BS”D

Yisro – Mitzvos – Just do it.

Dr M. Bank

A Guten Erev Shabbos. This week’s parsha is parshas Yisro. Its an amazing thing, right at the outset, the question is asked, how was it possible that somebody so far away, from Midian, could be the father in law of Moshe Rabbeinu? How many people have a son in law called Moshe Rabbeinu – who would want such a son in law? Every intelligent person on the face of the earth. What made Yisro zoche? What was the relationship between the father in law and son in law? What do we learn from this interaction and the world that we live in today vis a vis Goyim, Gerim, Geula, and our example to the world.

I would like to refer right at the outset to a very interesting thing. It says in posuk 18,1 “ and Yisro heard”. What news did he hear and why did he come? Many people across the world heard about krias Yam Suf and the war with Amalek. Rav Shternbuch writes that later when Yisrael had the war with Midian, the Raavad says that Yisro heard about the Exodus from Egypt. Rashi says that this was the greatest miracle of all, but if so, why didn’t Yisro come straight away? In other words, a person hears that Am Yisrael has a great miracle. The whole world is in awe. We’ve seen some modern examples of that, when the world was absolutely shocked that after the Holocaust, the smallest, most devastated nation, had the chutzpah to declare itself a nation after 2000 years, after the worlds every effort to blockade and to have quotas on the Jews, and zero equipment being allowed into Israel, while all the weapons of the British when they exited the holy land, were given over to Israel’s enemies. Not only that, but even their generals were given over to Israel’s enemies, to finish off the job. It wasn’t bad enough what Germany, Amalek had done. It seems that the British Government, thought that they were the Brit – ish, the children of the covenant. Ultimately, it says in the first Rashi, that if the world calls us thieves, we can answer them. Before the State of Israel, the world called us Plishtim, ‘Palestinians’. The Jews of Israel 70 years ago were called the ‘Palestinians’. It is a curiosity how today there is such mercy upon the present day Palestinians but there was no mercy for the ‘Palestinians’ of 60/70 years ago. It is a tremendous irony of world history. The world is 60/70 years too late. Had they shown the kind of mercy such as 7.5 billion dollars in aid, to the ‘Palestinians’ 70 years ago, what an amazing world it could have been. But it wasn’t meant to be. So we see, the shivim zeviim, 70 wolves, coming in, as the Prophets predicted. What we see really is prophecy in motion. The Jewish people returning to where they were meant to be, this was a true krias Yam Suf. All the nations of the world blockaded Israel. After the Holocaust, which was a silent genocidal conspiracy, the left over remnants of Israel came back to their homeland, which was devastated, 6 million of our brothers, sisters and children, babies, murdered, not just at the hands of the Nazis, Yimach Shemam VeZichronam, but the silent partners of Bonacia, of Idyan, and of the Bermuda Conference were all there to see the final solution played out. But, by the grace of H’SHEM, we went forward.

So incredibly, we see that back then when Yisro heard about it, he rushed to see Moshe Rabbeinu, his son in law. Imagine a son in law going back into one of the moist vicious Nazi concentration camps, to rescue the nation. What is the likelihood of ever seeing him again? What is the likelihood of him ever seeing his wife and children again? Almost nothing. Yet, somehow miracle of miracles, they burst out of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen and all the concentration camps of Germany, beyad Rema, with an upraised hand, as the Nazi tanks were all smashed to pieces in the Krias Yam Suf of the Siberian Winters, of Zubruck and El-Allemain, wherever it was 2000 years ago, hours from Jerusalem, ready to make a final solution on the Jews of Israel. The Sochnut, the Jewish Agency, had already burnt all the documents and were ready to have a Massada-like last stand on the hills of Har Carmell where they had bunkers built into the mountains on the expectation that a few hours away, they would heading for. The kehilla had gone into a 3 day fast at the western wall and had changed their clothes to sack cloth. It was parallel to the destruction of the first and second Temples. So it was a particularly vulnerable time in world history. One tzadik went to the kever of the Or HaChayim and prayed furiously, feverishly. Apparently smoke came from the kever in the shape of the Shem H’SHEM. This is a sign that H’SHEM is with am Yisrael even in our darkest moments. At that moment the battle of El-Allemain was raging 2000 km away, with Rommel, probably the mightiest warrior of World History with thousands of Panzer tanks that were unstoppable, somehow, through a miracle, the whole military machinery collapsed. This is a secret for another time. What we do understand is that but by the grace of H’SHEM, this nation, the weakest of nations, the smallest of nations, goes forward and defies all the HItelrs of world history.

Yisro saw, that when Moshe and Bnei Yisrael were being attacked by the ancient Egyptian marauders, the greatest, invincible, unstoppable army in the world, with all their military strength and all their might, they came forward and they got bogged down in their Sibwerian winter, where the mud of the seas caused their wheels to get stuck in the Ocean floor. Imagine the wheels coming off the chariots when they were trying to lead their final advance. All the arrows they were shooting at Yisrael were being absorbed by the column of fire that separated the ancient Egyptians from our forefathers. So what we see here is an incredible miracle of precedented proportions. It seems in every generation, bechol dor vador, omdim aleinu lechaloteinu. Had we been there, had we seen that krias Yam Suf, and seen the walls of water to the left of you and to the right of you, would you have believed? Would you have raised up your hands and said “this is from H’SHEM”. Such a miracle of nature had never happened in the world before, and many commentaries say that it was the greatest miracle of world history. The truth is that a miracle never stops, because our voyage through the world has not left krias yam suf in every generation. This tiny strip of land in the dessert, the size of New Jersey, to the east of us is the Yam Suf, the Yam SIna, the ocean of hatred of Ishmael, and on the west of us, is the Yam Suf, the Ocean of hatred of Esav. How is this little nation able to blossom in the depths of hatred. That we become an export nation against all odds. That we are exporting to the world. A nation with all the world’s tzorres on its back is managing to become an innovator. In medicine, technology, agriculture, across the board. Nobel prize winners far in excess of the proportion across the world. The numbers are something like 17% of Nobel Prize Winners are Jewish, whereas Israel is a speck of dust in the dessert sand. This speck of dust brings some of the most illuminating discoveries to the world in science, medicine and even striving for that most illusionary goal, peace. It will come, but not according to the enemies of Israel, with a final solution. It will come when H’SHEM is good and ready with his final solution to their final solutions. So we see that the war of Amalek is raging in the world today. All the haters of Israel are willing to throw their children into the fires of war and hatred against Israel. That is the hatred of Amalek, that he ready to throw his children into the furnaces of suicide bombings, to murder Jews at all costs, to drench the holy land with its children’s blood Has veShalom. Anybody that is a partner with violence – Hamas as it says 4000 years ago, when Noach was getting ready for the flood, the reason that the flood happened then was one reason only – hamas, across the surface of the earth. Anybody that is a partner crying out for hamas – last week, 200 rockets crashed into Israel. What did the world say? Its an outrage that the Jews would stop the food being delivered to hamas. So we see that but for the grace of H’shem back then and today. So Rav Shtenrbuch says, why didn’t Yisro come straight away after krias yam Suf? Perhaps he didn’t want to come while they were in the dessert. He wanted to join them when they came to Eretz Yisrael. But we see that this invitation was put upon Yisro, Moshe Rabbeinu pleaded with him to stay and be a part of the nation, He felt a greater calling to go back to Midian and to reach out to the people that he grew up with in the hope that maybe he could do something to help a world Teshuva. After hearing that H’shem’s presence was with him, with Moshe Rabbeniu and Am Yisrael, as evidenced by the Reed Sea, krias Yam Suf and the war against Amalek, Yisro decided not to miss the experience of H’shem’s presence and H’shem’s wonders. When Yisro saw that despite the Exodus and the splitting of the Reed Sea the chiefs of Edom were amazed but still decided to attack the Jewish people, he decided that he had to join this miraculous nation. Once he heard of this troop, he immediately abandoned his status as the Cohen Gadol of Midian and adviser to Paroh and immediately rushed to the Jewish nation. The commentaries say that his conversion was therefore purely for the sake of heaven. He could have stayed in Midian and could have continued to consult what was left of the Egyptian nation. His advice to the Egyptian nation was exactly the opposite to what happened. He probably told them, forget about it. You’re up against an invincible opponent. Join them rather than perishing. Let them be a light unto the nations, rather than extinguishing your own nation.

Moshe went out to meet his father in law. He went out and kissed his father in law, and each of them enquired about the well being of each other. They came to the tent. Moshe told his father in law everything H’shem had done to Pharaoh and Egypt for Israel’s sake and all the travails that had befallen them on the way and that H’shem had rescued them. Yisro rejoiced over all the good that H’shem had done for Yisrael. H’shem had rescued them from Egypt. Yisro was one of the first people in history to say “Boruch H’shem”. This is an incredible insight. We take such an inspiration from somebody that had tried every other religion. When it came to the crunch, he said, Boruch H’shem. That is what we are all about. There has never been a time in history that somebody who had left the fold, who did not grow up in Torah, didn’t come back to Torah. Somebody that grew up in a secular or Has Veshalom anti-religious home could one day wake up in the morning and say, ‘You know what, Yesh H’shem, there is a G-d, what am I doing about it? How am I navigating through the darkness of this world. Every day its an agony to open the newspaper. Every day its an agony to listen to the news. It seems that the world is obsessed with the smallest of nations. So we have to understand that the eyes of H’shem are on this nation from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in this land. It matches their plot. It doesn’t shock anybody even for a second that 200 rockets crashed into the cities of Southern Israel last week. Nobody comments that nobody perished from them. A baby was sleeping in her bed. Her mother heard the siren which is basically a 15 second siren before the rockets plunge into the city of Sderot. She grabbed her baby and ran. Within seconds, the rocket plunged into the room and into the bed that the baby had been sleeping in a few seconds before and devastated everything. To the mother it was natural. It was normal that H’shem was with her. There was no surprise. So that when each and every Jew that was at Krias Yam Suf and each and every Jew that was in the battle against Amalek; and for each and every Jew that was at Har Sinai that received the 10 Commandments, there was something personal about it. Not one of am Yisrael that is with the nation today is with the nation by accident. The only thing is RSVP, don’t forget your ticket to fly. Every single Jew and every single righteous gentile has a place in heaven. Like it says in Tractate Nedarim, 32b that those people who make H’shem’s ratzon their ratzon, have a helek closer to H’shem than the Angels, the Keruvim, than the Kodesh HaKedoshim on Yom Kippur. Those people that make H’shem’s ratzon their ratzon, ultimaltey, H’shem makes his ratzon their ratzon. H’shem reveals His ways to those who make His ratzon theirs. H’shem slowly but surely reveals more of His secrets about how his world functions in the super-Teva. Above and beyond nature. What does it mean Am Yisrael are above the Mazalot?

This nation that we see the 10 Commandments in this parsha. We could contemplate each commandment until the end of Eternity and never get to the end of it. One of the things at the outset is that it says “You shall not make graven images, not of that which is above, nor on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth. You shall not prostrate yourself to them or worship them, for I, H’shem your G-d, am a jealous G-d who will visit the sin of the fathers upon the children to the 3^rd and the 4^th generation. Why not the 5^th and the 6^th? Because by the 3^rd and the 4^th generation spiritually they are extinct. Look what’s happened to the secular revolution. Look what’s happened to those who rebel against Torah. A person could say, “well I ‘m a good person. I keep the ten commandments even though I don’t keep anything else”. So you ask him “Do you keep Shabbos?...Welll, 9 out of 10 is a passmark. In University or School, 50% is a passmark. In Torah, every mitzvah is the edge of the scale – maybe that 1 mitzva could push everybody of to another year of life, or, chas vehalila, because of ignoring that one mitzvah, it could push the whole equation into Gehenom. The scales could be weighed by that one equation. Everybody is commanded on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur not to believe he is a rasha gamur or tzadik gamur, but to believe that his is a beinoni. With 1 more mitzvah he can push himself and the whole world to another year of life. By turning his back on it, he plunges himself and his whole world into devastation. H’shem shows kindness for thousands of generations for those who love H’shem and perform his commandments. So we see from this, that you shall not make any likeness of the heavens above – of the stars. It says about Avraham Avinu, that H’shem took him out of his tent and above the stars. So what was that secret that H’shem was revealing. There are many people that believe that the fate of mankind is in the stars. What we have to understand is that the stars themselves have no power of their own. Its like nozel, a tap that is flowing. A person who looks at the stars to try to understand them, a tragedy. A person that worships them – an even greater tragedy. The stars have no individual koach. The Pharaoh looked into he stars which revealed that Moshe Rabbeinu was being born at that time. That was when he started throwing all the Jewish boys into the Nile river. That was why he was throwing Egyptiam boys too, was because he knew that the future redeemer would grow up in. He knew that water would cause a stumbling block to the redeemer. He wanted to accelerate it. With his plotting and plans, he destroyed his own children. He destroyed, tremendously, the power of Egypt. It was meant to be. The Rambam writes in the Moreh Nevuchim and Yad haChazaka, it is forbidden to worship avoda zara or mazalot. Certain people believe that by going to fortune tellers, or by reading their horoscope they say, wow that really did happen to me. We have to understand something about Avoda Zara. It doesn’t say you shall not be silly. It is forbidden to worship rock and stones. Not because it’s a waste of time, but because the way a man goes, H’shem will lead him. H’shem pleads with mankind and warns him – the sin of the previous generation will be carried on to the third and fourth generation because by then they are extinct. Only those that love H’shem truly with all their heart, all their soul and all their resources, will be zoche to thousands of generations. World history right now is somewhere around 180. Imagine you are at a wedding hall sitting with all your forefathers in Shamayim, 18 tables of 10 people per table. Imagine what it will be with 1000s of generations. The future – it all depends on us. Each and every individual. As Rabbi Tatz says, “We don’t have to worry about am Yisrael because am Yisrael are guaranteed. Who guarantees it? H’shem. H’shem guarantees it by saying, as long as there is heaven and earth, there will be Am Yisrael. I that is the case, what are we praying for? We are praying with all our souls, all our heart and all our might, that we will continue to be a part of am Yisrael and that the righteous gentiles will truly be righteous in name and in deed. We see from this that just clinging to this nation and to the Etz Chayim, this is our guarantee for eternity, this is the tree of life that was in the garden of Eden, this is Eden returning to this world. This is our opportunity to make Shamayim al Ha’Aretz – heaven on Earth. So we see that worshipping the stars isn’t something that a person is told – thou shall not be stupid, silly. Don’t worship those inanimate objects. If a person tries to decipher what is going on there, H’shem will give him a certain stumbling block that he invited upon himself. In Maseches Megilla, it says that the kochavim is the helek of the Goyim. It is not Am Yisrael’s helek. This is what is used to navigate the boats of ancient days and planes, and for the world to see exactly where it is in the Universe. They are not for us to contemplate – twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder where you are. Our business is to understand that these are signs and simanim for us. What are the signs? When three stars are out, it means that it is absolutely d’oraisa Shabbos or absolutely d’oraisa motzei Shabbos. Its Chag or Motzei Chag. There is no question about it, that H’shem gives these signs to Am Yisrael to lead us in ruchnius.

And, if we are talking about ruchnius and the heavenly spheres, it took the Nasa space program billions of dollars to send a rocket to the moon to place a laser reflector on the moon so that they could measure to a micro-milimeter the exact time taken for the moon to return to the exact point to which the moon was initially in the heavens each month. They came to the conclusion of 29.31258 days to discover that in fact, the Jewish luach of 3,300 years ago was absolutely correct, without all those additional billions of dollars in research. That is really the essence of it. If we trust in H’shem, we don’t have to pay the billions and trillions of dollars to discover the Eternal truths of H’shem. H’shem can be relied upon.

The first commandment is a most amazing thing. It says “Anochi H’”. the ineffable name in the past, present and future. This is also a remez to Rachamim – I will be with you in your suffering and I will be with you through your celebration. This is a remez to the eternal name of H’, he is with us who is with us. He goes through our agonies and stays with us as long as we stay with Him. (Posuk 101) “I am the L-rd who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Slavery.” Rashi asks why it was necessary for H’shem to identify Himself as the One that toiok us out of the land of Egypt. H’shem had not physical being and the only conception we can have of H’shem is the way that He revealed Himself through history, history being His story. Thus in Egypt, we see for example that the Jews “saw” the strong warrior fighting against Yisrael’s enemies. At Sinai they saw H’shem as the compassionate, wise father. The generation could have been led to assume, Has VeHalila, the goyish philosophy that there many different gods, one of mercy, one of absolute justice, one of fertility etc. Therefore H’shem revealed at Sinai that He is the only G-d clearly and that there is only H’shem as he was at Egypt at krias Yam Suf, and as He is at Har Sinai, and as He will be throughout world history. The same G-d that created the world through ten utterances, ten statements, was the same G-d that gave the ten makkot, the ten plagues, to Egypt by reversing all of the ten utterances. That was the same G-d that brought Am Yisrael to Har Sinai, to give us the eser Dibros, the 10 Commandments. These 10 Commandments are keneged the 10 plagues, which are keneged the 10 statements of creation. Everything plays through world history, in absolute. The same G-d that created the world, zecher lemaase Bereshis, remember the work of creation. Zecher Yetzias Mitzrayim – it’s the same G-d that took you out of Egypt to create you as a nation; that brought you from the exile and slave labour camps of Egypt and Auschwitz, to the chuppa of Eretz HaKodesh, of Har Sinai, to give you the wedding contract to give you the Chuppa, so that we can go forward to his home, the Beis HaMikdash and celebrate eternal goodness, Shamayim al ha’aretz.

Each of the ten commandments demands at least a shiur of its own. What want to recall now the most shocking and heart-rendering tenth commandment, do not covet what is your neighbour’s, his house, his wife – don’t even desire for them. His manservant, his maid-servant, his ox, his donkey, not anything that belongs to your fellow. It a curiosity that even our thoughts are being judged. We know how serious it is to murder. H’shem suggests that it is as bad to covet. There is no earthly court that can truly judge a man’s thoughts –“Excuse me but I didn’t have such a thought”. “You did, and you will perish for having such a thought. Could there be such an earthly court? How on earth does this work? One thing we know for sure. The One that created the heavens, the earth and all that is in them, is the same One that created this nation, Am Yisrael and judges our thoughts. Of course a person must have thoughts, but he can improve his thoughts - this was the whole purpose of the mussar movement. The mussar giants didn’t even have a remez of a thought to say a bad word. One knows the gvulim of what is lurking in his heart. If one works on oneself constantly – banish the thought – if a person has a good look at somebody else’s wife or he thinks, what would it be like. The Targum Yonasan describes as follows “ My people Yisrael, do not covet the house of your friend, nor his wife nor his slaves or maidservants or anything else that is his. The punishment is that the ruling powers in the land will confiscate your property and take it for themselves, just as you coveted, they will take your wealth and you will become poor. Somebody will come forward and take your wife before your very eyes, has veshalom. You will rachmana litzlan, be exiled where they will finish off what is left of you. Am Yisrael ran around the world for 2000 years, the wandering Jews until we resolved in our heart, enough of the Holocausts, enough of the Siberian slave camps, enough of the Spanish inquisition, enough of 2000 of inhospitality and hostility, of holocaust at the hands of our host nations. Enough of all that. Its time to come home to Torah, Eretz Yisrael and Olam Haba beOlam Haze. This was the message of Yisro, that he was ready to let go of all his past, the kavod of being the High Priest of Midian, of coming to where Moshe Rabbeinu was, to pledge allegiance to the G-d of Israel, and he said “Now I know that this is the greatest of all judges. This G-d outweighs all flesh and blood. This G-d is the Judge of the Universe. The Master of the Universe and the Father of Creation. This is the One – Ze Keli VeAnvehu. This is the one that I will honour to the end of time. This is why Yisro was zoche to a son in law like Moshe Rabbeinu.

May we all be zoche to reach the potential that we can reach, rise up to whatever it is, returning to the Torah, to Eretz Yisrael and to serving H’shem in His home, here in Jerusalem, united, Yerushalayim DC. Not Washington, District of Columbia, but Yerushalayim DC – City of David. May we be zoche to see not only Dovid and Shlomo, both giving shiur with all of us at the Beis haMikdash, dancing together with Moshe Rabbeinu, Aaron HaCohen, Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov, returning from Maarat Hamachpela, coming to join all the generations that have shown dedication and Divine Inspiration soon in our days, and let kol am Yisrael experience true peace. Shabbot Shalom. (Amen).