Parashas Yisro - Recognizing the miracles before our eyes

This weeks Dvar Torah has been sponsored for:
Refua Shelema: Rachamim ben Adina
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Parashas Yisro was named in honor of Moshe's father-in-law. He was the spiritual leader of Midyan, who was very successful, and highly respected. He practiced every type of idol-worship in the world, closely examining them, hoping to find the true G-d.

Yisro wished to convert to Judaism after hearing all the miracles Hashem had done. While the Jews were traveling in the desert, Yisro sent a message to Moshe saying he was on his way to see him. The Talmud [1] says there were three specific things which inspired Yisro to join Moshe and the Jewish people.

1) The Splitting of the sea

2) The War against Amalek

3) The Giving of the Torah at Har Sinai

After Yisro's arrival, Moshe welcomed Yisro lovingly and told him everything Hashem did (and still does) for the Jews. Yisro recognized Hashem's might and offered Him sacrifices. Yisro advised Moshe to select judges with specific qualities to deal with the Jew's halachic (law) questions or problems. Yisro thought it was too much of a burden to Moshe, Aaron and the Seventy Elders to take upon everyone's daily questions. He advised that the Jews should only direct the major questions to Moshe, Aaron or the Seventy Elders.

Yisro camped with the Jews for almost a year. As the Jews prepared to travel to Israel, Yisro told Moshe he wanted to go back to his country to spread Hashem's Name. After many years of trying out new religions, it was crystal clear to him that Judaism was the one and only true religion. He was not blinded to the messages Hashem was sending Egypt and other nations via miracles.

There's a story of a guy (lets call him Yaakov), who took a cab one day. The driver told him how his best friend was religious and learned Torah the whole day. Yaakov was surprised and asked, "Really, how did that happen?" The cab driver replied back, "We were on a hike in India and a huge snake somehow wrapped itself around my friend's neck. We tried whatever possible to get the snake off, but it wouldn't loosen. My friend was literally being choked to death! There was a third person with us who told him, 'Quick, say Shema Yisrael!' After having said the whole posuk of Shema Yisael, the snake miraculously unraveled and slithered away. Ever since then, he started learning Torah and keeping it's laws." So Yaakov asks, "Wow, what a story! What happened to you? Why aren't you religious too?" The cab driver's response was, "It didn't happen to me, it happened to him! When it happens to me, I will change. Until then, I'm going to continue driving this cab." The cab driver was blinded to this amazing event, and didn't think for a second that maybe -- Hashem was trying to show him something. The driver thought differently than Yisro. Yisro wasn't even there to witness the miracles, he just "heard" of these miraculous events that happened. [2]

A lesson I got from this week's Parasha: Hashem performs many miracles everyday. If we only open our eyes to recognize them, it would bring us closer. People take for granted simply waking up in the morning. Yisro heard of the miracles Hashem did for the Jews and realized the Might of our Creator. He looked at it as a message Hashem was telling the world, and did something about it.

Have a wonderful Shabbos,

Nisso

[1] Zevachim 116a

[2] Shemos 18:1