YISRO 2001

In the Torah portion, Yisro, we learn how Yisro comes to meet his father-in-law at Mount Sinai.  Moshe could have disowned him and his wife and his children, but he did not.  After all, he could have claimed that he was now the leader of the Jewish people, and he did not want anything to do with his past life.  After all, Yisro was not a Jew, his wife was not a Jew, and according to the Medrash, he had even agreed to raise his eldest son as a pagan, but Moshe did not do that but, instead, he enthusiastically greeted his father-in-law and his wife and his children.  He did not try to cover up his past.  He did not try to say that it was unseemly for him to have had such a past.  Moshe was a mensch.

The rabbis are not in agreement as to when Yisro came.  Did he come after the giving of the Torah, or before the giving of the Torah?  Rashi is of the opinion that he came before the giving of the Torah.  The Torah portion in which the Ten Commandments is given to the Jewish people is named after Yisro.  This Torah portion is named for a non-Jew.  According to the Ramban, if Yisro came before the giving of the Torah, this Torah portion was named for him when he was still a non-Jew.
Yisro gave Moshe good advice on how to organize the society.  This teaches us that truth is the truth, no matter from whom it comes.  The Torah says, "And Yisro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moshe heard all which G-d did to Moshe and to Israel, His People."  Rashi says, "And what did Yisro hear that caused him to come?" He answers, "The splitting of the Red Sea and the war of Amalek."  If Yisro wanted to become a Jew, he could have just had Moshe send him a teacher.  by did Yisro have to come?  What prompted him to come?

We all know the famous quote which says for evil to triumph all good men have to do is nothing.  If we want evil to be overcome, we have to be active.  We have to do things.  We cannot just sit by passively.  Yisro knew this.  According to the Medrash, Pharaoh had three advisors when he was about to kill all the Jewish males, have them thrown into the Nile.  One of his advisors was Bilam.  Bilam thought it was a good idea and agreed with Pharaoh.  The second advisor was Job.  He did not say anything.  He said, "What good will it do?  Pharaoh has already made up his mind."  The third advisor was Yisro.  He protested, and he quit and left Egypt when Pharaoh would not listen to him.  He truly believed all good men have to do is nothing for evil to prevail.  He knew he had to come when he heard about the war of Amalek and the splitting of the Red Sea.  That's why Rashi mentions these two things, although there is a Gemora which backs up Rashi's assertion that Yisro came after the Ten Commandments, because it said he also heard about the giving of the Torah, but Rashi does not mention that, maybe because there are many rabbis who do not want to make the Ten Commandments special, saying that way if they are different than the rest of the Torah, it would lead many Jews to believe that all they have to observe is the Ten Commandments and not the other commandments.  That's why the Sephardim, following the Rambam and listening to the Psak modern Halachic decision of Rav Avadya Yosef, sit during the reading of the Ten Commandments, while we Ashkenazies, following the Psak Halachic decision of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, stand.  Rashi says that Yisro heard, and he came because the splitting of the Red Sea and the war of Amalek were caused because of hatred.  He had to come to combat hatred.  If not for Pharaoh's hatred of the Jews, how can you explain his actions?  He had already been beaten down by the ten plagues.  His oldest son had been killed, his economy ruined.  He, though, felt that he had to attack the Jews, even if it meant he would lose his army.  Going into a sea that was so unstable, didn't he know the walls would come down on him?  He was motivated by hatred, just as Hitler's great hatred of the Jews caused him to lose World War Two.  If he had used his railroad cars to resupply his armies at Stalingrad and Leningrad, and instead using the cars to transport Jews to concentration camps, he would have won the war.  His blind hatred caused him to destroy his own armies.

We find this also today with Arafat.  Arafat's blind hatred of the Jews in Israel is readily apparent.  It caused him to reject the best offer he is ever going to get at Camp David.  It caused him to claim that the Jews are spreading AIDs among his people, using depleted uranium and poison gas, etc.  He wants to eradicate Israel, not live side by side with it, Amalek acted out of pure hatred.  The rabbis say that Amalek's father, Elifas, told him to be good to the Jews.  After al, Elifas was Esau's son and Yitzchak's grandson, just as Amalek was Yitzchak's great-grandson.  The rabbis say that Elifas was actually a tzadik.  He had learned from Yitzchak.  When his father sent him to kill Yaacov, he did not do it° He understood the importance of the values he learned from his grandfather, and he told his son to be good to the Jews, but Amalek would not hear of it, Amalek acted out of Esau's ancient grievances, which Esau had already forgiven.  He knew he was going to be defeated, but he wanted to harm the Jews, no matter what, just as Arafat should know that he is going to be defeated now, too.  The Jews of Israel are not ready to give up.  That's the message they sent Arafat by electing Sharon.

Hatred is terrible because it destroys everything.  How many families have been destroyed because of hatred between the husband and wife?  So many terrible divorces where one party does not care, even if it harms the children or takes all the money.  They just want to get back, even if it means they are going to hurt themselves.  Hatred is a terrible thing.  When you see hatred, especially against innocent people, we have to come there and help.  That's what Yisro was teaching us here.  That is, too, one of the reasons why the Torah portion in which the Ten Commandments are found is named after him.  The Ten Commandments cannot be reconciled with hatred.  We have to overcome hatred.  We should never be motivated by hatred, like Pharaoh and Amalek were.  When we see hatred, we have to band together and dispel it.

That is one of the purposes of our Holocaust Museum in town, to teach the evils of hatred.  Let none of us hate, and let us do like Yisro did, come there to help those who are the objects of hatred.  Hatred always disfigures and hurts the person who hates others even more than the person who is hated.

I am reminded of the story they tell about two men working in a sewer.  The foreman was on top running the machine.  One of the men below said, "This is not fair.  We always down in the sewer and the foreman gets to be upon top.  I'm going to go talk to him."  He went up to the foreman and talked to him.  The foreman said, "I'm up here and you're down there because I am smarter than you two, and I'll prove it."  He put his hand in front of a tree and told the man to hit his hand as hard as he could.  The man swung his fist, the foreman removed his hand, and the man's fist went into the tree.  He really hurt his hand.  He bandaged his hand and went back down into the sewer.  His friend asked, "What did you find out?"  The man replied, "he is on top because he is smarter than us.  However, I want you to know I'm smarter than you.  Hit my hand as hard as you can."  He then stuck his hand in front of his face.  The man swung his fist, the man removed his hand, and you know what happened to him.  Hatred destroys, especially the person who hates.  Let us all hope that none of us will be consumed by hatred so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.