The Weekly Sicha from the Rebbe – Parshas Yisro

The Rebbe says:

1. Our Sages comment on a verse in this week’s Torah portion which reads, “And Yisro (Jethro) said, “Blessed is Hashem (G-d) Who rescued you (the Jewish people)”, and say, “It is a blemish in Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) and the Jewish people who did not say, ‘Blessed’, until Yisro came and said, ‘Blessed’”.

However we must understand what this means because, as we read in last week’s Torah portion, Moshe Rabbeinu and the Jewish people did indeed thank Hashem when they sang to Him as they were walking through the Yam Suf (the sea of reeds)! Why do our Sages say that “it is a blemish in Moshe Rabbeinu and the Jewish people”?

2. The Rebbe begins the journey of answering this question by introducing another issue:

The Zohar tells us that until Yisro came and accepted Hashem as G-d the Torah was not given to the Jewish people, however after he came and said, “Blessed is Hashem who rescued you…Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods…”, a great level of G-dliness went throughout all the worlds and Hashem gave the Torah in its completion.

We must understand this! Is it possible that the holiness of Moshe Rabbeinu and the holiness of the entire Jewish nation was not enough to merit the giving of the Torah and only after Yisro came and said, “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods”, did they merit to receive the Torah? Why is this so?

3. The Rebbe continues the journey of understanding everything by bringing up another issue:

The first verse of this week’s Torah portion says, “Yisro, the kohen of Midian and Moshe’s father in law, heard about all that Hashem had done…”.

Question one: Since we know that every word in the Torah is perfect and exact, we must understand what the Torah is coming to teach us when it says, “…the kohen of Midian…”; it could’ve just said, “Yisro, Moshe’s father in law, heard about all that Hashem had done…”?

Question two: There are two opinions as to what “the kohen of Midian” means. One opinion says that “kohen” means that Yisro was a ruler and sovereign over Midian and the other opinion says that “kohen” means that Yisro was a priest for idol worship.

According to the first opinion we can understand why the Torah tells us that Yisro was “the kohen of Midian”, because it is trying to tell us that even though Yisro was a very prominent figure in Midian- the ruler of Midian- he gave it all up to travel into the desert and find the Jewish people so that he could convert to Judaism.

However it would seem from the second opinion- which says that Yisro was the high priest of idol worship in Midian- that the Torah is trying to disgrace Yisro by purposely telling us that Yisro was “the kohen of Midian”. However; firstly, we know that the Torah tries to stay away from degrading anything, even a non-Kosher animal, so why would it try to disgrace Yisro? Secondly, from the context of this week’s Torah portion which is telling us about the benefit Yisro was to the Jewish people, it doesn’t seem to make sense to discredit him now.

Therefore, we must say that even according to the second opinion the Torah is trying to tell us the greatness of Yisro and emphasis the respect we must have for him. How is this so?

This can be understood by first quoting the Rambam; “(The ones who began the service of idol worship made the calculation that) since G-d created the stars and all the constellations to manage and direct the worlds, they are deserving of praise and adoration, and this is surely the will of G-d”.

In truth however, even though the G-dly flow of life and energy does indeed go through the stars and all the constellations on its way down to the earth, it is forbidden to give them any honor and respect because they have no choice of their own and are “merely like the axe in the hand of the woodchopper”.

Moreover, just like there are “middlemen” in this physical world (the stars and constellations) who receive the energy from on high and give it to us down here, there are also “middlemen” in each of the higher spiritual worlds (the angels and the heavenly hosts) who receive from the world above it and pass it on to their world. At these awe-inspiring levels it is even more compelling for us to give these “middlemen” honor and praise because of their elevated status, again however we are warned not to give them any praise and adoration because they too are “like the axe in the hand of the woodchopper” and have no will of their own.

This is indeed what Rashi means when he says that, “Yisro was acquainted with all forms of idol worship in the world”: Yisro had a knowledge and understanding of all the “middlemen” throughout all the worlds, even the “middlemen” at the highest levels, however he made a mistake and accorded them honor and respect and this is why it was considered idol worship.

The bottom line from all of this is that we see that Yisro was a very gifted man with an intensely heightened knowledge of all the higher realms and lower realms, and all their inner workings. Therefore, we can now understand how the Torah is praising Yisro when it goes out of its way to say that Yisro was, “the kohen of Midian”: The Torah is telling us that even though Yisro was such an exceptional personality with high status, he still gave it up and went into the desert to convert to Judaism.

4. Based on this the Rebbe now answers the second issue brought up at the beginning of this talk as to why the Zohar says that only once Yisro came was the Torah able to be given:

On the verse, “Then I saw that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly”, the Zohar says that the advantage of wisdom in holiness comes from the folly, meaning that through elevating and cleansing the wisdom of the world –“folly”– and turning it into wisdom of holiness, the wisdom of holiness becomes greater. Therefore, when Yisro, who was a very wise man in the wisdom of the world, came and said, “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods”, he elevated and cleansed the wisdom of the world and turned it into wisdom of holiness, and this consequently added to the wisdom of holiness and caused the “advantage of wisdom over folly”.

Furthermore, by Yisro adding light to the wisdom of holiness he gave it (the wisdom of holiness) the special strength to be able to come down here into this physical world with the giving of the Torah (which is Hashem’s wisdom).

5. The Rebbe now continues and explains exactly why the cleansing and elevating of the wisdom of the world is a proper preparation for the giving of the Torah:

Our Sages explain that before the giving of the Torah the rule was, “The heavens are the L-rd’s heavens, but the earth He gave to the children of man”, meaning that spirituality and physicality did not unite. However with the Torah came the strength to unite the higher worlds with the lower. Therefore, the preparation of Yisro, which was to unite the wisdom of the world (which is a very low part of this world) with the wisdom of holiness, was a perfect preparation for the giving of the Torah.

6. Based on all of the above the Rebbe now answers his original question as to why our sages say, “It is a blemish in Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our teacher) and the Jewish people who did not say, ‘Blessed’, until Yisro came and said, ‘Blessed’”:

The Hebrew word for “Blessed” is “Baruch”. The word “Baruch” also connotes bringing something down, as we see in the Mishnah, “Hamavrich Es Hagefen – Someone who pulls down a vine”.

According to this we can understand that when our Sages say that Yisro came and said “Baruch – Blessed”, they mean that by Yisro coming and saying, “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all the gods”, he was bringing down G-dliness into the lowest of the low, which Moshe Rabbeinu and the Jewish people were not able to do because they did not get involved with the lowest of the low like Yisro did.

7. The Rebbe now tells us the lesson that can be learned from this:

Every day in the morning prayers we say, “Blessed are You, L-rd, who gives the Torah”. In other words, the giving of the Torah is a continuous process every single day. The preparation for this, just as it was at the original Torah giving, is to, “Know Hashem in all your ways”; not only when you are Davening (praying) and learning.

Translated and adapted by Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos volume eleven, second Sicha.