Orayta Parsha Study Group: Yitro - יתרו

(1) Jethro priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out from Egypt.

(1) Our rabbis already disagreed (Mekhilta on Exodus 18:1, Zevachim 116a) about this section. There are some of them that say Yitro came before the giving of the Torah, like the order of the sections, and there are some of them that say that it came after the giving of the Torah. And [the latter view] is certainly supported by the verse that states (Exodus 18:5), "And Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, and his sons and wife came to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped there at the mountain of God." Behold, it states that he came to him in his being encamped in front of Mount Sinai, where they encamped for a year. And this [phrase serves as] the explanation of "where he was encamped there." And also as it states (Exodus 18:16), "and I make known the laws and teachings of God,” as they are the ones given to him at Mount Sinai. And also as here it states (Exodus 18:27), "And Moshe sent off his father-in-law, and he went his way to his land" - and this was in the second year when they traveled from Mount Sinai, as it states in Parshat Behaalotekha (Numbers 10:29), "And Moshe said to Hovav, son of Reuel the Midianite, Moshe’s father-in-law, 'We are traveling.'" And there it is written (Numbers 10:30), "And he said to him, 'I will not go, but rather to my land and to my birthplace will I go,'" and that is the going written [about] here (Exodus 18:27), "and he went his way to his land." And they also brought a proof from that which the verse stated (Deuteronomy 1:6-7), "The Lord, our God, spoke to us at Horeb saying, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and travel,'" and there it states, (Deuteronomy 1:9,15), "And I said to you, 'I am not able to carry you by myself' [...] And I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, etc.," and that is the counsel of Yitro. And there it states (Deuteronomy 1:9,15), "And we traveled from Chorev," as they traveled immediately. And, if so, a reason is required why this section is brought forward to write it here. And nonetheless I ask about this opinion, when the verse [here] states, "And Yitro heard all that the Lord had done for Moshe and for Israel His people, that the Lord had brought Israel out from Egypt" - and why did it not state that he heard that which He did for Moshe and for Israel at the giving of the Torah, about all of the great wonders that He did for them, as it stated (Deuteronomy 4:32), "You have but to inquire about bygone ages that came before you, ever since God created man on earth, from one end of heaven to the other, 'Has anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known? Has any people heard the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have, and lived?'" And [also] when it states (Exodus 18:8), "And Moshe recounted to his father-in-law everything that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that had befallen them on the way," and Yitro said from this (Exodus 18:11), "Now I know that the Lord is greater" - why did he not tell him [about] the stand at Mount Sinai, [since] from it, he would know that the Lord is true and his Torah is true, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 4:35-6), "You have been shown that the Lord alone is God; there is none beside Him. From the heavens He let you hear His voice, etc." And maybe we can say that Yitro immediately heard in his land that God had taken Israel out of Egypt and [so] he traveled from his land and arrived to Moshe after he was encamped at Mount Sinai, after the giving of the Torah. And it does not recount that [Moshe] mentioned to him the matter of that stand, as the thing was still proximate and they were still there, and [so] it is obvious that it was told to him. And what is closer to me is to take the order of the Torah, that [Yitro] came before the giving of the Torah, when [the Israelites] were in Refidim, as they said in Mechilta here, "Rabbi Yehoshua said, 'He heard about the war of Amalek and came, as it is written alongside it,'" and he traveled with them from Refidim to Mount Sinai. And the matter of the verse that states, "Where he was encamped there at the mountain of God," is that Mount Sinai was on the way from Midian, close to there - as behold, Moshe went there to graze the flock of Midian (Exodus 3:1), and with Aharon, it stated (Exodus 4:27), "and he met him on the mountain of God." And behold, Yitro went out with his daughter and the boys from Midian and they came to Mount Sinai, and Moshe was in Refidim, which is a place in the Sien Wilderness. As the verse stated (Exodus 16:1), "And they traveled from Elim and the Children of Israel came to the Sien Wilderness which is between Elim and Sinai," meaning the Sien Wilderness extends until Mount Sinai, and includes Dofkah, Alush and Refidim. And even though it states (Exodus 17:1), "And they traveled [...] from the Sien Wilderness [,,,] and they camped in Refidim," so [also] did it state (Numbers 33:12-13), "And they traveled from the Sien Wilderness and they camped in Dofkah," and "Alush" - and they are part of the Sien Wilderness itself. As the entire wilderness is called the Wilderness of Sien and the [specific] place that is in front of Mount Sinai is called the Wilderness of Sien. And similar to this is (Genesis 22:32), "and they went back to the Land of the Philistines." And behold, the explanation of the verse would [then] be, "Yitro, Moshe's father-in-law, came with his sons and wife to Moshe in the wilderness where he was encamped," and he came "to the mountain of God," since he came to the mountain and he stopped there." And it is like (Exodus 3:1), "And he came to the mountain of God, to Chorev," and so [too] (Genesis 4:27), "and he met him at the mountain of God," and so [too] (Deuteronomy 1:6), "It is enough for you to be sitting at this mountain." And from the mountain, he sent [word] to him, "I am your father-in-law, Yitro, who has come to you, and Moshe went out to him." And we will [then] not need to say that "and [Yitro] said" [in this verse] is earlier. And even if Refidim would not be in the Wilderness of Sien, nonetheless it is in the wilderness - since Israel did not come to an inhabited land for the entire forty years. And it was close to Mount Sinai, as the congregation - of such a large camp as it - came from there to the mountain in one day, as was explained regarding the matter of the boulder from which they drank at Refidim, as I explained (Ramban on Exouds 17:7). And behold, the explanation that I said is correct. And I also saw in Mekhilta (here), "'To the wilderness where he encamped there' - behold, the verse is wondering about him, that he was [living] in the glory of the world and he [nonetheless] sought to go out to the wilderness of emptiness, where there is nothing in it." [From here we see that] their opinion is to explain, "to the wilderness where he encamped," that it is the wilderness of "the mountain of God" - as the Wilderness of Sien [extended] from Elim to Mount Sinai, and the verse recounts that he came to the edge of "the wilderness where he encamped there" - that is the wilderness of the 'mountain of God, to Chorev.' And it mentioned this for the praise of Yitro, that he left his land and came to the wilderness in which he was in, which was the mountain of God - as there was God revealed to him, as he already heard the whole matter that Israel went out of Egypt to serve 'God upon this mountain,' and he came 'in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.' And this is also correct. And so [too] does it appear [correct] to me that [that which] it stated here (Exodus 18:27), "And Moshe sent away his father-in-law and he went his way to his land," was in the first year, and he went to his land and returned to [Moshe afterwards] - and it is likely that he went to convert his family, and he returned to Moshe while he was still at Mount Sinai, since it is close to Midian, as I have mentioned. As behold, when the camp traveled in Iyar of the second year, when Moshe said to him, "We are traveling [...] Come with us," and Yitro answered him, "I will not go, but will return to my native land,” and Moshe supplicated him greatly and said to him, “Please do not leave us, etc. and you will be to us like eyes. So if you come with us, we will extend to you the same good that the Lord grants us" (Numbers 10:29:32), he did not respond at all, and [so] it appears that [Yitro] accepted [Moshe's] words and did according to his will and did not leave them. However [we find that] in the days of Shaul, his children were with Amalek and they came and reconnected with Israel and [that] the children of Yonadav the son of Rachav were in Jerusalem. [So] maybe with the death of Moshe, he or his children returned to his land. And maybe the Kenites that dwelt with Amalek were from the family of Yitro, but were not his children, and [Shaul] did kindness with the whole family for [Yitro's] sake, like Yehoshua did with the family of Rachav (Joshua 6:23). And the opinion of our rabbis is such that he went with them: they said in Sifrei Behaalotekha 34:1 that they gave him the fat [land] of Yericho, and they would consume [produce from] it for four hundred and forty years, until the Temple was built. And Rashi himself wrote this in Parshat Behaalotekha (Rashi on Numbers 10:32). If so, [Yitro] changed his mind [about leaving]. And in Mikhilta (here) [it is written], "'Behold, I will go and convert the people of my city, so that I will bring them under the wings of the Divine Presence.' Maybe he went and did not come back? [That is why] it teaches to say, 'And the children of the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moshe, went up from the city of dates, etc.' (Judges 1:16)."

(22) and let them judge the people at all times. Have them bring every major dispute to you, but let them decide every minor dispute themselves. Make it easier for yourself by letting them share the burden with you.

(26) and they judged the people at all times: the difficult matters they would bring to Moses, and all the minor matters they would decide themselves.

(13) no hand shall touch him, but he shall be either stoned or shot; beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.”

(9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

(14) You shall not covet your neighbor’s house: you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

לא תחמוד אשת רעך, “Do not lust after your fellow man’s wife!” Do not scheme to how bring about her divorce so that you can marry her. The translation of lo tachmod cannot be that you shall not kidnap her are otherwise force her to sleep with you. This prohibition was already included in the prohibition to commit adultery. The first five commandments were all in the category of לא מבעיא, there being no question of their being necessary. The need to accept G-d as Israel’s Master hardly had to be spelled out. Neither did the commandment not to worship competing deities or the need not to swear an oath by any other deity, or to observe the Sabbath, seeing that G-d Himself had observed a Sabbath; nor was there a need to decree to honour one’s parents. Every gentile does so without having been ordered to do so by G-d. Even the last five of the Ten Commandments did not need to be legislated as universal disregard of either of these commandments results in complete anarchy and the destruction of the human race by itself. In most of the Ten Commandments we find two cantillation marks per word (as opposed to only one on a word.). The symbolism that is represented by that fact is a reminder that we have two versions of the Ten Commandments in the written Torah. When the Torah is read in public on the festival of Shavuot, which is the anniversary of the revelation on Mount Sinai, we read the second commandment לא יהיה לך as well as the whole commandment commencing with the word: זכור using the major cantillation marks in order that each one of them be understood as a single verse. The 6th9th commandments are read on that occasion by using the minor cantillation marks, in order to understand them as separate verses. The reason is that although we never find a verse that has only two words, in this instance the Rabbis decided to remind us that we are dealing here with separate commandments. When the Torah is read on an ordinary Sabbath in the month of Sh’vat, however, and the Ten Commandments are read as part of the portion known as Yitro, we read the entire Ten Commandments using the minor cantillation marks as a result of which we make four verses of each one of them. The reason why on Shavuot we read the first and second commandment with the major cantillation marks is to remind us that they were uttered by G-d as a single continuous verse. [The author had explained there that these two Commandments were heard by all of the people from G-d’s mouth without Moses acting as an interpreter. Ed.] [In the second version of the Ten Commandments where the 7thh10th commandments are linked to one another by the prefix letter ו, it is clear that they are to be treated as separate commandments each. Ed.][The author proceeds to spell this out in greater detail. Readers familiar with the significance of each cantillation mark will be able to check this themselves. Ed.]

You shall not covet: Many people have wondered about this commandment, how is is that a man not covet in his heart that which is beautiful [and] all that which appears pleasant in his eyes. I will give you a parable [to explain this]. You should know that a villager who thinks correctly and sees that the king's daughter is beautiful will not covet her in his heart, that he should sleep with her; as he knows that this is impossible. And this villager will not think like one of the lunatics that desires that he should have wings to fly in the sky, when it is not possible. [This is like] that which a man does not desire to sleep with his mother, even though she is beautiful, as they have accustomed him from his youth to know that it is forbidden to him. So must every enlightened person know that a beautiful woman or money is not attained by a person because of his wisdom or knowledge; rather it is from that which God apportioned to him. And Kohelet said, "(to that) [and to the one that did not toil in it], will he give it as his portion" (Ecclesiastes 2:21). And the sages said (Moed Katan 28a), "Children, life and sustenance - [this] matter does not depend on merit, but rather on the constellation." And because of this, the enlightened one will not desire and not covet. And once he knows that God forbade him the wife of his friend, it is more removed in his eyes than the daughter of the king is in the eyes of the villager. Therefore, he will 'rejoice in his portion' and he won't place in his heart to covet and desire something that is not his. Since he knows that God did not want to give it to him [and that] he is not able to take it with his power and thoughts and machinations. Hence, he will trust in his Creator, that He will provide for him and that He will do what is good in His eyes. And behold, the commentary on the Ten Commandments is completed....