Dvar Torah on Parshat Yitro

This week's parsha begins with a visit from Moshe's father-in-law, the Midianite priest, Yitro. The Torah tells us that after Yitro heard about the miraculous events surrounding the exodus from Egypt, he took Moshe's wife and children, whom Moshe had left behind in Midian when he went to free the Jewish people from Egypt, and brought them to the Israelite camp in the desert. Moshe comes out to greet him, and then tells him about all of the tribulations the Israelites had gone through, and how God had, again and again, saved them. The Torah records Yitro's response to this miraculous tale - "va'yichad Yitro" - "And Yitro was happy for all the good which God had done for Israel, that he saved them from the hands of Egypt."

Va'yichad is a rare word, which appears only a handful of times in the Bible, and apparently means to rejoice or be jubilant. Rashi, in his commentary says that that is, in fact, the simple meaning of the word here. The strangeness of the word, however, seems to prompt the Rabbis to see another implication here, which Rashi also quotes: "His flesh became chidudin chidudin  [a play on the word va'yichad, and which means his skin was full of sharp points, i.e., he had goosebumps], as he was shocked and upset over the loss of Egypt. This is what people mean when they say 'Do not, even after ten generations, insult a non-Jew in front of a convert.'"

On one level, this Rabbinic understanding of the rare word va'yichad teaches us about sensitivity. People carry their backgrounds and histories around with them. Yitro, as a non-Jew from Midian, identifies and sympathizes, on some level, with Egypt. Even though he is now more closely identified with the people of his son-in-law, daughter, and grandchildren, he still retains some measure of identification with the Egyptians, and is upset by news of their defeat. The Rabbis parallel this with a descendant of converts who, even though he or she is now a Jew, never completely loses elements of his ancestors' non-Jewish identity, and feels a kinship of sort with non-Jews. For this reason we must be sensitive in his presence to what we say about and how we act towards non-Jews, as he is liable to be insulted if they are.

This midrash also teaches us something about the complexity of the human heart. Although consciously and overtly identified with the Jewish people, Yitro can not, apparently, simply erase who he was and how he once felt. On a visceral level (hence the goosebumps, an automatic, emotional, physical, response to the situation, not a rational one), he still retains his feelings for the Egyptian nation. His newer relationship with Moshe, God, and the Jewish people does not erase his old personality, or his old sensitivities.

We are complex beings. We can consciously choose and espouse one set of values and beliefs, while at the same time, on a deeper, more intuitive level, harbor within us very different, even opposing, emotional connections and responses. It is not an accident that the Rabbis see Yitro's body - his flesh - as the thing that gives him away, and reveals to us, and to him, who he really is, underneath. In addition to the conscious, intellectual choice which Yitro has made to praise God and recognize the miracles He has done for His people, he also has a set of deeply felt emotional commitments which he can not simply decide to undo. Like the rest of us, Yitro lives somewhere in between who he is, and who he would like to be.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shimon Felix