Does Everyone Hate the Jews? And: Is There Wisdom Outside of Torah?

Transcription

1 Does Everyone Hate the Jews? And: Is There Wisdom Outside of Torah? Rabbi Shai Held What should a people repeatedly attacked conclude about the broader world s relationship to it? What attitude should a nation blessed with divine revelation hold towards other potential sources of wisdom? Parashat Yitro subtly offers powerful and surprising answers to these fundamental questions. The order of events described in our parashah seems jumbled. But the seemingly confusing chronology is meant to teach us a crucial lesson. Parashat Yitro begins by recounting the story of Moses being visited by his father-in-law, who delights in all that God has done for the Israelites. Bringing Moses sons and wife with him, Jethro comes to see Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God that is, at Mount Sinai (Exodus 18:5). But at the opening of the next chapter, we learn that Moses and the Israelites have not yet arrived at Sinai they are still journeying from a place called Rephidim (where chapter 17 leaves off) towards the mountain where they will receive God s revelation (19:1-2). Chronologically speaking, it seems obvious that chapter 19 should have preceded chapter 18: surely the story of the journey to Sinai should have been told before the recounting of a significant event that took place at Sinai. So why does the The order of events described in our parashah seems jumbled. But the seemingly confusing chronology is meant to teach us a crucial lesson. Torah present these stories out of order? Right before we learn about Jethro s arrival, the text presents a description of battle: the Israelites, thirsty and discontented, are assailed by the Amalekites, and only God s 1

2 assistance enables them to fend off the marauders (17:8-13). Although the story in Exodus offers no details about Amalek s conduct, the version presented in Deuteronomy describes a particularly savage and heartless assault: Undeterred by fear of God, [Amalek] surprised you, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in the rear (Deuteronomy 25:18). Knowing no limits to cruelty, Amalek targets the most vulnerable among the Israelites. Whereas God has lined up on the side of the weak and defenseless, Amalek seeks to kill and destroy them. No wonder, then, that the Torah imagines Amalek as an enemy of both God and Israel (Exodus 17:14-16, Deuteronomy 25:19). R. Abraham Ibn Ezra ( ) suggests that the Torah presents these crucial events in Israel s history out of their proper order precisely in order to draw attention to the stark contrast between them. Amalek seeks to ravage Israel, but Jethro shares in its joy at God s deliverance and offers guidance as to how it can best function as a nation in its newfound freedom (Exodus 18:9-23). Since Scripture has just mentioned the evil that Amalek did to Israel, Ibn Ezra writes, it mentions the good that Jethro did as a contrast. Moreover, he adds, just as Israel is enjoined to do battle with Amalek, so is it charged with remembering the kindness of Jethro and cautioned not to harm his descendants (Ibn Ezra, Longer Commentary to Exodus 18:1). Bible scholar Moshe David (Umberto) Cassuto ( ) takes Ibn Ezra s insight further. He points out that the Torah provides an abundance of literary cues to draw our attention to the connection between the two stories. The Amalek episode repeats the root for battle (l-chm) over and over again (17:8,9,10,16); the Jethro story begins and ends with the word for peace or well-being (shalom) (18:7, 23). In the Amalek story, Moses chooses men for war (17:9); in the Jethro story, he chooses men to dispense justice (18:25). When Amalek comes, Moses sits upon a rock to pray for victory in battle (17:12); when Jethro comes, he sits to judge the people (18:13). In the first story, Moses hands grow heavy (17:12); in the second, 2

3 he is told that the burden of deciding disputes among the people is too heavy for him (18:18). And so on. 1 Such a proliferation of literary links is not a coincidence. The Torah wants to draw our attention to crucial connections between the two stories Amalek at war and Jethro at peace. But what is at stake here? Why does the Torah deem it so important to juxtapose Amalek and Jethro? A people that has been brutally oppressed by A people that has been brutally one nation and then mercilessly attacked by oppressed by one nation and then another might well conclude that it has no mercilessly attacked by another friends, allies, or well-wishers. Descendants who read about these events might be might well conclude that it has no tempted to conclude similarly. But the Torah friends, allies, or well-wishers. wants to preempt this line of reasoning by reminding us that not all non-jews are Amalek. Not everyone hates the Jews. Indeed, Jethro serves as a paradigm of the non-israelite who can seek the well-being of Israel and acknowledge the greatness of its God. But there is another reason, I think, why the Torah introduces the story of Jethro before the Israelites encounter God at Mount Sinai. Every religious Jew has probably at least once entertained some version of this thought: We have received Torah from God. That is not only the most important thing in the world; on some level, it is the only thing in the world that really matters. Anything I need to know, I can and should learn from revelation. Everything else is at best an afterthought, and at worst a distraction or an actively dangerous 1 Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, trans. Israel Abrahams (1964), pp

4 snare. If we have God s word, we simply don t need anything else. The right thing to do, the courageous thing to do, is to shut out everything else lest it lead us astray. The book of Exodus anticipates this religious posture and tries to nip it in the bud. Right before the Israelites stand at Mount Sinai, they are taught a crucial lesson in the administration of justice by a non-israelite who has no access to Torah. It is Jethro who tells Moses that the system he has set up for dealing with conflicts among the Israelites is untenable: one person cannot possibly handle such a herculean task alone; he must appoint helpers, capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain (18:17-23). As soon as Jethro has offered his recommendation, the Torah reports simply that Moses heeded his father-in-law and did all that he had said (18:24). Just before a moment of encounter with the magnificent presence of God, just before the revelation of divine guidance for how Israel ought to live, Exodus stops to teach a lesson: there is wisdom among the non-jews, and there is wisdom to be found through the use of reason to evaluate a situation and the needs of the moment. Torah is incomparable, and it is the axis around which Jewish life should rotate. But Torah is not our only source of wisdom and insight. By telling us the story of Jethro, and by placing it exactly where it is in the narrative structure, the Torah itself here endorses and emphasizes that very point. Exodus stops to teach a lesson: there is wisdom among the non-jews, and there is wisdom to be found through the use of reason to evaluate a situation and the needs of the moment. How do I know that the book of Exodus is granting its imprimatur to the idea of learning from a non-jew? Because another, competing view is expressed elsewhere in the Torah. The book of Deuteronomy in general expresses far more anxiety about outside influences on Israel than any other of the Five Books of Moses. Strikingly, when Moses recalls the emergence of 4

5 Israel s judicial system at the beginning of Deuteronomy, Jethro simply disappears. Moses attributes both the realization that a one-man judiciary is implausible and impracticable, on the one hand, and the construction of an alternative system, on the other, to himself rather than his father-in-law (Deuteronomy 1:9-15). What we have here, then, appears to be a struggle between two competing voices and two competing conceptions of Israel s relationship to gentile wisdom. Taken together, Exodus and Deuteronomy express a significant tension in the religious life on the one hand, the acknowledgement and endorsement of learning from the broader world, and on the other, an understandable anxiety about that very project. Exodus, in any event, is clear: yesh chokhmah bagoyim, there is important and necessary wisdom among the nations (Lamentations Rabbah 2:13). Subtly but unmistakably, the opening of our parashah makes two essential points. Although some people undoubtedly do, not everyone hates the Jews. And although Torah is endless in its depth and riches, there is vital wisdom to be found elsewhere, too. The Torah itself teaches that Torah alone is not enough. Shabbat Shalom. Sign up to receive Rabbi Shai Held s weekly divrei Torah direct to your inbox: 5