Last week we touched upon the Gemara in Zevachim (116a) that asks on the opening pasuk of this week’s parsha: What is it that Yitro “heard” that made him want to come and join the People of Israel? We examined this question in the light of the war against Amalek in Parshat Beshalach, but the episode of Yitro’s “conversion” warrants further examination. This is true in particular because this whole parsha – the parsha of the assembly at Sinai and the giving of the Torah – is indeed named for Yitro.
Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, in his commentary on the Chumash, points out that Beshalach is a very large parsha with many momentous events in it, but it’s followed by Yitro, a relatively short parsha with perhaps the most momentous event of all. Yitro is noteworthy probably above all for being a wise and righteous individual among the gentile nations, and so it isn’t coincidental that the parsha of the giving of the Torah is named after him. Indeed, the context for the Gemara’s discussion of “what Yitro heard” is a review of the history and laws of sacrifice in the generations preceding the giving of the Torah. Thus, the significance of this question goes beyond simply framing the narrative or understanding the character of Yitro, the father-in-law of Moshe. Yitro exemplifies something in the quality of humankind prior to the emergence of Israel as a nation. Humanity is about to change profoundly once Israel receives the Torah, and Yitro senses this and presents himself to Moshe at exactly that place and time.
Maharal explains in his chiddushei aggadot (novellae on allegories in the Talmud) on the aforementioned Gemara that what changes once the Torah is given to the Children of Israel is that Israel becomes established as a political and spiritual force standing apart from the rest of humanity. Up until this point, we were an extended family, a group of tribes descended from one man (Yaakov/Yisrael) who shared a common set of values, but we were still a collection of individuals. The acceptance of the Torah constitutes an assignment of collective responsibility and a shared destiny encompassing every individual as a part of this larger whole. Thus, Maharal points out that Israel is the only nation that one can convert into and become a part of, and at the same time, under Jewish law no one may convert out of Israel and claim to no longer be bound by the associated duties.
Yitro is the first convert (if indeed a convert he was, as the Gemara suggests here) because in point of fact he arrived at the first moment in which it was possible to convert. Until Israel had accepted our collective purpose and come to embody the Will of the Creator to have a nation among nations to perform His commandments and act on His behalf, there were only tribes and families. One doesn’t simply change their tribe or family or ethnicity because they decide they want to “identify as” something else. A Moabite remains a Moabite; a Midianite remains a Midianite. Someone from Ammon can’t wake up one day and decide she’d like to be an Edomite. But people can choose to become part of the People of Israel by virtue of their acceptance of the Torah and all its mitzvot. This is ostensibly what Yitro did at the start of our parsha.
The three examples from the Gemara of what Yitro might have “heard” all go back to the process of the Exodus from Mitzrayim, but they approach it from different angles. If Yitro had heard about the splitting of the sea, then he must have been impressed by the kindness of Hashem on behalf of His chosen people and His willingness to perform miracles to rescue us. If Yitro had heard about the war with Amalek, then he would have been responding to the might of Hashem to smite His enemies and the audacity of the wicked who oppose that might. But if Yitro was responding to the giving of the Torah, then that would mean, according to Maharal, that he had tapped into the very essence of what it means to be a Jew and to connect with the Almighty, that he could see the way that Hashem rules His universe with kindness as well as justice – and that Yitro wanted to be a part of all that and a servant of that G-d.
When Yitro comes before Moshe, he makes what seems to us – in light of what precedes this encounter – to be a strange comment. He says (Shemot 18:11), “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all other gods.” Did Yitro really not understand that before this moment? If he did not, could he really have been paying such close attention all along? And how can we even say that he was on such an elevated spiritual level if he had still harbored doubt about whether Hashem is truly great?
Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook also explained that Yitro was alluding to the challenge of Bilaam, his cousin and associate. In the world of the various nations that Israel had come to replace and overthrow, Bilaam and Yitro were the two opposing spiritual forces. Obviously, most of the mighty ones of that generation came to embrace Bilaam and his power to curse, whereas Yitro and his daughters found themselves ostracized in the wilderness, both literal and figurative. The doctrine of Bilaam was one that is familiar to us from examinations of the cultures and civilizations of that era and to an extent can still be found in the world today. He taught that there were supernatural forces that ruled over good and bad events, gods of mercy and gods of vengeance. His skill and craft lay in his ability to read the auguries and leverage these different kinds of power to achieve a desired result. Israel might have a deity that loves and even protects them, but when it comes time to smite enemies or bring plagues, that work must be delegated, in Bilaam’s assessment, to more demonic entities.
On the other hand, Yitro notes that the Mitzrim are not only punished and overthrown in consequence of their abuse of Israel, but they receive their punishment “middah k’neged middah,” in a manner directly corresponding to and appropriate to the nature of the offense. Yitro remarks that not only was Israel saved, and not only did Hashem punish their enemies, but He took note of every offense and every defect of the Mitzrim, and when it was time for them to be punished, punishment was meted out in a way that only an all-powerful G-d could possibly plan and execute. The salvation of Israel was part and parcel of the punishment of Mitzrayim, and it was all achieved with a superseding Divine wisdom.
This is what Yitro realized in that moment – that Hashem’s greatness had been demonstrated such that one could no longer reasonably entertain thoughts of other gods before Him.