What's in a Name? - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everyone it's great to be feeling better after our little stint with uh the omicron so thank you for all your warm wishes we're all feeling great thank god uh in this past week's torah portion the portion starts out well enough jethro yitro hears about the miracles that happened to israel and comes to join them and it says you know that he brings zipporah moshe's wife and their two sons gershom maneliaser and then the torah it goes on to explain the meaning of their names gershom means i was a stranger in a strange land and eliezer means god saved me from the sword of pharaoh that's kind of odd usually we just hear names when people are born what do they mean and you know we find out the meaning of those names at that time not later in their life why would all of the sudden the torah tell us the meaning of their names so it's only natural that we turn to the midrash to understand what's going on but in this case the midrash seems to tell a story even stranger than the question itself in the megita one of the oldest midrashic traditions on shemot it says as follows moses said to himself since the whole world are idol worshipers i will worship the creator of the world and then moses said to yitra let me marry your daughter tzipora and nitro said to him well you have to accept one condition and i will give her to you as a wife moshe said what is the condition and he answered that your first son will be for idol worship and all the children you have afterwards will be for god and moshe accepted eutron said swear and moshe swore and that is why the angel wanted to kill moshe and zipporah took a stone and circumcised their son and moses was saved whoa what just happened there like we had a little question why is the torah explaining the names of the children and the midrash comes and answers it with an even crazier story a story accusing moses of dedicating his own child to idolatry so what's going on here the midrash seems to be weaving together a few strange stories in exodus in chapter 2 verse 21 when moshe stays with yitro and midyam and marries zipporah it says that moshe consented to stay with the man and he gave him his daughter tsipora as a wife but in the hebrew it doesn't say consented it says strange words it says meaning moshe swore but it doesn't say what he swore so the midrash is cleverly noticing this but how does it make the jump that what he swore was to allow his child to be raised by jethro and educated in idol worship that's pretty harsh well here's the thing a nearly identical biblical term appears only in one other place in the bible in judges chapter 17 verse 11 and that is the story of a man named michael micah who finds a levite to be his personal idolatrous priest and it says almost the exact same verse that we see about moshe staying with each other it says the levite consented to stay with the man that's the english translation but using the same word in hebrew that appears in exodus chapter two vayoel meaning he swore so the book of judges is obviously trying to grab our attention that this story is connected to the story in exodus now judges goes on to tell us in chapter 18 who this idolatrous levite priest was it says his name was yonatan the son of gershom the son of you guys holding your english bible are probably going to say menasha but the hebrew bible it's a little weird it says menasha with a tiny nun and if you took away that tiny nun it actually says yehonatan the son of gershom the son of moshe and many people say that known as small because it was added in to protect the honor of moshe to not associate his idolatrous grandson to him but in reality his grandson was that idolatrous priest so the midrash is drawing our attention to these connections between the stories it's showing that perhaps moshe's child wasn't raised under jewish influence but under the idolatrous influence of his midianite priest grandfather and that kind of stuck to him leading to the story in the end of the book of judges and then the midrash also references another super strange story and that's of course the story of moshe sipora and the angel of death at the hotel i want to look back at that story for a second let's go to the story of the hotel in exodus chapter 4. it says the lord said to moses and midian go return to egypt for all the people who sought your life have died so hashem says okay you've got to go on your mission now in egypt and it says that moses took his wife in verse 20 it says moses took his wife and his sons mounted them upon the donkey and returned to the land of egypt and moses took the staff of god in his hand and then out of nowhere in the middle of his mission verse 21 the lord says to moses when you return to egypt see all the signs that i've placed in your hand and perform them before pharaoh but i will strengthen his heart and he will not send the people and you shall say to pharaoh so said the lord my firstborn son is israel verse 23 so i say to you send out my son that he will worship me but if you refuse to send him out behold i am going to slay your first born son and then what happens seemingly moshe is just doing his job he's on his mission on his way to egypt with his family to do what god sent him to do it says in verse 24 now he was on his way and an inn and the lord met him and sought to put him to death so tzapora took a sharp stone and severed her son's foreskin cast it to his feet and she said for you are a bridegroom of blood to me what is going on in this story and then it says in 26 the angel of you know the angel released him and then she said a bridegroom of blood concerning the circumcision this is a super strange story moshe is seemingly just doing what god told him on his way to confront pharaoh and suddenly the angel shows up there are so many things that are not even clear here why is hashem sending moshe on a mission and then out of nowhere so angry at him that he sends an angel of death and who is the angel even trying to kill moshe or the baby it's not obvious at all when you go back to verses 22 and 23 and read them carefully especially in light of what we learned in the midrash there might be some hidden meanings it says and you shall say to pharaoh so said the lord my firstborn son is israel the next verse could be understood as a continuation of that so i say to you send out my son you know send out israel so that they can worship me and if you refuse to do that i'm going to slay your firstborn son in the in the you know plague of the firstborn but there's another way to read this maybe what the verse is saying is tell pharaoh my firstborn son is israel but i say to you and this is not a quote of what you're supposed to say to pharaoh but actually what god is saying to moshe send out my son so that he will worship me and if you don't i will slay your firstborn son my son referring to moshe's child saying you need to allow your child to be raised in the jewish tradition perhaps the midrash is pointing out that there's a less obvious way of reading these verses maybe moshe was getting a double message one was the national message go tell pharaoh to free israel but then there was also a personal message hidden in his message to pharaoh something in his national message was supposed to speak to him as well and say how could you left your have left your oldest son as an idolater just like i'm saying to pharaoh israel is my firstborn son let them worship me you have to hear that message echoing your ear about your own son understands that and circumcises the baby and the angel releases either moshe or the baby from the story at the very least we learn that moshe hadn't even circumcised his son maybe he was leaving him to be raised as a gentile because of that oath and hashem is saying to him why are you raising him as an israelite just like i'm going to pharaoh to ask him to release my firstborn son you have to release your own son bring him back to the israelite heritage so there's a deep lesson in that story if that's true moshe is off to save the jewish people and hashem says wait before you go fold it up packed up in the message of your national mission is a message about you and your family you have a son that hasn't been brought into the jewish people you may think nah i don't have time to worry about raising my own family i have a whole nation to save but hashem is saying yes you need to tend to all of israel but you also need to remember that part of serving the nation is also to bring your own son and to care for your own son's education as an israelite there's no disconnect between your personal mission your personal mission and your national mission and sipora understands this and saves the day she says yeah we're all on this large you know this large mission for god but we're also part of a greater story as individual families so the story these stories all seem to come together through this narrative the seemingly very strange narrative of the midrash perhaps moshe swore to leave yitro his son to raise him in the midianite tradition this angered hashem and hashem urged him redeem your son when you're redeeming the jewish people tzipora circumcised him but maybe that wasn't enough and maybe the bad influence that he had had under yitro led moshe's grandson astray as we see in the book of judges and all these stories come together but what's weird there's one more thing we have to figure out we went to this mudrash to answer our original question why does the torah tell us the backstory on the children's names when yitro comes to meet israel in the desert in this past week's portion of yitro that's where the midrash appears but the story doesn't seem to answer that question it weaves together a whole bunch of other stories but what about that actual question well maybe it does let's look at those names again for a second gershom haiti i was a stranger i was a stranger in australian and eliezer means and god saved me from the sword of pharaoh those names were meaningful to moshe because they were his life but do they sound familiar is there any more succinct way of telling the jewish story we were strangers in a strange land and god saved us from the sword of pharaoh now imagine the scenario of yitro living in midian he's the head honcho of idol worship there some anonymous nobody shows up he worships this strange one god the creator of the universe well okay at least i'll raise his sons properly in idolatry and then his weird son-in-law says um god told me to go to egypt save my brethren from pharaoh the kingdom the greatest emperor in the world empire in the world imagine the father-in-law scratching his head and saying well good luck with that okay good luck phew at least i have the grandchildren to take care of instead of that weird dad of theirs who thinks he's going to redeem some slaves from egypt and then imagine months go by he hears nothing until he hears something that there was a people that were strangers in a strange land and their god saved him from this saved them from the sword of pharaoh himself imagine looking down on his lap seeing his grandsons named stranger in a strange land and god saved me from pharaoh oh my god he says to himself my son-in-law was onto something he was on to a really deep truth and he says to himself i can't raise these children in idolatry they need to be part of this greater story of israel the personal meets the national he sees that the personal story of moshe is the national story he realizes this too and he realizes that his family's story needs to connect with jewish destiny we can't go on trying to be individuals these children were clearly meant to be part of something greater in reality it's just one story now imagine the same lesson that moshe got at the hotel yitro is now getting vitro has this great life in midian honor leadership wealth he leaves it all behind to join the unfolding story of jewish salvation even though he's a gentile he says my own personal family clearly needs to be tied in to this story in whatever way we can so maybe in the deepest sense the midrash is calling out to all of us to read the stories of the bible in our own life as they unfold where do we hear the echoes of the biblical story happening to us in our personal stories maybe the midrash is challenging us to say you have to try to find ways for us for we have to find ways for ourselves for our families for our children to be part of the unfolding biblical narrative how do we intertwine our personal lives with the larger unfolding destiny of israel so i think that this midrash is a beautiful call to us it gives depth to so many of the stories in the torah and i think it echoes into our very lives today to read the torah into our own stories and tie ourselves with the destiny of the jewish people with that i wish everyone a beautiful and inspired week bye guys hi my name is jeremy gimpel a lot of people want to know exactly what the land of israel fellowship is and what members receive when they join so let me explain the land of israel fellowship is a global online community with hundreds of members from over 40 countries around the world they're live sessions and gatherings that create a direct personal connection to the land of israel and the lovers of israel from around the world there's no online gathering that i'm familiar with that is connected to the land of israel that unites and brings together such a diverse group of people backgrounds and nationalities it feels like prophecy it feels like something we need in these times a window in to a better future on the horizon there's a divine unity we experience every week in our fellowship broadcast we heard these amazing teachings from an authentic hebrew and israel perspective and our jaws drop not only because they ring so true and are such a blessing because they are so consistent with what we believe these sunday morning gatherings are nothing less than a house of prayer for all nations cindy low the united states of america the land of israel fellowship is an amazing resource for learning torah the bible and the prophets unfiltered and uncentered directly from the land of israel we've been studying torah for almost 20 years but we feel we are stepping into it more than ever and seeing new depth and dimensions to scripture we're encouraged more and more every week calinardell usa members receive access to all the archives in the library of teachings on every portion of the torah the biblical feast hebrew prayer prophecy sessions on the ancient wisdom of the prophets of israel to help us navigate through these turbulent times these sessions are so rich i re-listen to each and truly each session is the best one yet tehela is a tremendous asset and the teachings ari shares are so rich i've read the bible so many times and i've known the things you are teaching the hebrew understanding is what christians have missed for century sister georgian from germany the land of israel fellowship is truly unique because it's built upon personal relationships with the teachers of the fellowship myself rabbi arya bramwitz in tehillah gimpel every member has direct access to the staff 24 6 via email or direct whatsapp to ask questions to comment to connect directly to all the teachers and over the last years we've connected to some of the most beautiful people on the planet so if you want to find out more and join the land of israel fellowship you can click on the link below and if you want to try it out for just a month you can email fellowship at the land of israel.com and we'll hook you up i hope to see you shalom from the mountains of judea