Shabbat Yitro

Shemot Chapter 18:1-20:23 - Father-in-Law

by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen

Although the focal point of this week's Torah reading is the Ten Statements or Principles (often misleadingly translated as the ten commandments) there is a very important theme, a kind of introduction or preface to the laws on Mount Sinai. Moshe fled when escaping Paro’s death to Midian. There he married one of the seven daughters of a pagan priest in Midian. He was treated with respect and in return he had enormous respect for his father-in-law.

Jethro or Yitro , now comes to celebrate with Moshe the deliverance and freedom of the children of Israel. He brings Moshe's wife Zipporah and her two sons who had been sent back home. The last time we heard of her she was on her way down to Egypt with Moshe and was able to save his life. The Midrash says that Aaron persuaded Moshe to send his wife and children back home so as they should not suffer and not to have the added burden and distraction from his mission to engage with Paro.

Yitro was delighted at the success of Moshe and seems to have accepted the God of Israel over his own Midianite deities. Having celebrated together, the following day he witnesses Moshe sit down to deal with the people who have lined up to bring their cases to Moshe for resolution. And it takes up the whole of his day. Yitro is worried that he will exhaust himself. He comes up with some good advice. That Moshe should create ( with God’s approval) a system of elders who could take responsibility for different certain sections of the people. And only bring to Moshe to deal with those issues that they weren't able to resolve.

It seems from the text that Moshe accepts this advice of Yitro even though later on (see Devarim 11:16)  the Torah  suggests a later date. Nevertheless, the fact that before we come to the Jewish legal system based on the Sinai revelation,  we have somebody from outside of the community giving advice which then becomes incorporated into the Torah.

Fascinating is how many times Yitro, the father of Moshe, is repeated in this opening chapter. Thirteen times he is referred to as “father-in-law” and a further seven by his first name Yitro. Nowhere else is a person given such significant honor in one chapter of the Torah. 

From this we could learn certain lessons. One of them is you can take good advice from wherever it comes from. The other is that it's important to have respect for one's father-in-law and by association for one's mother-in-law. It’s interesting that in Yiddish the word for a father-in-law is Shver which also means something hard in Yiddish. You might think this implies that it's tough having a father-in-law. Incidentally the Yiddish for a mother-in-law on the other hand Shvigger sounds just as negative  but in fact its origin is old German for one’s own, a relative, someone close. 

Here the Torah is making it very clear that this father-in-law is a very special man. And we should all learn from this to find the positive and the good in one's father-in-law assuming of course that he is a man of morality, probity and is concerned for the well-being of his daughter, as well as his son-in-law!

This Wednesday Night/Thursday  is the New Year for Trees, Tu BiShvat. Particularly relevant now as Israel tries to replace the disastrous loss of plants and trees due to a year of wanton destruction in the North as well as the South. Yes, of course, human life is a priority. But as the Torah says ( Deuteronomy 20:19) humans can be compared to trees. That, like humans, grow, thrive, can give fruit and shade and then die or are destroyed and others take their place. It is up to us to remember and replenish the loss.

Shabbat Shalom

Jeremy

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Jeremy Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. He was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, Rosen also studied at Be'er Yaakov Yeshiva in Israel (1957–1958 and 1960). He then went on to Merkaz Harav Kook (1961), and Mir Yeshiva (1965–1968) in Jerusalem, where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In between Rosen attended Cambridge University (1962–1965), graduating with a degree in Moral Sciences.