וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֗ה לְ֠חֹבָב בֶּן־רְעוּאֵ֣ל הַמִּדְיָנִי֮ חֹתֵ֣ן מֹשֶׁה֒ נֹסְעִ֣ים ׀ אֲנַ֗חְנוּ אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה אֹת֖וֹ אֶתֵּ֣ן לָכֶ֑ם לְכָ֤ה אִתָּ֙נוּ֙ וְהֵטַ֣בְנוּ לָ֔ךְ כִּֽי־יְהוָ֥ה דִּבֶּר־ט֖וֹב עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Moses
said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting
out for the place of which the LORD has said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come
with us and we will be generous with you; for the LORD has promised to be
generous to Israel.”
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו לֹ֣א אֵלֵ֑ךְ כִּ֧י אִם־אֶל־אַרְצִ֛י וְאֶל־מוֹלַדְתִּ֖י אֵלֵֽךְ׃
“I will
not go,” he replied to him, “but will return to my native land.”
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אַל־נָ֖א תַּעֲזֹ֣ב אֹתָ֑נוּ כִּ֣י ׀ עַל־כֵּ֣ן יָדַ֗עְתָּ חֲנֹתֵ֙נוּ֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר וְהָיִ֥יתָ לָּ֖נוּ לְעֵינָֽיִם׃
He
said, “Please do not leave us, since you know where we should camp in the
wilderness and can be our guide.
וְהָיָ֖ה כִּי־תֵלֵ֣ךְ עִמָּ֑נוּ וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ הַטּ֣וֹב הַה֗וּא אֲשֶׁ֨ר יֵיטִ֧יב יְהוָ֛ה עִמָּ֖נוּ וְהֵטַ֥בְנוּ לָֽךְ׃
So, if
you come with us, we will extend to you the same bounty that the LORD grants
us.”
This is one of those stories, where,
hesitantly, I read it as imbued, infused, with the kind of generosity and
nobility of spirit, the recognition of what is right, that - as I say - almost
feels suspiciously too good to be true.
The living out the value of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self.
Which isn’t to say there is nothing
transactional happening here, I just don’t think that’s the main thing. And that it’s not the main thing, is the
lesson we need to heed this week.
The Jews certainly
owe a debt to Jethro, one worth a trip to the Holy Land. For one, Jethro believes in God and freely
acknowledges God’s power. Furthermore,
being a nomad, the Jews recognize Jethro will have much wise counsel to offer
for a nation who only recently were slaves and now find themselves in the
wilderness. Finally, Jethro is the one
who saved and helped train Moses, the instrument of their salvation.
But even with
all that, even with the implication that Jethro will be their Bronze Age GPS,
Moses’s offer doesn’t seem to stem so much from a calculation of what they can
get off Jethro – Moses offers because they want to share God’s unbelievable
blessings and favor with someone else. Sure,
Jethro is a good and righteous man, but he’s not a Jew, he wasn’t a slave, so
his claim to God’s bounty is the not the same.
The Jews offer, I hope anyway, because they have learned the best way to
express gratitude is to show it to others.
The story
though, of the Jewish People meeting Jethro, a tribal chief from the wilderness,
and welcoming him with respect and equality, speaks to our present-day trouble
in America. We Jews today seem in danger
of forgetting what it is to be the one Jethro before the multitude of
Israelites.
Often enough
in our history, we have been that outsider.
And often enough, we were not welcomed generously, and certainly not on
equal terms, either.
Yet when our
parshah this week takes the time to relate this story to us, and when our
People’s history tells it to us over and over – at least in terms of how it can
go wrong, how is it we aren’t keen to see it all around us in the United States
today?
For even
though each of us may all be proper, kale-eating, NPR-listening, fabric
shopping bag carrying, champions of human rights everywhere – we still seem to
find ourselves in a society where a lot of racism and bigotry exist and go
unchecked.
And I say
this as someone who sighs at the narrow-mindedness of those who believe
equality means imposing damnatio memoriae on the accomplishments of the
great men and women of history simply because they did not share the values of
today – wishing I could remind them that today is not the 25th of Prairial
in the year 228 (the base 10, anti-royal, anti-church French Revolutionary
Calendar date for today) for many and varied and good reasons, not least because it is a
hubris to think we can curate history in that way.
But that does
not mean landmarks and statues dedicated to traitors to our country should dot
our landscape.
Nor should we use “well
it’s always been like that” as an excuse not to scour court and custom for
unseen bastions of prejudice - we must -
though with the thoughtful eyes of centuries and millennia, and not of news-cycles
and elections.
And it must
not lead us to stand by and not act.
Really act – which needn’t mean going as far as marching in the streets,
but which equally doesn’t mean only grasping the lowest of all hanging fruit by
changing your Facebook picture either.
Through
donations, voting, educating, and listening, and also soul-searching, we can
also accomplish much. Let us not be
barriers to achieving the Torah’s ideal – because the danger that we are is
real.
There is much
more to say, but I’ll leave you with this from the Midrash on this
passage. While many believe (like I do)
that our story conclude with Jethro’s unspoken agreement to go with the
Israelites, we also encounter this version:
When they had eaten with him, he
said: “Give me permission to go to my own place.” Moses said to him (in Numb. 10:32):
“IT SHALL BE THAT, IF YOU COME WITH US, IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT WHATEVER
GOOD THE LORD DOES FOR US WE WILL DO FOR YOU.” Jethro said to him: “I want to
go and utter the Holy One's praise in my own place.” Immediately (in Exod. 18:27):
MOSES SENT HIS FATHER-IN-LAW AWAY…. Now when the Holy One does miracles for
Israel, they praise God, and because of Jethro, the nations of the world praise
God, too, as is proved by what it says in Psalms, (Ps. 138:4): THESE PEOPLES, ALL THE KINGS OF THE EARTH SHALL GIVE THANKS TO YOU, O LORD, FOR THEY HAVE HEARD THE WORDS OF YOUR MOUTH.
The impact our good deeds and good
beliefs can have on others is clear – the knowledge of God spreads in the world
when we act towards others in a way that conforms with God – they repeat and
amplify it – but then the opposite must also be true. Let us not send anyone away from hurting or
hating – if we do not join together on our journey, at least let us part ways
sharing our purpose to fulfill God’s will wherever we may be.
