07 Feb PARSHAS YISRO: MIDOS TOVOS ARE THE KEY

The pasuk says,
“Yisro, the minister of

Midyan, the father-in-
law of Moshe, heard

all that G-d did to
Moshe and to Israel,
His people – that Hashem took Israel out of
Egypt.” [Shemos 18:1] Rashi teaches:
Yisro had seven names – Reuel, Yeser,
Yisro, Hovav, Heber, Keini, and Putiel.
Rashi adds that he was called Yeser
(meaning extra) because he caused one
more passage of the Torah to be written.
Which passage did he add to the Torah?
The passage beginning “V’Ata Sechezeh”
(and you shall see) [Shemos 18:21], in
which he advises Moshe to seek out “men
of means, G-d fearing people, men of truth,
people who despise money” and to appoint
them “leaders of thousands, leaders of
hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of
tens” to judge the people at all times,
thereby easing the burden on Moshe and on
the people. (The previous procedure in
which all questions and disputes came to
Moshe caused long lines for the people and

weariness on the part of their leader.)
Why does Rashi need to teach us that this
is the parsha added to the Torah in Yisro’s
honor? Is this not obvious? Even more to
the point, “Yisro’s parsha” that he is
responsible for adding to the Torah does not
begin with the words “V’Ata Sechezeh,”
which is his proposal for the solution to the
problem. It begins several pesukim earlier
when he first noticed the problem: “It was
on the next day that Moshe sat to judge the
people, and the people stood by Moshe
from the morning until the evening. The
father-in-law of Moshe saw everything that
he was doing to the people, and he said,
‘What is this thing that you do to the
people? Why do you sit alone with all the
people standing by you from morning to
evening?’” [Shemos 18:13-14].
Why does Rashi not say that the parsha
that Yisro added to the Torah for which he
is called Yeser is the parsha beginning with
the words “The father-in-law of Moshe saw
everything that he was doing to the
people…”?

Rav Meir Shapiro (who as we all
know had a profound influence on
Klal Yisrael by proposing the Daf
Yomi system of Talmud study) says
an interesting thought on this
question: The reason the additional
parsha which earned “Yeser” his
name begins with Yisro’s proposal
for a solution (rather than his
recognition of the problem) is
because criticism is never an addition.
Anyone can criticize. Anyone can come
along and say “That is not a good idea.”
“What you are doing does not work. You
are ruining yourself; you are ruining the
people!” There are always people to say
“It’s no good!”
The addition, the “Yeser,” is when you
give a creative idea of what should be done
to solve the problem. That is why Rashi
says the passage that Yisro added for which
he was given an added name was the
passage beginning with his solution:
“V’Ata Sechezeh….”
This leads to a more fundamental
question: Why did it take Yisro, who
was a Gentile, and who had been a
High Priest for Idolatry in Midyan –
why did it take him to teach Klal
Yisrael that they needed a judicial
system of lower courts and medium
courts and higher courts and a
supreme court? Could we not have
figured this out on our own?
The Ohr HaChaim haKadosh raises
this question. He suggests that this is
a statement to the Jewish people in
all generations that there are among
the nations of the world people who
are very intelligent and to whom it
we should listen. There is such a
thing as a “very smart Gentile!”
There is a tendency in some parts of
our society to think that Gentiles
lack intelligence. That is not true.
There have always been extremely
bright Non-Jews. Galileo was a
Gentile. Michelangelo was a Gentile.
Benjamin Franklin was a Gentile.
Thomas Jefferson was an extremely
bright guy. He was a Gentile. Bill
Gates is a Gentile. Steve Jobs was a
Gentile. Steve Jobs changed the
world. Warren Buffet – also a
Gentile. He is the richest man in the
world. These people are not stupid!
The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says
that by including this passage in the
Torah, the Ribono shel Olam was

making a statement: “…And you will be
for me a Segulah (treasure) from all the
nations…” [Shemos 19:5] (a pasuk from
this week’s parsha). This is not because
you are so smart! We were not chosen for
being smart. The introduction to Kabalas
HaTorah (receiving the Ten
Commandments) is that Hashem did not
pick us for our brains; He picked us
because He loved our Patriarchs –
Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. He did
not love them because they were geniuses,
but because they were good people. They
were ba’alei midos (people with
outstanding personal character traits).
To emphasize this idea, the preamble to
Kabalas HaTorah is the story of the Gentile
who was able to find the flaws in the
process and suggest corrective measures. It
was not by merit of “Jewish brains” that
we were given the Torah, it was by merit of
the righteousness of our forefathers.
Yisro illustrates for us that sometimes it is
worthwhile for us to turn to the wise men
of the nations of the world regarding good
ideas and creative thinking.
Rabbeinu Bechaye writes in Sefer
Shemos: Come and see the great status of
character traits. For the great men of the
Torah, such as Noach, Avraham, Yaakov,
Moshe and others were never praised for
their intelligence and wisdom. The Torah
never praises their genius. They are always
praised in terms of their midos tovos
(positive character traits). This teaches that
the main thing is not wisdom, but integrity
and righteousness. That is our claim to
fame. We were chosen because we come
from good stock, not because we come
from smart stock.
That is why the parsha is “parshas Yisro”
– the whole judicial system comes from a
Gentile. It is because Gentiles are smart.
They are very smart. There have always
been smart Gentiles. Brains are not our
claim to fame. We are the “Am Segulah”
(G-d’s treasured nation) because of the
integrity and righteousness of our
patriarchs. So says the holy Ohr HaChaim.