Shalom my friends this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron standing in the room of Yaakov Avinu and Leah. This Shabbat in parsha Yitro the Jewish nation is ready to receive the greatest gift in the world, the receiving of the Torah when God comes down on to Mount Sinai and gives us the infinite gift, the infinite lifeline, our connection to Hashem through the Torah and mitzvot. But before that, we have the story of Yitro.
And the question always is, what did Yitro hear all of the sudden that he decided to join the Jewish nation? We know in life a lot of times we read the news, we hear about traumatic events. We hear about great events of joy, and somehow or other there are those who change and there are those who just stay the same.
When Yitro heard about the Jewish nation crossing the sea, when Yitro heard about the Jewish nation defeating Amalek, all of the sudden that gave him the strength to be able to transform himself to change from that pagan, to become monotheistic, and to join the Jewish nation, to join Moshe Rabeinu and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.
After October 7th, everyone heard what happened. Everyone heard about the atrocities of Hamas. Everyone sees what’s going on, the mind games, the psychological warfare Hamas is putting the Jewish people through. There are those who are changing their conceptions, changing their political views. Understanding what the enemy really is.
We should be privileged to open our eyes, to learn from Yitro to transform ourselves, to be like that Red Sea to change from water, to dry land, dry land to water, to be able to hear about the victory over Amalek and to know what it means to defeat our enemy until the end and not stop until all the enemies are destroyed. And Be’ezrat Hashem, this is our preparation to come to Mount Sinai and hear God’s voice. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Har Sinai. We should be able to hear and see that great revelation.
Amen v’Amen, Shabbat Shalom.
