This class was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, 3 Sivan, 5783, May 23, 2023, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

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22_ac_monsey_shavuos_5783_women.a5c9.pdf

21_women_shavuos_5783_yt.932e.mp4

21_women_shavuos_5783_yt.932e.mp3

ten commandments

reb yishmael

reb zusha of anipoli

evil

reb akiva

G-d Is Present Even While Absent: Discovering the Core of Darkness

Women's Shavuos Class

Reb Akiva’s Life-Changing Advice on Challenges & Struggling Children

The family members of great figures in history are often eclipsed and live in the shadow of their legendary relative. However, many times they are fascinating and inspiring characters in their own right.

This class will compare and contrast the different philosophies of Yisro and Moshe, focusing on their views of the ideal and most meaningful Jewish education.

Yisro, Moshe&rsquo;s father-in-law, was a spiritual seeker who had studied and experimented with every spiritual and religious discipline of his time, until finally recognizing and embracing the G-d of the Jews.

This class explores that strange midrashic story that Moses made an oath to his father in law that his first child he would dedicate to a life of idolatry. How can we make sense of this? Yet it is here that we discover the genesis of a major debate about Jewish education that persists to this very day.

46_einsteinh.jpg

22_yisro_ac.pdf

yisro_5769_revised.360p.mp4

yisro_5769_revised.mp3

yisro

tziporah

statue of micha

open minded

idolatry

moshe/moses

gershom

eliezer

education

avodah zara

alef

red heifer

para aduma

faith and reason

moses

moshe

jethro

yitro

Moses and Jethro Debate What is the Best Curriculum for Jewish Education

Yisro Class

How Open Minded Should Our Children Be?

This weekly women&#39;s class by Rabbi YY Jacobson was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, Parshas Yisro, 16 Shevat, 5782, January 18, 2022, at Bais Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, NY.

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21_8387_women_class_yisro_5782.c47c.mp4

21_8387_women_class_yisro_5782.c47c.mp3

Why Did Moshe Not Want to Delegate? Because Leaders Can Be Manipulated

Women's Yisro Class

Yisro Vs. Moshe: Judaism Without Elitism

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Yisro, 16 Shevat, 5779, January 22, 2019, at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY

6175_depositphotos_167116072_ds.3692.jpg

22_ac_women_monsey_yisro_5779.e5b3.pdf

21_6175_rabbi_yy_jacobson_womens_class_yisro_5779_r02.ac14.mp4

21_6175_rabbi_yy_jacobson_womens_class_yisro_5779_r02.ac14.mp3

shavuos

feminine torah

seeing the sounds

masculine torah

synesthesia

kelal

perat

seeing

hearing

Two Ways of Experiencing Judaism: The Whole or the Parts

Women's Yisro/Shavuos Class

Seeing the Sounds: Does Judaism Have a String Theory?

Give Us Two&nbsp;

One of the intriguing things about the Ten Commandments<a id="_edn1" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a>, given to the Jewish people&nbsp;is that they were engraved on two separate tablets. Was G-d short of granite that He needed to use two tablets? Why could He not carve the commandments onto a single stone?&nbsp;

There is the stereotypical Jew-bashing joke about this. Before coming to the Jews, G-d approached all the nations and asked if they would like to accept the Torah. Each of them refused because of some commandment in the Bible to which they could not possibly adhere. When G-d presented the offer to the Jews, their sole question was: How much do you want for it?&nbsp;

To which G-d responded: “It’s for free.”&nbsp;

So the Jews replied: “Give us two.”&nbsp;

Yet the issue demands sincere reflection. Why indeed was there a need for two tablets?&nbsp;&nbsp;

Two Versions&nbsp;

The rabbis in the&nbsp;midrash&nbsp;proposed a novel answer. The Ten Commandments, they suggested, were engraved on two tablets, five on each stone,&nbsp; so that they would be read in two directions -- from top to bottom, and from side to side<a id="_edn2" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>.&nbsp;

The simplest way of reading the Ten Commandments is, of course, from top to bottom:&nbsp;

On the first stone:&nbsp;

1) I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out of Egypt...&nbsp;

2) You shall have no other gods...&nbsp;

3) You shall not swear in G-d's&nbsp;name in vain...&nbsp;

4) Remember the Sabbath...&nbsp;

5) Honor your father and your mother...&nbsp;

And the five commandments engraved on the second tablet:&nbsp;

6) You shall not murder.&nbsp;

7) You shall not commit adultery.&nbsp;

8) You shall not steal.&nbsp;

9) You shall not bear false witness against your fellow.&nbsp;

10) You shall not covet your fellow’s house; you shall not covet your fellow’s wife&nbsp;…&nbsp;nor&nbsp;anything that belongs to your fellow.&nbsp;

This was the way of reading the Ten Commandments vertically. Yet due to the fact that the first five commandments were engraved on one stone and the second five on a separate stone, there was another way of reading the commandments -- horizontally instead of vertically, from commandment No. 1 directly to No. 6; from No. 2 to No. 7; 3 -- 8; 4 -- 9; 5 -- 10.&nbsp;

This version of the Ten Commandments would then read like this:&nbsp;

1) I am the Lord your G-d/You shall not murder. 2) You shall have no other gods/You&nbsp;shall not commit adultery; and so forth with the rest of the commandments.&nbsp;

But why is it necessary to read the Ten Commandments horizontally? What insight can we gain from this alternative reading of the commandments?&nbsp;&nbsp;

In this essay we will discuss the juxtaposition of the first and sixth commandments: "I am the Lord your G-d/You shall not murder." The significance of this “horizontal” reading from a historical, political and religious standpoint cannot be overstated. It embodies one of the most stunning aspects of Judaism. What is at stake in this juxtaposition is nothing less than the future of human civilization.&nbsp;

Two&nbsp;Historical&nbsp;Attempts&nbsp;

Two groups have made an attempt to divorce commandment no. 1 from commandment no. 6 -- to sever the idea of a Creator, who conceived the world for a moral purpose, from the imperative to honor the life of another human being. The first group was comprised of the philosophers of the Enlightenment during the 18th and 19th centuries, the second of religious leaders in many and diverse ages. The result for both was moral defeat.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The thinkers of the Enlightenment ushered in the Age of Reason and the modern secular era, founded on the belief that the great ideal of “You shall not murder” did not require the prerequisite of “I am the Lord Your G-d” in order to be sustained. Religion was not necessary to ensure moral behavior; reason alone, without G-d, would guide humanity into an age of liberty and to the achievement of moral greatness. The sixth commandment could operate successfully independent of the first.&nbsp;

While religion embodied the vision of man standing in a continuous relationship with G-d, the essence of the Enlightenment represented the vision of man without G-d. It was a vision already introduced during the first days of creation near the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, by the most sophisticated animal of the time, the serpent. “You shall be like G-d,"&nbsp;it promised Eve<a id="_edn3" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3')">[3]</a>. Man could, and ought to, replace G-d. Left to his own (de)vices, the thinking&nbsp;went,&nbsp;the human being will&nbsp;achieve&nbsp;greatness.&nbsp;&nbsp;But the Holocaust spelled the end of this grand faith in the promise of human progress based on human reason. In Auschwitz, the belief that modern man felt a natural empathy for others was ruined forever.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The gas chambers were not invented by a primitive, barbaric and illiterate people. To the contrary, this people excelled in sciences and the arts, but nevertheless sent 1.5 million children, and 4.5 million adults, to their deaths solely because they had Jewish blood flowing in their veins. SS guards would spend a day in Auschwitz, gassing as many as 12,000 human beings, and then return home in the evening to pet their dogs and laugh with their wives. As the smoke of children ascended from the crematoriums, these charming romantics would enjoy good wine, beautiful women and the moving music of Bach, Mozart and Wagner. They murdered millions of innocents in the name of a developed ethic, and they justified genocide on purely rational grounds.&nbsp;

In "Schindler’s List," there is a scene during the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto where a little girl hiding in a piano is shot dead by an SS guard. As her little angelic body lay in a river of blood, another guard sits down to play the piano.&nbsp;

First SS guard: Was&nbsp;ist&nbsp;das?&nbsp;Ist&nbsp;das Bach?&nbsp;

Second SS guard: Nein. Mozart.&nbsp;

First SS guard: Mozart?&nbsp;

Second SS guard:&nbsp;Ja. And they both marvel at the exquisite music.&nbsp;

This was Nazi Germany at its best.&nbsp;

Elie&nbsp;Wiesel, who gripped the world’s imagination with his book "Night," a personal testimony of life and death in Auschwitz, once asked the&nbsp;Lubavitcher&nbsp;Rebbe, who himself lost many members of his family in the Holocaust, how he could believe in G-d after Auschwitz. If G-d existed, Wiesel asked, posing the single greatest challenge to faith, how could He ignore 6 million of His children de-humanized and murdered in the cruelest of fashions?&nbsp;

The&nbsp;Rebbe&nbsp;shed a tear and then replied, “In whom do you expect me to believe after Auschwitz?&nbsp;In man?”&nbsp;

This must remain one of the lasting legacies of Auschwitz. If there is any faith at all left after the extermination of 6 million people, it must glean its vitality from something transcending the human rationale and its properties. If morality is left to be determined exclusively by the human mind, it can become a morality that justifies the guillotine, the gulag and the gas chamber. As Dostoevsky famously put it in "The Brothers Karamazov," “Where there is no G-d, all is permitted.”&nbsp;

The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: “I cannot see how to refute the arguments for the subjectivity of ethical values [resulting from atheism], but I find myself incapable of&nbsp;believing that all that is wrong with wanton cruelty is that I don’t like it.” Russell’s point is critical. Without G-d, we cannot objectively define any behavior as good or evil. As difficult as it is to entertain, no one can objectively claim that gassing a mother and her children is any more evil than killing a mouse. It is all a matter of taste and opinion. The validity and effectiveness of “You shall not murder” can be sustained only if it is predicated on the foundation of faith in a universal moral creator who gave humanity an absolute and unwavering definition of what constitutes good vs. evil.&nbsp;

Professor Abraham Joshua&nbsp;Heschel, who escaped Warsaw a few weeks before it was invaded and lost most of his family in the Nazi&nbsp;Holocaust,&nbsp;captured this sentiment succinctly: “If man is not more than human, then he is less&nbsp;then&nbsp;human.” Either we climb to a place beyond ourselves, or we are likely to fall to a place below ourselves.&nbsp; When the vision of the sacred dies in the soul of a person, he or she is capable of becoming a servant of the devil.&nbsp;

Religious Evil&nbsp;

But this is far from the whole picture.&nbsp;

While the Enlightenment abandoned commandment no. 1 in favor of no. 6, various religions over the ages abandoned no. 6 in favor of no. 1. Theirs has been the atrocious belief that as long as you believe in the Lord, or in Allah, you can kill and maim whomever you brand an "infidel." Whether it is a business executive in New York, or a teenager eating a slice of pizza in Jerusalem, or a child on the first day of school in&nbsp;Beslan, or a commuter in Madrid, or a tourist in Bali,&nbsp;or a&nbsp;Chabad&nbsp;couple in Mumbai,&nbsp;if the person is not a member of your faith, G-d wants him or her to die. For the religious fundamentalist, "I am the Lord your&nbsp;G-d" has nothing to do with "You shall not murder."&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

This is the greatest perversion of faith. When thousands can rejoice gleefully in the torture of Jewish babies, in the rape and beheading of Jewish women, as the Hamas monsters did on October 7th, 2023, while millions of others celebrated, is the most vile desecration of Allah.&nbsp;Faith that does not inculcate its followers with the sanctity of every single human life desecrates and erodes the very purpose of faith, which is to elevate the human person to a state beyond personal instinct and prejudice. If you delete “You shall not murder” from religion, you have detached yourself from “I am the Lord your G-d.” To believe in&nbsp;G-d means to honor the life of every person created in the image of G-d. What the juxtaposition of the two commandments is telling us is that you can’t believe in G-d and murder<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4')" id="_edn4" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a>.&nbsp;

Conversely, if you truly believe that taking the life of another human is wrong -- not just because you lack the means or motive to do so or are afraid of ending up in jail, but because you recognize the transcendent, inviolable value of life -- that's just another way of saying you believe in G-d. For what confers upon human life its radical grace, its transcendent sanctity and its absolute value if not the living presence of G-d imprinted on the face of the human person?&nbsp;

3,336&nbsp;years ago, Judaism, in the most ennobling attempt to create a society based on justice and peace, established its principle code in the sequence of the two commandments – “I am the Lord your G-d/You shall not murder.” A society without&nbsp;G-d can become monstrous; a society that abandons the eternal and absolute commandment&nbsp;“You shall not murder” is equally evil. Both are capable of burning children alive during the day and then retiring to sleep with a clear conscience.&nbsp;

The Mountain&nbsp;

The Talmud captures this notion in an intriguing&nbsp;fashion<a id="_edn5" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref5')">[5]</a>.&nbsp;

The Talmud cites a tradition that when Israel approached Sinai, G-d lifted up the mountain, held it over the people's heads and declared: “Either you accept the Torah, or be crushed beneath the mountain.” (The Talmud bases this tradition on the verse in Exodus, “And they stood beneath the mountain<a id="_edn6" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref6')">[6]</a>.”)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

This seems ludicrous. What worth is there to a relationship and a covenant accepted through coercion<a id="_edn7" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref7')">[7]</a>?&nbsp;

The answer is profoundly simple. What G-d was telling the Jewish people is that the creation of societies that honor life and shun cruelty is&nbsp;dependent&nbsp;on education and on the value system inculcated within children of the society. The system of Torah, G-d was suggesting, was the guarantor for life and liberty. If you reject the morality of Torah, if you will lack the courage and conviction to teach the world that “I am the Lord your G-d” and that I have stated unequivocally “You shall not murder,” the result will be humanity crushed under a mountain of tyrants.&nbsp;

Seventy-five&nbsp;years since Auschwitz and after two decades of incessant Islamic terrorism, the mountain is hanging over our heads once again. Shall we embrace the path of divine-based morality? Shall we never forget that religion must always be defined by “You shall not murder<a id="_edn8" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftnref8" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref8')">[8]</a>?”&nbsp;

_________

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')" id="_ednref1" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Exodus chapter 20.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')" id="_ednref2" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> Mechilta&nbsp;to Exodus ibid.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3')" id="_ednref3" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> Genesis 3:5.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4')" id="_ednref4" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> The&nbsp;Midrash&nbsp;(Mechiultah&nbsp;ibid.) in discussing the connection between the first and sixth commandments presents the following parable to explain the evil behind murder: “There was a king who entered a country and put up portraits of himself, and made statues of himself, and minted coins with his image. After a while, the people of the country overturned his portraits, broke his statues and invalidated his coins, thereby reducing the image of the king. “So, too, one who sheds blood reduces the image of the King, as it is written (Genesis 9:6): "One who spills a man's blood... for in the image of G-d He made man."

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn5')" id="_ednref5" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> Talmud,&nbsp;Shabbas&nbsp;88a.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn6')" id="_ednref6" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> Exodus 19:17.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn7')" id="_ednref7" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn7">[7]</a> This question is raised among many of the Talmudic commentators. Many answers have been offered.&nbsp; See&nbsp;Tosfos,&nbsp;Eitz&nbsp;Yosef,&nbsp;Pnei&nbsp;Yehoshua,&nbsp;Shabbos&nbsp;Shel&nbsp;Mi&nbsp;and&nbsp;BenYehoyada&nbsp;to Talmud&nbsp;Shabbos&nbsp;ibid.&nbsp;Midrash&nbsp;Tanchumah&nbsp;Noach&nbsp;section 3.&nbsp;Daas&nbsp;Zekeinim&nbsp;Mibbalei&nbsp;Hatosafos&nbsp;on Exodus 19:17.&nbsp;Maharal&nbsp;Tiferes&nbsp;Yisroel&nbsp;ch.&nbsp;32,&nbsp;Gur&nbsp;Aryeh&nbsp;on Exodus ibid. and Or&nbsp;Chodash&nbsp;p. 45.&nbsp;Sources noted in&nbsp;Pardas&nbsp;Yosef&nbsp;to Exodus ibid. Rabbi Yaakov&nbsp;Yosef&nbsp;of&nbsp;Pulnah&nbsp;in Ben&nbsp;Poras&nbsp;Yosef&nbsp;Parshas&nbsp;Vayeishev. Torah&nbsp;Or&nbsp;Megilas&nbsp;Esther p. 96c; 118c.&nbsp;7) This essay is based on&nbsp;a Yiddish&nbsp;letter&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;Lubavitcher&nbsp;Rebbe&nbsp;written&nbsp;&nbsp;to Dr.&nbsp;Elie&nbsp;Wiesel&nbsp;in 1965&nbsp;(published in&nbsp;Likkutei&nbsp;Sichos&nbsp;vol. 33 pp.255-260) and on a 1962 public address&nbsp;by&nbsp;&nbsp;the&nbsp;Rebbe&nbsp;(published in&nbsp;Likkutei&nbsp;Sichos&nbsp;vol. 3 pp. 887-895), and on other sources.

<a onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn8')" id="_ednref8" href="javascript: void(0);" name="_ftn8">[8]</a> This essay is based on a Yiddish letter by the Lubavitcher Rebbe written&nbsp;to Dr. Elie Weisel in April, 1965 (published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 33 pp.255-260) and on a 1962 public address by&nbsp;the Rebbe (published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 3 pp. 887-895), and on a lecture presented by Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Bleich, and other sources.

The Islamists and Hitler - The Two Great Evils of History

830_swastika_hamas.ce2d.jpeg

radical islam

hitler

nazis

islamists

terrorists

 The Two Great Evils of History: The Islamists and Hitler

Parshas Yisro/Shavuos Essay

Behind the War On Hamas

This class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Yisro, 16&nbsp;Shevat, 5780, February 11, 2020 at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY&nbsp;

7353_depositphotos_185118486_xl_2015.c3ef.jpg

22_ac_women_monsey_5780_yiras_hashem_edited_r02.6127.pdf

21_7353_rabbi_yy_jacobson_women_yisro_5780_emunah_34.ed14.mp4

21_7353_rabbi_yy_jacobson_women_yisro_5780_emunah_34.ed14.mp3

fear

yirah

anxiety

trust

yiras hashem

fear of g-d

Why Would Moshe Instructs the Jews Not to Fear Hashem?

The Emunah Series/Women's Yisro Class

Basics of Emunah #34: What Does It Mean to Fear G-d?

Rabbi YY Jacobson presented this text-based shiur in Likkutei Sichos vol. 6 Parshas Yisro, a Sicha by the Lubavitcher Rebbe presented on Shavuos 5726-1966.

The class was presented to the Beis Shmuel congregation, Brooklyn, NY, before Shavuos 5774/2014.

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20_sicha_hen_lav_vol_6.b473.pdf

19_vol_6_yisro____hen_hen_lav_lav_edited_by_levin_edited.43f9.mp3

martyrdome

What Does It Mean to See the Voices? 

Likkutei Sichos Yisro/Shavuos

Reb Yishmael & Reb Akiva Debate the Purpose of Torah

Borders Made of Roses- Why Do the Borders Around Mt. Sinai Occupy Such a Major Part of the Story? Three Perspectives by Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik, the Rogatchover Gaon, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe

96_depositphotos_38838773_original.jpg

22_ac_yisro.45de.pdf

Yisro5770.360p.mp4

Yisro5770.mp3

hashem

har sinai

halacha

border of roses

limitations

spiritual exctacy

mt. sinai

Why Do the Borders Around Mt. Sinai Occupy Such a Major Part of the Story? Three Perspectives by Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik, the Rogatchover Gaon, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe

Shavuos/Yisro Class

Borders Made of Roses

This weekly women&#39;s class on Sefas Emes Parshas Yisro was&nbsp;presented on Tuesday, Parshas Yisro, 20 Shevat, 5781, February 2, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson&#39;s home in Monsey, NY.

Every Jew is a witness to all of Judaism&rsquo;s claims. For its truths are imprinted in the core of every Jewish soul. The Torah is here to jog our unconscious memory, reminding us what we always knew about who we always are and who we will always&mdash;conduits for Divine infinity.

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22_women_class_yisro_5781.82b0.pdf

21_7935_women_class_yisro_5781.9fc6.mp4

21_7935_women_class_yisro_5781.9fc6.mp3

sinai

shabbos

torah

yitzias mitzrayim

witnesses

The Torah Is Here to Jog Your Unconscious Memory of the Infinity of Your Soul

Women's Class Sefas Emes Yisro

Every Jew Is a Witness to All the Claims of Judaism

​100 years ago, a seamstress in Krakow, Sarah Schnirer, founded the first Jewish girls school Bais Yaakov, which soon turned into a movement, and revolutionized Jewish life. Rabbi YY Jacobson delivered the keynote address at the gala dinner of the flagship Bais Yaakov school in Boro Park, celebrating the 75th year since Bais Yaakov came to America.

This riveting lecture, presented on 14 Sivan, 5777, June 8, 2017, explores the unique voice that women bring to Torah and Judaism, and why our generation so deeply needs it.

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19_4275_enhanced_audio.bfd2.mp3

women

opera vienna

bais yaakov

1917

women's role in judaism

minyan

women's education

sarah schnirer

women in judaism

women and meh

shmuel vozner

torah for women

Our Generation Needs to Rediscover the Woman's Voice in Judaism

Keynote Lecture Bais Yaakov Dinner

100 Years Since Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Revolution

A segment of a lecture delivered&nbsp;by Rabbi YY Jacobson to the Jewish community of Mainline, Pa. on Monday, 19 Shevat, 5781, February&nbsp;1, 2021. The evening, arranged by Chabad of the Mainline, was led by the Chabad Shluchim to the region, Rabbis Shraga Sherman, Boruch Sholom Davidson, and Mendel Cohen.

This lecture is based&nbsp;on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, 15 Shevat 5735&nbsp;(January 27,&nbsp;1975), published in Likkutei Sichos vol. 16, Parshas Yisro.

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21_7944_likkutei_sichos_yisro_5781.08d4.mp4

21_7944_likkutei_sichos_yisro_5781.08d4.mp3

Some People Show You Who You Are; Others Show You Who You Can Be

Lecture to Chabad Mainline/Likkutei Sichos Yisro

Did Moshe Think He Can Handle 3 Million Fights?

The Story of Jethro

The opening of the weekly portion tells the story of the Pagan priest Jethro who chooses to come to the wilderness to spend time with the fledgling Jewish nation.

“Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard of all that G-d did for Moses and His people Israel; that G-d had taken Israel out of Egypt.”<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn1" name="_ednref1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref1')">[1]</a> He took his daughter and two grandchildren and traveled to the wilderness to Moses and the new Jewish nation.

The Talmud asks this question: What did Jethro hear which inspired him to come to the Sinai desert?

The Talmud cites three opinions:<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn2" name="_ednref2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref2')">[2]</a>

זבחים קטז, א: מה שמועה שמע ובא? רבי יהושע אומר: מלחמת עמלק שמע ובא... רבי אלעזר המודעי אומר: מתן תורה שמע ובא. רבי אליעזר אומר: קריעת ים סוף שמע ובא.

Rabbi Joshua says, he heard of the war of Amalek against the Israelites and he came. Rabbi Elazar Hamudaei says, he heard of the giving of the Torah and he came. Rabbi Eliezer says: He heard about the splitting of the sea and he came. <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn3" name="_ednref3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref3')">[3]</a>

This seems strange. The Torah clearly states what Jethro heard: “And Jethro, the priest of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses, heard of all that G-d did for Moses and His people Israel; that G-d had taken Israel out of Egypt!” That is why he picked himself up and traveled to the Sinai desert. Why does the Talmud ask, “What did he hear that made him come?” And why does the Talmud offer different reasons than those stated in the biblical text?

Also, what is the logic behind these three Talmudic opinions? Must we always argue about everything? Why do these eminent Sages attribute Jethro’s sacrifice to another factor?

A Player, Not a Fan

The question that perturbed the Talmudic sages was this.

Prior to his arrival, Jethro was living in great honor and distinction. At the height of his career as the religious leader of Midian, Jethro was surrounded by riches and glory, as was the destiny of the Pagan priests of yore. Yet he left behind all of it, only to arrive in a barren wilderness, eager to hear the words of Torah. <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn4" name="_ednref4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref4')">[4]</a>He no longer saw himself as a Priest of Midian; instead, he identified himself as the father-in-law of Moses.<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn5" name="_ednref5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref5')">[5]</a>

Note the question of the Talmud: “mah shmuah shama uba?” what did Jethro hear which compelled him to COME? Why would a person of such stature abandon everything in order to pursue an attraction to Torah? What compels an aristocratic spiritual leader&nbsp;to abandon his comfortable habitat and glorious lifestyle and come join a nation of nomads in a desert? Yes, the Torah tells us that he heard what G-d did for Israel and that he took them out of Egypt. But Jethro could have been content with hearing the stories from far, watching them on CNN or Fox News, reading the blogs, and following the Jews on Facebook. What motivated him to say goodbye to his past and become one of three million Jews?

You can sit on your couch on Sunday and be a fan of one team or another; you can be an admirer, a cheerer, a supporter. But why did Jethro feel the need to undergo a metamorphosis from spectator to player? Why did he have to link his fate to the Jewish fate?

For this, the sages present three alternative answers. For one, Jethro witnessed the war of Amalek against the Israelites; for the other, Jethro heard of the Torah. For the third, he heard of the splitting of the sea. These three events capture the three timeless features which embody the Jewish story.

The Mystery of Hate

“Rabbi Joshua says, he heard of the war of Amalek against the Israelites and he came.”

The war of Amalek represented the timeless enigma of anti-Semitism. Here was Amalek, a strong and secure nation, unprovoked and unthreatened, yet this Amalekite nation found it necessary to declare war on a young nation that has just set itself free from decades of brutal persecution and suffering. The Jews have been in Pharaoh’s massive concentration camps for 86 years—beaten, crushed, and murdered mercilessly. Their infants were plunged into the Nile River, as the men were subjected to slave labor and torture. Now, these people were finally free. Merely a few weeks after their liberation, Amalek declared a sudden bloody war on Israel.

It was not a territorial dispute which ignited the conflict, as Amalek did not even make the claim that the “Jews were occupying his homeland.” The Jews were traveling in the wilderness, remote from Amalek’s territory. Nor were there any political, economic, or military motivations, as Israel was minding its own business and not intending even to visit Amalek’s country. Pharaoh at least had the excuse of fearing that the Jews would take over Egypt. What was Amalek’s excuse to come and kill Jews?

The answer is: He did not need an excuse. This was not rational, calculated hatred. He just hated them because of their very being.

When hate is rational, based on some fear that has some logic to it, even if it is unjustified, then it can be reasoned with and brought to an end. If I hate you because I feel that you undermine by business, or you don’t respect me in the company, the hatred has a cure. If I can see that you mean me no harm, or that you too have been operating out of fear, we can mend the relationship.

But how about unconditional, irrational hatred? What happens if I hate you because of your very existence? Such hate cannot be reasoned with. Amalek had no reason—not even an unjustified reason, based on unjust fear or insecurity—to attack Israel. This was irrational, groundless hate. As long as Jews existed, Amalek could not feel wholesome. With irrational hate, it is impossible to reason. It has no cause, no logic. Therefore it may never go away.

This is what Jethro observed. He realized that for some odd reason the Jew inspires irrational venom and animosity in the hearts of certain peoples. They hate the Jews simply because they are Jews. Something about the Jew drives them mad. And their hatred does not distinguish between Jewish adults or infants. Amalek, just like Haman and Hitler, sent two-month-old babies to the gas chambers with the same glee as he executed 50-year-old accomplished Jewish leaders. Jethro, an assiduous student of history, realized that there must be something incredibly holy, Divine, and good about the Jew which evokes such hatred toward him or her in the heart of every despot.<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn6" name="_ednref6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref6')">[6]</a> For Jethro, this was enough to know where to cast his lot.

Show me your enemies and I will tell you who you are. Draw up a list of Israel’s foes—from the days of yore to this very day—and you will see that they were and are all ruthless tyrants who would sell their own people for their greed and hunger for power. Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Gamel Abdal Nasser, Yasser Arafat, Osama Bin Laden, Hafez Al Asad, Hassan Nasrallah, and Qassem Soleimani were not—and are not—only enemies of Israel and the Jews. They constitute and remain a threat to every good and decent person the world over. Seeing who hates Jews can be a powerful, if a bit strange, source of Jewish pride.

The Grandeur of Torah

“Rabbi Elazar Hamudaei says, he heard of the giving of the Torah and he came.”

Rabbi Elazar Hamudei’s point of view is that though anti-Semitism can teach us about the moral stature of the Jewish people, this was not enough. What enthralled Jethro about the Jewish story was not just that some people hated Jews with an irrational passion, but that G-d loved them, and He gave them His Torah. When Jethro heard of the powerful institutions of Judaism—its obsession with education, charity, justice, compassion, loving the stranger, respecting the slave, feeding the poor, honoring the old, giving dignity to the sick and the mentally challenged; when Jethro learned of the Mitzvos of Torah—Shabbos, Mikvah, Kashrus, Tefilin, prayer, study; when he discovered the ethical foundations of Judaism—that no one is above the law, that each person was created in G-d’s image and has infinite dignity, that history has a purpose, and that each of us was conceived in love to fulfill a mission—when the Midianite chief Pagan priest learned of all this, he fell in love with Torah and joined the People of the Book.

Now, 3300 years later, we often take for granted the contribution of the Torah to civilization. But Jethro did not. He understood what the Irish Tomas Cahill would articulate in his book “The Gifts of the Jews:”

“We can hardly get up in the morning or cross the street without being Jewish … The religion of the Hebrews—a tiny, marginal desert tribe—changed the worldview of Western civilization … The West's most deeply held beliefs about life, human nature, God, and justice are all owed to the ancient Israelites.

“In the ancient world of the ‘ever-turning Wheel,’ the countless gods and goddesses of the old mythologies played out their dramas in the world above. These gods were lustful, jealous, and greedy, and humans were of little import. Man had no freedom to choose a destiny, and no divinely inspired laws and ethics to guide him.” According to Cahill, the Hebrews "developed a whole new way of experiencing reality… It may be said with some justice that theirs is the only new idea that human beings have ever had."

Many Jews I know would be uncomfortable with these words written by an Irish gentile. We take for granted the quality of life shaped by Torah values and rituals over millennia. Shabbos creates happier homes; Mikvah inspires more stable and meaningful marriages; Torah education creates more balanced teenagers, less drugs, and fewer suicides. The emphasis on tradition and history diminishes the generational gap between parents and children. The laws of Jewish burial, sitting shivah, and saying kaddish are deeply comforting during times of loss. The sense of community helps people in times of crisis. All of these concepts were new and novel ideas and Jethro, a brilliant man of ideas, understood the majestic grandeur of Torah. This is what inspired him to link his destiny to the Nation of Torah.

The Super-Natural Quality

“Rabbi Eliezer says: He heard about the splitting of the sea and he came.”

Rabbi Eliezer takes it a step further. If it was only for Torah itself, Jethro could have remained on his hammock in Midian, sipping a pinna-colada and watching a Torah webcast on TheYeshiva.net, or reading a good Jewish book. What inspired him to leave his natural environment to join a crowded wilderness with millions of Hebrews? When he heard of the splitting of the sea.

The splitting of the sea demonstrated to Jethro another component of the Jewish story: The people of Israel transcended the laws of nature and the deterministic patterns of history. The largest seas, mightiest oceans, and fiercest tsunamis would not drown them. They would confront many overwhelming seas throughout their history, they would encounter impossible odds, and yet they would cross every sea and come out on the other side, stronger, more vibrant, more alive, and determined. A nation that endured crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, massacres, gas chambers, crematoriums, and suicide bombings—and yet inexplicably emerged, pulsating with a love for life and a zest for peace, this is a people whose narrative transcends the formulas of natural history.

Jethro understood what the great Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, articulated in a 1908 article: "The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the everlasting fire, and has illuminated with it the entire world. He is the religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions. The Jew is the emblem of eternity. He, who neither slaughter nor torture of thousands of years could destroy, he who neither fire, nor sword, nor Inquisition was able to wipe off the face of the earth. He, who was the first to produce the Oracles of God. He, who has been for so long the Guardian of Prophecy and has transmitted it to the rest of the world. Such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew is as everlasting as Eternity itself." <a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_edn7" name="_ednref7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_ednref7')">[7]</a>

Jethro understood that to experience this immortality he must leave his mansion in Midian and join the nomads in the desert. To become part of a story that transcends nature, you must transcend your own nature and actively join the symphony of eternity.

Jethro was not Jewish. Yet he made an awesome sacrifice in order to join the Jewish people and internalize Torah. We were given this gift by birth. Will we not leave our comfort zones to embrace it, celebrate it, study it, and make it part of our lives?

_______________

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref1" name="_edn1" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn1')">[1]</a> Exodus 18:1.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref2" name="_edn2" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn2')">[2]</a> Zevachim 116a

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref3" name="_edn3" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn3')">[3]</a> Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040-1105, foremost commentator on the Torah) asks the same questions and answers: Of the splitting of the Red Sea and the war against Amalek. Interestingly, he combines two of the three answers in the Talmud.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref4" name="_edn4" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn4')">[4]</a>Rashi questions why the Torah finds it necessary to specify the obvious fact that Jethro came to Jews who were in the wilderness? We already know where they were! Citing the Midrash Mechilta, Rashi explains that the location is emphasized in order to praise Jethro. Prior to his arrival, Jethro was living in a place of great honor and distinction, and yet his heart moved him to go out to the wilderness, to a place of desolation, to hear the words of Torah.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref5" name="_edn5" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn5')">[5]</a> See Rashi to Exodus 18:1.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref6" name="_edn6" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn6')">[6]</a> At a public address on Purim 5725 (1965) the Lubavitcher Rebbe brilliantly explains the parable in Talmud Megillah 14b about the owner of the mound and the owner of the pit to capture the truth and enigma of anti-Semitism.

<a href="javascript: void(0);" id="_ednref7" name="_edn7" onclick="ty.scrollTo('_edn7')">[7]</a> Quoted in J.H. Hertz, A Book of Jewish Thoughts, Oxford University Press, London, 1926, p. 135.

What compels an aristocratic and successful Pagan priest, Jethro, to abandon his comfortable home and come join a nation of nomads in a desert? The Talmud cites three opinions. He heard about the war of Amalek; he heard about the Torah; or he heard about the splitting of the sea. What is the logic behind this argument?

These three events embody the three timeless features which capture the Jewish story: 1. Anti-Semitism. Wherever there have been Jews, they have automatically given birth to Jew haters. 2. The Torah and its impact on the world. 3. The stubborn nature of the Jew never to conform to the dictates of natural history. Each of these remarkable narratives touched Jethro at his core.

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