Zipporah: A 3-Act Story

Tzipporah “on one foot”:
Tzipporah was the daughter of a priest of Midian, who was named Jethro. When Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian taskmaster, he eventually married her. Midian is in modern day Saudi Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba.

A Novelized Version
Halter, Marek. Zipporah, Wife of Moses. 2005.

A Readers’ Theatre Version of the Story of Tzipporah
Adapted from the Book of Exodus, Chapters 2, 4, and 18, by David Schwartz
Act 1
(Setting: Midian)
Narrator: After Pharaoh learned that Moses had killed an Egyptian taskmaster, he sought to kill Moses and Moses fled. He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock, but shepherds came and drove them off. Moses rose to their rescue and watered their flock. They then returned home.
Reu’el: How is it that you have come back so soon today?
Daughters: An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.
Reu’el: Where is he then? Why did you leave the man? Ask him in to break bread.
Narrator: Moses consented to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Tzipporah as his wife. She bore a son.
Moses: I would like to name him Gershom, for I have been a stranger in a foreign land.
Act 2
Scene 2
(Setting: Midian)
Narrator: Moses worked for his father-in-law as a shepherd. One day, Moses encountered G-d in a burning bush and was convinced by G-d to return to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery.
Moses: Father-in-law, let me go back to my kinsfolk in Egypt and see how they are faring.
Jethro: Go in peace.
G-d: Moses, go back to Egypt, for all those who sought to kill you are dead.
Scene 2
(Setting: On the road)
Narrator: Moses took his wife and sons, mounted them on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt; Moses also took the rod of G-d with him.
G-d: Moses, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the marvels that I have put within your power. I, however, will stiffen his heard so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says G-d: Israel is My first-born son. I have said to you ‘Let My son go, that he may worship Me’, yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your first-born son.”
Narrator: At a night encampment on the way, G-d encountered him and sought to kill him. So Tzipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it.
Tzipporah: You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!
Narrator: And when G-d let him alone, she added something.
Tzipporah: A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.
Act 3
(Setting: The other side of the Sea of Reeds)
Narrator: Later on, after the Israelites had left Egypt and crossed the Sea of Reeds, news reached Jethro about how G-d had brought Israel out of Egypt. So Jethro took his daughter Tzipporah, and his grandsons Gershom and Eliezer, and brought Moses’ family to him in the wilderness at the mountain of G-d. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed low and kissed him, each asked after the other’s welfare, and they went into the tent.

Appendix B: Tzipporah as a Case Study in Work-Life Balance
By: David Schwartz
“Listen to your wife’s voice” ~ Genesis 21:12
We often focus a lot on Moses, and there’s much we can learn from him. Someone who we pay less attention to, though, is his wife Tzipporah. Yet there is much that she can teach us, particularly about the very modern issue of work-life balance.
When we first meet Tzipporah, she’s a shepherd, bringing her sheep to the well in Midian (modern day Saudi Arabia, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba). She is prevented from giving water to her sheep, though, by a group of male shepherds. Suddenly, an Egyptian stranger shows up and stops them from harassing her, enabling her to water her sheep. When she gets home, her father Jethro asks why it was so much faster today. Tzipporah tells him about the stranger and Jethro asks her to invite him to dinner as he probably has no place to stay. Moses stays with them and eventually marries Tzipporah (the Torah is silent about their courtship, though the 1998 cinematic midrash “The Prince of Egypt” imagines what it might have been like).
Work-life balance is pretty good at this point in Moses and Tzipporah’s life together. They both work as shepherds, going to work during the day with the sheep, and having time together after the sheep are asleep. They live in Tzipporah’s extended family community, and they manage to have two kids together. According to all evidence in the Torah, things are going pretty well.
Tzipporah’s life takes a dramatic turn when Moses has an encounter with G-d at the Burning Bush. Moses is seized with new purpose and decides that he has to go back to Egypt to free his people. The Torah doesn’t say how Tzipporah feels about this news (though “Prince of Egypt” does some imagining), but it is clear that Tzipporah and the kids ride on a donkey on Moses’ trip back to Egypt. One night, Moses has an experience that the Torah describes as an attack from G-d. Tzipporah figures out that this is related to the fact that one of the boys is not circumcised, and she steps in to do this herself. Immediately afterwards, Moses is fine. Tzipporah and Moses have a relationship that is a partnership, and it is not only to Moses’ benefit, it literally saves his life.
At some point after this, Moses sends Tzipporah and the boys back to live with Jethro. It is unclear when or why he did this. It may be that he felt the journey was too dangerous for his family, or that the business of freeing the slaves would be too hard for them. It may be that he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to take care of his family given the task at hand, or it may be that he was concerned that his family would distract him from doing his “job”. There is certainly no evidence as to how Tzipporah felt about this — she might have been sad and disappointed or she might have felt relieved. At this point, Moses’ work-life balance tips entirely to the “work” side.
Once the Israelites have crossed the Sea of Reeds, Jethro brings back Tzipporah and the boys to reunite with Moses. One could imagine that Tzipporah spends part of the trip imagining the reunion with her husband, and part of the trip telling the boys about their father. When they arrive, Moses goes out to greet Jethro and brings him into the tent, presumably in order to “talk shop” about leadership. It seems that Moses has been so affected by his unbalanced work-life balance that he has forgotten how to prioritize his family. Once again, the Torah does not tell us how Tzipporah responds to this choice by her husband.
A few months go by, mostly spent near Mt. Sinai. Following Jethro’s advice, Moses elevates seventy elders to assist him with the burdens of leadership. Immediately afterwards, Moses’ sister Miriam speaks negatively about Moses in regards to his wife. The commentator Rashi (on Num. 12:1) cites classical Rabbinic midrash (Sifrei Bamidbar 99:1) as to what the connection might be. The rabbis imagine a scene where Miriam remarks how fortunate the men are that were elevated, and Tzipporah responds, “But woe to their wives who will be ignored just like Moses ignores me”. Thus, Miriam speaks poorly of her brother for not balancing his responsibilities better.
Work-life balance is hard. Leadership is important, and work is important. When somebody is hired for a job, they are expected to put in the time for the job. At the same time, there is the Jewish value of “Shalom Bayit”, peace in the house. This is such a high priority that G-d lied in order to promote it. When Sarah heard that she was going to have a baby, she laughed and asked “How is this possible when my husband and I are so old?” G-d asked Abraham about this, asking “Why did Sarah question this saying that she was so old?” It was a lie of omission, and it seems like this was done for the sake of “Shalom Bayit”.
There are many different ways that Judaism is relevant in our lives today. May we all strive to balance “work” (even if we are retired) with paying attention to the people in our lives.

D’var Torah for Parsha Yitro
By: Elliot Darvick

The most obvious place for me to take this d’var torah would be to focus on G-d’s delivery of the ten commandments to the embryonic Jewish nation assembled at the base of Har Sinai.
I mean, this is the moment in the Exodus story. After all, Charlton Heston didn’t star in a film called Leaving Egypt, or A Desert Tale. He starred in The Ten Commandments.
This is the only instance in the Five Books of Moses when G-d speaks directly to the Israelites.
Our Sages have even written that the souls of all Jews, present and future, were actually at that event.
So given that you were there, I don’t need to spend time covering it further.
Besides, I think there is an equally interesting story in this parsha. The film version of this story would be called Leaving Egypt, a romantic comedy-drama starring a sincere if not distracted Moses, and his equally sincere and loveably optimistic father-in-law, Yitro.
In the opening scene, we find Yitro arriving in the desert from his homeland Midian because, as the text states, “he heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel.”
Moses confirms for his father-in-law that indeed this was true, and he adds that there were also, as the text states, many “hardships that had befallen them on the way.”
But why was it so important for Moses to add on this additional detail for Yitro?
Because standing next to Yitro is his daughter Tziporah, the wife of Moses.
This is my personal take, so let me explain my logic.
Until this moment, Tziporah had been living with Yitro back in Midian. Much time had passed since Moses and Tziporah were last together, an encounter Rashi describes in this way:
Aaron, brother of Moses, has been dispatched by G-d to meet Moses just prior to his return from exile to Egypt.
Aaron asks Moses, “Who are these?”, pointing a finger at the woman and two children behind Moses. Moses replies, “This is my wife, whom I married in Midian, and these are my sons.”
“And where are you taking them?” Aaron asked. “To Egypt,” Moses replies.
Aaron retorts, “We are pained by the first ones who are suffering here, and you come to add to them?” In other words, it’s miserable and getting worse in Egypt, don’t put your family through that if they aren’t there already.
Moses then says to Tziporah, “Go home to your father.”
She takes their two sons and fades into the distance.
So here we are in the parsha Yitro, Moses and Tziporah reunited again.
I picture Moses sheepishly looking at his sandals. So much distance between him and Tziporah, he can’t bring himself to even address her directly.
Moses wants her to know he was justified in asking her to remain behind, but the best he can do is hope she listens intently as he speaks to her father.
It’s a really sad moment for this marriage.
Perhaps the reality has set in for Moses that while he succeeded in protecting her from the hardships of the journey, he also shielded the relationship from growing stronger through a shared experience. In-fact, quite the opposite has occurred: they’ve grown apart.
But Yitro, ever the optimist, has another plan after the Moses-Tziporah reunification didn’t spark the embrace he hoped it would.
He plays the father-in-law advice card.
There is a certain deference given to one’s father-in-law. Whereas we are wired to ignore our own parents (even though they are equally wise, and as we learn later in this parsha, we’re literally commanded by G-d to respect them), with in-laws, we at least hear them out. It’s part of the trade for having entrusted us with their own children.
Can you imagine Moses taking advice from his dad? I imagine it going something like this, “Dad, I’ve heard it a million times from you, enough already.”
So Yitro gives it a shot. But he doesn’t give Moses marital advice. No, he gives him some leadership advice. Yitro watches how Moses handles one-by-one all the problems in his flock.
In the text he says, "What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit by yourself, while all the people stand before you from morning till evening?"
He then continues, “The thing you are doing is not good. You will surely wear both yourself and these people who are with you for the matter is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.”
Yitro goes on to recommend a management structure that will give Moses the ability to thrive. And Moses agrees!
Now, what does this leadership advice have to do with Moses and his marriage to Tziporah? I’ll be vulnerable for a moment and share a personal anecdote.
A couple years ago, my career as a leader had really begun to take on momentum.
In a particularly reflective and honest moment, my wife Elizabeth said to me, “The bigger your teams get, the more challenging it is to be around you.”

At the time I interpreted her insight as a comment on my affect. I had a short fuse, I was irritable, and a certain spark was missing when the Zoom camera turned off.
The truth is, I hadn’t yet figured out a way to lead teams without taking on their emotional energy too. It was exhausting, and I wasn’t pleasant to be around at home.
But as I read Yitro, and I thought about the advice Moses receives from his father-in-law, I realized that what Elizabeth was also saying was, “As your team grows, there is less room for us, your family.”
In a roundabout way, Yitro was hoping that by freeing up Moses’ time, perhaps he’d have more space for his original flock, Tziporah and their two children, Gershom and Eliezer.
Having given his advice, and perhaps his best shot at bringing Moses and his daughter back together, the parsha tells us that Yitro “went away to his land.”
While it’s not the last we hear of Yitro in the Torah, it’s the last we hear of Tziporah. We’re left to speculate how the movie ends.
While Tziporah is fierce, loyal and presumably compassionate, we don’t recite her name with the other matriarchs. She doesn’t get a cup at the Seder table.
I believe this tells us a lot about how the movie ends.
But, I also believe her name and legacy are worth celebrating, because as I think about the commandments embedded within this parsha, there is one unspoken commandment that for me, resonates just as loudly:
Create space for your family and love them first among all those around you, at home and on your way.
Let this be Tziporah’s commandment to us all. Good shabbos.

Zipporah (2023)
By Gary Mark Belenke
Whenever my father Reuel bemoaned not having sons, I would respond, “You don’t need
sons when you have strong and healthy daughters.” There was one time I was proven wrong.

We had risen early to graze our sheep, but the sun was already blazing and they needed
water. We were seven sisters. They were four shepherds, and much stronger than us. The
shepherds were first to the well and blocked our path. At twenty-one years, I was the eldest daughter, told them who our father was, and ordered the shepherds to leave. I tried to push them out of our way, but they threw me to the ground and laughed.

One shepherd said, “I don’t care if a priest of Midian is your father, girl. There’s more of
that to come if you don’t let us water our flock! You can use the well when we have finished.”
He laughed again, “If there is any water left.”
We had no choice but to step back and let the shepherds take the water from the well dug
by my father and his Midian brothers many years ago. We sat fuming on nearby rocks, sweating under the hot sun.

Like an apparition, a man appeared from the wilderness to the west. He was tall with
muscular arms and a face burnt from the sun and wind. I couldn’t tell what he looked like under all the dust, but thanked the Gods for his arrival. He waved his staff at the shepherds and spoke with a strange voice. I could understand most of his words, though his pronunciation was unlike ours. The men stealing our water however, understood his meaning.

“Where are your manners?” he said. “You shepherds must wait and let the women water
their flocks.”
“Try to stop us,” said the shepherd with the longest beard. “You look like a dirty beggar.”
He raised his staff in defiance.
The foreign man, wearing Egyptian garb, swirled his staff in ways I had never seen and
the shepherd was struck, tripped, and on his back with the staff at his throat.
“I said, let them have the water first. Is there anyone else who wishes to challenge me?”
The Egyptian spoke with confidence in a tone that demanded obedience.
Emboldened by what we had seen, my six sisters and I raised our staffs and edged closer
to the shepherds. They backed away and took their flocks with them.
“The water is now yours,” the Egyptian said.
“No, sir,” I replied. “You go first. Drink to your fill and cleanse yourself. We are in your
debt.”
He thanked us, drank deeply, washed his face and hands, and helped us water our flock.
“Who are you?” I asked. “And where are you from?”
“My name is Moses,” he answered. “I am a traveler.”
We were near the trade route and I had seen many merchants and travelers. Though his
dress was that of an Egyptian, his face and coloring were like no Egyptian I had ever seen.
“Your clothes are Egyptian, but not your face or your language.”
“My people are from Goshen, which is part of Egypt,” he said.
“I have never heard of Goshen. Why have you come here?”
He sighed, looked to the west, ignored my question, and said, “Thank you again for the
water, and for the company.” Though he spoke to all of us, he stared at me and said, “It was a pleasure to meet you.” I was embarrassed and lowered my eyes. With his staff in his hand, I watched him disappear toward the southeast. He was a handsome man with kind eyes and I was sad to see him leave.

When we arrived home, my father asked, “Why have you returned early?”
I answered, “We had trouble with some of the other shepherds, but an Egyptian helped us drive them away from the well and water our flock.”
“Where is he?” My father raised his voice. “Zipporah, you are the oldest and were in
charge. Have I not taught you manners? Fly now, like a bird, find him and invite him back here for a meal. Don’t take no for an answer. I must thank him properly for helping my daughters.”
I grabbed my next oldest sister, and we ran through the wilderness until we caught up
with the man. Short of breath, I gasped, “You must return with us. My father wishes to thank you properly.”
“That is unnecessary,” he said.
“Please sir, my father insists, and we don’t want to come back empty-handed.”
He touched my face with his rough fingers and I felt as if my heart was bursting. He
asked, “What is your name?”
Blushing, I answered, “Zipporah, daughter of Reuel, a priest of Midian.”
“Well, Zipporah, daughter of Reuel,” he said, “we cannot dishonor your father’s wishes.”
He paused for a moment and looked past the flat wilderness, over the water and toward the mountain and sands to our west, and then my sister and I led Moses back to my father’s tent where he stood waiting for us with open arms.

Moses shared the feast of stew, bread, and dates that my sisters prepared. While my
father and Moses sat cross-legged at the table, we sat at the rear of the tent and watched and listened to the conversation.

“Thank you,” my father said to Moses, “for helping my daughters today. Though they are
hard workers, there are times I wish they had a brother to help with the harder tasks.”

“Reuel, they appear quite capable, but are there no other men to assist them?”
“Most of the young men have moved on to fight in battles or seek their fortune. There
aren’t many left who can do a shepherd’s work,” and he winked at Moses, “or as you saw today, men I would consider acceptable mates for my daughters.”

“You do have lovely daughters,” Moses said.
Though Moses glanced at all of us, my father caught him staring at me and smiled. “My
oldest, Zipporah,” he said, “told me how she tried to take on the shepherds by herself. She is strong and often, too willful. After her mother died, she has taken care of me and her sisters. Zipporah would be a good wife to the right man.”

“I have no doubt,” said Moses.
“Moses, where are you from? My daughters said you were an Egyptian. Your coloring
and features are not those of any Egyptian I have met.”
“My people are from Goshen.”
“I have heard of them. The Abrahamites. Did you know my people, the Midianites are
also related to Abraham?”
“I did not know that.”
“It was a long time ago and our Gods may not be the same as yours, but we are related.”
“Reuel, that is one more reason I am honored to share a meal with you in your tent.”
After dinner, my father and Moses drank the wine I had poured. “Moses, what are your
plans?”
“I am a lowly wanderer,” he answered. “I will continue heading south and east. Wherever
the winds take me.”
“Maybe you are tired of wandering. When was the last time you ate such a good meal
cooked by such lovely girls?”
I watched Moses look past my father and over toward me again. He scratched his beard
and said, “I must admit, Reuel, it has been a while.”
“Moses, listen to my offer.” I knew what my father was going to say, and I had to hold on
to my sister’s arms to prevent me from leaping in excitement.
“It will soon be time to drive my flocks to new fields in the north. I am no longer a young man, and it would be helpful to have another hand to assist myself and my daughters in the movement of my flocks to a new grazing area. If you would remain with us for a while, I can offer you food and pleasant company.”

“That is a generous offer.”
“And we could also spend some time discussing the differences in our Gods.”
“That is an even better reason to stay, as I have been missing company and good
conversation. Reuel, you will find me to be a hard worker.”

“Of that Moses, I also have no doubt.”
Moses remained with my father and our tribe for several years, and I would often
shepherd the sheep with him. We spent much time together, sometimes talking, though often, we would quietly watch the sheep or chase away predators.

I was not privy to his private conversations with my father but when I would ask him
about his people and beliefs, he was mostly silent until one day when I saw his gaze shifting from me to the sheep, then back toward where he had come, and finally toward a mountain in the distance.

He appeared vexed, and I asked him, “Moses, what are you thinking?”
“Zipporah, I have asked your father for permission to marry you, and he said yes.”
I should have been excited, but I wished to know more about him if we were to be
married.
“Moses, I will marry you, but only if you finally answer my questions.”
After a deep breath he looked at me and said, “Zipporah, I am a Hebrew born in Goshen. Though I know little about the religion, I know they worship the one God. I was told that in order to save my life, my Hebrew mother placed me in a basket in the river. I was found and raised by the Pharoah’s daughter in the grand palace, as her own.”

That explained his regal bearing. But how did he end up here in Midian?

“The Egyptians were hard on the Hebrews, passing strict laws and making them work
like slaves while I said nothing. One day, I witnessed an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew. When I went to stop the abuse, my anger was kindled, and I accidentally killed him. The act was seen by others and in fear, I ran from the palace, from Egypt, into the desert and that is how I found you. Am I a Hebrew or an Egyptian? I don’t know. What I do know is I am happy to be here tending the sheep with you and your people. If you would have me, I would be honored to be your husband.”

Moses looked as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders. I placed my arms
around his neck and whispered in his ear, “And I would be honored to be your wife.”
Our time as husband and wife was pleasant. We cared for the sheep and each other and
after several years, we had a child. Moses named him Gershon and told me it meant ‘I was a stranger there.’ Though it was not our custom, the boy was circumcised. Moses said, “I don’t know how to worship to my God, but I was circumcised and remember that all the other Hebrew men were also circumcised in this manner.

Our life was blessed, and we had another son and Moses named him Eliezer, or ‘the God
of my father was my help.’ My second birthing had been as easy as the first, and our new son was to be circumcised in several days when Moses returned early from minding our flocks and was a different man. He stumbled toward me, his eyes wide and his face glowing with wonder. He was mumbling words I didn’t understand.

I ran from the tent with our son at my breast. “Moses, what has happened?”

He fell to his knees at my feet and answered, “Zipporah, I have seen God!”