Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”L

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Moshe Reunites With His Family. We Meet Yitro.

Yitro was Moshes's father in law. He was also the priest of Midian.

He was called by seven different names: Reu'el*, Yeter**, Yitro***, Chovav****, Chever, Keini and Putiel.

*Re'uel may have actually been Yitro's father, since in Bamidbar 10:29, Moshes's father in law is called "Chovav, the son of Reu'el". And although earlier in Chumash (Breishis 2:18-21) it seems to indicate that Re'uel and Yitro were the same person, in so far that Tziporah and her sisters call him "father" and then it says that Moshe married "Re'uel"'s daughter Tziporah, Rashi explains this by saying that young children sometimes call their father's father "Father".

**The same Yeter (יתר) literally means "extra", because Moshe explicitly included him in the Torah when he didn't have to, in reference to his methodology with choosing judges.

***Side note: The name Yitro יתרו is like the name Yeter יתר with an added ו'. He took on this name after he converted to Judaism as a sign of him taking on all of the Commandments.

****Literally means "lover", as he loved the Torah.

Yitro had great respect for Moshe and was honored to have him as a son in law. Moshe felt the same towards Yitro.

Yisro hears all about the miracles that have happened to the Israelites: the splitting of the sea, the war with Amalek, the manna, the well that traveled with them and of course the Exodus from Egypt, which was the greatest miracle of all.

Earlier in Chumash, before the Exodus, when Moshe meets Tziporah in Midian, G-d tells Moshe to return to Egypt. He does so, and Aaron goes out to greet him on the "Mountain of G-d". When he sees that Moshe is not alone, he asks him who the others are. Moshe replies that these are his wife and sons. Aaron exclaims, "We see already grieving over our people currently in Egypt and you want to bring more people there?!" Moshe concurs and tells his wife and sons to return to her father's home.

There was a certain stigma amongst the Israelites attached to the fact that Moshe married the daughter of Yitro, a formerly idolotrous priest.

Yitro was currently living very honorably, however he humbled himself to go out into the desert to hear words of Torah. He also wanted to remove the stigma attached to his family.

He sends a messenger to Moshe, trying to get Moshe to come out to greet Yitro, Tziporah and Moshes's two sons*.

*One of the sons is named Gershom, rooted in the word "ger", meaning "stranger", so named for Moshe being a "stranger" in a strange land. The other is named Eliezer, from the root "to help", in commemoration of G-d helping Moshe by saving him from Pharaoh's sword**.

** When the exocutioner hit Moshes's neck with his sword, Moshes's neck became as hard as marble, protecting the sword from cutting him.

In bringing with him Moshes's entire family, he is pleading with Moshe that if Moshe was indeed embarrassed about Yitro's past, at least he should come out on Tziporah's behalf, showing that he was not ashamed to be married to her in spite of her upbringing. And if even this was not something Moshe was comfortable with, hopefully he would at least come greet them on behalf of his sons, to remove any stigma people might have attached to their heritage.

After all of that, not only does Moshe make it a point to go out to greet Yitro for Yitro's sake, he brings a whole procession in his honor: First Aaron, Nadav, Avihu and then when everyone saw all of these leaders going, they joined as well.

Moshe bows and kisses Yitro and they ask one another how they are doing and then they go to Moshe's tent.

Although Yitro already knows about the exodus from Egypt, Moshe recaps the entire story of what G-d did to the Egyptians, how the Israelites has suffered, and how G-d saved them. Moshe was hoping thereby to bring Yitro closer to Torah.

Yitro became overjoyed from all of the goodness that G-d did for Israel, specifically the manna and the well and the Torah. All things that involved just good without destruction. There is an opinion that in hearing about the suffering of the Egyptians, he got goosebumps, not from joy, but rather out of sorrow. Rashi relates a teaching in this regard about how one should never speak negatively about a non Jew in the presence of a convert or from a family of converts from up to 10 years back.

Yitro blesses G-d for saving the Israelites from 3 "hands":

1- The hand of slavery, i.e having the status of slaves under Egypt, a harsh nation

2- The hand of slavery under Pharaoh, a harsh king, i.e. having to be subservient to Pharaoh.

3 -The hand* of tyranny in the form of labor

*Side note, whereas for the first two hands Yitro words his blessing such that G-d saved "you", for the third, he says "the people". This is because Moshe and Aaron were from the tribe of Levi who were exempt from performing labor in Egypt, however they still had the status of slaves and were under Pharaoh's dominion. Thus Yitro was acknowledging that all of the Israelites, Moshe and Aaron included, were rescued from the first two "hands", whereas the rescue from the third "hand" of the tyranny of labor did not apply to them, but rather to the "Israelites" as a group.

Yitro had studied all of the different religions of the world, and had already renounced idolatry at this point, however after hearing firsthand from Moshe about everything that had occurred, he deepened his appreciation of it all. He says that this deeper appreciation came about through seeing how the Egyptians "made their own beds" so to speak. They plotted to get rid of the Israelites with water, and water was the cause of their own destruction (in drowning in the sea).

Yitro makes two sacrifices to G-d:

1- An Olah offering - which is an offering which gets entirely consumed by fire on the alter

2- A Peace offering - which gets partially consumed and then partially given to the Cohanim to eat.

Yitro then sits down to eat a meal with Aaron and all of the elders. Moshe is at the meal but rather than eat with them, out of respect for Yitro, he serves them.

The text says that they ate this meal "before G-d". From here we learn that when a person attends a meal with Torah scholars (i.e. Aaron and the elders), it is as if one is basking in the delight of the Divine Presence itself.

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