In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, we hear about Moses’ father-in-law, who comes to see the Jewish people in the desert: “And Yitro the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for His people Israel; that God brought them out of Egypt.” Rashi comments: “What did Yitro hear which prompted him to come? The splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek.”
A few verses later, though, we read of Moses telling Yitro what the Jews had been through:
“Moses then recounted to his father-in-law everything that God had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that had befallen them on the way, and how God had delivered them. And Yitro rejoiced over all the kindness that God had shown Israel when delivering them from the Egyptians.” What does Moses tell Yitro about? Rashi comments: “The hardships at the sea and with Amalek.” Following this, Yitro blesses God: “Blessed is God who delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that Hashem is greater than all Gods…”
Yitro already knew before he came about what happened at the Red Sea and in the war with Amalek, so why does Moses have to tell him? And why is Moses’ retelling what causes Yitro to bless God?
Commenting on the words, “And Moses told his father-in-law,” Rashi says, “in order to draw his heart close to Torah.” It seems that just knowing what God did for the Jewish people, reading about it in the Midian Daily News, was not enough to bring Yitro’s heart close to God. Though Moshe adds nothing to Yitro’s factual knowledge of what happened, it is apparently Moses’ telling which draws Yitro close to God.
Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, one of the great Musar masters of the late 19th century, wrote: “We humans have no inkling of the nature of God, but only of the ways of God which are most essentially ways of kindness. In this sense Abraham’s extreme acts of kindness are themselves an expression and realization of the Divine for us.”
The demonstrative manifestation of one’s faith is more real than knowing of God and faith. Moshe is not just telling Yitro about God—for history is no way to find God. It is the lived faith in God that is truly a deep connection beyond just knowledge of the Divine. Yitro can get this only from being with Moshe, who embodies his faith, who lives it, who really acts out his faith: this lived experience with Moshe changes everything and is far beyond just knowing about God.
Perhaps this greater knowledge of God through lived experience is one of the reasons that community is so essential to Jewish life. Knowledge itself is not sufficient. Religious knowledge must be interconnected with people and with the lived life of Torah. Thus, Yitro derives from hearing the same information about God and the Jewish people, but when it emerges from Moshe, among the Jewish people who are living the Torah, its power and significance make a world of difference.