Yitro

<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" LINK="#000000" VLINK="#000000" ALINK="#000000"> <CENTER><TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=20% VALIGN="TOP"> <A NAME="top"> <P> <B><a href="http://betmish.org/text/is5760drash.html">Text-Only Version</a></B> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/index.html">Home</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/whatsnew.html">What's New</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/calendar.html#July8">Coming Events</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/drashot.html">D'rashot</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/do.html">What We Do</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/who.html">Who We Are</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/contact.html">Contact Us</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/archives.html">Archives</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/links.html">Links</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/member.html">Membership</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/credits.html">Credits</A></B></BIG> <P> <BIG><B><a href="http://betmish.org/addbook.html">Guest book</A></B></BIG> </FONT></TD> <TD ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="80%> <CENTER>    <table border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td align="center"> <a href="http://betmish.org/index.html" target="_top"><IMG border=0 src="http://betmish.org/images/banner2.gif" align=center height="104" width="512" hspace=5 alt="Bet Mishpachah banner"></a> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-5"><a href="http://betmish.org/child/descriptions/banner.html">Banner<br>Description</a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center"> <p><font size="-1"><i>Washington, DC's Egalitarian Synagogue</i><br> <i>Embracing a Diversity of Sexual and Gender Identities</i></font> </p> <p> <b><font face="Arial"><font size="+1">Rabbi Bob Saks<br> </font></font></b><br> <font face="Arial"><font size="-1"><i>Founded in 1975 by Members of the GLBT Community<font color="white" size="-4"> </font></i></font></font></p> </td> <td align="left"> <font size="-4" color="white"> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> <h1 align=center>Yitro</h1> <CENTER>by Milton Stern <BR>Installation Shabbat 5760<BR> 28 January, 2000</CENTER> <p>Shabbat Shalom.</p> <p>How appropriate that on installation Shabbat the Torah portion this week is Yitro.  This is a very interesting Torah portion, and quite a bit happens.  I was given 3 minutes for my drash and last Rosh ha Shana 7 minutes for my appeal.  Are they trying to tell me something?  So to summarize Yitro in 3 minutes, here goes:</p> <p>Number 1: Moses, his wife Zipporah, and his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, and 613,000 or so Israelites, go to Midian to see Jethro, Zipporah's father.</p> <p>Number 2: Jethro sees how Moses is judging all the matters of the Israelites and says that this is not good, that Moses should appoint one to rule over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and those matters that can be handled individually should be.</p> <p>Number 3: G-d appears in a cloud of smoke and fire.</p> <p>Number 4: At Mount Sinai G-d says to Moses, "I have some commandments for you." Moses says, "How much are they," and G-d says, "They are free."  So Moses says "I will take 10."</p> <p>Thank you and Shabbat Shalom.</p> <p>Now, there are a lot of directions in which I could take this, but since this is one of the last mentions of Zipporah, Moses's first wife, I am going to focus on her.  She is one of my favorite and one of the least mentioned individuals in the Bible.</p> <p>Who was Zipporah?  We know that she was Midian, so therefore she was a sister.  We also know that while accompanying Moses and their two sons to Egypt she circumcised her first born with a flint, and it also is believed by some that she circumcised Moses with the same flint.  This of course makes her a diva.</p> <p>But who is Zipporah?  Who is this woman who when her husband came running down from the mountain, barefoot, and telling her and her father that G-d had spoken to him through a burning bush that was not consumed, didn't blink an eye.  If I had been Zipporah, I would have said, "Moses honey, I think you should lay off the Manischevitz for awhile, and by the way, where are you shoes?"</p> <p>When I think of Zipporah, I think of the pioneer women of the mid1800s.  These were women of "hearty stock" who went with their husbands into the unknown  the Wild West.  Imagine what courage it took to go on such a journey.  Do you know what one of the leading causes of death among these women was?  I know you are thinking childbirth, and that is true.  But many of these women committed suicide.  And do you know how?  In the middle of a blizzard, they would walk out of their homes, and walk, and walk until they froze to death.</p> <p>Even in death, their lives were a journey  a journey into the unknown.  Zipporah's life also was a journey into the unknown, but after this Torah portion, we hear little if anything about her.  There are no books named after her, no Torah portions, not even a blessing in our Shabbat service.  Miriam is mentioned, but Zipporah is not.  After all, think of the sacrifices Zipporah made.  She left a comfortable home to wander the desert with her husband and two sons on a journey in search of a land that she would never see.  On this journey, her husband would marry a Cushite woman, which caused Miriam to kvetch, and Miriam was then stricken with leprosy.  There is no mention of Zipporah objecting.  Zipporah is not even mentioned at all.  Why don't we even know of Zipporah's death?  We only can assume that she died in the desert like everyone else.</p> <p>So what does this have to do with installation Shabbat?  Quite a bit.  Judaism is a religion of many journeys.  We journeyed from Mitzrahim to the Promised Land.  From there our people have journeyed to many lands, and most of the time it was not by choice.  We even have a word for our disjointed community, Diaspora.  We are a nomadic people.  Ask any Jew where his or her family is from, and chances are you will get a mixture of places, and few will trace their ancestors to America prior to the mid1800s.</p> <p>And some of the journeys are quite fascinating.  Take my maternal grandfather's parents, please.  His mother could trace her family back to the Spanish Inquisition, when they moved to Morocco and stayed for over 300 years before moving to Poland in the late 1800s.  His father's family also was expelled during the Spanish Inquisition, when they moved to Portugal for close to 200 years, then to England, and eventually also to Poland, where they both met, married and moved to America within a few years.</p> <p>Journeys into the unknown.  Isn't that what this board will be doing?  This is the first board year that will be starting in February, with some serving two-year terms.  This year, we are hiring an additional Part-time Rabbi, a new administrator, and a bookkeeper.  We may get office space, and we need to seriously look at our other space needs.  All journeys into the unknown.  And though some of us may not want to be along for the ride, we are going anyway.</p> <p>As Zipporah did, we are journeying to a new frontier with our eyes wide open.  Now this is the part where Mike told me I should sing the theme from Mahogany.  I will spare you that pleasure since my three minutes are up.</p> <p>Shabbat Shalom.</p> </TD></TR></TABLE></CENTER> <P><HR> <p align="center"><FONT face=Arial><small><small><b>For a description of any of the graphics on this page, click on the D next to the graphic. <BR>For more information, contact our office at <a href="mailto:office@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Request for Information from Web Site">office@betmishpachah.org</a><br> Send comments about this site to <a href="mailto:webweaver@betmishpachah.org?SUBJECT=Comments About Web Site">webweaver@betmishpachah.org</a>.<br> Copyright 1996 - 2008 Bet Mishpachah.</b></small></small></FONT> <CENTER><font face=Arial size="-1" color="#999999"><small><small><P><b>This page last modified on Sunday, May 18, 2003 at 08:02 PM EDT.</b></small></small></font> </CENTER> </body>