Yitro's Visit – Purpose and Significance/1/en

Yitro's Visit – Its Purpose and Significance

Introduction

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A Family Reunion?

What prompted Yitro to visit Moshe, and why does the Torah record this story for posterity? At first glance, Yitro seems to be motivated by a desire to reunite Zipporah and her sons with Moshe. In the first six verses of the chapter there is a heavy emphasis on this family component, with a threefold mention of the wife and sons. However, immediately after their arrival, Zipporah and sons fade from the scene. Beginning in verse 7, it is Yitro and his words and activities that become the exclusive focus of the chapter. It is Yitro whom Moshe greets and kisses, and Yitro with whom Moshe speaks about the events of the Exodus, suggesting that it is not the accompanying wife and children that are the central characters in the story of Yitro's arrival, but rather Yitro himself.

Never Heard From Again

Moreover, had Yitro come purely for personal reasons, it is not clear why the Torah would have deemed it noteworthy enough to share this story. Personal details of character's lives are sparse in Tanakh, and in this particular case, they would not seem to be vital for the reader. In fact, had it not been for 18:2, we would never even have known that Zipporah had ever left Moshe's side.¹ Furthermore, neither Zipporah nor her sons ever appear again in the Torah, let alone play any significant role.² Thus, if this is a story merely about the reunification of Moshe's family, why would the Torah see fit to include it, especially as it breaks up the flow of the nationally focused narrative (see Context)?

These issues prompt exegetes to search for other motivations – both religious and political – for both Yitro's visit itself and for the Torah's preservation of its legacy.

¹ See Chizkuni 18:2 and Ramban 18:2 who note that, at last mention (Shemot 4:20), she and her sons were accompanying Moshe to Egypt. Interestingly, according to A. Schalit (in the notes to his Hebrew translation of Antiquities 3:3:1, n. 37), in Josephus' retelling, Zipporah and her sons remain with Moshe, and when Yitro arrives alone at Mount Sinai, it is he (not Moshe) who is reunited with his family (see also Antiquities 2:13:1). [Josephus omits the story of the lodging at the inn (Shemot 4:24-26), which according to some exegetes prompted Moshe to send his family back to Midyan.] Josephus thus circumvents the textual problem that the Torah never mentioned that Zipporah and sons had returned to Midyan. Schalit contends that Josephus is also motivated by a desire not to present a divorced or separated Moshe to a Roman audience which was plagued by divorce. [He suggests that this is also the backdrop for Josephus' mention of Reuel's (i.e. Yitro's) inheritance in Antiquities 4:3:2 as a source of Moshe's wealth.] However, Josephus' formulation is somewhat ambiguous, and it is possible that he also meant that Moshe greeted Zipporah, just like in the Torah.

² The only additional Biblical references to Moshe's descendants are in Divrei HaYamim I 23:15-17, 26:24-26, and perhaps Shofetim 18:30. See here regarding the "Cushite woman".