Parshas Yisro 5786
In this week’s Parsha we read about:
Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro, gathers Moshe’s wife and children and journeys to the Bnei Yisroel encampment near Har Sinai.
When Yisro joined the Jewish people at the base of Har Sinai, why did he refer to himself as both Moshe’s father-in-law and as Yisro. Had he mentioned one or the other, would Moshe not have known who had arrived, especially since he brought Moshe’s wife and children?
When you look at someone famous today, especially if they are having an impact on history for either good or bad, do you wonder who they must have been in the previous incarnations? Probably not. We don’t usually think like that, even if a person believes in the idea of reincarnation. After all, if we can’t even know who someone was in a previous lifetime, what’s the point of thinking about it?
Very true…today. But not when it comes to biblical characters. There we don’t even have to guess, because we have already been told many of the reincarnations of some of the most important and influential people of that period of history, Yisro included. And it is very surprising to find out the origin of Yisro, and what happened to him along the way: Kayin was a combination of good and evil. The evil went to the Egyptian who was killed by Moshe, who was [the reincarnation of] Hevel, over the incident of Shlomis bas Divri. (Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction 36)
The Midrash says that Kayin had been born with a twin sister and Hevel, with two. This made Kayin jealous of Hevel, who wanted to marry her instead of Hevel. Eventually Kayin murdered Hevel to take her, and part of his soul reincarnated into the Egyptian in Moshe’s time, to rectify this sin. Instead, Kayin, as the Egyptian, repeated the sin by deceptively taking Dasan’s wife, Shlomis bas Divri. When Moshe became aware of his “brother’s” repeated sin, and caught him beating Dasan because of it, Moshe killed him using the Name of G–d.
It was measure–for–measure since he [as Kayin] had killed Hevel over the extra twin sister. The good of Kayin [however] went to Yisro, and he [instead] gave his daughter to Moshe to rectify the matter of the twin [sister]. When Moshe killed the Egyptian, he became rectified through this. His Nefesh left him (the Egyptian) and clung to the Nefesh of Yisro, and he (Yisro) converted. (Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Introduction 36) What goes around comes around. Hevel, as Moshe, killed the Egyptian and rectified the Nefesh of his brother, Kayin. It then went to Yisro who already had the good part of Kayin’s Nefesh, and the addition inspired Yisro to convert to monotheism. By the time Moshe fled Egypt, went to Cush for several years, and then showed up at Yisro’s front door, they were on the same spiritual page.
To make things even more right, Yisro—Kayin—gave Moshe—Hevel—his daughter Tzipporah as a wife, who just happened to be the reincarnation of the twin sister over whom Kayin killed his brother. No wonder they ended up being so close.
This is why, the Arizal explains, Yisro announced himself as both Moshe’s father-in-law and as Yisro. The three Hebrew words form a roshei teivos of “achi,” which means “my brother.” Yisro was hinting to Moshe, apparently, that if he did not want to come greet him for the sake of his wife and sons, he should come out and greet him as his long-lost brother, Kayin.
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This Dvar Torah was based off a Dvar Torah by Parshas Yisro By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Credit goes as well to
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin’s Unlocking the Torah Text – Shmot
