PARSHA
By Aharon Loschak, Chabad.org
In October of 2008, just months before the Burj Khalifa was officially opened in Dubai as the tallest building in the world, the UAE government and a firm called Nakheel announced, with much fanfare, that construction would begin on a new, even taller building. Rising to over a kilometer in height, the proposed “Nakheel Tower” would be something the world had never seen.
The project was scheduled to include mind-bending numbers: It would be home to 55,000 people living in residential apartments, and a daily work destination for 45,000 more. It would host 250,000 square meters of hotels, and 100,000 square meters of retail space.
You probably never heard of this building, because just a year later, in December of 2009, the project was shelved.
Sometimes ambitious projects are just that: too ambitious. They gain a lot of steam in the beginning, they generate a lot of excitement, and then—they fizzle out. Arabian skyscrapers aside, this is a phenomenon we ought to be wary of in our personal lives.
Is This News?
Our parshah opens with its eponymous character Yitro (Jethro) arriving in the desert to greet his famous son-in-law, Moses. As we read earlier, Moses first met Jethro (a Midianite priest) while fleeing his Egyptian pursuers. In what seems to be a trend from that era, Moses met Jethro’s daughter Tziporah at a well in Midian and ended up marrying her.
Despite being steeped in pagan culture, Jethro was moved by the events that had transpired with the Israelites and decided to join their faith. We read of his initial meeting with Moses in the desert, and after their first exchange, the Torah tells us:
Moses told his father-in-law [about] all that the G d had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians on account of Israel, [and about] all the hardships that had befallen them on the way, and [that] G d had saved them.
Jethro responds with much joy, and the rest is history.
All’s well; as far as father-in-law-and-son-in-law reunions can go, this one seems pretty swell.
But there’s one problem: the entire exchange seems superfluous. The Torah makes it sounds as if Jethro hadn’t heard anything about the Exodus, and Moses is telling it to him now for the first time. But certainly, Jethro knew about it before; after all, the Torah told us very clearly in the first verse of the chapter, “Jethro, the chieftain of Midian, heard all that G d had done for Moses and for Israel, His people that G d had taken Israel out of Egypt.”
The entire premise for Jethro’s arrival in the desert to join arms with the people was because he was so moved by the events of the Exodus! So why did Moses feel the need to tell his father-in-law the details yet again? And why does Jethro seem so surprised to hear it?
When the Flame Starts Dying Down
Moses wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t know. Rather, he was trying to see if his father-in-law really possessed the mettle to join G d’s people.
To explain: Inspiration is great. It flares up, gets you excited and passionate, and at that stage, you do everything with gusto.
But then, time passes, and if you’re not extremely careful, it can very quickly fizzle out. The only way to ensure continued engagement is to maintain the memory of your original inspiration and try to summon it up as life goes on. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Such is the nature of life.
