Sacrifice Remembered

Transcription

1 פרשת יתרו תשעא ' 5771 Parshat Yitro Sacrifice Remembered This week s Parsha, perhaps the most dramatic of all, hides its dramatic content. The children of Israel, after all their suffering and torment, step into the free world; they follow the leadership of Moshe and tread in the footsteps of God. Mount Sinai glows with a sacred heat, the sky sits red with the presence of God and the air bursts with His voice. The Torah, the covenant that lies between God and His people is transferred to our ancestors, to us. Yet all of this activity, all of this commotion, is concealed under the seemingly misplaced title, Yitro. Who was Yitro? The very first verse of this week s Parsha records: Yitro, the priest of Midyan, the father-in-law of Moshe, heard all that God has performed for Moshe and Israel. Yitro is a man of dual loyalties, drawn neatly down the middle; he is at once the priest of Midyan and the father-in-law of Moshe. More than that, Yitro is a man of multiple personalities the Midrash 1 comments that Yitro had a total of seven different names including Chovav, Re uel, Putiel, and Keini. This final name, Keini, leads us to a short statement in the Zohar, one found repeated in the writings of the sixteenth century Turkish mystic, Rabbi Moshe Alshech. It is commented that Yitro is a reincarnation of Cain (hinted at through the name Keini ), and Moshe is a reincarnation of Abel. And even if one doesn t choose to adopt the position that reincarnation is real, there is a parallel being set up between these characters; in some way Moshe is compared to Abel, and Yitro to Cain. Cain is the first breacher of human conduct; he carries out the first fratricide, the very first murder. How can Yitro, the man who saves Moshe and gives him his daughter, parallel Cain? 1 Midrash Tanchuma Shemot, Section 11

2 Perhaps we can identify a particular trait in Cain that we can also find lurking somewhere within Yitro. Cain inflicted many blows and wounds upon his brother, because he knew not from where the soul departs. 2 Cain was persistent in his behaviour, insistent in his evil. He beat and thrashed and struck his brother, again and again and again; till he could see that he was no longer alive. Cain was his Own Man, a Worker of the land ; he needed no one else, he cared for no one else, and when he wanted something he got it. Perhaps this is where Cain and Yitro meet. They are both independent and insistent; selfautonomous and relentless. The Midrash 3 records how Yitro studied all the religions of the known world, until he came upon Judaism. Yitro was a free sprit; a soul stirred by the drive for truth, a mind driven by the need for understanding; he had no commitments, no insincere party lines; he was simply on a mission to find higher purpose. Yitro cared, not for no one, but for no one else s position he was his Own Man, following his own passions and interests, his own drive for truth, ignoring all others. When Pharaoh was deciding on the fate of the Jews, according to our Sages, he called a meeting and gathered his advisors: Three were involved in that scheme: Bilaam, Iyov, and Yitro. Bilaam, who advised [the slavery of the Jews], was slain; Iyov, who was silent, was punished through suffering; and Yitro, who fled his descendants were privileged to sit in the Hall of Hewn Stones (the area of the Temple where the court sat in judgment). 4 Yitro was a man who cared for no ingenuine authority; he was ready to run from that which he disliked, ready to criticise those with whom he came to blows. Yitro was, according to the Midrash 5, initially ready to join forces with Israel s sworn enemy, 2 Sanhedrin 37b 3 Midrash Tanchuma 2, Yitro, Section 5 4 Sotah 11a and Sanhedrin 106a 5 Midrash Shemot Rabbah, 27:5

3 Amalek; and it wasn t until he heard that God has defeated them that he came toward Israel. He was his Own Man. When Yitro initially drew close to Moshe, the Rabbis of the Talmud identify him as doing it for his own prestige 6. How then does Yitro triumph over Cain? How does his legacy come to us in honour and esteem? How does the Torah and our Sages afford him the privilege of high position and label our Parsha in his name? Perhaps it comes from his interaction with Moshe. The parallel set up by the Zohar was potentially fatal; Cain killed Abel. Would Yitro kill Moshe? As we have said Yitro was a man of dual loyalties he was the priest of Midyan and the father-in-law of Moshe. However, if we trace his identity it shifts over time. We are introduced to him early in Shemot simply with the phrase the Priest of Midyan had seven daughters (2:16). And we finish with him as Yitro, the father-in-law of Moshe (Shemot 18:12). The beginning of our Parsha is the moment in between; he sits on the fence, with his feet in two worlds The priest of Midyan and the father-in-law of Moshe. Then the man who prides himself on his independence, on his own prestige, makes a choice. He makes himself subsidiary, he makes himself secondary and inferior; he greets Moshe with the words I your father-in-law come to you. Seven times in the first short passage of our Parsha he is referred to as Moshe s father-in-law. He identifies himself in relation to Moshe, he sees himself as the lesser person. Then he is given the ultimate test. Rashi comments when Moshe went out to greet his father-in-law, Yitro was given a great honour at this time. Since Moshe went out to greet him, so did Aharon and Nadav and Avihu, and who could see these figures go out and not follow? 7. The entire nation came out toward Yitro; he was now in a position to be his own man once more; he was able to dictate events and have Moshe bow at his feet Moshe went out and bowed to him and kissed him 8. 6 Berachot 63b 7 Shemot 18:7 8 Ibid.

4 But Yitro succeeded where Cain failed. Yitro declines the honour, and when Moshe asks him to stay, he steps away and refuses the request. He is to return home. He has now understood that he cannot be the man of the moment at all moments, he has made his contribution and given his input, but Moshe must lead. The advice he offers Moshe is to allow others into the ring; make a court, a Sanhedrin. No one can only be their own man; each must allow the input and the contribution of the other. When Cain saw the acceptance of his brother s sacrifice he objected and violently reacted to the affront to his offerings. Yitro made the ultimate sacrifice, the self-sacrifice and stood away from the leadership. The moment he had always searched for, the instant of truth and clarity had arrived, and in that instant, at that moment, he knew what he had to do. He took a step back and, with humility and dignity, refused the position he had been chasing. I was sitting at a library desk a few weeks back and as a lifted my head and allowed my mind to wander an image struck me; there was a plaque on the side of the desk partition that read In honour of the great contribution to our community made by Rabbi X. I had never heard the name before, I am embarrassed not to remember it now, but his name had been frozen in time, honoured by those whom he had affected and treasured by those who he had loved. In some ways it was tragic that his contribution had been reduced to a dusty plaque that graced the partition of my library desk, in others it was touching in the way that it was revived as I saw it. As Yitro made the ultimate sacrifice he name is emblazoned in our minds and memories, his name graces the Torah scrolls of all generations, and his name hides within it the revelation of God to Mankind, the episode of the giving of the Ten Commandments. As we look at the world around us, the societies that surround us and the communities that comfort us, let us recognize those who sacrificed themselves for the construction of our future. Let us pay attention to the plaques and dedications that adorn our shuls and embellish our schools; let the names of those who have stood to one side, and allowed a new generation of leaders come to the fore, rest in our minds with appreciation and gratitude. Let the names of those who have, in self-sacrifice, taken a step out of the limelight, be restored in our memories; let us preserve the legacy that they left for us to

5 carry forward, in the hope and with the prayer that the generation that follows us shall follow suit.