We learn that when Yithro had heard all that Hashem did for B’nai Yisrael, he left Midian with Tzippora and Moshe’s two sons and went to join with the Jews.
We are not absolutely certain as to whether any one specific event Yithro heard boosted him to circumcize himself and to go out to join the B’nai Yisrael, and if so, which exact event it was, or whether it was the sum total of all he had heard which convinced him to become a Jew.
In the sefer Ner Uziel: Perspectives on the Parsha, Rabbi Uziel Milevsky z’l writes on Parsha Yithro (p. 380-383) indicating that were Yithro to have come to join the Jews after Yetziat Mitziyim or after the cri’at Yam Suf, it would have been unlikely that he could have joined with the Jews due their concern as to what his motivations might be; i.e. whether he was anxious to be on a winning team, on the right side, not unlike many athletes who, when reaching free agency status, seek the best deal, to earn more that their peers, to join onto the team which has gone all-the-way. This concern for one’s true motivations in converting seems to this author to be why Rabbi Milevsky cites indications that B’nai Yisrael didn’t accept Gerim during the reigns of David HaMelech and Shlomo HaMelech when B’nai Yisrael was at the zenith of prestige and power in the world.
When Yithro came to join with the B’nai Yisrael after their difficult war with Amalek, the B’nai Yisrael saw that his motivations were true, pure and sincere to throw his lot with B’nai Yisrael out of recognition that their connection with Hashem was the one true path.
But Rabbi Aba Wagensberg spoke out several years ago citing another possible event which Yithro saw, which when grouped with the other events performed by Hashem for B’nai Yisrael, compelled his joining with them. Rabbi Wagensberg indicated at that time that his vort was one which he felt that Kiruv people need to hear regarding reaching out to their fellow Jews.
Rabbi Wagensberg indicated that as Yithro watched events unfold, he longed to join with B’nai Yisrael but feared doing so out of inferior feelings due to his own background of having served every possible avodah zora throughout his life to that point.
Rabbi Wagensberg then cited a source indicating that there was a second crossing of the Yom Suf. This citing, not recalled for sure by this author, may have been in a Targum Yonaton Ben Uziel on Parsha Shemos, perek 14, posuk 3 (in Parsha Beshalach);
And Pharoah will say of the B’nai Yisrael, ‘They are locked in the land, the Wilderness has locked them in.’
According to Rabbi Wagensberg’s citing, the two Jewish rasha’im Dasan and Aviram “sat on the fence” observing the drama of Pharoah’s rushing the Jews out of Mitzrayim, followed by what appeared to them to be the Jews’ wandering aimlessly until they found themselves walled-in by the sea. The dilemma of Dasan and Aviram was; to stay in Mitzrayim with Pharoah, or join their brethren.
Targum Yonaton Ben Uziel renders perek 14, posuk 3;
“V’Amar Pharoah l’V’nai Yisrael…”, And Pharoah will say to B’nai Yisrael…”, indicating that Pharaoh is talking to what is left of B’nai Yisrael in Mitzriyim — Dasan and Aviram.
As this author understands Rabbi Wagensberg’s description; when Dasan and Aviram saw the utter confusion in Mitzri ranks and that the Mitzriyim, their chariots and horses sunk in the Yam Suf and that the Mitzriyim all floated back to the sea’s surface dead, the two came down on the side of joining their brethren; the winners. The two “free agents” with less than sterling track records thus davened to Hashem who answered their tefillohs by doing a second cri’at Yam Suf so that Dasan and Aviram could cross over to join their brethren.
According to Rav Wagensberg’s depiction, when Yithro, having known Dasan and Aviram had been rasha’im in Mitzrayim, saw that Hashem made a special opening in the Sea to enable them to return to their brethren, he reasoned that if Hashem accepted their Teshuva, that there was a strong chance that He would accept him (Yithro) into B’nai Yisrael. According to Rabbi Wagensberg, it was then that Yithro set out with Tzippora and Moshe’s two sons to join with the Jews.
The point here seems to be that no matter one’s past errors and indiscretions, he can still, if sincerely contrite and sincerely seeking to do Teshuva and regain closeness with Hashem, he is able to do so, as exemplified by the letter Hay where one can fall and yet climb back up in Kedusha. Even Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres (who equates the PA prime minister Salam Fayyad to Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion), and a whole host of other modern-day Dasans and Avirams with their miles-long rap sheets of anti-Jewish, anti-Torah indiscretions??
May we, the B’nai Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard, captive Gilad Shalit and the other MIAs be liberated alive returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem. May we have the courage to prevent the eviction of Jews from their homes and the handing of Jewish land over to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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