Parashat Yitro
February 6, 2023
Geri Bloch, Former High School English Teacher
In my youth, Jim Anderson was a paterfamilias par excellence in Father Knows Best, a script writer’s dream of a great post-war American family. There was never a problem too knotty for Jim to handle. His anger was controlled; he never yelled at his children. Yes, he could be perplexed, but every problem was solved within half an hour. There were more than a few television shows that purported to reveal what family life was like in the mid-1950s and ‘60s. With the avuncular Dwight Eisenhower as President, Americans desired to forget the bloodshed of World War II and Korea. Eisenhower might have thought he was a ruler, but in reality, parents, teachers, and rabbis were the emperors of my and my friends’ existence. And those of us who attended synagogue and listened to the Torah readings each week learned something really interesting about Moshe Rabeinu, Moses our teacher. Especially when we followed along in our chumashim during Parashat Yitro.
Parashat Yitro begins:
“Jethro, priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, God’s people, how יהוה had brought Israel out from Egypt. So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after she had been sent home, and her two sons — of whom one was named Gershom, that is to say, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land’; and the other was named Eliezer, meaning, ‘The God of my father’s [house] was my help, delivering me from the sword of Pharaoh.’”
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. He sent word to Moses: ‘“I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.’” 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.
“Jethro, priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for Israel, God’s people, how יהוה had brought Israel out from Egypt. So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after she had been sent home, and her two sons — of whom one was named Gershom, that is to say, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land’; and the other was named Eliezer, meaning, ‘The God of my father’s [house] was my help, delivering me from the sword of Pharaoh.’”
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. He sent word to Moses: ‘“I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.’” 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.
The parashah does not tell us how long Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer were away from Moshe, but he had not seen them for some time. Even though the text calls Yitro, כֹהֵ֤ן מִדְיָן֙ (Kohen Midian), it would seem that Moshe’s first loyalty would be to his wife, then his children, and finally, his father-in-law. However, Moshe does not seem to greet his family, but bows to Yitro and hurries him into a tent for a meeting. While speaking of what God has done to the Egyptians and to Egypt for the sake of the Israelites, the troubles Moshe and the Israelites have had along their journey, and how God has rescued them, Moshe does not seem to be aware that his family might actually want to talk to him. Where are Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer?
In my mind, Moshe’s wife and sons go into a tent where she begins to arrange her family’s life. The boys — are they really boys or are they young men? If they were young men, they might have been given jobs to do. If they were children, they might have gone outside their tent and played with other children. Zipporah might have been busy making up “beds” or cooking dinner. The truth is that I am making this up because Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer disappear from Parashat Yitro.
Moshe tells Yitro, “ . . . 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 how the Lord had delivered them.” Yitro listens to Moshe and realizes the blessings that God has given to the Israelites by freeing them from the Egyptians. Yitro, a priest in polytheistic Midian, says, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. . . .” To honor God, Yitro has brought a burnt offering and sacrifices, “. . . and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to partake of the meal before God with Moshe’s father-in-law.”
Apparently, Zipporah and Moshe’s sons do not participate in this celebratory meal. After Zipporah’s steadfastness in her marriage by circumcising her son, Gershom, and producing another son, Eliezer, and traveling back and forth to Midian, she seems to have been marginalized. Where is she? Where are her sons? What is she doing?
The next section of Parashat Yitro reveals Yitro’s true genius: the creation of a judiciary. As Yitro observes Moshe doling out justice from morning until night, he tells Moshe that his actions are לֹא־טוֹב֙, not sustainable, and explains how to create a system that will allow justice to prevail and ease the burden on Moshe. Of course, Moshe heeds his father-in-law’s direction: “He [chooses] capable men out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people — chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; and they judged the people at all times: the difficult matters they would bring to Moshe, and all the minor matters they would decide themselves.”
“Then Moshe bade his father-in-law farewell, and he went his way to his own land.” Does Yitro bid his daughter and grandsons farewell? The Israelites are on a journey. When will she see her father again?
The next section of Parashat Yitro concerns the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Statements, which will form the foundation for the laws of Judaism that we follow today. Nothing more is said about Yitro, Zipporah, Gershom, or Eliezer. To be sure, there are midrashim that discuss Zipporah’s uniqueness as a woman, for she is the only woman who has circumcised her son, which follows a strange episode in Exodus 4:24-26. There are midrashim that discuss Zipporah’s marital relations with her husband and the lack thereof, but the Torah, itself, is silent on what has happened to Moshe’s family.
Later on in the Torah, we learn that God will choose Joshua to succeed Moshe (Numbers 27:22-23), but why not Gershom or Eliezer? There is rabbinic discussion that Gershom had become an idolator, and though the “reasons” for that seem somewhat dubious, what does seem “real” is the idea that when Joshua and Caleb return to Moses after “spying” on Canaan, they have a positive outlook on the land: “ . . . their protection has departed from them, but the Lord is with us. Have no fear of them!” The other spies were fearful that they looked like “grasshoppers to the people of the land.” Joshua’s courage and faith in God stand out.
Moshe seems to have taken his duties as a leader quite seriously, but it seems as if his duties as a husband and a parent have gone by the wayside. From greeting Yitro to obtaining the Aseret HaDibrot, Moshe has been so busy that he has forgotten one of the most important dictums of Judaism:
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשׇׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃
Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשׇׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃
Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.
Perhaps it is Parashat Yitro that demonstrates a “reason” why Moshe’s name is not mentioned in the Haggadah. If the Pesach seder is a teaching tool for parents and grandparents to explain the Israelites’ liberation from slavery, maybe Moshe is not the best teacher.
Shabbat Shalom