Yitro's Sacrifices and Eating Bread Before God

Exegetical Approaches

A Gentile's Sacrifices

Why is Yitro (a Gentile) bringing sacrifices and making a festive meal?¹

Celebration of the Children of Israel's salvation

Sources:ChizkuniShemot 18:12About Chizkuni

Chizkuni explains that Yitro brought sacrifices out of joy over the miracles that God had performed for the nation. See vayichad for a discussion of Yitro's reaction.

Conversion sacrifices

Sources:RambanShemot 18:12About Ramban

Ramban suggests that the sacrifices are a religious ritual intended to fulfill the halakhic obligation of a proselyte to bring a burnt offering upon conversion, and that the feast celebrated Yitro's conversion and circumcision. R. BachyaShemot 18:12About R. Bachya and SfornoShemot 18:12About Sforno explain similarly and Sforno draws a parallel to Na'aman.

Covenant sealing meal

R. D"Z Hoffmann posits that the sacrifices and meal were not part of a religious ritual, but rather a political ceremony which accompanied the signing of a covenant between the Israelite nation and Yitro's clan.

Sources:R. D"Z HoffmannShemot 18:12About R. D"Z Hoffmann

Use of the generic name Elohim – R. D"Z Hoffmann thereby explains why the proper name of Hashem is not used, as these sacrifices were not a religious rite and Yitro had not become a monotheist.

Eating bread before God – According to R. D"Z Hoffmann, this refers to partaking from a covenantal meal.

Omission of Moshe – R. D"Z Hoffmann explains the absence of Moshe from the meal by noting that Moshe was already related to Yitro (and would have had a conflict of interest), and it was Aharon and the elders who were representing the Children of Israel in this treaty.

Biblical parallels – R. D"Z Hoffmann points to the story of Yaakov and Lavan in Bereshit 31:44-54 as another example of a treaty which is accompanied by sacrifices and breaking bread together (לֶאֱכָל לֶחֶם). Additional cases of a covenantal meal are found in the stories of Yitzchak and Avimelekh in Bereshit 26:28-31, the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai in Shemot 24:3-11, and David and Avner in Shemuel II 3:19-21.

Ancient Near Eastern parallels – Charles F. Fensham, in an article in BASOR 175 (1964): 51-54 cites parallels to the custom of sacrifices accompanying a covenant from a letter from Mari and two treaties from Alalakh.²

Additional evidence for the existence of a treaty – see Yitro's Purpose for possible substantiations from the story of Moshe's arrival at Yitro's home in Shemot 2 and the later relationships between the nation of Israel and Yitro's descendants.

Sacrifices to Elohim

Why is Yitro offering his sacrifices to Elohim and not to Hashem?³

Recognized Hashem

Yitro fully recognized Hashem as his God.

Sources:Ibn EzraLong Commentary Shemot 18:12About Ibn Ezra

Ibn Ezra attempts to explain that Yitro is really sacrificing to Hashem, whom he has just now acknowledged as his god (and hence the use of Elohim).⁴

Did Not Yet Recognize Hashem

Yitro was still in the midst of his theological transformation and did not yet fully recognize Hashem as the one and only God.

Sources:RambanShemot 18:13About Ramban, R. BachyaShemot 18:12About R. Bachya

Never Recognized Hashem

Yitro never became monotheistic and always considered Hashem to be only one of many gods.

Sources:R. D"Z HoffmannShemot 18:12About R. D"Z Hoffmann (see above), U. CassutoShemot 18:12About Prof. U. Cassuto

Eating Bread Lifnei HaElohim

Exegetes differ on whether the term lifnei haElohim is used here to connote a particular geographical location. In addition, the meaning of our verse depends on when this story occurred and where the nation was encamped – see Chronology.

A Place With a Divine Presence

Lifnei haElohim means in front of a specific place where there was a Divine presence. This approach subdivides regarding the identity of that place:

Moshe's personal tent

Moshe's tent was mentioned just a few verses earlier in 18:7.

Sources:Seikhel Tov18:12About Seikhel Tov,⁵ R. Yosef ibn Kaspi18:12About Ibn Kaspi, one option in RalbagShemot 18:12About Ralbag, Hoil MosheShemot 18:7About Hoil Moshe,⁶ also see note below regarding Ibn Ezra.

The pillars of cloud and fire which housed God's presence

Sources:R. BachyaShemot 18:12About R. Bachya⁷

The Tabernacle

Sources:R. SaadiaCommentary Shemot 18:8-21About R. Saadia, Ibn EzraLong Commentary Shemot 18:12About Ibn Ezra,⁸ U. CassutoShemot 18:12About Prof. U. Cassuto

An altar where sacrifices were offered before the building of the Tabernacle

Sources:R. Yosef Bekhor ShorShemot 16:34About R. Yosef Bekhor Shor, AbarbanelShemot 18About Abarbanel,⁹ SfornoShemot 18:12About Sforno

A designated place for thanksgiving and prayer

Sources:Akeidat YitzchakShemot #43About Akeidat Yitzchak

Mount Sinai

Sources:Perhaps the second option in RalbagShemot 18:12About Ralbag

The burning bush

Sources:JosephusAntiquities 3:3:1 (64)About Josephus

A Sanctified Activity

"Eating before God" is an expression which connotes a sanctified activity, but not necessarily a particular location.

Partaking of Sacrifices

Sources:ShadalShemot 18:12About Shadal¹⁰

Partaking of a meal in the presence of sages (in this case Moshe) which is analogous to benefitting from the Divine presence

Sources:Bavli Berakhot64aAbout the Bavli, RashiShemot 18:12About Rashi¹¹

Partaking of a covenantal meal made before God

Sources:R. D"Z HoffmannShemot 18:12About R. D"Z Hoffmann (see above)

Where Was Moshe?

Moshe Participated in the Meal

Moshe participated, but this is understood and needed no mention, as the meal took place in Moshe's tent.¹²

Sources:RashbamShemot 18:12About Rashbam, Ibn EzraLong Commentary Shemot 18:12About Ibn Ezra, Ma'asei HashemMa'asei Torah 4About Maasei Hashem, BiurShemot 18:12About the Biur

Moshe Did Not Participate

This opinion subdivides in explaining Moshe's reasons for not participating in the meal:

Moshe was the waiter

Sources:Mekhilta DeRabbi YishmaelYitro Amalek 1About the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Targum Yerushalmi (Yonatan)Shemot 18:12About Targum Yerushalmi (Yonatan), RashiShemot 18:12About Rashi

Moshe never ate with other people

Sources:Second opinion of R. Avraham b. HaRambamShemot 18:12About R. Avraham b. HaRambam

Moshe was not a signator to the covenant, and thus did not participate in the covenantal meal

Sources:R. D"Z HoffmannShemot 18:12About R. D"Z Hoffmann (see above)

Moshe was preoccupied with judging the people

Sources:Benno Jacob Shemot 18:12

¹ JosephusAntiquities 3:3:1 (64)About Josephus attempts to avoid this question by having Moshe be the one who offers the sacrifices.

² The letter from Mari (C. F. Jean, Archives royales de Mari II [1950], No. 37: 6-14) mentions a treaty between Ḫanaeans and Idamaras which was formed by slaughtering an ass. In a treaty from Alalakh (Donald J. Wiseman, Abban and Alalah, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4, 1958, pp. 126, 129), a sheep was slaughtered when Abban took an oath to Iarimlim. Finally, in another treaty from Alalakh (Sidney Smith, The Statute of Idrimi [1949], pp. 16 f.), a sacrifice was made after the covenant between Idrimi and Sutarna.

³ See Character Titles for a general discussion of the names of Hashem in the chapter. The Targumim and the Peshitta do not distinguish in their translations between the terms Elohim and Hashem in our chapter. See the discussion in Y. Maori, The Peshitta Version of the Pentateuch and Early Jewish Exegesis, Jerusalem (1995): 143 for the possibility that the Peshitta (like the Sifre) wants to avoid having any other term besides Hashem in a sacrificial context.

⁴ Cf. Bereshit 28:21 "and Hashem will become a god for me." See also Tzeror HaMorShemot 18:12About Tzeror HaMor who argues similarly that Yitro must have been sacrificing to Hashem (as per the Sifre above) and the use of Elohim merely implies Yitro's recognition that Hashem had demonstrated His attribute of justice (represented by the name Elohim) in punishing the Egyptians.

⁵ According to Seikhel Tov, the Divine presence was actually located in the cloud pillar which was next to Moshe's tent, and not in Moshe's tent itself.

⁶ The Hoil Moshe suggests that this is Moshe's tent which was outside the camp. See אהל מועד for more on Moshe's tent.

⁷ R. Bachya is thus able to maintain that the story took place before the Tabernacle was built. See R. Bachya 18:1 where he prefers Ramban's approach that the story is in its chronological place.

⁸ Ibn Ezra understands lifnei haElohim as meaning before God's presence in the Tabernacle, but adds that the meal was held in Moshe's personal tent which was located in front of the Tabernacle (see Bemidbar 3:38). See Where Was Moshe below.

⁹ Abarbanel identifies this altar as the one Moshe built at the culmination of the battle with Amalek in 17:15, an option also mentioned by Sforno.

¹⁰ Cf. ChizkuniShemot 18:12About Chizkuni who interprets "before God" as "from what was sacrificed before God" (as if there was an extra letter מ).

¹¹ This approach would also account for the absence of Moshe in the verse. It may be understanding Elohim as a person who represents God – see elh. Cf. the version in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael Yitro Amalek 1 which speaks of greeting one's friend. If this event took place on Yom HaKippurim, as may be the position of Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael and Rashi – see Chronology, the backdrop for the Rabbinic suggestion may be the Divine rays of glory which shone on Moshe's face after his descent from Mount Sinai.

¹² See above regarding the meaning of lifnei haElohim and where the meal took place.