Then Yitro Heard

Then Yitro Heard – He Heard It From A Rumour And Came?

This article is dedicated in honor of two veterans of the movement, who fight tirelessly for peace and justice: To Avraham Frank, upon his 80^th birthday, and to Prof. Yosef Wallach, upon his 90^th birthday. To each we offer our blessings for long life and good health. May you live to see an Israeli society based upon justice and peace in the spirit of the original religious Zionism.(February 2004)

The story of Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, is one of the Torah’s most fascinating narratives. According to the plain meaning of the text (as understood by RaShBaM, RaMBaN, and Hizkuni), Yitro arrived at the Israelite encampment in the role of Moses’ father-in-law and grandfather of Moses’ children, in order to return Moses’ wife and two sons to him, following the Exodus from Egypt. Up to this week’s parasha, the Torah neglects to tell us that Tzipporah and her two sons returned to Midian while Moses stayed in Egypt, and that they did not participate in the process of the Exodus and splitting of the Red Sea. However, we can learn this from two simple words that appear in our parasha: ahar shilukheha, [after she had been sent] (18: 2). Tzipporah and her sons, together with Yitro, joined Moses only after he set up camp at the “Mountain of God.” The commentators disagree with each other regarding the timing of Yitro’s return; did it occur before the giving of the Torah, as the order of the scriptural passages would indicate? Or perhaps it happened after the Torah was given? Similarly, the commentators disagree with each other as to Yitro’s later life. Was his return to Midian (18:27) final? What is the connection between what our parasha tells us and the story told in parashat BeHa’alotkha?

In BeHa’alotkha we read that Moses invited, even pleaded with, Yitro to join him in the journey across the wilderness. Moses promised him full participation in Israel’s destiny, in the words of the Torah:

Moses said to Hovav son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord has said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will be generous with you; for the Lord has promised to be generous to Israel.”

“I will not go,” he replied to him, “but will return to my native land.”

He said, “Please do not leave us, inasmuch as you know where we should camp in the wilderness and can be our guide. So if you come with us, we will extend to you the same bounty that the Lord grants us.”

(Bamidbar 10: 29-32)

We do not know whether Yitro acquiesced to Moses’ invitation. Ibn Ezra assumes that Yitro was not convinced. The RaMBaN, on the other hand, assumes that Moses did persuade Yitro to stay. The plain meaning of the text does not afford us a resolution of this issue.

Beyond the “plain” story of a family reunion offered by a literal reading of the text, a sensitive reading allows for additional observations, as it did for the authors of the midrashim and some of the biblical commentators. Yitro’s arrival with Tzipporah and her two sons, Moses’ sons, does not occur when it does merely because (as Seforno and Hizkuni would have us think) the practical conditions for reunion had become favorable. Rather, Yitro’s joining Moses represents a most significant revolution of consciousness.

Rashi, following the Mekhiltah, attributes deep underlying strata of meaning to Yitro’s “hearing” [about Israel’s salvation]. This is not a matter of physiological hearing, but rather “hearing with the third ear”; attentiveness to spiritual voices from within and without that bring about profound change in the “hearer.”

Rashi writes (Shemot 18:1, Silberman translation):

And Yitro heard – What was the particular report which he heard so that he came? The division of the Red Sea and the war with Amalek.

The Sages (in Mekhiltah and b. Zevahim) raise an alternative possibility, as reported by the Talmud (Zevahim 116a):

This is a disagreement amongst the Tannaim: And Yitro the priest of Midian heard – what report did he hear upon which he came and converted?

Rabbi Yehoshua says: He heard about the war with Amalek, since a nearby verse reads, And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword (17: 13).

Rabbi Elazar HaModai says: He heard about the giving of the Torah and then came. When the Torah was given to Israel its sound traveled from one end of the world to the other, and all of the idolatrous kings were seized with trembling in their hekhalot [palaces] and recited a song, for it says while in his hekhal all say “Glory!” (Tehillim 29:9). They all gathered together by the wicked Bilam and said to him, “What is that sound of a multitude that we hear? Perhaps a deluge has come to the world? The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood (Tehillim 29:10)? He told them: The Lord sits enthroned, king forever (ibid) – The Holy One Blessed Be He has already sworn not to bring a flood to the world. They said to him: He will not bring a flood of water, but He may bring a flood of fire, as it says: For with fire the Lord will contend (Isaiah 6:16)! He told them: He has already sworn not to destroy all living things. And what is that noise of a multitude which we heard? He told them: He has a precious thing in His treasure-house that he kept stored-away for 974 generations before the world was created, and now he wants to bequeath it to his sons, for it says, May the Lord grant strength to His people (Tehillim 29:11). Immediately, they all began saying: May the Lord bless His people with peace (ibid).

Rabbi Eliezer said: He heard about the splitting of the Red Sea and came, for it is said: When all the kings of the Amorites heard (Joshua 5:1), and even Rahav the harlot said to Joshua’s emissaries: For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea (Joshua 2:10)

Each of the sages has a different notion of which event induced Yitro to join Moses and convert:

Rabbi Yehoshua attributes Yitro’s revolution of consciousness to Joshua’s victory over Amalek. This interpretation is also anchored in the textual proximity of the two stories (And Joshua overwhelmed 17:13, And Yitro heard – 18:1).

According to this view, Yitro’s revolution may be understood as involving a crisis of faith in military power. Amalek, the powerful nation, was defeated by a nation of slaves that had just left Egypt. Since this was God’s war, God intervenes when the strong hurts the weak.

Rabbi Elazar HaModai attributes the change that came over Yitro to the giving of the Torah. This was seen by the great men of the world as a dramatic and frightening event, a kind of apocalypse heralding the end of the world. The gathering which included Yitro and Bilam – and, sometimes, Job – responds to the central events of the day. It is Bilam who explains the significance of the noise: These are not sounds of destruction, but rather sounds of Oz VeShalom (strength and peace) – Here is a spiritual power that can bring peace to the world.

Rabbi Eliezer assumes that Yitro, the priest of Midian, like the Ammorite kings, and like Rahav, the big-hearted harlot, was mainly influenced by dramatic miracles such as the splitting of the Red Sea. The overthrowing of the laws of nature by Divine will and God’s intervention in history on behalf of the Chosen People sparked Yitro’s spiritual metamorphosis.

In a way, Yitro serves as a archetype for anyone who sets off on a spiritual journey after being awakened by an external event.

Some people reach the truth upon internalizing the principle of the superiority of justice over megalomania. And God seeks the pursued (Kohellet 3:15), and perhaps it would be expected that the pursued would seek God and not become a pursuer himself.

Others were impressed by God’s revelation, which can bring about a profound religious experience. The thunder and lightening are likely to be interpreted as waves of destruction by people who experience God as a source of punishments, but the prophet’s authentic voice clarifies that it is a power for peace, a Torah which is a Torah of life.

There are also some people who are influenced by unusual historical events in which they manage to see the hand of God, either out of insight or fear.

It is likely that, at some stage or another of spiritual development, each of us can seek and find God’s nearness in a different stratum. However, the splitting of the Red Sea is not a central, foundational event in the people’s spiritual consciousness, and we are not commanded to remember it throughout the generations. In contrast, the giving of the Torah, as an event that brings bountifulness, life, and peace to the world, and God’s war with Amalek, our eternal war against human evil, without distinction of religion, race, or nationality, are integral parts of our spiritual consciousness.