This week's parsha is one of the most significant - the parsha of Matan Torah. After the unparalleled miracles of yetzias Mitzrayim Moshe Rabbenu, our great leader, led us to Har Sinai to finally receive the Torah, the very purpose of creation.
If we would have been given the task of choosing a name for this special parsha, we would presumably have named it after Moshe Rabbenu or Matan Torah. Why did Yisro, who does not seemingly play the main role in the parsha, have his name forever attributed to the parsha of Matan Torah?
The Big Fall
It was cold, windy, and wet outside. Mendy was happy to be in his dry home, sipping hot tea and keeping warm. Suddenly he felt something cold drip on him. He looked up and saw that he had a bad leak in his roof. Not someone to waste time, he placed a bucket to catch the leak, dressed up warmly, grabbed his ladder and toolbox, and headed up to the roof.
The leak was quite bad and so was the wind. As he was standing high on the ladder, three floors up working intensely on the roof, a big gust of wind came and threw over the ladder along with Mendy. The fall was bad. Mendy was rushed to hospital with many broken bones - in fact not a single one of his limbs remained intact. He had to remain in hospital for a long time while each of the breaks and his other injuries were treated. He had a large bandage over his head, plaster of Paris for each of his broken legs, a sling for his arm, and some eye drops for his black eye...
Says the Medrash: Hashem declares: “I am not like that. A person has remach eivarim - 248 limbs - two of which are the ears. They may all be sullied with averos, but the ozen shoma’as - the listening ear - is enough. If he can listen to mussar, to the messages that Hashem sends him, kol ha’guf nisrapeh, he will become fully healthy. All of his limbs will heal, as the pasuk states, “shimu u’sechi nafshechem”.
The Medrash continues by stating that Yisro was a prime example of this concept. He was a priest in Midian, a person replete with spiritual blemishes, entrenched in the world of terrible averos and avoda zara. What cured him? “Va’yishma Yisro - Yisro heard”. He responded to the inspiration and the message that Hashem sent and all of his spiritual ailments were cured. He became a new person, he was megayer, left the luxurious comfort of his home, and began a new lifestyle with Klal Yisrael in the midbar. All by dint of his ozen shoma’as.
This is why this parsha is named Yisro. Moshe Rabbenu did indeed play the main role in the redemption and Matan Torah, however, there were to be many Yidden throughout the generation who would be on a much lower spiritual level. Perhaps all of their limbs would be spiritually ailing, perhaps they would believe that they are unworthy of Torah. Our response is that the parsha of Matan Torah, no less, is named for Yisro, which teaches us that as long as one has a listening ear one can be as distant as Yisro and yet reach the towering heights that he did.
Real Hearing
On the words “Va’yishma Yisro” Rashi explains: “Eizeh shemuah shama u’ba - What did he hear that made him come? It was kri’as Yam Suf and milchemes Amalek.” This raises an obvious question. What does Rashi mean to add with this comment? Clearly Yisro came because he heard of the extraordinary miracles.
Further, it seems understandable that the miracle of kri’as Yam Suf would have caused Yisro to come. After all, it made waves (quite literally) throughout the world and was publicized to all (since all of the waters in the world split). But why was the war with Amalek so significant to him? True it was miraculous but there were far greater nissim such as the makos that Klal Yisrael had recently experienced.
We have discussed this question on a previous occasion. We explained that, in fact, it was not the miracle of the war with Amalek that convinced Yisro to leave his home. It was something entirely different. After Krias Yam Suf society was on a high – people the world over had seen Yad Hashem in their drinking cup and bathtub. They were convinced that from that moment on, society would change for the better; draw close to Hashem, and certainly never dream of causing any harm to His Chosen People, Klal Yisrael.
However, a short while later, something very different occurred. Amalek broke through this moment of inspiration and picked a fight with Klal Yisrael. Although they did not win the war, the damage was done; in the words of Rashi “he had cooled down the boiling bath-water”.
Yisro saw this and was very perturbed. He could not fathom how so shortly after such clear and open Nissim had inspired the world, Amalek could just get up and go to war to destroy a nation that was clearly the apple of Hashem's eye. This led Yisro to the following conclusion. When inspired, regardless of the degree of the inspiration, if one does not immediately implement positive resolutions, it is not worth anything.
Yisro had been duly inspired by the miracles Hashem had performed for Klal Yisrael, but until this point had only been considering his next move. However, when he saw the anticlimax brought about by Amalek he realized that he had to take action immediately. He immediately packed his bags, left behind his comfortable lifestyle, and went to join Klal Yisrael in the Midbar. He realized that waiting for another moment of inspiration was the wrong choice.
This is why Rashi states, “eizeh shemuah shama u’ba” – what news did he hear that made him come? In other words, what made him stop mulling over his options and make the decision to come? The answer, as Rashi explains and as we have explained, is that while it was Krias Yam Suf that inspired him, Milchemes Amalek taught him to act upon his inspiration.
We are currently in a period in which Hashem is clearly speaking to us. Four months ago, on Simchas Torah, we were all shocked to the core as the news got to us, and the harrowing reports of what had occurred and what was still occurring came out. It was a clear voice of Hashem telling us, “shuvu banim shovavim - come my dear children, return to me.”
We all davened like never before, learnt like never before, and undertook chessed like never before. We were sure that we would be changed people. But now, four months down the line, as the war continues to rage and our dear brothers are losing their lives, the question we must ask ourselves is: “eizeh shemuah shama u’ba?” Is the message going in one ear and out the other, or are we hearkening like Yisro and making real changes to our lives?
Igniting the Cotton
Just over a year ago Rabbi Salasnic shared the following, astounding story.
There is a small cotton farming village in Taiwan whose produce is world-renowned. The villagers have developed a series of processes that ensures the quality of the cotton grown is superior to the other options on the market. If you were to ask them the secret of their success, they would reply that it is all down to an old man, an agronomist named Li Su, who had inherited the secrets of his forefathers and combined them with more modern techniques.
This expert had directed every aspect of cotton production in the village for the last 50 years. Although the village was on the coast, he understood that the moist and salty air of the sea would damage the cotton, so he instructed the locals to plant their cotton fields on the slanted plains high up the mountain that overlooked the village. Day by day, the residents would ascend the winding paths from the village up the mountain, where they would work the cotton fields, according to Li Su’s instructions.
As the decades went by Li Su got older and weaker and could no longer trudge up the mountain, but he refused to abandon his role. The community decided to build him a beautiful home high up the mountain so he could be near his beloved cotton fields without the climb. His grandson, who acted as his companion and apprentice, moved in with him and in the evenings they would sit together on the balcony enjoying the sea view.
One late afternoon, as they sat on the balcony with a cool drink after a long day’s work, the agronomist surveyed the world around him. The fields were empty by this point of the day, all the workers had returned home. He looked out to the beautiful clear blue sea and smiled, but then, as he looked towards the horizon he saw something unusual, something that made his old body leap up with renewed vigour.
He grabbed a stick, handed it to his grandson and urgently instructed him to light it from the stove in the kitchen and bring it back to him. When he returned with the burning stick, his grandfather grabbed it, ran as fast as his aged legs would allow to the closest cotton field and set it on fire.
“Grandpa!” the young man, shocked at this completely irrational behaviour, screamed out. “What are you doing?!”. “Go and light more sticks,” he shouted back. “We need to ignite the other side of the field too!”
The lad was rooted to the spot. His grandfather had clearly gone out of his mind, why else would he be taking his life’s work, which he had devoted his very essence to, and destroying it? Li Su didn’t wait for his grandson; he himself ran to the other side of the field and set it alight. Very soon, the whole field was burning and a thick black smoke cloud reached to the sky.
Suddenly distant shouts were heard from the village far below, they had seen that their livelihood was burning away! People started running up the winding trails towards the cotton fields, men, women and children; everyone understood that they had to do something. But by the time they’d climbed the mountain they were too late, everything was lost. “Who lit the fields?” one of the men called out in despair. And then turning to the agronomist he said, “You were up here, did you see anyone?”
“If you really want to know who lit the fields, you should look at me. I burned the crop.” A confused tumult broke out, how could it be, had their hero finally gone mad? Some of the more hot-headed men started moving closer, intending to take out their frustrations on him.
“My friends,” Li Su called out in a placating tone, “I understand very well why you are angry, but before you attack me, please remember all those years that I helped you develop your cotton fields, how I was there for you every step of the way. Please believe me – what I did, I did it only for your good.”
“For our good? How could it be for our good?” cried the villagers, “We’ve lost a full year’s produce!” The old man turned towards the sea and pointed down to their homes and the coast. They followed his finger and gasped. A wall of water many metres high was speeding in from the sea and within a few moments engulfed the whole village. The tsunami hit the mountain, rushing halfway up, but receding before it reached the people near the summit.
As the villagers took in the devastation below, they trembled with the realisation that had they been in the village not one of them would have survived the deluge. They finally understood that Li Su had set the fields on fire because he knew that was the only way to get them all away from certain death. It was going to be a difficult and painful period until they got themselves back on their feet again, but at least they were all alive and well, and with the expert’s help they would soon return to their previous success.
Current Times
We experienced a terribly painful blow on Simchas Torah. With so many injured, killed, and taken hostage, it was and still is one of the most difficult, painful, and confusing times in recent history. An event that is hard for us to digest and understand.
Each Shabbos we say, “Av haRachamim shochen ba’meromim”. Why does the tefila state that Hashem is “shochen ba’meromim - dwelling in the heights” - how is it relevant to the tefila?
Sometimes, as we travel somewhere by car, we may not understand everything that is happening around us. Why is there traffic? Why are the police creating a diversion? However, if we would be travelling by helicopter we would see what was happening from above and would understand everything. We would see that further down the street there had been an accident or fire.
This is the intent of the tefila. Hashem is the Av haRachamim. Though we might not always realize this fact or see it clearly, we must remember that He is shochen ba’meromim - He dwells up high. We may not always understand why, but He has the full picture. Perhaps he has seen a huge tsunami coming towards us, a tsunami so great it could destroy the entire village. Perhaps there is a physical or spiritual tragedy for Klal Yisrael just around the corner and the only way to be saved is to climb high up and draw closer to Him. But we are so far down that we do not hear His calls to rise higher, towards him. With no choice and with His perspective from up above, He brings terrible destruction upon us. He sets fire to all the cotton fields, He brings war, terror, carnage, or destruction.
What is our response? We come running up towards Him. We listen to the kol Hashem, improve our Torah and mitzvos and become better people. Then, although these times are painful, we will save ourselves and all of our nation.
Let us learn a lesson from Yisro. Let the voice of Hashem talking to us not be in vain - let us make it a shemuah she’shama u’ba. May we then rise to great heights and see better times together.
