Ask Around Your Shabbos Table

The Torah in this week’s parsha tells us who were Moshe Rabbeinu’s children. But it relates this to us in very unique way:

שֵׁם הָאֶחָד גֵׁרְ שֹׁם...וְשֵׁם הָאֶחָד אֱלִיעֶזֶר - “Name of the one [child] is Gershom...And name of the one [child] is Eliezer” (Shemos 18:3-4).

Ask around your Shabbos table: Why does the Torah refer to both Gershom and Eliezer with the word “הָאֶחָד” (the one).

An Answer: Rav Yosef Tzvi HaLevi Dunner zt”l in his book Mikdash HaLevi (Yisro, p. 257) writes that by using the word “הָאֶחָד” (the one) for both Gershom and Eliezer, the Torah is teaching us here a fundamental lesson in chinuch: A parent who was blessed with two or more children should look at each one of them as his only child.