Yisro Parshah Thoughts

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You And Your Name

Yisro came out to the desert with Moshe’s wife and children, one called Gershom, meaning Stranger, for Moshe had been a stranger in a foreign land, and the other Eliezer, meaning Hashem aids, for He had saved Moshe from Paroh’s sword.

Why are these names explained here, when they came to visit?

An exiled man can marry in exile and have children, but these children are not his. He does not intend to raise them. He awaits returning home, for he belongs with his own people. These children are their mother’s, not their father’s.

What characterizes such children? Their names. They have local names, for they will stay here, and living their lives as natives.

Ordinarily Yisro would not have brought Moshe his family, understanding that the marriage was temporary, lasting only while Moshe was in Midyan. But Moshe had called his children Jewish names, ones that recalled his lonesomeness and being on the run from Paroh. Those names implied that Moshe wanted these children, they belonged with him.

So when he brought the family back together the Torah points out their names, and why they were called so. These kids belonged.

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The Power Of A Niggun

Why did Yisro join the Jews in the desert? ‘Because he heard all that Hashem had done to Moshe Rabbenu and the Jews’. Rashi explains this refers to krias Yam Suf and the war with Amalek.

Amazingly, however, upon his arrival, Moshe related ‘all the trouble that befell them, and how Hashem saved them’ Rashi explains to mean the Yam Suf and Amalek.

That was exactly why he had come! What did Moshe add?!?

Perhaps he had heard it before, but he heard it all wrong. He heard how vicious Hashem was; how He ripped Egypt apart and crushed amalek. Moshe re-educated him. He told Yisro how loving and protective Hashem was. How He saved them time and again.

It’s all in the niggun! The facts were the same, but what they meant was 360 degrees different! Like everything, how you look at it makes all the difference.

Get used to saying “Its a Zchus”. When the house is a mess, say quietly to yourself “Its a zchus to raise a family!” And it is. Those words can change your life. Because its all in the niggun…

P.s. I recently met with a special man. During our talk he banged his hand. He yelped in pain, and then turned to me and said ‘I can feel! Baruch Hashem!’

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Do Not Covet!

Ibn Ezra: Can Torah command emotion? If I want my friend’s house, can I stop wanting by willing so??

Sefer Hachinuch; Nonsense!! (“Only wicked fools or sinners believe that…!”). ‘For a man’s heart is in his own hands; he can turn it as he wishes’. Thoughts and drives are play-dough – he can bend them at will.

What a argument!

[Comment: do they disagree about if willpower can counter drives or if the Torah mandates such heroics?]

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z”l commented that jealousy is a function of small-mindedness. We are jealous of our friend’s new car because a new car is important and worthwhile. Let’s broaden our scope; let’s understand what is really worthwhile and what is not, and new cars will not even interest our hearts.

(And if our jealousies are of another’s worthwhile qualities, that jealousy is in fact encouraged!)

Practical parameters of Jealousy:

Buying the same type of dress a friend has is permitted, because you did not take hers. [However, obtaining the other’s dress is considered Jealousy, even if one pays]

Jealousy applies only to material objects, not secrets or ideas (Mechilta).

What about offering a huge amount for a house next to the Rebbe, or because one wants to build there? What about asking a Gadol or celebrity to phone a wealthy man to pressure him for a donation? What about the MC or Gabbai putting a congregant on the spot by publicly asking what is his donation? What of kids nagging brothers to share Shabbos Party with them?

The Chinuch’s rule of thumb; Lo Tachmod is even if you pay, but you force the exchange. [‘Force’ meaning pressure; the Rambam includes getting friends to ask for you.] By this yardstick offering a huge amount of money is not Lo Tachmod, but getting a Gadol to call or putting him on the spot publicly is. So too may be the kid nagging his brother – although that might depend on how susceptible the brother is to pressure.

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Do We Really Matter?

Some people disbelieve that Hashem, infinitely great and important, takes interest in the goings-on in our world. We are puny and insignificant, less than a dust-speck in the universe. Important? We are wanting in intellect, of low moral stature. Can we be the center of Hashem’s attentions?

[Some use this argument as proof that religion is bunk. I think this presupposes we understand Hashem. I.e. ‘Were I Hashem, I would not pay attention to the world’. Or ‘The world is so much larger than planet Earth. Would Hashem make the entire world if the Earth is His focus?’

Again, trying to think in His shoes. Problem is that we are not Him. Why would He think like us?? Would you even want a G-d who thought like you?]

If Hashem gave us the Torah, our actions must be consequential and meaningful. How indeed?

Each city has a mayor. Fifty million citizens, only one mayor. One in fifty million is a very small percent, yet he leads the lot of it, determining its style. That person is important, not for his or her personal qualities, but by his enormous influence.

Small as we are, thousands of galaxies are influenced by our everyday decisions. Torah holds that we determine the Universe’s destiny, even the spiritual worlds behind the temporal ones. And the Angels, Seraphim and all.

This enormous prerogative saddles us with great opportunity and responsibility. Our deeds are for real, they matter in a colossal way.

Hashem is interested in us, for though small and foolish, we control the universe. Even the greatest angels cannot do that.

Keep this in mind when feeling down: we are huge! There is great meaning in our lives.

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Three Shabboses

All Yomtov prayers are the same; Ata Bechartanu.

Shabbos prayers, however, differ each time: Friday night is “Ata kidashta”, Shabbos morning is “Yismach moshe” and Mincha is “Ata echad”. Why?

The Tashbetz HaKatan (-based on what Maharam MiRuttenburg said in prison) suggests that each prayer alludes to a different Shabbos;

Friday night refers to Shabbos Bereshis, when Hashem created the world. That’s why it talks abut Hashem finishing His actions on the seventh day.

Shabbos morning refers to Shabbos Matan Torah; the Torah was given on Shabbos. It talks of the Luchos.

Mincha refers to the Future Shabbos, the everlasting “Shabbos” to come, when Hashem will be One and His name will be One, as we say in that prayer.

Perhaps the Torah was given on a Shabbos, but could it not have been given on Wednesday? What connection does Shabbos have?

The three Shabboses symbolize three levels of completion. The world was a functioning entity on the seventh day of creation; complete. Yet it had no mandate. In that sense it was incomplete, having no goal-value.

At Matan Torah the world received a mandate, a reason for being and a charter. That raises the level.

But would we keep our mandate? Perhaps there would be no conclusion. Perhaps the world will fail. The Shabbos of the World to Come realizes the world’s purpose.

The world will be complete at every level.

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Revelation at Sinai

At their first meeting Hashem told Moshe that his sign that He sent him is the Jews serving Him on this mountain (-Sinai). Other signs – water turning to blood, his stick turning to a snake and his hand becoming white – are nice, but the real sign is this. Why?

The Torah records a pattern:

1. Moshe performed the signs to the Jews in Egypt. They believed in him (4:31). Paroh retaliated by doubling the workload, and the Jews told Moshe “May Hashem punish you for harming us!” (5:21).
2. Witnessing ten plagues, the Jews certainly believed – they followed Moshe’s directives, borrowing clothes and vessels from their Egyptian neighbors. Yet at the Yam Suf they claimed that Moshe, not Hashem, had taken them out of Egypt (14:11/12).
3. Seeing the Sea split the Jews “…believed in Hashem, and in Moshe, His servant” (14:31) Until when? Until they got hungry. They then confronted Moshe and claimed that Hashem did not take them out, Moshe had done so on his own (16:3). Moshe replied (16:6) “This very evening you will know that indeed Hashem took you out…”
4. Until the very end of the past parsha, – B’shalach – the Jews still were unsure of “whether Hashem is in our mist or not”! (17:7)

Why was this??

The Jews saw signs that Hashem was there, and then saw signs that He was not. When times grew rough they reasoned “Can it be that Hashem orchestrated all this if we are now dying of thirst!?” They wobbled back and forth between faith and un-faith, pushed by the conflicting signs.

Har Sinai was final clarity. They did not see INDICATIONS that Hashem was there, but rather Him Himself. They heard His voice. All doubts disappeared. Their faith was absolute and lasting.

[Man believes what he wishes. Korach was able to cast doubt anyhow. But someone who wanted to, could now establish his faith]

Hashem was saying; the final determinant that I have sent you will be when they actually see Me. After that, no honest doubts. (Remarkably, at the Meraglim crisis the Jews said “Why did Hashem take us….?” – for they knew it was Hashem’s doing!)

P.s. It seems that only with utmost resistance Hashem reveals Himself in this world. The very essence of the universe does not allow for it. “You are a hiding G-d indeed!!” (Yeshaya 45:15)

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Did We Need To Receive The Ten Commandments Personally?

Why was the Ten Commandments given to the entire nation? Why wasn’t it given to Moshe alone, who would teach it to the rest of the nation, as he did with the rest of the Torah?

Simple question, the Torah itself addresses it. Strangely, with at least four different answers:

1. In Devarim the Torah challenges the Jews “Has any other nation heard the voice of a living G-d as you have, yet survived?!”

(I once heard that there is a sect that claims mass revelation as we do – the dream of any religion – but claim that all witnesses dropped dead as a result, so unfortunately there is no one to verify the story. Ha! The Torah knew this was coming and added the words “…And survived!” at the end…)

Matan Torah is direct verification of Hashem and the truth of Judaism. Obviously we could not do without that. Most people talk of indirect proof of G-d, such as His miracles or His handiwork in creating this world. By contrast, the Jewish people talk of direct knowledge; we saw Him, we heard Him. We have actual experience of G-d.

(An atheist recently wrote me ‘You are Jewish only because you were born Jewish, had you been born Moslem you would be a Moslem!’ I wrote back ‘Yes, it’s true that had I been born Moslem I would probably be a Moslem today. But that’s not the issue; we Jews claim direct empirical knowledge of G-d, something difficult to forge and not only never duplicated, but never even attempted.’)

So reason #1 why we needed this was for us to experience Hashem directly, not through Moshe.

1. In our Parsha it states ‘Behold I shall come speak to you from within the fog so that the people hear as I speak to you, and also they will believe you forever’ This really represents two reasons; A. That we hear Hashem B. That we believe in Moshe.

When Moshe tried to shrug off his mission to Egypt saying ‘The nation will not listen to me; they will say “G-d has not appeared to him”’ Hashem answered ‘and the [true] sign that I have sent you will be that after you take the Jews out of Egypt they will serve Me on this mountain’.

So reason #2 was to establish Moshe as prophet.

1. After the Jews heard the first couple of Commandments they panicked, saying to Moshe ‘You speak with Hashem, and we will listen to you. But let Hashem not talk to us lest we die’.

Moshe answered ‘It is for your greatness that Hashem has spoken to you, and so that you will fear Hashem steadfastly, and not sin’

Rashi explains 1. Talking with Hashem is not something anyone else has done. It is to our honor and prestige that we did. 2. Experiencing Hashem directly will keep us straight, away from sin. So reason #3 and #4: we are better people for having interacted with Hashem directly, and it is to our credit.

Question; we have here four reasons why Hashem needed to speak with us directly. Why do the reasons vary? Why aren’t they all given wherever the question is addressed?

One thought is that after Matan Torah Moshe needed to say something reassuring to the Jews, something diplomatic. Saying that the reason they went through this ordeal was so that they believe in him may not have gone over too well! Instead he focused on what they gained from it. (That’s not my p’shat, by the way, it’s a mechilta!)

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What’s Your Connection?

Torah: ‘You have seen how I spoke to you from the Heavens. Do not make gods of gold or silver!’ What is the connection?

We suggested, (Netziv) that you have seen Hashem communicate with you directly. He needs no go-between. If you need help, appeal to Him directly; do not waste your time with idols.

He is accessible, interested in you and listening. Always remember that!

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Daas Torah

Yisro asked Moshe why the Jews lined up outside his door. Moshe answered that people were coming to 1. seek Hashem 2. when they have some matter they come to me and 3. I judge between one man and his fellow, 4. I tell them Hashem’s chukim and mitzvos.

Yisro said that this was no good – Moshe was sure to collapse. Instead, he said, you 1. interface between Hashem and the Nation, 2. teach them chukim and Torah, 3. tell them that path to walk on and the 4. deed to do. And 5. find good people from amongst the Nation to be their judges.

Yisro’s idea covered; 1. seeking Hashem, 3. judging, 4. mitzvos chukim and Torah. It did not cover #2, “when they have some matter they come to me”.

Yisro added that Moshe will “tell them that path to walk on”. Was this ‘matter’ that the people conferred with Moshe about?

People were asking Moshe for counsel. They were asking for help in their personal lives. They wanted the Torah view on behaviour and events. We call this today ‘da’as Torah’.

They came to Moshe, not their therapists, because they understood that determining values dictates choosing behaviours. Before determining HOW to achieve, one must first determine WHAT to achieve…

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The Mishna in Avos talks of the ten times the Jews tested Hashem unjustifiably. However on closer examination it seems to us the contrary; Hashem tested the Jews ten times unjustifiably!

Hashem sent Moshe to Paroh to redeem the Jews. Matters promptly became much worse. What were the Jews to think??

He asked the Jews to kindly turn towards the Yam Suf to lure Paroh to his death. Yet Paroh drew close – so horribly close – and the Jews turn to Moshe and Hashem questioningly “Well?”

When they proceed to follow Moshe out into the barren desert and there is absolutely no water, they asked Moshe what his plan is. Moshe told them to stop testing Hashem. The people accepted that and were silent. The people grew very thirsty – and it’s in middle of a desert!! – and came crying to Moshe.

They run out of food in the desert and turn to Moshe, who promises them Mon.

Is this the way it ought to be? If Hashem took them out, wouldn’t it seem that the minimum was to provide these things before crisis time? What was going on??

(See Or Hachaim who asks that some of these scenarios seem designed to produce Kofrim!! The Jews were correct!)

We suggested that the central idea here is that the Jews had no confidence in Hashem. Not trusting someone who earned and deserves trust is an abuse. It’s an insult and inspires not kindness, but rejection.

Their distrust made that Hashem helped them only with the greatest reluctance, when there was no choice. It was a vicious cycle; the Jews had no trust, making Hashem disinclined to save, and the Jews trusted even less the next time.

As the pasuk says: “…for forty years I quarrelled with the Nation….and say that they are misguided – for they know me not. As I promised in fury; they shall not enter my Land!”

Who’s fault is this woebegotten state? Were the Jews to trust, or Hashem to deliver? Where ought matters start?

Or to phrase it otherwise: did the Jews test Hashem or did Hashem test the Jews?

When the Jews cried at the spies’ report, Hashem had enough. This was the last straw, the culmination of all this bad blood. He said that “all those who saw My Glory and the miracles I worked in Egypt and the desert, yet tested me these ten times and did not heed my voice” shall never see that promised land.

Here was the crux; the Jews had reason enough to trust. They saw His glory and power, yet remained untrusting. They were the aggressors, not He.

The bald truth was that no matter how bitter and abused they felt, it was they who had tried their G-d, not Him. They.

Comment; the politics of complaint and abuse are knotty at times, but sometimes people crying the most about being abused, at the receiving end of unkindness, are themselves the real aggressors. They have behaved undeserving, not the other. And, as here, it’s sometimes a situation that grows and snowballs, yet all the fault of the ‘victim’!

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Find And Destroy

There is a Mitzvah to destroy Amalek, even their women and children. We revile the Nazis as genocidal murderers. They too had an agenda. They claimed the world would be better without Jews. Are we, who desire to kill Amalek, much different?

The kinderlach had a few observations:
A. If the world needs to be rid of someone, by all means, go ahead and kill them. But why torture and starve them first? It’s just sadism. Thats where the Nazi designs are revealed.
B. Amalek sinned against G-d, deserving death. What were the claims against the Jews? Merely that they were economic czars. Is that any justification for murder?
C. The Jews were commanded by Hashem to kill Amalek. That is quite different from concocting a theory and killing another by it. Perhaps your theory is poppycock!
D. The Jews supposedly sinned against the German Folk. Amalek sinned against G-d. Man can – and ought – to suffer his fellow man’s sins against oneself. However one is not franchised to forgive sins against G-d.
E. The German resolve broke after a bit. The Einatzgruppen could not bear shooting more Jews, so the gas chambers were created, manned by whisky-drunk officers. This suggests that the Germans were indeed not convinced of their theories. They were insincere. They killed in hatred and bloodlust, not because it was correct.

Anything else?

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Making Him One Of The Boys

Moshe was not mentioned as being at the reception for Yisro. Aharon was there, as well as the elders of Israel. What of Moshe?

Rashi comments that he was in the kitchen, serving. Was Moshe a caterer? (Is this an expose of Moshe’s secret hobby?)

Moshe arrived in MIdyan, penniless and lonely, Yisro invited him to break bread with them. A stranger has no friends. It is the greatest kindness to reach out to him and make him feel known.

Moshe was repaying the favor. Moshe wanted Yisro to have that same benefit. When Yisro arrived as a stranger, Moshe invited everyone to meet him. And of course, he played host!

The Torah is not merely listing the participants, rather it describes how Moshe invited everyone to meet Yisro. Moshe was the host.

The moral? Introduce that new guy in shul to three friends…

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