30 Jan PARASHAT YITRO: IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY

Parashat Yitro is named
after Yitro, Moshe

Rabbenu’s father-in-
law, who had been an

idolater and then decided
to embrace Judaism and

join the Jewish People.
When he arrived, Moshe and the
people greeted him with great respect,
and them Moshe spoke with him, telling
him “All the travails which they met
along the way, and that G-d saved
them.” This is very surprising – Moshe
told Yitro, a newcomer, who had just
arrived to join the Jewish People, not
just the miracles which Hashem
performed for them, but also all the
trouble and hardships which the nation
had endured along the way. If he wanted
to excite Yitro, why would he tell him
all this? Why put a damper on all the
excitement by telling Yitro of all the
difficulties Beneh Yisrael had been
through?
Moshe here teaches us something very

important about Jewish life. Jewish life
is not just about food coming from the
sky, and water coming from the ground.
It’s not just about miracles. Judaism is
not meant to be easy!! Judaism is about
growing, and the way we grow is
through hard work, struggle, and
challenges. There are no shortcuts!!
This is a mistake that a lot of people
make. They think that Judaism gives us
some kind of magical solution to all our
problems, and a quick way to get what
we want. They think Judaism is about
getting a blessing from a great Rabbi, or
praying at the right grave, or performing
the right segulah, and just like that, we
get exactly what we’re looking for. But
this isn’t true. Of course, there is value
to receiving blessings from great
Rabbis, praying at graves of tzadikim,
and performing traditional segulot
taught to us by our Rabbis. But in no
way does any of that guarantee a
smooth, easy life. Because Judaism is
not about having a smooth, easy life.

It’s about working hard,
struggling, and
overcoming challenges to
become great.
Many people have the
custom to recite, Parshat
HaMann, the section of
the Torah that discusses
the miraculous manna
which fell from the
heavens each morning in
the desert, on the Tuesday
before Shabbat Parashat
Beshalah. Reciting
Parshat HaMann at this time is
considered a segulah for material
success. This is certainly a beautiful
practice, which I would never
discourage. But let’s think about it. Can
we imagine Hashem ever saying, “I had
decided that so-and-so should not make
any money this year, but since he read
some pesukim on the Tuesday before
Shabbat Parashat Beshalah, I’m going
to make him rich!”? Or, can we imagine

Hashem saying, “So-and-so deserves a
hard life, but since he started wearing a
red string, I’m going to give him an
easy, happy life”?
This is not how it works. Torah life is
about praying, crying, learning,
changing, growing. There are no
shortcuts! Nothing precious ever comes
without hard work. Torah life is precious
and beautiful – but we need to work for
it. We should never look for shortcuts,
or ever expect it to be easy.