Parshat Yitro | Rabbi Baruch Taub | February 5th 2026

Okay. Marshro right? Okay. So far we have made no mistakes. Okay. >> Dur asked me to talk loudly and that why the first word of the para is vayishma and yetroro heard. So you're right on dur. [clears throat] Okay. Vishrohen Moshe. So Israel was the father-in-law of Moshe Rabenu who was actually the first convert of the Jewish people and he heard some assimos. heard everything that God did for for Moshe and for Israel ammo his nation is that he took he took uh Ben Israel out of Egypt. [clears throat] It's interesting, by the way, the puzz says um that he heard everything that uh God did for Moshe and the Jewish people that he took the Jewish people out of Mitim. So, what does it have to do with Moshe? Why does the Pik say Moshe? I'm just looking at the PK now with a different eye. What What does it have to do with Moshe? Um, what did Hashem do for Moshe? Well, he gave him he brought out the leadership qualities in Moshe that he would that he would lead them. Which leads me to a discussion for another time which I'm thinking of talking about at the Shabasa reviewing an old question that Mosha's name is left out of the Hagar completely except for a puk. There's a quotation of Moshe. Why is that? Why is that? So there he's left out here. He's included, right? So it just it just struck me. But okay, here's what I want to want to talk about. Uh these pieces, by the way, are from Safer Kona, which is my Hebrew safer on the para. These are pieces that were um I don't think they've ever been said here. I'm not sure. Maybe maybe they were in earlier years. But um I'm quoting here the Zohar in this the there's a famous comment of the Zor from the cabalists um and the the Zor asked a question Shama Shamu was the only one that heard nobody else heard. What do you mean byro? This was news. The Red Sea was split. the whole world was talking about uh you know if there were newspapers um even the left-wing press would have to admit [gasps] you know that the sea was split and that the Jewish people were coming out of came out of Egypt and all the plagues happened right so it says shamu everybody heard so what's going on everybody heard but they weren't motivated he heard But actually literally means he was broken. He was humiliated. Okay. He heard and he was humiliated and he he was submitted himself to God. He went and he came. Right? So now but that's the that's the words of the zora. What's fascinating I'm going to point out is that the zo is always mistransated right so so the sometime sometimes this is brought incorrectly with a right a mistake and usually people say that Israel was right um the whole world did not hear um right normally people normally say if you'll see it translated sometimes heard and everyone else didn't hear right but that's not what the zora says the zora says that nobody else was motivated was broken from what he heard He he became totally humili humble, right? Remember Israel, the rabbis tell us, was a priest of idol worship and he had tried every single idol worship that the that existed in the world at his time, right? And he was not satisfied when he heard what happened. He heard about the splitting of the sea, heard about the the the war of Amalik, right? So he was nbar. He was broken in a good way. In a good way, right? You know, I've often said that the the Katskar Reb says there's nothing more whole. There's nothing more wholesome than a broken heart, right? A broken heart is very whole, right? Very wholesome, right? So, Israel was broken in a positive way. He submitted and he made a determination because of this to serve. And the things that he heard, the events that he heard, they they awoke in him, awakened in him an inner an inner urge, right? spiritually to be in a total state of surrender to okay, right? What it really means is wasn't just that he acted on his on what he heard that what he heard his his power of of of hearing. This means that his power of hearing was different than the hearing of other people. You know like you can hear something and you can hear something we say colloally in English I hear I hear what you're saying you know you don't understand what someone's saying you have to repeat it repeats it after the third time he or she repeats it you say ah I hear means I understand right not just to hear the words right everybody else heard what happened right no motivation he heard I hear so I got to do something about it wrote item He's the only one that what he heard motivated him to recognize the hand of God. We're going to get into this in now. Okay. In this next piece. Okay. Now, this piece is talking about we're going to talk about Shabas, right? and accepting Chavis and accepting God, right? We spoke a few weeks ago that um the mitzvah the only the mitzvah of chuva there are two dimensions in the mitzvah of chuva of repentance. One is cababala I accept on myself I'm going to be a different person and there's also the element of remorse regret for what I did in the past. So, Rabbina points out that this is the only mitzvah where karat remorse, regret plays a role. In every other mitzvah in the Torah, it's all about kabala. It's all about the future. There's no such thing as remorse with any other mitzvah, right? I have remorse. Maybe I didn't do this mitzvah, but that's chuva. So, I do something about it. That's that's an aspect of of chuva of repentance, right? But with everything else in the Torah, it's all about the futures. It's futures. It's about kabala for the future. So what does that mean? So here's the puk in our parha, right? Later on in the para, Moshe goes up to speak to God. He comes down and prepares the Jewish people to receive the Torah to be to receal, right? Mosha came down to the people. He sanctified them and they they cleaned their clothes. They did they laundered their clothes, right? What? So, so now I'm quoting here arab me brisk the briskerv made me par shall the briskar by the way was the uncle he was salvage he was the uncle of the rabbi salvic from our our generation that we hear so much about right so he said from this par of he says he learns from is how we're makab shabas. How we prepare for the Torah is how we prepare for shabas. There there are similarities, right? And those sim similarities which seeming seemingly are, you know, maybe very pragmatic, but they have they're very they're very indispensable and and much deeper meaning. So let's see what he says. Similar to the way we accept God, first of all, what do we do? be shabasim. We put on special clothes for Shabas, right? White is is a color that is is represents purity. So some people, you know, will will wear a white shirt. Other people will wear a white kipah, a white yarmaka, right? A white dress, a white blouse. That white is is purity, right? We change. We have to clean our clothes. We have to launder our clothes. Now, here's the point he made. Very important point he makes. The says it this way. Our externalities awaken our internalities. Right? So, you know, you're getting you're going to a wedding, right? So, you get you put on your fancy clothes. you feel you know you feel I I feel good I'm going to a wedding it makes my it affects how I feel about the sim I'm going to right so um the change of the clothes externally affects my internal uh you know attitude also right so therefore we have an obligation to put on our best clothes our shabas clothes to open up the channel of spirituality, the feelings that I have to have for Shabas, right? Coming into Shabas, right? It'll help right there. So the bra talks about this this for us the arenor talks about it right and you might say it seem well why can't I just accept shabas you know I can shabas the way I am and jeans right let me accept shabas and jeans and many people do right there are people that do I happen to domin in a minion Friday night where if not for this minion happens to be a kabad minion if not for this minion half of the people would not go to shul and half of them come in with a t-shirt and jeans Right. Okay. So, they're and they're embraced, right? So, they're on their way. But there's no question that if they would put on better clothes, you know, which they probably do for other things, right? They feel even more of an intense feeling about Shabbat. But that's the whole idea. Okay? That's the now. And here's what the Ram says, and he quotes it in the second call. If you have the sheets, what is what is honoring Shabbat? Right? Right? There's an id of owning Shabbat and Shabbat. Right? What is Shabbat? Honoring Shabbat to take a hot a warm shower to bathe oneself for the co of Shabas and to get dressed nicely right. put on of course your tenses mikov ro and to sit ro you know it's not just a rush into shabas you had that shower have the shower get dressed quickly and you know put finish your clothes as you're running out the door to get into sh no v then sit down rest think ro what am I doing where am I going with all of this right allow the externality to enter you. Just like when you go out to greet the king, you don't just run out to the street when the king is coming. You make preparations for when the for when the king is coming, right? Shabbat. And the early rabbis, the Talmet tells us, the Ram is quoting this, would take their students of Shabbatim, all dressed for Shabas and their Shabas clothing, and they would say they go out to the field and they say Shabbat, let us go out and greet the Shabas king, which by the way is the origin of the the pis that we sing, the we say in Shabas, right? This is based on this uh on this concept, right? So this is the the Rambam right what you see from this RAM shabas first of all it's amazing thing you think of Shabas is what you do during Shabas I honor the Shabas and it's true you know many before they eat portion of food they'll say in honor of Shabas then they'll they'll eat their fish right so uh but but here you see the essential co shabas is is before Shabas Right. And two different two different act two dimensions on one side. After they did their physical things, clothing, they would sit down. They would have ro they would contemplate, right? Shabbat and they'd wait for Shabbat, right? They would say to each other, "Let's go. Let's go for it. Let's go for Shabas." There's a there's an an element here that we have to get up and move physically towards Shabas, not just to sit there quietly, right? I will say something else that really is not not a little bit noa here. You know, I bet you all know that the Gomorrah says whoever keeps if if if Jewish people keeps two Shabbat keep two shabasim Msiah will come. You ever heard that? Sure you did. Right? Very simple question. Why two Shabbasim? What's wrong with one Shabas? What's what's this idea of two Shabbatim? Okay. So here's an answer which really dovetales what we're saying here and this is from um from the safer called Kabola a couple of hundred years ago uh Rab Meckllinburgg who was fighting the reformists and the Bible critics and he wrote a a safer a purish which is very textually oriented and he asked this question so what is it it doesn't make any sense if Shabas is the worth of Shabas is going to bring Msiah one Shabas should be enough he says it's true but there are two dimensions to Shabas one dimension is not to do Mala not to do work I don't do this I can't do that I can't do this but the other is my attitude it's not that I can't do this it's I don't have to do this it's a time to contemplate my relationship with that's a Shabbat of the nephesh Shabas of the nephesh of an internal sense of resting right to being at peace with oneself right it's called shave like from the word Shabbat you're returning to your you know you're getting in touch with the more important things in life right so not only I can't do the that's I can't do this and I can't do that but the other is I don't have to and let me think about it right so there's two dimensions to shabas itself Okay, that answers the question about that mysterious statement of the rabbis. Okay, but now it this is what we're talking about here in greeting Shabas. There's these two dimensions and it's like greeting a king and he brings a Gmorrah that talks about greeting a king. Rashes sagor Rashes was blind. Now by the way the term in Hebrew for blind is sagar. You know what sagar means? It's Aramaic. It means full of light. It means he had excellent eyesight. And it's just a a nicer way of saying he was blind, right? That's the way the rabbi spoke, right? So, um, Rabishious was everybody was running to greet the king. King was coming, right? and went also to greet the king right. So there was a certain um apicorus a certain skeptic who saw him and he said to him what you know hold pictures go to fill up the water at the go to the river to fill up their water right. Um, you take a P. But but cogn but a broken picture. What What do you What do you You don't go to get water at the river. It's not going to You're not going to get the water. So what are you wasting? What are you doing here? You're blind. You're not going to see the king. You're not going to know the king is coming. Res said to him, you will see the I know more than you when the king is coming. Gna Kamisa, the first troop, the first uh royal uh group of uh you know came because the king doesn't just come you know if you're ever in Jerusalem when the prime minister or the president are going to out to the airport or to greet somebody the traffic stops and about 20 limousines come pulling out of out of nowhere and you have to wait because you have these honor guards first of course you know in the interest of security you never know in which one of these limousines is the the real prime minister or the real president, right? But there's the honor guard that comes out, right? So the first honor guard comes out a right uh when when they saw this amuki. So this this this critic said the king is coming. He said the king's ro he's not coming yet. Not coming yet. The second honor guard came out, right? When it passed by saduki, now the king is coming. The king is not coming yet. Right? People started screaming. People you could hear people screaming. Oh, the honor guard coming. People are screaming. Look at the honor. Right. No, he's not coming yet. He didn't come yet. So the third honor guard came by. There was silence. There was a hush over the crowd. Now I'm telling you the king is coming. because that's the first reaction to look and take a step back to see the king coming to think about the king and what it means to you right that's the gora so this drives home our idea here that there's two aspects the first is you know you you prepare your finery right but you also have to take a step back right I'll tell you I often tell this story over when I was a little boy the queen came to Toronto where where I grew up and my father was a tailor and I think it was I don't know 1952 I was a very little boy and um and my my father was a tailor and I was as a 5-year-old six-year-old 7-year-old kid I had a custommade gray sports coat which I still remember for Chabas and I would wear that with a white shirt and a red red bow tie right and my mother dressed me up in this so we would walked down the street. It wasn't far. I remember we lived on a street called West Mount and the queen was coming on St. Clair, which is the main the street cars. There are still street cars on Stair actually. And we went to stand there with thousand the throngs of people to see the queen, but she dressed me up in my sh right >> which uh always made a um I I remember that. Right. So here this storyish accepting the king welcoming welcoming the king can't be done in one step it's not just one step rushing out without preparation without your head it can't be just your heart has to be with your headto So before the king comes there's purposefully honor guards in advance to set up set a tone that the king is coming. So you get all excited by the honor guards right what am I and you start thinking what am I doing here isn't this king something very special and to accept him in the proper manner this is the idea of waiting for the king final paragraphs here. Before we physically greet him, we have to emotionally and intellectually understand what we're what this is all about. Who is the king? Am I really fit? You know, you see a king or a queen. Even by the way, a non-Jewish king or queen, there's a braha to be made, right? When you see a king or a queen, it's a different braha, right? for a Jewish king. You say um you know that he he he shared with with himself and the king but with with a non-Jewish king it's he gave he gave certain things to to him right so u different braha but still we we recognize we recognize the royalty right so now zoo now back let's go back to Yro. Now this was the greatness of Yro. Yedro was the only one, right, who came running. He heard, right? Not that they didn't hear, but he heard. I hear, right? He stopped to think, right? Let's go back to this is the greatness of he understood the great events was a sound and light show. the whole the it lightning and what was going on by actual cababala to Torah by the receiving of the Torah but even before that the events leading up to it the splitting of the sea the war with Malik he understood what was going on here like you what something's coming something is coming here you don't just split the sea for the Jewish people to walk through where are they going where are they going to fight a war with a malik why do they need to fight why do they need to win this battle battle. What are they doing? Right? With that awareness, this humbles a person and he prepares himself. When Moshe went up to receive the second tablets, Zu saw he came down to the Jewish people and told them to get ready. This is the proper way to get prepared whether it's for accepting the Torah or whether it's to accept Shabas itself. Then I end here with a well-known misa well-known fact. He would sit on his porch in price every Friday he would be sit you would see him sitting well before Shabbat started he was ready right watching the setting sun right in order to actually fulfill this idea the words of the Rambam he was actually fulfilling the words of the Rambam by sitting Ro and waiting for Shabbat. Then I I just point out something just a little just a little thing that the latest edition of the Rambam we have we have a edition called the Shabs say Frankle Rambam. It's a fantastic Rambam because in the back he brings he has an index of those forcim who speak about this particular law in the Rambam and on this particular law that we had quoted he only brings the the briskarov it's the only comment that he makes this this idea of what the briskarov did. Okay, next piece is entitled Hashem Hashem, love of God and fear of God, right? And um both elements are necessary, right? Um sometimes we think uh love is enough, right? But as we get older, we realize and we try to tell our children, you know, you can't live on love alone, right? you'll you'll figure it out. Right? So, moving on in the para, the Jewish people were by the foot of the mountain when Moshe was going to come down after he received the Torah. They were they were by the when Moshe was receiving the Torah. Strange word under the mountain, right? Is under the mountain. What does that mean? It should just say, you know, as we say in, you know, colloally we say at the foot of the mountain, right? But this teaches us the rabbis tell us in the Gmoris that you have heard this that aeshbu took Mount Si. It's kind of it's metaphorically and he put it over the heads of Israel like a barrel. He locked us in and he said to them, "If you accept the Torah, well and good, if not here is where you're going to die, right? You can't live without the Torah." Right? So that's what he did. So that's they were actually now did this actually happen? I don't think it happened. Right? We have we've discussed in the past um that there's a difference of opinion about the agotic statements stories that come from the rabbis whether they actually happened or they didn't actually happen. So in this regard we are students of the moral that they didn't necessarily happen that way. It's a metaphor. It's a metaphor. There was a sense of force majour that we were forced to accept the Torah. Something happened, right? Whether this actually happened or not, we don't know. But the the force of this actually happened to us that we had to accept it whether we like it or not. We have to accept the Torah. Right? Okay. That's now he's going to ask you a question. We're going to ask a question explains the words under the mountain that because of fear force we were forced to accept the Torah out of fear. Right. also one of the commentaries in the Gmorrah on the place here asking a very good question. What do you need this for? What did we say when we received the Torah? We'll do it and we'll accept it. We don't understand it, but we love you. We love We love that. We want to accept. We want to embrace God. We We'll do it and then we'll learn it. That was an act of love, right? Not first tell me what it says, right? We're accepting and then we'll figure it out, right? What do you need anything else for? What do you need this mountain to go over our head? We accepted it with love. What do we need anything else for? Right? It's enough. We accepted it. Right? So, [clears throat] we're quoting here again. He has an answer to this question. Based on a Mishna in Okay, here's the Mishna. Certain rabbi said, you might have heard this Mishna before. You might have learned it. Don't be like servants who work for the master, who work for the boss only to get their salary, right? But be like those servants who work for the master not to receive a reward. I love my work. Okay, I have to get paid. You're going to pay me, but that's not why I'm working. I'm working because I love what I do, right? And of course, we all know that the good things are done. good good work is accomplished by people who love what they do, not people who hate what they do. And the the the going into the office or going into where the factory or wherever they're doing is is is a a terrible difficulty for them. They're not going to accomplish properly, right? And we're not going to like to be around them either, right? [clears throat] So that's what the Mishna says. Be like a person who works because not because he's getting his salary but because he doesn't get his salary that he's working even though he doesn't get a salary that the mission doesn't end then the then the Mishna has vi now what is that expression that first part about what's it about it's about love I love what I do right but then the Mishna concludes let the fear of God be upon you Right? It's interesting by the way it says, right? Fear of heaven, right? Which we'll we'll mention a little later, which is a metaphor for God, right? So, but in any case, there's two dimensions here to serving God. That's what this mission is telling us. The first dimension is there seem to be contradicting each other. The first is love shalom. I'm doing this for you because I I not for the salary and then for fear, right? But you should fear God. You have to love God, right? I want to do for him for you know not for the reward. But we also have to have that. What do I need the for right? The mission is telling us love is not enough. It's not enough. Love is not enough. [clears throat] Even with love, you need why. We have to have a an understanding here. I because I love you. I want to do for you. Right. But something is missing. A person will conclude that doing Torah, learning Torah, doing mitzvah, serving Hashem depends on what I want to do. If I love it, I'll do it. right? So that's what what's going to happen if I do things because it's all out of love because I want to do it. Something might happen that I won't want to do it anymore. Right? So that's not enough. Torah. No, the Torah demands that it be done. Whether you love it or not, whether you like it or not, whether you understand this mitzvah or not, you have to do this mitzvah. Why? That's what he wants to say. And this is what the says was to answer to's question. If we [clears throat] would have accepted the Torah only on the base that we said we'll do it and then we'll learn it. We love you. They would have concluded. It's optional. It's a voluntary thing. Torah is optional. I love it. Right. It's not it's not um that I have to do it. Right. But when we're forced, we're put in that situation. We have to accept it. The mountain hanging over our head. Torah is not optional. Not if I want to do it, I'll do it. I have to do it. I have an I have to do Torah, right? It's not that the world can survive without Torah. If I have this to do this volunteer thing or not. No, this the world can't survive without it. I have to do it. The world cannot exist without Torah. Without Torah, the world goes into chaos. I mean, look what's happening in the world today when when half the world to be to be kind, right? Does not have morality and ethics, right? You the wars that take place, right? So, you hear you hear what's going on here. And that's why God did what he did. Abdullah that's why when God gave the Torah there was fire and lightning a sound and light show all this fear fire creates a sense of fear right fire you you you move backwards you know we've often pointed out we have two kinds of mitzvah we have negative mitzvah thou shalt not and we have mitzvah thou shalt positive, right? So the headline mitzvah for thou shalt not is thou shalt fear God. If you fear God, that's the headline for the mitzvah, the negative mitzvah. The headline mitzvah for the positive mitzvah is the mitzvah of aim of loving God. Why is that? Because when you love someone, you do a mitzvah. You love God, you move towards them. Love is have in Hebrew of. you move towards the person, right? That's a positive act. When you are fearful, like he's saying here by fire, you you you move back. You you you move in a backwards direction. So that's yera. And that's why God purposefully put the fire by hari that we should fe feel not only the love of what the Torah that's coming, but also a certain sense of reticence of fear. Just like fire, you have to watch it from a distance and protect yourself. He's going to Rev Hutner. We're quoting here something that we said before that that Mishna said that the fear of heaven should be upon you say the fear of Hashem. What the fear of heaven, right? This was speaking about fear of God. What is it? What does the Mishna said? Um, what does the Mishna what's the word I'm looking for? Substitute God with shamayim. Right? We shamim is a metaphor for God. Let the fear of heaven be upon you. Right? Why do that? You never see this when you speak about a positive expression of God, right? Why don't we mention his name, right? Is distance, right? You're talking about the mission is trying to tell us to fear God, right? even in the mention of fear of God, we we take a step back, right? We're talking about fear. So we say fear of heaven that even in the name we use for we take a step back and use the name Shamayan. So we're taking a step back to say that's our sense of of fear. that that that in itself referring to fear of God as fear of that creates a sense of reticence and fear in ourselves. So you need both. You need a of course I I do it because I love it. I don't need the salary. I need it cuz I don't need the reward or bonish. And that's the ultimate aas hashem by the way. The ultimate doing of mitzvah is not because I'm afraid of the punishment but because I love him and I'm I love what he's done the world he's given me and I want to serve him. Right? But there's also this sense of fear. This sense of I you know because love it means it's voluntary. Right? No it's not voluntary. It's mandatory because without it without it there's no world. Okay. Very good. Thank you all. umbumber.