פרשת יתרו
This week’s Parsha opens with Yisro coming out to the desert where Moshe and the Jewish people were with the intention to join the Jewish race forever. The verse says that after Yisro heard all that Hashem had done for the Jewish people in Egypt and during the exodus, he was so moved that he felt compelled to unite himself with their faith. Chazal try to identify what point exactly inspired Yisro so much that he was ready to make this life-changing decision. They explain that what impressed Yisro the most was the splitting of the Reed Sea and the war with Amalek. Let us analyze this Chazal for a moment. One can understand the persuasive power that the splitting of the sea would have on a person. Chazal say that a maidservant at the sea saw more than the greatest of our prophets. But what was so impressive about the war with Amalek? Was that any more impressive then the ten plagues that Hashem brought upon the Egyptians or the Manna or any of the other plethora of miracles that were performed for us? Indeed, based on the amount of miracles that occurred for the Jews during the extraction from Egypt and their safe arrival in the land of Israel, it is a wonder that every nation in the world did not convert to Judaism! Furthermore, if one examines the language of Chazal carefully, one notices that Chazal don’t say that it was the victory of the Jewish people that inspired Yisro, but rather it was the war that was so notable to Yisro. What was so remarkable about the war?
The answer to these questions is the same. Yisro was convinced early on, based on the miracles that were performed, as indeed all the nations of the world were, that Hashem was the one true God and that the Jews were the chosen people. The verse itself says that when all the nations heard what Hashem did for the Jewish people, they had a tremendous awe and belief in God. But he reasoned that it was enough to accept this belief in his heart, and that there was no need to take any action on account of this belief. However when Yisro saw the vicious attack that Amalek launched on the Jewish people, despite the fact that they too believed in the oneness of God and His choice of nations, he began to question his theory. He came to the conclusion that if Amalek had witnessed all the same miracles that he had, and were convinced of the omnipotence of the Creator, yet they could still fall to the depraved level in which they would attack His people, then he too could fall to that level. Yisro realized that although he now believed in God with complete conviction, if nothing were to be done about that belief, it would rapidly fade away. This explains why after the war with Amalek, Yisro decided to go out to the desert and convert to Judaism. He wisely grasped that it was not enough to believe in one’s heart in Hashem, rather one must take action and accept upon himself the whole Torah if he wants to capture the inspiration that a miracle offers and make it last, otherwise, that inspiration will grow fainter in no time and eventually die away completely just as it had for Amalek.
R’ Leib Shteinman once said that a Jew can reach tremendous heights of inspiration, whether through a well written article, or a powerful orator, but these feelings will not last unless he puts it into some kind of action. If a person gets aroused by some element to heighten his Mitzvah observance, but does not do anything practically to incorporate that arousal to his daily life, that feeling will soon fade away and will have been completely useless on a practical level. Indeed, the Ramban instructs all of us that at the end of a day’s learning, we must analyze whether anything we studied that day can be implemented in our daily lives. If the answer to that question is yes, we must take advantage of that opportunity immediately, before it is too late and the awareness we had has been forgotten.
There is a Gemorah in Berachos (17) which says that every year for two months out of the year the Jews used to travel to Masa Mechasay to study Torah diligently and prepare for the numerous laws of the holidays. The Gemorah says that the non-Jewish inhabitants of Masa Mechasya were completely overwhelmed when they saw the display of devotion and diligence that the Jews exhibited every year. Tosafos says that the Jews learned with such great fervor during this period that a heavenly fire descended and rested on their heads! Yet after all this, the Gemorah says that the inhabitants of the city did not change themselves or improve their ways and the Gemorah calls them “the strong of heart”. R’ Leib explains that the only way this could have happened was because they did not use their inspiration to change themselves practically, and start learning more about Judaism, rather it was an inspiring show for them, and then forgotten shortly after.
Perhaps we can delve deeper into this point that only practical Mitzvah observance can actually change a person and cleanse him. The Mishnah at the end of Makos says, “God wanted to merit the Jewish people, he therefore gave them an abundant amount of Torah and Mitzvos.” The word “merit” לזכות in Hebrew also means to “purify” from the word “זך”. By doing Mitzvos, we actually purify ourselves and remove the grime that exists in us and the people around us and succeed in making the world a better place.
When Moshe was punished for hitting the rock, Rashi explains that had he spoken to the rock like he was supposed to, God’s name would have been sanctified on this earth because people would have said to themselves, if a rock listens to the word of its master, then we certainly must listen. This Rashi seems puzzling. Couldn’t they have still made the same argument when Moshe hit the rock? After all, the hitting of the rock did produce the miraculous result of having water pour forth from it?! R’ Leib explains that we see from this Rashi the incredible power the human mind has to rationalize and dither the effect of a miracle. Moshe’s hitting the rock was a display of magic and nothing more and therefore was not able to have a lasting effect on the Jewish people. However, had Moshe listened to Hashem and spoken to the rock, the very fact that Moshe was listening to the word of God and performing a Mitzvah would have miraculously amplified the miracle in the Jews’ hearts and would have prevented them from every forgetting it. R’ Leib learns that Rashi is mechadesh that the action of performing the Mitzvos and listening to God’s word can actually generate a powerful antidote to counteract the damaging effect that time can have on the potency of a miracle. Such is the effect of a Mitzvah. It can completely subjugate the evil that exists in a person, and effect the people around him to remove their evil, and even effect the upper realms that exist beyond this world.
Perhaps we can end with the Midrash Tanchuma in Parshas Tazria which records an interesting conversation between R’ Akiva and the wicked Turnus Rufus. Turnus Rufus asked R’ Akiva, “If Hashem wanted every baby to have a Bris so much, why didn’t He create them without a foreskin”? R’ Akiva answered in typical Jewish style with another question. He asked Turnus Rufus, “If God created a baby with an umbilical cord, why don’t you leave it on the baby after it is born”? R’ Akiva then went on to explain to Turnus Rufus that the reason why Hashem created a foreskin was to demonstrate to us that that a baby is born into this world imperfect and only through constant Mitzvah observance can one refine himself. By relentlessly performing the Mitzvos in every detail, we become better and more refined people and cleanse ourselves of the evil which exists in the world. Each and every Mitzvah that we perform distils us a little bit more, and by the end of our lives, we hope to reach a state as close to Godliness as possible.
May we merit to properly perform the Torah in its entirety and completely purify ourselves!