Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 18/0
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Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 18
Yitro and Bilam The Torah records very little about the Children of Israel's encounters with other nations during their forty years in the desert, and even less about their interaction with private individuals who are not the rulers of their nations. Yitro and Bilam, though, are the two significant exceptions to this rule – Gentile personalities (both with ties to Midyan) to whom the Torah devotes a considerable amount of attention. In many ways the two are a study in contrast.
Tools
Primary Sources Many Rabbinic sources draw connections between Yiro and Bilam, some including a third Gentile figure, Iyyov.
- Sotah 11a, Sanhedrin 106a, and Shemot Rabbah 1:9 states that Paroh had three advisors: Bilaam, Iyov, and Yitro. Bilaam advised Pharaoh to kill the Jewish baby boys, Iyov was silent, and Yitro ran away in protest. These three characters represent different non-Jewish ways of relating to Judaism and the Jewish people.
- Mechilta deRabbi Yishmael on Shemot 18:1 and Zevakhim 116a describe Bilaam’s response to popular fear and confusion after Matan Torah, which contrasts with that of Yitro.
Articles
- See Yitro and Bilaam for an overview of points of comparison between these two characters.
- In Do You See the World Like Yisro or Like Balak?, R. Efrem Goldberg analyzes why Balak, Bilaam, and Yitro have such different reactions to the events experienced by Am Yisrael and how this insight might inform an individual’s religious life.
- See Rabbi Shalom Carmy’s The House I Lived in: A Taste of Gooseflesh for an interpretation of Yitro’s feelings upon hearing of the success of the Jews, and how this relates to attitudes toward converts in Jewish culture
