Friday, February 5, 2021

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Yisro

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts on the parsha that R' Frand spoke about in his shiur tonight. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In the beginning of the parsha, the Torah states that Yisro returns Tzipporah and Moshe's two children to him. The Torah states the reasons for their indvidual names, but they are not parallel, as Gershom uses the words    כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר גֵּ֣ר הָיִ֔יתִי בְּאֶ֖רֶץ נָכְרִיָּֽה and Eliezer does not state כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר.

The Ibn Ezra says that the words  כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר are implicit for both pesukim and only needs to be written once.

The Reva says that the words are precise - by Gershom he said once - I was a foreigner and there is no reason to repeat and dwell on it. But the reason the words כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר are not said by Eliezer, because he constantly repeated that Hashem was with me. Whenever he met someone he would say - do you know why I named him Eliezer? Because Hashem helped me and a person does not only thank Hashem once.

R' Frand tied this to Leah and her recognition of the good that Hashem did for her. She was not the first, as Noach certainly thanked Hashem for being saved. But Leah said it over and over, this is my son Yehuda - I thank Hashem for him.

R' Frand also said a vort on the last pasuk (Shemos 20:23) וְלֹא־תַֽעֲלֶ֥ה בְמַֽעֲלֹ֖ת עַל־מִזְבְּחִ֑י אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹֽא־תִגָּלֶ֥ה עֶרְוָֽתְךָ֖ עָלָֽיו  which contains the rule that the altar should not have steps up to it. Why? Rashi says, by climbing stairs there is a subtle revelation of covered areas and it is not respectful to the altar. And even though the stones are not alive, we treat them with respect -- this is a lesson that when considering people, you should be respectful and conscious of their feelings.

R' Frand said that its ironic to be mentioned here, as it should be in Teztaveh, which describes the construction of the Mishkan. Why is this in Yisro, following the Aseres HaDibros? R' Frand suggested that perhaps the "take home" message of receiving the Torah is that one needs to be conscientious of others. This is what Torah should do for you, that you should be aware of the sensitivity of others.

R' Frand then told a story from R' Bender's sefer on Chumash - there was a boy who had a seder with R' Avrohom Beneshevsky on Shabbos. He accidentally rang the doorbell and then immediately knocked to try to cover up. He waited a while and no one came to the door. Eventually the Rav came to the door in his pajamas and said - I'm sorry, I overslept and just realized that you were at the door.

Did he really oversleep? Would he even take a nap on Shabbos? No, but he wanted the boy to not feel bad for accidentally ringing the doorbell on Shabbos. This is what learning Torah can do for a person to make them more attuned to other people's needs.

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