What are people most looking for?
I would venture to say it is connection. Connection to something, to someone. Usually, they are not even sure what it is they long for, but deep down, it is to be connected.
Unfortunately, many yearn for it, but then they end up attaching themselves to that which is meaningless...and tragically leave This World without ever finding that connection that they really longed for....
And yet, it is those who find their way to their roots; to their heritage, and to the Creator who find the true joy and satisfaction they so desire.
Yisro was a very great seeker. He yearned for something more; for that which was real... and he found it in Moshe Rabbeinu and his people, and then, finally, in HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
Yisro’s original name was יתר, and yet, when he became a Jew, the letter vav was added to his name, making it יתרו; why?
My esteemed chavrusa, Rav Yehuda Tzvi Kurzrock shlita, explained that first and foremost, it was added because he added all the mitzvos to his life, and the letter vav is a letter that denotes addition.
Secondly, though, Rav Kurzrock explained beautifully: Besides the connotation of “adding on to” that the letter vav represents, it also implies “connection.” When someone or something is connected to another, the letter vav is added to show that connection. The letter is shaped like a hook, because that is really what a hook does well, it connects one thing to another (like the ווים, hooks, in the Mishkan).
Yisro, originally Yeser, yearned for connection. He yearned to be connected to Hashem Yisbarach, to His Torah, and to His people....and because he yearned for them, he reached his goal.
What addition to his name could represent that connection? What letter would convey the essence of that which Yisro accomplished in his arduous journey? Surely it is the letter vav, that symbol of connection; for Yisro became connected to the truth, to Hashem, and to His beloved people.
A very holy convert who lives in our community relates this true story. He grew up way out in the Philippines but felt that his life was missing something real. Thus, he told his family that he was going out to search for the truth. But where would he find it? He did not know... but he began his treacherous journey to search for that which he sought....
He did not have money or any means of transportation, and he therefore went on foot, from city to city, living on park benches and from scraps of food that he found on his way...week after week of this most arduous search, until he found his way to Jerusalem...ending up in front of Michon Shlomo, a yeshivah for baalei teshuvah. He said, “At that moment in time, I knew I had found the truth I was looking for....”
Not only did he become a full- fledged ger tzedek, but he married and built a most incredible bayis b’Yisrael of doros following the ways of Hashem that he founded with his untold mesiras nefesh.
The story of Yisro and really of every ger tzedek since, is a story that should inspire us to appreciate what we might surely take for granted. For what they yearned and longed to be connected to is what we were given on a silver platter. What they were moser nefesh to merit being part of, we were born into. If we would just stop to think about that, our connection would run so much deeper, and we would never allow the melancholy of life’s vicissitudes to pull us down ever; for we would know that we are luckiest people alive today...
B’Siyata DiShmaya.
