Yitro (Jethro): The Model Ger Tsedek
February 2, 2002 (20 Shevat 5762)

The core of today’s parashah is undeniably the Ten Commandments—which we didn’t read! (Come back next year!) Because we are on a triennial cycle, we only read one third of the parashah this morning. Yet, there is an advantage to this. It allows us to concentrate on passages we might otherwise overlook.

The scene we read about today comes immediately after a terrible incident: Just after leaving Egypt, having been enslaved for 400 years, the Children of Israel having escaped by the skin of their teeth, they are assaulted by the Amalekites, a desert tribe that swooped down upon them and terrorized them and targeted their women and children, their weak ones. It was terrible. They finally defeated them, but barely, and they are thereby told never to forget what they did to them. [We’ll fulfill this mitzvah in a few weeks when we celebrate the holiday of Purim. Haman, the great enemy of the Jews whose story is told in the Book of Esther, was descended from the Amalekites. Whenever we hear his name read, we have to shake our groggers, and yet we have to read the story so as to learn how, in every generation—even in those generations in which the Jews feel safe and secure—the Amalekites or their descendants might rear their ugly heads.] That story of the Amalekites coming just on the heels of the story of Egyptian slavery is enough to make you distrust any non-Israelite in the world. Had the story ended here, we might have imagined Jews becoming an insular people, totally distrustful of outsiders. And, you know, it would have been justified.

And yet that’s not what happened. However much our enemies (and there are, alas, many) may have accused us of being clannish and separatist, of being a “People that stands alone,” in the words of Balaam which we read in the Book of Numbers, in fact we have had a more nuanced relationship with outsiders. At times, yes, it’s been cautious, even hostile, but at times, less so—considerably less so. And the reason, one could say, has to do with what we read in this morning’s Torah portion.

To fully appreciate what happened and its significance, let me remind us that before going back to Egypt to rescue his fellow Israelites, Moses had taken refuge in Midian and had married Tsiporah, the daughter of a Midian priest named Jethro. He had then left Tsiporah and his children with Jethro while he went back to Egypt to “do his thing.” In today’s Torah reading, having rescued the Children of Israel, Moses meets up with Jethro in the Wilderness. Now one might readily understand Moses’ excitement upon seeing his wife and kids after being away from them for so long, yet one wouldn’t necessarily expect what actually happens when Moses encounters Jethro. It is an encounter that reflects such love and respect that it’s worth describing it in detail.

Jethro sends word that he is coming, and Moses goes out to greet him. He bows low—literally, he prostrates himself—and kisses him. Each asks after the other’s welfare, then they go into Jethro’s tent.

Recall that Moses and the Children of Israel have just beaten off a sneaky attack by a desert tribe. Why not react with fear and anxiety here? Is it that Moses knew that Jethro was different? But how? And even so, even if Moses did somehow know that Jethro was different, what about Jethro’s relatives and fellow tribesmen?

The fact is, according to our tradition, Jethro was different. Very different. He was a gentile religious person, not an Israelite, yet someone who respected and even revered the God of the Israelites. And so Moses was perfectly justified treating him with respect. Jethro was a gentile, yet a very different gentile from the others the Israelites had encountered. And so, after exchanging greetings and after Jethro rejoices over the kindness that God had shown Israel in delivering them from Egypt, he and Moses and Aaron and the elders of Israel come together to partake of a meal before God. This is truly amazing: After all, the Bible sets forth very detailed dietary restrictions for Israelites. And in several places earlier in the Bible, it made clear that Egyptians and Israelites wouldn’t eat together at the same table. Yet here, Jethro and Moses and Aaron do.

This is a powerful image, and one which in various generations was looked upon as the basis for more open attitudes by Jews toward fraternization with gentiles who had made clear that they could be trusted and were not out to harm the Jews. True, in certain periods of Jewish history, there was really no possibility for peaceful, respectful relations across the boundary between Jew and gentile, yet in other periods, there was—and this story became fairly important.

In fact, in the Talmud, one understands Jethro not merely to be a righteous gentile who respects the Jews and their faith; he is the model of the righteous proselyte: that is, the gentile who, in observing Jews practicing Judaism, comes to realize the precious value of Judaism, and chooses to embrace it, becoming a Jew himself. The rabbis saw Jethro as one of the first true converts to Judaism. And they learned some of the laws and traditions of receiving converts from the passage we read today. For example, Moses “went out” to receive his father-in-law. Why are we told this? To teach us, that as important as it may be to be cautious when folks indicate an interest in becoming Jewish, one must also be mikarev—one must also go out and welcome and be prepared to accept them with open arms.

Judaism could have developed as an exclusivist cult that didn’t permit outsiders to join it. It didn’t. As long as there have been Jews, there have been men and women becoming Jewish. And as long as there has been Judaism, there have been procedures for becoming Jewish and ways of making it possible for those not native Israelites to become, as it were, naturalized citizens of the Jewish People.

There are certainly ethnic aspects to the Jewish people, but one of the delightfully confounding aspects of Judaism today is how it transcends ethnicity. There are men and women becoming Jewish today from all sorts of backgrounds—East Asian, African American, Greek Orthodox, Irish Catholic. All are to be accepted; all are to be accepted as spiritual descendants of Jethro, who was treated with such dignity, respect, and love by Moses. Jethro goes on to give advice to Moses, which I find equally astounding—and funny. It’s one thing to treat your father-in-law with respect, it’s another thing to listen to his advice! Yet Moses does, and it helps him immensely.  Welcoming Jews by Choice isn’t just good for them, it isn’t just being nice to somebody else: Welcoming Jews by Choice is good for Jews by birth. It enhances the Jewish People to embrace those who would choose to be Jews. Today’s parashah has a key text at its core: the Ten Commandments. And yet the parashah is known by the name not of Moses, but of Jethro.

“Vayishma Yitro” …”And Jethro heard.” Better, “and Jethro listened, paid attention, heeded, and embraced the word of God.” As we strive to be as fully observant as we can, let’s never imagine for a moment that Judaism is a way of life created for the behalf only of those born into the Jewish People. Let us always remember that just as the Ten Commandments are given in a parashah known by the name of Jethro, so too are many of the blessings of Jewish life today granted to us only through the virtue and commitment of the truly righteous Jews by Choice who grace our presence.