Parshat Yisro
February 13th-14th, 2004
22 Shevat, 5764

I have not surveyed all of the essays on this Torah portion out there (on the Internet, or in print media), but I would bet that the majority deal with the Revelation at Mt. Sinai: either the stupendous display surrounding the giving of the Law (smoking mountain, deafening shofar blast, etc.), or the content of one or more of the “10 Commandments” spoken to the entire Jewish people standing at the foot of the mountain. I

And it makes sense. There’s SO much interesting stuff to talk about there, and so much that is of great importance in understanding the very foundation of our Jewish faith. The truth of our Torah--I would argue--rests ultimately on the authenticity of the Sinai experience. It’s no wonder, then, that it would tend to engage the attention of readers and commentators on this portion.

But I want to look (briefly) at something else today, something found in the earlier part of the parsha. (No offense intended to the Sinaitic spectacle.)

If you know any Orthodox Jews, you have no doubt noticed that one of the expressions most commonly employed by them (and by other Jews, too, I’m sure--though less universally), is “Baruch Hashem--Blessed is Hashem (G-d).” As in the following imaginary exchange (set in the early 21st century): “How are all those investments of yours coming, Chaim?” “Baruch Hashem, the returns my mutual fund is getting are fantastic!” “Baruch Hashem, Moishe. I need to work on my portfolio. Order me a Grande House Blend.” [Yes, some Orthodox Jews also follow the market, and drink Starbuck’s coffee.]

Baruch Hashem--blessed is Hashem. The meaning is not that we are giving a blessing to Hashem (Who does not need our blessings, nor our praises), but rather, we are stating that He is the Source of all blessing. And blessing (bracha) means that His kindliness “flows” to this world constantly, it overflows--like a “brecha,” a well or pool in Hebrew, overflowing with living waters. It also implies that we are expressing our humble gratitude to the Holy One by figuratively (or inwardly) bending our knee to him--like the word, “berech,” which means “knee.” Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (great 19th-century religious leader and Torah commentator) writes [in this parsha] that to sincerely utter “Baruch Hashem” is, in its purest sense, to express “his giving up all his completely free powers of action to do solely that which will please and give satisfaction to G-d.”

So this simple two-word expression, Baruch Hashem, is a very beautiful declaration of our clear-sighted gratitude to G-d for His goodness, and our willingness to devote ourselves (to bend our knee) to fulfilling His Will.

And the first person to utter it (in that precise form) was not Avraham or Ya’akov or Moshe…but a former Midianite high priest of idolatrous worship named, “Yisro.” (In English, that’s Jethro, but it’s very hard not to snicker when we hear that--even more than with some other biblical names rendered into English--because we associate it with the immortal television comedy, “The Beverly Hillbillies.”) He became the father-in-law of Moshe (who married his daughter, Zippora), and his name is immortalized in the title of this week’s parsha: Yisro.

It’s a testament to the universality of our Torah (as pointed out by some commentators) that this whole portion, the monumental portion which recounts the giving of the Torah unto mankind (and the sealing of the eternal Covenant between G-d and the Jewish people), is named after a person who was NOT descended from Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’akov. Yisro was a remarkable gentile (pagan, to be more precise), who--the Midrash tells us--in his quest for the ultimate truth, searched for meaning in all of the various idolatrous practices before ultimately converting to the Mosaic faith (as we see in this Torah portion).

His engaged in this uncompromising spiritual quest at great risk to his own prestige and safety:

“[At first] Yisro was a priest to idols. [Then], even before Moshe came [to Midian, after fleeing Egypt], [Yisro] saw that there was no truth in it, and he renounced it and thought of repenting. He called the people of his town and said to them, ’Heretofore, I have served you, but now I am old. Choose for yourselves a different priest.’ And he brought out the vessels used in the service of idols and gave them to [the townspeople]. They then excommunicated him so that no one would associate or work with him.
[Shemos Rabbah, as quoted in the Encyclopedia of Biblical Personalities].

Furthermore, we see in this portion that he left the physical comforts of his native land to come join the Jewish people as they were encamped before Mt. Sinai. “Yisro, the father-in-law of Moshe, came to Moshe with his sons and wife, to the wilderness where he was encamped, by the Mountain of G-d. [18, 5] Rashi comments on the seemingly unnecessary inclusion of the words, “to the wilderness,” for we already know at this point in the Torah’s account that Moshe and the Jewish people are in the wilderness (midbar).

He writes: “[by mentioning the wilderness] the verse spoke in praise of Yisro, for he was living in a place of wealth in the world [Midian], and yet his heart moved him to go out to the wilderness, a place of desolation, to hear words of Torah.”

The Torah elaborates on the assistance he gave Moshe in reorganizing the way he was adjudicating disputes among the Jewish people. In effect, Yisro counseled his son-in-law to set up a hierarchical system of courts to judge the people--a system that, in its broad outline, remained with the Jewish people. (Hashem later gave his “stamp of approval” to the basic insights of Yisro.) Another powerful statement of the Torah’s universality: wisdom from outside the tribe is valued. “There is wisdom [chochma] among the nations,” the Talmud says, and we Jews acknowledge that fact and gratefully make use of such worldly wisdom in all its many facets. (The Talmud finishes that statement, by the way, with a crucial distinction: “But there is no Torah--I.e., valid Divine revelation--among the nations.”)

But it is in Yisro’s passionate quest for religious truth, and ultimately, his sincere embrace of Judaism, that we see the true greatness of this man (rather than in the judicial wisdom he displays). Here is what the Torah reports after stating that Yisro came to join the Jewish people in the wilderness of Sinai:

“Moshe told his father-in-law everything that Hashem had done to Pharaoh  and Egypt for Israel’s sake--all the trouble that had befallen them [Israel] on the way--and that Hashem had rescued them. Yisro rejoiced over all the goodness that Hashem had done for Israel, that He rescued it from the hand  of Egypt. Yisro said, “Baruch Hashem [Blessed is Hashem], Who rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of Pharaoah….Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the other [false] gods…” (18, 8-11)

May we learn from the inspiring example of Yisro, former priest of Midian and later righteous convert, to become sincere seekers after the truth of our Torah, and to infuse in our own service unto G-d the passion, gratitude and humility summed up in that immortal phrase that he first uttered: BARUCH HASHEM! May we not only say those words, but live every day by the lofty Jewish ideals they imply.

GOOD SHABBOS.

My e-mail address is yosefe@comcast.net

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