Shabbat Parashat Yitro - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Yitro - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Yitro, the father-in-law of Moshe, took Tzipporah, the wife of Moshe after her having

  been sent away, and her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom for he

  had said "I was a stranger in a strange land", and the name of the one was Eliezer

  for "the God of my father came to my aid and He saved me from the sword of

  Pharaoh." [Shemot 18:2-4]

Back in verse 2:22 the Torah tells us of the birth of Moshe's first son and this explanation

of his naming. In chapter 4 we see that Moshe took his wife and sons, plural, to Egypt.

Although we did not see the naming of Eliezer before, why did the Torah see fit to repeat

in our verse the naming of Moshe's sons? Ramban avoids the problem by saying that the

use of the plural 'sons' in 4:20 is stylistic and gives as an example Bamidbar 26:8, "The

sons of Pallu: Eliav". He says that Eliezer was born on the road to Egypt, and that there had

not been opportunity to name Eliezer during the journey. This may explain why the naming of

Eliezer now is not redundant, even though the Torah could have given it to us in chapter 4. But

it does not tell why Gershom is repeated. One might argue that since it had to tell us of Eliezer,

it needed to tell of Gershom too, but if so, why would it have been okay that it told us only the

reason of Gershom before, rather than wait until the birth of Eliezer and tell both at once?

Although there are many who question the timing of the chronology in this parsha, if we

accept that Moshe sent Tzipporah away at some point and only now is Yitro bringing her back,

then the naming, or renaming, of both sons may be tied to that sending away and returning.

According to Rav Hirsch, Tzipporah and the boys were sent away because of "the pressure of

his duties, in order to be able to devote all his time and all his attention and life to carrying out the

tremendous work which his mission entailed." But according to Onkelos, this sending away was a

divorce. Kol Dodi explains that the reason for the divorce is just as Rav Hirsch said and that Moshe

wished for Tzipporah to be free to marry another man while he was so tied up. Rav Hirsch also

thinks that this may not have been a divorce as such since the Torah continues to use the phrases

father-in-law and wife when referring to Yitro and Tzipporah. At this point, the Pharaoh who had

wanted to kill Moshe had himself died, so the danger was past and Yitro wanted to reunite the

family either way.

So how does all this answer our question? Two possible ways stem from one answer, that Moshe

was going through a total life reset. If we follow Onkelos that the sending away was a divorce,

then this reunion is a new marriage, which we know affords the husband and wife a restart in life.

It would be an opportunity to either rename or reaffirm the names of both sons at that time. If

instead we accept the view that this was not a divorce and remarriage, then we look for the reset in

the end of our quoted verses, that Moshe had been saved from the sword of Pharaoh. Malbim says

that Eliezer was born at the time God told Moshe to return to Egypt, meaning that He had saved Moshe

from Pharaoh. Like one who is released from a prison sentence or death sentence, Moshe was now

in a position for a clean restart to life. In effect his sons were re-born to him now.