Common Root for All the Branches
From the beginning, God chose Abraham and his seed for blessing all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3, 22:17-18). Careful Bible Students recognize that at the end of the Jewish dispensation “God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name” (Acts 15:14). “I will call them my people, which were not my people” (Romans 9:25). “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
Yet it is also recognized that the Jewish cast off condition and blindness is not permanent. “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light … If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jeremiah 31:35-36). “If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? … How much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? … As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes … that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy” (Romans 11:15, 24, 28, 31).
We see in this a cooperative endeavor with the spiritual and natural seed in the work of the New Covenant according to Isaiah 2:3 and Micah 4:2. “Many nations shall come, and say,’Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths:’ for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”
While Israel is still largely trusting in the Mosaic Law and also recognizes a larger prophetic responsibility toward Gentiles, yet they have little regard for the integrity and trustworthiness of the Gentiles in today’s society. This is not surprising, given the history of persecution, compromising teachings and proselytizing practices. However, we have seen in recent years an exploring of Israel’s Gentile connections and responsibilities by contemporary Rabbis and teachers. Many Jews, faithful to the Zionist cause of returning to the land, have been truly grateful for the message in the program, “Israel, Appointment with Destiny” and the genuine mission of comfort from Bible Students in recent years.
We extract liberally from two articles in the Jerusalem Post, both by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, dean of the Ohr Tora Institutions, chief Rabbi of Efrat. One sees in Jethro’s support of Moses a clue to the need for God’s use of a Gentile element to confirm their covenant relations. The other properly sees in the Abrahamic covenant a Jewish responsibility toward all humanity. Are the eyes, once partly blinded, beginning to see?
JERUSALEM POST, February 2, 1992, “A Gentile or Convert Can Provide the Missing Link”
Exiled from our homeland for close to 2,000 years, we lived on the edge of history, our national – but not spiritual – life arrested. And despite threats to our very existence, we learned to suffer our host cultures, usually as the perennial scapegoat – trod upon, cursed, made to wear identifying garments. Sometimes we’d be wooed by the nobility when they became aware of the special talents of this “nation within a nation,” or protected by the pious of the nations of the world, who on occasion risked their lives to save some of us. In total, however, Israel could hardly be condemned for agreeing with the quotation from the Midrash: “The law is known that Esau hates Jacob” (Genesis 27:41).
But with the birth of modern Israel – a state equal to others on the globe – it becomes possible to see the gentile world from a broader perspective. And the lenses through which to look can be found in [the account] of Jethro . . . What is so special about Jethro?
Is it because he is Moses’ father-in-law? Not likely. Far more significant is his role in alerting Moses to a more effective means of administering justice -invaluable advice, since it served as a “strength preserver” for the master of all prophets. Seeing Moses teaching and judging the entire nation by himself, Jethro was not afraid to admonish him: “What you are doing is not good. You are going to wear yourself out, along with this nation that is with you. Your responsibility is too great, you cannot do it all alone … Seek out from among the people capable, God-fearing men. You must then appoint them as leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties. ” (Exodus 18:17-22)
This places Jethro on an extraordinary level. In effect, Jethro the gentile teaches Moses the administrative technique critical in establishing a nation to be governed in accordance with Tora doctrine.
Jethro’s practical wisdom is only part of what Moses learns from the gentiles. The woman who drew Moses out of the Nile gave him his name, brought him into her home and sheltered him … consequently, the first lesson Moses learned from his adoptive mother is “hesed” or true benevolence, even if it means risking your status and even your life….
Contrasted with the darkness of Amalek is the light of Jethro. Not only is Jethro not bent on destroying Israel, he is the perfect ally, a gentile who understands the mission of the Jews, who is cognizant of the one God and of His presence in the world through the Jewish people.
“Jethro expressed joy because of all the good that God had done for Israel, rescuing them from Egypt’s power. He said ‘praised be God, who rescued you from the power of Egypt and Pharaoh, who liberated the people from Egypt’s power. Now I know that God is greater than all deities ‘” (Exodus 18:9-11)
Jethro’s blessings are the basis for Psalm 117, included in the Hallel, where the nations are commanded to praise God along with the Israelites. Jethro’s blessings foreshadow the truest Kiddush Hashem [Holy Name], then the Divine Name shall be exalted and sanctified in the eyes of the gentiles….
As far back as Abraham we see the first links between one man’s monotheism and the rest of the world. In the very same breath that God elects Abraham, we are told that through him “all the nations of the world will be blessed” (Genesis 12:4). Similarly, Ruth, ancestor of King David from whom the Messianic seed sprouts, was a convert to Judaism, so that carved into the Messianic soul is the vision of reaching out to the world. Indeed, the descendants of Jethro and Pharaoh’s daughter have much to teach the descendants of Moses about realizing God’s promise: “And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,’ a light unto the world.
JERUSALEM POST, October 27, 1990, “Three Biblical Covenants”
My teacher, Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik, speaks of three Biblical covenants, the first being between God and Adam, the second between God and Noah, and the third between God and Abraham. The process that began with Adam and Noah – in effect a dialogue between God and a reluctant mankind struggling against the demand to live in accordance with a divine imperative – ends when Abraham turns out to be the one person who can correct his predecessors’ shortcomings….
In the beginning, God made a covenant with Adam: “of every tree of the garden you may eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for on that day … you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-18). Had Adam kept this one commandment, a creature of dust would have established an eternal relationship with God, embodying the attributes of compassion, truth and goodness….
Ten generations after Adam, the world was trapped in moral quicksand, ripe for destruction. But one man, Noah, finds grace in God’s eyes, and there is a gradual lifting of the past’s heavy shadows as Noah and his family emerge from the Ark and God gives the commands [and covenant] of Genesis 9:3-6. In the Tractite Sanhedrin, 56a, the rabbis deduce seven laws from these verses: Prohibition against blasphemy, incest, idolatry, robbery, bloodshed, eating flesh from a living animal, and the command to establish law courts. Called the Seven Noachide Laws, they apply to every human.
After the one commandment given to Adam failed, and the subsequent failure of the seven ethical laws of Noah, Abraham’s spiritual journey becomes the final attempt to halt the planet’s descent into a pagan labyrinth the world is simply not yet strong-willed enough to live by the seven Noachide Commandments, and morality alone is insufficient to create a truly morally enthused people.
Enter Abraham! Through perfect faith in God, he will create a family, and from this family will spring a nation which shall commit itself not to one, nor to seven, but to 613 commandments. They will live and breathe the laws of God – this time comprising both ritual and ethics, and will become, as promised in Exodus, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. Thus the elevation of Abraham is not meant to exclude the world. On the contrary, the task of this nation of teachers is to bring the blessings of God upon the families of the earth despite all obstacles.
Maimonides, in his work Sefer Hamitzvot [The Book of Remembrance], writes that the commandment to love God does not mean we should be satisfied with the feelings in our hearts; rather, we have to bring the love of God to the entire world – something neither Adam nor Noah achieved. To love God means to share Him and His laws with the world if only we will be the proper models and teachers.
Our responsibility is to all of humanity, since in the world of atomic weapons, not only every Jew but every human being becomes a co-signer for the others. We must truly become disciples of Aaron, loving humanity and bringing them closer to Tora, so that the God of Israel will be the God of the entire world.