I Never Said I Was A Role Model

Xenophobia is part of a class of words in my history that I have learned outside of my mother language. Ironically I learned it in Spanish. There's a metric ton of it in The Torah. And that's a struggle I will always have.

True to form, I haven't been engaging in the cycle of bible as well as I'd like. But for sure, I'm tuning in for Yitro. In a recent letter to a friend (that's right #snailmail), I made a case about how one of the best things about The Torah is that the characters are flawed and approachable. Sometimes we squeeze water-virtue out of very human rock in order to create and maintain Biblical Heroes that are solid role models. And that too is important to the tradition and us as it forces us to always search out the best in everyone. Keep those optimistic muscles strong.

This week we don't have to work so hard. Enter Jethro, priest of Midian. The yoke of Oral Law is filling in an incomplete text, but if we go pashut (simple, literal), just what are we given of Jethro? He is the only person in Torah who is 100% helpful.

The only other gentile whom a Parsha is named after is Balak. He's sort of helpful, but he is compelled to be and he's mean to his donkey so screw him.

Yitro's virtues are many, feel free to get me started sometime. But in a story where someone will soon be rewarded for skewering an interfaith couple, Jethro's story is here to show us something more than menschlichkeit.

When we put up walls to keep things out we also trap ourselves. This idolater is maybe more Jewish than most. He houses the homeless, he takes care of his extended family and he gives great advice. He manages to embody the values, while characteristically embodying many gods.

He definitely sees that G-d is awesome—I'd have to agree (and I am not a contemporary of the miraculous Exodus), but he doesn't stay. And I'd have to conjecture that he doesn't end up a monotheist.

AND THAT'S OKAY.

I don't need Jethro to be 100% Kosher to be my 100% awesome role-model. He is tolerant, helpful, and kind. May we all be more like Yitro.

EPILOGUE

Oral Law Says:

He worked for Pharoah and repented

He gave us monotheism.

He made Moses promise to raise idol worshipers

Moses sent him away so he couldn't receive Revelation: the Talmud says because he wasn't a Jew and should not be there...I'd say, so he could stay not a Jew and be him.