YISRO 1992

In the Torah portion we have the Ten Commandments.  We learn in this Torah portion how Yisro comes and gives Moshe good advice on how to implement the Ten Commandments in the correct and proper way.  This, of course, teaches us that we are to use the knowledge of the other nations of the world in order to implement the moral teachings of our faith.  In fact, the Torah portion that is named in which the Ten Commandments are given is named after Yisro, who was not a Jew, who became a Jew, and that is to teach us, of course, again that the teachings of Shem should be in the tents of Yaphet, which means, the rabbis say, that the Torah should be implemented using the latest technologies, using the cultural tools of the world about us as long as they do not conflict with the morality of the Torah.  The preeminence is the teachings of the Torah, but they must be implemented using the latest technologies of the world around us.

The question, though, is asked many times, why does it say, "And Yisro heard the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moshe, all which G‑d had done to Moshe and to Israel, His people, that G‑d brought out Israel from Egypt."  Rashi asks, what is it that Yisro heard?  He answers by saying that Yisro heard about the splitting of the Red Sea and the war of Amalek.  Later on in the same Rashi it says that when Jethro said, "All which G‑d had done to Moshe and Israel" that that refers to three things.  It refers to the manna that fell, the well of water which accompanied the Jewish people in the desert, and also to Amalek.  It does not say in this instance the war of Amalek, just Amalek, so why is it that Rashi has changed in the same Rashi?  Why has he changed his answers?  He said that when Yisro heard, he heard about the splitting of the Red Sea and about the war of Amalek, and then when it says "all which G‑d had done to Moshe and Israel" it says he is referring to the manna, to the well, and the Amalek.  What's more, when we continue reading it says that Jethro took the father-in-law of Moshe in support of the wife of Moshe and her two sons and the name of the one was Gershon, and then he goes on and explains what Gershon means, "because I was a stranger in a strange land" and the name of one was Eliezer because G‑d of my father was my help and he saved me from the hand of Pharaoh".  First of all, why does Yisro have to go into all the origins of these names, and, what's more, Eliezer does not mean that G‑d of my fathers was my help, it means G‑d is my help, so why does he say the G‑d of my fathers was my help?

Finally, after the Ten Commandments were given it says in the Torah that "and all the people saw the thunder and the lightning and the voice of the shofar, and the rabbis explain that that means that the people saw the thunder and they heard the lightning.  What could that possibly mean?  The rabbis are puzzled by Yisro, the priest of Midian, came to accept the Jewish religion.  In this Torah portion we learn that Yisro became a Jew.  What caused him to want to convert to Judaism?  After all, he had tried, according to the rabbis, all the religions of the world.  That's why he had seven different names because every time he changed religions he changed his name, but now he heard about Judaism and he decided that he wanted to become a Jew.  The rabbis say that's why Rashi says "and Yisro heard" means that Yisro heard about the splitting of the Red Sea and the war of Amalek, and that caused him to become a Jew.  Now last night I spoke about the fact that the two fundamental principles that Yisro could not find in other religions he found in Judaism.  One was, of course, that all man is required to do is what he can do.  The splitting of the Red Sea occurred because Nachshem and Avidodum jumped in the water, but what was do great about that?  Couldn't he swim?  The second thing was that the Jewish people put individuals above theory, and they were willing to save the tribe of Dan and fight fro them even though Dan was outside the clouds of glory because they were still idol worshippers.  That is true.  However, the rabbis say that there was also a philosophical reason why Yisro decided to become a Jew.  When he looked about the Jewish people he saw by the splitting of the Red Sea that the Jewish people stood for G‑d's presence in the world, that G‑d had personally intervened and that that was clear to everyone, that the Jewish people stood for G‑d's presence in the world.
Of course, that is the way we are still looked at.  That is why Israel gets so much attention and Jews get so much attention.  After all, we are an infitestimal amount of the population.  We are not even statistically significant, but if you say there are 13 million, 15 million, 18 million Jews in the world, still there are 5 billion people in the world.  We are statistically insignificant, yet, throughout the world when people want to rebel against the laws of the Bible, against the laws of morality they always attack the Jews.  Why should Hitler have attacked the Jews when there were only 600,000 Jews in Germany with 80 million Germans?  In the Soviet Union, how many Jews were there?  A few million of their 250 or 275 million members of the Soviet Union when it still existed as the Soviet Union.  Even in Japan which has almost no Jews anti-Semitism is growing and Jews are being attacked, at least in the newspapers and in books.  In Poland today where there are no Jews anti-Semitism is still strong because any time groups want to attack the morality of the Bible, and we Jews stand for G‑d's presence in the world, they attack us.

Yisro saw that when the Red Sea split this was a sign to all the people of the world that G‑d had chosen the Jewish people to be His symbol, to be His messengers in the world, to spread His message of morality.  Now, of course, not all Jews are worthy of this message and some Jews would rather not stand for this message, but in the eyes of the world the Jewish people stand for G‑d's morality, and that, of course, is why Hitler attacked us.  He said so explicitly.  He said, "I hate that Semitic G‑d with His 'thou shalts' and 'thou shalt nots'," and he considered us a seminal people for being concerned about helping the poor and the helpless and the ill and the aged.  When Yisro saw that the Jewish people stood as G‑d's messengers in the world he also saw that they were viciously attacked by Amalek, who knowing the fact that the Jewish people were the symbol of G‑d's presence in the world, yet still attacked them.  Yisro said, "I will be proud to be part of this type of a people whose message to the world is attacked so violently because the nations of the world are so afraid of it because they know it is really true, that human beings cannot live selfish lives, that human beings can try to pretend in the survival of the fittest, can pretend to use all sorts of quasi-Nazi philosophies, can always try to harm other people, but eventually they are going to know in their hearts of heart that all men are created equal and are all children of G‑d and we have to treat each other correctly and properly and we are all our brother's keeper."  The world does not want to listen to that message, but Yisro said it is precisely because of that fact that I want to become a Jew.

Why did it say "all which G‑d had done to Moshe"?  Because if we are G‑d's messengers in the world, if we stand for G‑d's presence in the world, then G‑d has to protect us, and he saw that G‑d did, G‑d gave us manna, G‑d gave us water, and G‑d gives us protection against our enemies.  It does not mean.  that we will not suffer losses.  It does not mean that the Jewish people will not suffer and will not be persecuted or hounded, but G‑d will make sure that the Jewish people survive.  He asked about all the generations no matter what we have survived.  We have taken great losses but we have survived.  Yisro said this is the kind of people that I want to be a part of.
That, of course, is why when it came to Moshe he reminded him of his children's name, Gershon, not that he had called Gershon Gershon but Moshe had called Gershon Gershon, because Moshe had said, "I was a stranger in a strange land".  Yisro was saying that to Moshe, "Yes, you Jewish people many times want to assimilate.  You think that the burden is too great, but you always come up against that Pinkele Yid.  You always see that you have to assume the yoke, just as you did, Moshe, and I see that the Jewish people who want to assimilate seem to always want to assimilate together, that the burden sometimes seems too great, but that they will assume it."  When he said that the name of one was Eliezer, "the G‑d of my father, help me, and He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh" means that G‑d helps us overcome all problems of us being a Jew.  Sometimes it is hard to be a Jew, and sometimes Jews do not seem to want to be Jews, but eventually they realize that G‑d saves us from the sword of every Pharaoh.  How do we know that G‑d is our help?  Because we look back at our history.  We see that G‑d has been the G‑d of our fathers, and that has sustained us throughout all the years.  Yes, G‑d has helped us and G‑d will continue to help us, and just as G‑d has helped us to be who we are we also have to assume responsibility for future generations.  If we bring children into the world, then we also have to make sure they are provided with the necessities of life, not just the physical necessities of life but also the spiritual necessities of life, that we must make sure that they understand why they are Jewish and that they should be proud that they are Jewish, that this can never be taken away from them.  We see today in Russia where the Jews are being let out that we have to assume our share of the burden.  We have to help them assume once again their Jewish identity.  In fact, the Jews of Russia many of them wanted to assimilate and if it would not have been for Stalin who forced them to put Ivri on their card, many of them would probably have assimilated, although the Pintele Yid still comes up there, and they realize that there is still value in being a Jew, that although sometimes it is hard to be the symbol of G‑d's presence in the world, that is what they had to be, and, therefore, many of them, even though they knew nothing about their religion because it was banned for them to study or practice Judaism, yet, they stayed together.  They lived together in different areas in different apartment buildings and they sought each other's company because just as Moshe Rabbeinu did when he was in Midian, they knew that they were really a stranger in a strange land, and they knew that in spite of the current persecution G‑d would help them as He has helped the Jews in the past, and, therefore, the Jewish people even when they are bereft of the Torah, even when they are bereft of their traditions, as long as there is an echo of these traditions in their minds even though they do not know precisely what they are they will still be able to survive because the nations of the world will look at them as a symbol of G‑d's presence in the world.

Therefore, Yisro was telling each of us, "I am proud to be a Jew, and I am proud precisely because the nations of the world are to antagonistic to you."  In fact, that is what the rabbis say the word Sinai stands for.  Sinai stands not only for Mount Sinai but also stands for the hatred, the sina, that the nations of the world have against the Jewish people because of Sinai, because the Jewish people stand for the moral principles of the Torah, because the Jewish people stand for G‑d's presence in the world, and that, of course, is why, too, after we received the Ten Commandments it says that the Jewish people "saw the thunder and heard the lightning" because generally spiritual things cannot be seen.  You can only hear about them, while physical things you actually see, but in the reality of life the spiritual things really are more real than the physical things.  For example, love.  Nobody can really see love.  You can only see the effects of love, but you know that people kill for love, people want love, people cannot live without love.  We know the same is true with devotion, with ambition, with feelings self-important, of knowing that you are needed.  You really cannot see it, but you know that these are more real to you than physical things.  I remember when I worked for a company everybody was fighting about parking places and potted plants and about office furniture.  They did not really care about the potted plants or the parking place or office furniture but that showed how important you were, and everybody wanted to be important.  The thing that you could not see was, of course, the idea that every human being needs to feel that he is needed and needs to feel that he is wanted and is important.  The same thing, too, many times when people get presents on their birthday or present at different anniversaries, and sometimes they do not really care for their presents.  The presents do not mean anything but they are symbols of the love of the people around them and they want to have that love.  Therefore, too, Yisro was telling the Jewish people, "Remember that the spiritual things are always more important than the physical things.  They have more reality.  You can really see the spiritual things, at least in your mind's eye, but the physical things you may see with the physical eye, but they just fall away.  They are not important.  The reality is that the Jewish people are the symbol of G‑d's presence in the world.  That is a spirituality.  That is a fact of history that no Jew can run away from, and it is also a fact of history, a spiritual thing, that G‑d also protects the Jewish people and makes sure that they have food and water and protection."  Therefore, it is important for all of us always to remember that.  It is important for all of us to be proud of the fact that we are Jews, and just as Yisro was proud of the fact of the Jewish people and that he became a Jew precisely because the other nations of the world hated them, precisely because Amalek attacked the Jewish people.  What is important is that we always recognize that we are serving a purpose, that we are bringing about the redemption.  We are spreading the ideas of morality.  We are spreading the ideas that we are all accountable to G‑d and that we have to live lives of decency and compassion and loving kindness.  That is a wonderful thing and if it elicits the ire of the people around us, don't worry because it will only be temporary because eventually they will accept all these ideals as well.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a woman who went to a psychiatrist and after three years the psychiatrist said, "Madam, you are now cured."  She looked very disappointed.  He said, "Why are you disappointed?  I told you you are now cured," She said, "Listen, doctor, when I came to you three years ago I was Joan of Arc, and now I am a nobody."  None of us should ever feel that we are nobody.  Each of us is a member of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people stand in the eyes of the world and in the spiritual reality as being the symbol of G‑d's presence in the world.  Let us all hope and pray that the nations of the world will quickly agree to live according to the ideals of morality and justice and kindness and compassion so that soon the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.