MONUMENTAL MEAL:
PARSHAT YITRO
Shira Smiles shiur
2020/5780
Adapted by Channie
Koplowitz Stein
During
the entire unfolding of the exodus experience, while Moshe was leading Bnei
Yisroel, Moshe’s family remained behind in Midyan with his father in law Yitro.
Now that Bnei Yisroel has left Egypt and has safely crossed the Red Sea, Yitro
brings his daughter and grandsons to the Israelite camp to be reunited with
Moshe. He sends word to Moshe, “I, your father in law Yitro, have come to you,
with your wife and her two sons with her.” Moshe goes out to greet them,
recounting to Yitro all that had transpired in Egypt and that Hashem had
rescued them. Yitro is elated at Hashem’s rescuing Bnei Yisroel. He blesses
Hashem, acknowledging that Hashem is the greatest of all gods. Then Yitro
brings an elevation offering and a peace offering to Hashem, “And Aharon and
all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moshe
before God.”
Rashi
asks why Yitro identified everyone who came instead of just saying,”I’m here,”
or, “We’re here.” Rashi then answers that Yitro was telling Moshe that even if
Moshe did not want to greet him personally, certainly he should do so for his
wife and children. But this sounds as if Yitro craved honor. Do we really
believe that? The Torah emphasizes that Moshe went out to greet his father in
law, emphasizing that we give respect to others because everyone deserves
respect, and not because we have anything to gain from them.
Yitro
then praises Hashem, brings offerings to Hashem and sits down to eat bread with
Aharon and all the elders before God. How was Yitro’s praise extraordinary and
different from the praises Bnei Yisroel had offered? Why did Yitro bring these
offerings to Hashem? Finally, why did they all sit down together to eat bread
specifically before Hashem?
That
these events were extremely important can be determined by later history,
writes Rabbi Goldwicht in Asufat Maarachot. When King Saul is about to
wage battle against Amalek, he approaches the Keini, traditionally the
descendents of Yitro, and urges them to leave the area lest they be caught in
the crossfire of the war and be killed. Saul explains his warning to the Keini,
saying, “For you have done chesed/kindness with all of Bnei Yisroel when
they went up from the land of Egypt.” Rashi explains that the chesed King Saul
is referring to is the feast that Yitro prepared for Moshe, Aharon and the
elders, that all of Bnei Yisroel derived pleasure from this feast.
Making
this connection raises even further questions. How was this feast for the
leaders a chesed for all of Bnei Yisroel? How does this earlier feast merit the
Keini being saved from Amalek?
We
associate Yitro with advising Moshe to set up a judicial system to handle
questions of Torah law. But Yitro provided us with lessons even prior to this,
and together these lessons warranted naming the parsha that contains the Ten
Commandments by his name, Parshat Yitro. The first lesson here is the
importance of greeting everyone with respect and dignity, writes Rabbi Ezrachi
in Birkat Mordechai. When you see another, give him respect and take an
interest in his well being, Treat him as one created in the image of God. When
our souls ascend to heaven, one of the questions we will be asked is, “Did you
coronate your friend as king over you in good spirits?” To honor another is not
so much for them as for me, to know what it means to honor another and make him
king. Yitro is not looking for honor for his own sake, but to teach us how to
interact with others we make contact with.
Rav
Schwab gives us a different perspective on what seems to be Yitro’s request for
honor. Yitro had practiced every form of idol worship of his day. In fact, he
was a priest in Midyan. He was afraid the impurities of these false gods
remained with him as he approached the holy Israelite camp, and he would be
unable to enter. But when a sinner receives honor from a Godly person dedicated
to holiness, these impurities flee. Yitro needed Moshe to honor him so
that these impurities of his previous life would depart, and he could enter the
Israelite camp. Indeed, once Moshe went out to greet him, probably all the
elders of Bnei Yisroel went out with him to honor his father-in-law.
Rabbi Parness, in Lev Tahor, adds that it was not simply for Yitro’s
personal honor that Moshe went out to greet him, but because he knew that Yitro
wanted to convert and needed help to enter.
There
is an enigmatic verse in Kohelet/Ecclesiastics that Rabbi Goldwicht
brilliantly interprets in connection with our current discussion: “Send your
bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it.” Obviously, this
makes no sense in physical reality. However, Rabbi Goldwicht associates this
verse with Yitro and his relationship with Moshe who was “drawn from the
water.” Yitro fed Moshe, gave him bread, when Moshe fled Egypt and helped his
daughters. Now Yitro is again breaking bread with Moshe and with all the elders
before Hashem.
This
connection deepens and explains why the parsha that contains the Ten
Commandments bears the name of Yitro. The very first commandments tells us why
we need to accept the yoke of Heaven: “I am the Lord your God Who has taken you
out of Egypt.” When Bnei Yisroel left Egypt, they felt a tremendous sense of
gratitude to Hashem for all the miracles He had done for them. With the passion
of this gratitude, Bnei Yisroel were eager to accept Hashem as their King and
submit to Him. However, right before they arrived at Sinai, Amalek came and
chilled their fervor so that now they questioned, “Is Hashem within us or not?”
As Rabbi Mintzberg says in Ben Melech, when Yitro now came and blessed
Hashem, brought offerings to Hashem, feasted with a desire to serve Hashem,
Yitro reignited the fire of gratitude Bnei Yisroel needed in order to accept
the Torah willingly. It was in this merit that King Saul warned his descendents
to flee from Amalek generations later.
What
was the purpose of this seudah/feast? The Riminover Rebbe in Lev
Tahor explains that this was a feast celebrating Yitro’s conversion and
thereby entering the brit/covenant of Bnei Yisroel with Hakodosh Boruch
Hu. Since both parties must be present to ratify the covenant, Hashem was
indeed present, and this was truly “eating bread before God.”
We
show our love and appreciation for some mitzvoth by an accompanying seudah,
writes Rabbi Belsky in Einei Yisroel. That’s why we have a seudat
mitzvah at a bris, often celebrated and eaten in a shul, before God. Here
too, Yitro’s spiritual transformation through conversion and the brit
was being celebrated by partnering it with the physical act of eating. Rabbi
Broide in Sam Derech sees this meal as the source for our having a seudat
mitzvah at a brit milah.
With
his conversion, Yitro brought a new dimension to Bnei Yisroel. If we recognize
Ruth as the paradigm for conversion, Yitro is the father of converts. When
Yitro declares that “Hashem is the greatest of all gods,” he is speaking from
experience. Yitro studied and practiced every form of god worship, and came to
the conclusion that there was no God but Hashem. Yitro taught us the value of
accepting true converts from the other nations, for these are the hidden sparks
with special qualities that are often deeply hidden within them. These are
qualities that may be lacking in Bnei Yisroel, but that Bnei Yisroel needs to
integrate within the national character. Perhaps this is one of the positive
reasons for our being in exile among the other nations, suggests Rabbi
Goldwicht, to return these sparks to their source through their conversion to
Judaism.
In
a related idea, Rabbi Leibel Eiger in Toras Emes suggests that at first
Moshe did not want to accept Yitro as a convert. After all, when the erev
rav joined Bnei Yisroel from Egypt, Bnei Yisroel were steeped in idol
worship just as the Egyptians were. But now Bnei Yisroel have been purified.
Why accept other idol worshipers into their midst now? But when Yitro sends
word to Moshe about his arrival, Yitro introduces himself with “Ani/I,”
and then continues with identifying himself as Moshe’s father-in-law. This Ani
alludes to Hakodosh Boruch Who Who is the One Who brings some people close to
Him while He may distance others. This Ani tells us that it was Hashem
Himself Who told Moshe to go out to greet Yitro and accept him into Bnei
Yisroel. And this acceptance gives validation to every baal teshuvah who
was distant from Hashem and now wants to return. It teaches us that Hashem
loves the baal teshuvah just as much as He loves the talmid chacham who
studies in the Beit Medrash all day.
Everything,
especially food, has an element of the spiritual within it waiting to be
realized. It is not only those who eat the food who elevate it with blessings,
but those who prepare the food also share in actualizing this sanctity. When
Yitro was preparing this feast, he was thinking about bringing it before God,
and his thoughts affected the mental attitude of those who sat with him, writes
Rabbi Gamliel Rabinowitz in Tiv Hatorah. Rebbetzin Smiles reminds us
all, then, to invest our meal preparation, especially for Shabbat, with
thoughts of Torah and mitzvoth. In a similar vein, Rashi says that those who
eat a meal with a talmid chacham are symbolically rejoicing in Hashem’s
presence. If you eat and incorporate divrei Torah into your meal, adds Rabbi
Wolbe both the food and the Torah, the physical and the spiritual, come from
heaven. This may mean that the cafeteria, if used properly, may be on a higher
spiritual level than the study hall itself.
When
Aharon and Yitro sat down to eat with the great Moshe Rabbenu, writes Rabbi
Kofman in Mishchat Shemen, perhaps they felt that it would be difficult
to focus on a connection with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. But the verse teaches us
that, just as here, in every situation, you are in, you are still in Hashem’s
presence. In every difficulty and challenge, even if you feel less spiritual at
that moment, you are still in God’s presence. If we feel we cannot daven with
the proper focus or learn with as much depth as we would like, this too is from
Hashem.
Mishchat
Shemen
presents the scene at Sinai when we received the Torah. There was thunder and
lightening, a frightening situation. If the Torah is so sweet, why didn’t
Hashem set the scene with soft music and beautiful weather? Then Moshe
ascends the mountain and enters the arafel/darkest cloud where he
encounters Hashem. This too teaches us that when we are faced with dark clouds
in our lives that is precisely where we can find Hashem. The Baal Haturim
equates these dark times with Hashem’s presence, the arafel that Moshe
entered is numerically equal to shechinah/God’s presence, 385. Hashem’s
vision of our service to Him may in fact be what we think is imperfect. We can
meet God in every situation and in every human encounter, especially when we
honor His image in another human being. It is our mission to recognize that
Godliness and expose it to the world, to demonstrate that we are always lifnei
Hashem/before God.