Date: January 20th 2022

PARSHAS YISRO - WHAT THE EVIL INCLINATION DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW


Parshas Shemos (read four weeks ago) relates an incident that describes an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Jewish slave to death. Moshe (Moses) intervened and killed the Egyptian to save the Jew. Then, to protect his own life, Moshe fled to the Land of Midyan, where he was welcomed into Yisro’s home. Moshe eventually married Yisro’s daughter Tziporah, and she bore him two sons.

Hashem (G-d) later appeared to Moshe in Midyan at the Burning Bush and charged him with the mission of liberating the Jews. Moshe departed for Egypt with his wife and children. However, during the trip, Moshe’s family returned to Midyan, where they remained until Pharaoh freed the Jews. Once that occurred, Yisro left Midyan with Tziporah and her sons to reunite them with Moshe.

Parshas Yisro begins with the arrival 0f Yisro, Tziporah and the children at the encampment of the Jews. Moshe went out to meet them, and they exchanged greetings. They all then proceeded to a tent where Moshe related the details of their deliverance from Egypt and Hashem’s many awesome miracles that precipitated this outcome.
Yisro responded, “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all other gods” (Parshas Yisro 18, 11). The Commentary of Rashi (ibid.) quotes the Mechilta (a Talmudic work) that infers a most unusual fact from this text. Yisro’s unequivocal comparison of Hashem (lehavdil) to “All other gods” indicates that Yisro was personally familiar with every single form of idolatry in the world; there was not even one of them that Yisro had not served personally.

The Commentary of Sifsei Chachamim on Rashi further explains that had Yisro not worshipped every idolatry, how could he say for sure that Hashem is greater than all other gods? Perhaps –theoretically - one all-powerful idolatry that Yisro never worshipped was indeed greater than Hashem, chalila. It must, therefore, be that Yisro himself served them all and so was able to speak so assuredly and definitively.

The words of the Sifsei Chachamim seem hard to understand. If, for example, there were then 20 major forms of idolatry, and as Yisro told Moshe, every single one of them was utterly worthless. Conversely, lehavdil, the Exodus demonstrated Hashem’s complete Mastery over the universe. After personally serving 19 of the 20 idols and finding them all empty, couldn’t Yisro already deduce that Hashem was decisively superior to all of the idols – including that single one he did not personally serve? Why was it only after he served that one additional idol as well that he was able to affirm Hashem’s Supremacy categorically?

A basic principle of Torah is the existence of the Yetzer Hora - also known as the evil inclination, the Satan, or the Devil. This force attaches itself to people and constantly mitigates on behalf of evildoing and refraining from good. The lust for idolatry that prevailed in biblical times was not an outgrowth of natural bodily urges. Instead, it was solely a creation of Satan. When the Jews returned from their Babylonian exile, the raging Yetzer Horah for idolatry ceased to exist in the world.

One of the Yetzer Hora’s most powerful tools is its ability to distort human thought and perception of reality. When people set out to perform a praiseworthy deed, Satan tries to convince them that it is unduly difficult or undoable, that it really is not a good deed at all, that other things are more important, and so forth. On the other hand, when people attempt to act improperly, Satan acts to abet the wrongdoing by convincing the sinners that they are doing a mitzvah. Satan might also energize people so that they have far more energy for doing the “bad stuff” than for the “good stuff.”

Yisro’s words to Moshe are now understandable. There was an overpowering Yetzer Hora for idolatry that then prevailed throughout the world. Consequently, it was only after personally experiencing every single one of the world’s idols that Yisro was finally able to see through the mental haze engulfing him and recognize a glaring a.nd obvious truth. Hashem was the Almighty Creator who controls the world, and all idols are foolish nothingness.

This text demonstrates just how far the Yetzer Hora’s inducements and unfounded distortions can go. In the course of the Exodus, Hashem performed a series of fabulous miracles. Conversely, the idols people then worshipped were rendered utterly powerless. All the same, the Torah recorded Yisro’s complement of Hashem for posterity - because he worshipped all of the world’s idols, he, therefore, knew that Hashem was greater than all of them. Why was that a compliment fitting of Hashem? Such manifestly obvious praises are seemingly more of an insult to Hahem than a compliment.
Nevertheless, in a world saturated with Satan’s misrepresentation of idolatry’s essence, Yisro’s words were a fitting tribute to Hashem. They were deemed worthy as an appropriate and enduring testimony to Moshe (who split the Red Sea and who, at Mount Sinai, ascended to the Heavens for 120 days to be with Hashem). The Torah also recorded this praise of Hashem, The king of kings, of Whom Yisro spoke for posterity.

To convey the phenomenon of the Yetzer Hora with a vignette: A New York businessman volunteered to accompany the Torah giant Rabbi Ahron Kotler (1891-1962) on a fundraising appointment for his yeshiva in Lakewood, NJ. They visited a wealthy potential donor who treated them very poorly. He first kept them waiting for a long time, and then spoke to them impolitely. In in the end, he donated very little. The person with Rabbi Kotler later asked him, “Why does Hashem does allow this indignity to take place? Personally, I am just missing out on some business, and spiritually, I benefit greatly from every moment I spend time with you. But you could have devoted this time to your high-level study and teaching of Torah.

In essence, Rabbi Kotler answered that the level of Satan’s opposition to performing mitzvos correlates to the significance of the mitzvah attempted. Accordingly, the loftiest mitzvos provoke Satan’s most intense opposition. Torah study is the greatest of all Mitzvos, and those who study Torah support it financially share its inestimable merit. When people consider undertaking to study Torah or to finance its study, Satan’s opposition is at its peak. Torah study is, therefore, almost always difficult to sustain financially. What likely happened in this case is that Satan successfully skewed the thinking of this man into believing that the Torah is unimportant to Jewish survival and that, therefore, the rabbis who strongly advocate high-level Torah study are often disreputable. R. Kotler then added that if a Jewish organization seems able to raise large sums of money easily, the authenticity of its Torah might be questionable.


The Gemarah indicates that people should reveal their travails so that others will pray for them. In this light, prayers for a refuah shelaima besoch shaar cholai Yisroel for Dov Berish ben Shifra Tzivia would be appreciated.


The above is an edited version of the Dvar Torah previously emailed on January 28th, 2016.


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