Why Only Yisro Came: Everything Is for Israel

1“Moshe told his father-in-law all that Hashem had done to Pharaoh and to Egypt for Israel's sake.”¹ Notice the wording. Plainly, all the miracles were done for Israel, so why did the verse need to add that all this was “for Israel's sake”? And more broadly, why did Moshe tell Yisro all this at all? Yisro had already heard about the miracles in Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea, as Rashi explains at the start of the parshah.² Why, then, did Moshe need to tell him again what he already knew?

2aPerhaps we can explain it this way. The other nations of the world also heard about the great miracles Hashem did for Israel, yet only Yisro came to convert. Surely this was because Yisro was one of the “masters of reckoning,” those who think things through and draw conclusions. He reflected and made a reckoning of the world: why was Israel granted the splitting of the Red Sea, and victory over Amalek, who came to wage war against it? In that war, Rashi writes, Moshe made the sun stand still for Israel and threw the hours into confusion.³ From this Yisro understood that Israel is a treasured nation. Everything Israel had been granted, the change in nature at the splitting of the Red Sea and the miracles of the Exodus, came in the merit of the Torah. As the verse says, “When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve God on this mountain.”⁴

2b[According to the view that Yisro came after the giving of the Torah, this is plain.⁵ But even according to the view that he came before it, all the nations of the world knew that this whole great upheaval was only because Israel was destined to receive the Torah.] This is what Chazal meant when they asked, “What news did he hear that made him come?”⁶ In other words, what made Yisro come, when no one else from the nations of the world did? The answer is “the splitting of the Red Sea and the war with Amalek.” He reflected on the great miracles of these two events, and he came to recognize that Bnei Yisrael are the chosen people and that the whole world serves them. This is in the spirit of Chazal's words “The whole world was created only to be a companion to this one.”⁷

3This is the meaning of “for Israel's sake.” Moshe Rabbeinu told Yisro that the Holy One, blessed be He, changed the order of creation because all of creation is subject to Israel. That is why Moshe had to tell him again about all the miracles Hashem did in Egypt: to bring him close to the Torah, as Rashi writes,⁸ and to show him that all this was only for Israel. That is what the next verse means: “Yisro rejoiced over all the good that Hashem had done for Israel.”⁹ Yisro rose to the recognition that whenever Hashem changes the order of creation, it is solely for Israel and not for the nations of the world. The rest of the peoples of the earth did not reflect on this, and so they were not privileged to come close.

4What we learn from all this is that we must study and reflect on what happens in the world, so as to see the works of Hashem, blessed be He. The Baal Shem Tov taught that a person must learn a way to serve Hashem from everything he sees in the world.¹⁰ We must be among those of whom Chazal said: “‘Therefore the rulers say, Come to Cheshbon’: come, let us make the reckoning of the world.”¹¹ This is hinted in the verse “The end of the matter, when all has been heard.”¹² From everything in the world one can hear the rest of that verse, “fear God and keep His commandments,” and learn from it how to serve the Creator.

5May Hashem grant that we be privileged to do this. It will come true in the era of the “footsteps of Moshiach,” the time just before his coming. For through this reflection the verse will be fulfilled, “For the earth will be filled with knowledge of Hashem,”¹³ and from everything we will hear the call to fear Hashem. Amen, may it be His will.