Parshat Yitro 5779-to listen is vital

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January 25 2019
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Parshat Yitro 5779-‘to listen’is vital.


Many people are perplexed by the Torah reading on Rosh Hashana on the first day. We read of the story of Haggar and Yishmael, being sent from the house of Avraham at the behest of Sarah, who saw the bad influence that Yishmael was having on Yitzchak. We also read of the near death experience that Yishmael went through. Rashi asks on this event as to why Yishmael was saved? Surely he will become one of the greatest haters of the Jewish people as we see in our world today. The answer is given that he was judged ‘as he was at that moment’ meaning that at that time when he nearly died he was not behaving negatively. The hope is that we should also be judged as we are now on Rosh Hashana, even though we know that we will go back to our negative behavior after the Yamim Noraim have ended.


Rav Matisyahu Salamon shlita of Lakewood (and formerly the Mashgiach of Gateshead Yeshiva where I studied in the early 70’s) adds a very perceptive comment to this whole story. We read in ch.21 of Bereshit:


 



כא  וַיֵּשֶׁב, בְּמִדְבַּר פָּארָן; וַתִּקַּח-לוֹ אִמּוֹ אִשָּׁה, מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.  {פ}


21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.



 


In Yishmael’s defence we see that when his mother suggested a wife for him from Egypt, he listened to his mother and married the suggested ‘shidduch’.Rav Salamon argues that the merit here was that Yishmael was still listening to his mother.The hope was that just as he was listening now, so he will listen to the call to do Teshuva as and when it comes to him. Again the lesson for us is never to forget how important it is to listen as well as to express our views. The merit for Rosh Hashana is that we will be able to take this ability to listen and carry it through to the New Year in our observance.


I believe this lesson also applies to the first verse in our parsha.All commentaries ask why Moshe ran to Yitro when he was fleeing Egypt? Was this a random choice? The answer suggested is based on the famous midrashic suggestion that Yitro had been one of Pharo’s advisors, who had run away when he was asked about the “Jewish problem’ by Pharo. He had not closed his mind to the obvious ramifications of what Pharo wanted from him. Moshe ran to him because he knew Yitro’s reputation as a ‘listener’, meaning that he would hear him out and not judge him on the basis of prejudice or any other such reasoning. The praise of Yitro is that ‘and Yitro listened’ which attracted Moshe to him. This also explains the tradition that he was a seeker of the truth and Yitro could only do that if he a ‘listener’ and not have a closed mind to any doctrines that he might be evaluating.


This is a great message in the world where we live by sound bites, but rarely ‘listen’ i.e. evaluate and really think about what is being communicated. When we stop ‘listening’ the danger is that bigotry and being judgmental about our surroundings (and fellow Jews) can became very easy traps to fall into. Let us take the lesson from Yitro and develop listening skills, especially in our Torah lives. This is really crucial in who we become and what contribution we will make to the world around us.


Shabbat Shalom          Cherry Hill NJ/SCW     Jan 2019


Venue: Stern College Stern College

Parsha:
Yitro 

Description

A thought linking our parsha and the Torah reading for Rosh Hashana.

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    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית and by the Polinsky Family to commemorate the 5th Yahrzeit of Gil Polinsky, Gedalyahu Gootmun Chaim ben Yaakov Dov