepts. The third, highest level דַּעַת, is the ability to see the entire, overall picture - how all the concepts make a single composite whole. (Incidentally the word חב"ד is rashei teivot for חָכְמָה, בִּינָה, דַּעַת).
What Yitro is in fact suggesting to Moshe, is the concept of a community Rabbi.
It is important to have a Gadol HaDor, to whom you can direct the most difficult and profound questions, but the Gadol HaDor lacks something vital for answering the question – an intimate knowledge of the person asking the question.
This was the essence of the machloket between Shamai and Hillel.
Shamai says there is only one absolute answer to any question, one absolute truth. It does not matter who is asking the question, the answer will always be the same.
Hillel says that there is only one absolute answer to any question, one absolute truth. However, the way you answer depends on who is asking the question.
Hillel is teaching us that in order to teach Torah effectively, you cannot sit in an ivory tower and preach from a towering height. To effectively teach Torah, you need a close, personal connection to your student. There may be one student who is capable of digesting the absolute answer immediately. Another student may not be able of doing so and if you give him the absolute answer straight away when he does not have the capability to digest and understand it, instead of teaching him Torah, you will be driving him away. Hillel sees who the person is at this point in time and also, what the possibilities are for that person in the future, if you educate them correctly, using the personal touch.
This is why the answer to a halachic question is not absolute, it is individual. The psak one person gets may be completely different to the psak another person gets – from the same Rabbi! The Rabbi can see who is standing in front of him and where he is at on the Yahadut spectrum at this moment and the answer he gives will be appropriate for that person at that stage in his life. For this reason, if you want a psak halacha, do not ask you neighbor what psak they got when they asked the same question – ask the Rabbi directly.
Yitro is telling Moshe, you need a hierarchy, at the top – the Gadol HaDor and at the bottom, the community Rabbi. There will be questions the community Rabbi will not know the answers to, so he will bump them up, one level at a time – to the town Rabbi, the state Rabbi, the Chief Rabbi, the Gadol Hador in the world. In this way, he will get the absolute answer, but only the community Rabbi will know how to transmit this answer effectively to the person standing in front of him, with whom he has a personal connection.
Moshe certainly had Ruach HaKodesh – if a person asked him a question, Moshe also knew how to tailor the answer so that it could be absorbed by the person asking. However, Yitro was saying to Moshe "That's all very well for you and for all the generations who will continue to have Ruach HaKodesh. But what happens when Ruach HaKodesh ceases, how will Torah be able to disseminate to the entire Am Yisrael? You cannot rely on Ruach HaKodesh, you need to institute a system that will apply now … and forever more. This is such an integral part of Torah survival, that it is included in the parsha of Matan Torah.
Moshe was certainly intelligent enough to have come up with this scheme himself, but he deferred the merit of it to Yitro, in honor of Yitro's devotion to the truth and for the enormous Kiddush Hashem he did by "rewarming the bathtub".
There are two parshas in the Torah that are named after non-Jews – Yitro and Balak. What is the connection between them? Incredibly it is a family connection. According to one opinion (זוהר הקדוש, דף קצ"ז ע"א) Balak was Yitro's grandson. Yitro had a son called צִפּוֹר and Balak was the son of צִפּוֹר. According to another opinion (חיד"א, חומת אנך, אות א') Balak was Yitro's son – before Yitro converted, one of his names was צִפּוֹר.
That's very nice, but it is hardly a reason to name a parsha after them, especially Balak. מִמֵּילָא Yitro who had enormous merits, but Balak, the no-goodnik who wanted to destroy Am Yisrael?
The answer is much deeper. When Kayin killed Hevel, how did he do it? Rashbi asks on the passuk קוֹל דְּמֵי אָחִיךָ צֹעֲקִים אֵלַי (בראשית ד, י), "Why דְּמֵי in the plural and not דָּם in the singular?" He answers that nobody had ever killed anyone before, Kayin did not know where to strike Hevel so that it would kill him. So, he stabbed Hevel multiple times in different places until he eventually died.
What did he stab Hevel with? Rashbi does not say, but there is a hint to it in the passuk. In the Akeida, suddenly Avraham sees a ram with its horns stuck in a bush וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה אַיִל אַחַר נֶאֱחַז בַּסְּבַךְ בְּקַרְנָיו (בראשית כב, יג). The gematria of the last letter of נֶאֱחַז and the two words that follow it - ז בַּסְּבַךְ בְּקַרְנָיו, is the same gematria as וַיִּחַר לְקַיִן מְאֹד (בראשית ד, ה). The letter zayin, as in כְּלֵי זַיִן – weapons. What did Kayin use to stab Hevel with? Weapons had not been invented yet, they only came generations later with תּוּבַל קַיִן, a descendant of Kayin who invented weapons of war. Where did תּוּבַל קַיִן get his inspiration from? From Kayin, who used two ram's horns קַרְנָיו from Hevel's sheep to stab him with.
The Akeida was a tikkun for this. Chazal say that the two horns of the ram at the Akeida were destined for specific purposes. One was to be the Shofar blown at – (you guessed it) Matan Torah, and the second will be blown לֶעָתִיד לָבוֹא in the time of … Mashiach. Who is Mashiach Ben David descended from? From Rut, a granddaughter of Balak, who was Yitro's grandson (son?). Why did Yitro and Balak merit having parshas in their names? Because they are the "ancestors" of the Mashiach, beginning with Yitro, a man of truth, someone who listens with not only his ears but also his heart and his brain. A גֵּר צֶדֶק and the father-in-law of Moshe Rabbeinu who brought us the Torah.
All the above concepts incredibly come together in the Lechem HaPanim. The dimensions of the Lechem Hapanim are אָרְכָּן עֲשָׂרָה וְרָחְבָּן חֲמִשָּׁה וְקַרְנוֹתָיו שֶׁבַע אֶצְבָּעוֹת (משנה מנחות יא, ד). Ten tefachim long, five tefachim wide and the "Kranot" קַרְנָיו are seven fingers. Ten, five and seven. Where do we have this combination of numbers? In parshat Yitro. Moshe has ten names (יֶרֶד, חֶבֶר, יְקוּתִיאֵל, אֲבִיגְדוֹר, אֲבִי סוֹכוֹ, אֲבִי זָנוּחַ, טוֹבִיָּה, שְׁמַעְיָה, לֵוִי, מֹשֶׁה). The Torah has five names (בְּרֵאשִׁית, שְׁמוֹת, וַיִּקְרָא, בַּמִּדְבָּר, דְּבָרִים). Yitro has seven names (יֶתֶר, יִתְרוֹ, חֹבָב, רְעוּאֵל, חֶבֶר, פּוּטִיאֵל, קֵינִי). What happened when Yitro met up with Moshe? וַיָּבֹא אַהֲרֹן וְכֹל זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֶאֱכָל לֶחֶם עִם חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הָאֱ-לֹקִים (שמות יח, יב) They sat to eat bread! What kind of bread? We have a hint to that in the number of the passuk – יב. Not surprising therefore that the Lechem Hapanim has embedded symbolism connected to the Torah, the shofar and the sin of the עֵץ הַדַּעַת – גֶּזֶל דַּעַת.
Recently, the modern version of Amalek attacked us, not because they thought they could win, they knew it was a no-win situation for them. But they attacked anyway – to "cool the bathtub". The Arab world has perpetuated the Gaza Strip for the last 70 years as a thorn in Israel's side, to continually gnaw away at our invincibility and our צִדְקַת הַדֶּרֶךְ. They have succeeded to a large degree, mostly within Israeli society itself, where they have set brother against brother.
Then suddenly along comes a dear (חוֹבָב) friend (חֶבֶר), who is gifted with a strong sense of common sense and truth and is not afraid to "walk out of the room" in the face of falsehood and evil and hooks up with the nation of truth – Am Yisrael and achieves the incredible – he "rewarms the bathtub"! To such a degree that the nations are shaking in fear of him and his bond with Am Yisrael.
B"H the intricate link between Yitro and the Mashiach will also manifest with the emergence of our modern-day Yitro and HKB"H will reveal to us the Mashiach ben David, בבי"א.
