Parshat B'Haalotecha - 5759

The Departure of Yitro and The Coming Tragedy
of the "Meraglim," The Spies

In next week's Parshah, Shelach, the tragic episode of the Meraglim is recounted. Most commentators find fault only with the ten spies who delivered the negative report about the Land of Israel. Others say in defense of the spies who were indeed, at least at the beginning, great men, and the Jewish People who sent them, that it was too much to expect of a nation, newly founded, albeit with miraculous aid, to go from a "slave mentality" to the attitude of conquerors, in so short a time.

A possible aspect of the tragedy which connects B'Haalotecha and Shelach is  the following: When the Jewish people prepared themselves to stand in the presence of G-d at Mt. Sinai, part of their preparation involved observing the command of "Do not approach a woman;" normal marital relations were to be suspended for three days. Afterwards, they were told, "You may return to your tents," meaning, according to Chazal, that marital relations could be resumed. But Moshe was commanded, "as for you, stand here with Me." Moshe, the Master of the Prophets, was to remain always in G-d's Presence, and for him, and his wife, Tzipporah, marital relations could never be resumed.

It was this aspect of Moshe's unique holiness that Miriam and Aharon questioned, and for which Miriam alone, because she had initiated the criticism of Moshe, waspunished. Perhaps it was because of this "abandonment" of his daughter that Yitro refused to accompany the Jewish People, although Moshe, his son-in-law, perhaps sensing the coming disaster,  pleaded with him to stay, saying "…Do not leave us, I beg of you; for you understand our encampment in the desert, and you will be our eyes." (BaMidbar 10:31) And RASHI explains what Moshe meant when he said "You understand our encampment in the desert" as referring to the fact that Yitro, with his great insight, had witnessed the miracles with which Hashem was conducting the Jewish People through the desert, and would realize that Hashem would not abandon them when they entered the Land of Israel.

For indeed the mission of the Meraglim would be "to see," as Moshe charged them before they left "And see the land, as to what it is," (BaMidbar 13:18) but not only to see, but to see with understanding. And Yitro, the wise man of Midian, was an expert at this kind of "seeing and understanding," as he demonstrated when he saw how Moshe was trying to dispense justice single-handedly, as the verse says, "And the father-in-law of Moshe saw all that Moshe was doing for the People." Yitro understood that this was an impossible task; he devised a system of appeals courts, and Moshe accepted his good advice.

And he was also an expert in properly understanding events, as the Torah tells us about him, when he re-appears escorting his daughter, hopefully to be re-united with her husband, "And Yitro (heard), or  understood." (Shemot 18:1) There RASHI asks, "What did Yitro hear that made him leave his people and his position, to join the Jewish People?" And he answers, with the Mechilta "the Splitting of the Red Sea and the War with Amalek." These great miracles, even withouthearing the other details of the Exodus, which Moshe would yet relate to him, made him realize and understand that Israel had a special destiny.

Moshe feared that despite all that the Jewish People had been shown, the Miracles of the Exodus, as the verse said "And you have seen that which I did to Mitzrayim" (Shemot 19:4) and also "…You have seen that from Heaven I spoke with you" (Shemot 20:19), they would not yet have developed the sophistication and insight to realize the implication of these events, that Hashem would never abandon them to the mercy of the Canaanite giants. And he was proved tragically, correct in that assessment.

Yitro came to join the Jewish People, out of a recognition of the greatness of G-d over all so-called gods, but also with the human hope that G-d would now permit a reconciliation and reunion of his daughter's family, now that Moshe had completed the first part of his great mission, the Liberation, as G-d's messenger, of the Jewish People from Egypt. But when he learned that this was not to be, he could not bear to see the continuing living widow-hood of his daughter and resolved to part company with the Jewish People, physically, though not spiritually.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU