출애굽기 18:13 해설: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Ramban

ויהי ממחרת AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW — This was really the day after the Day of Atonement: so have we learnt in Siphré (Mekhilta). Since the Day of Atonement is not mentioned anywhere in this section that deals with the Giving of the Law what is the force of ממחרת? i. e. in relation to what particular day in the history of the Law-giving is the term ממחרת, “on the morrow”, used? It means the morrow after he (Moses) descended from the Mount Sinai, and you must admit that it is impossible to say that this was any other day but the morrow after the Day of Atonement because, before the giving of the Torah, one could not say, (v. 16) “and I do make them know the statutes [of God and His laws]” (which are part of the Torah), and from the day when the Torah was given until the Day of Atonement Moses did not sit down to judge the people, since immediately after the Torah was given he ascended the mountain and descended only on the seventeenth of Tammuz when he broke the tablets in pieces. On the next day he again ascended the mountain early in the morning and stayed there eighty days, descending on the Day of Atonement (cf. Tanchuma כי תשא, Rashi on 33:11, Deuteronomy 9:18 and 10:1). Consequently this section is not written (placed) in its chronological order, for this paragraph commencing with ויהי ממחרת and ending with “Moses let his father-in-law go and he (Jethro) went his way into his own land” was not said before the second year after the Exodus. For even according to the view of one who says that Jethro came to Moses before the giving of the Torah (Avodah Zarah 24a) his dismissal into his own land did not take place until the second year, for it is stated here (v. 27) “Moses let his father-in-law go”, and we find in the account of Israel’s journey through the wilderness beneath their banners (which according to Numbers 10:11 began in the second year) that Moses said to him, (Numbers 10:29, 31) “We are journeying etc…. Forsake us not, I pray thee”. Now if this incident happened before the giving of the Torah (including Jethro’s departure) where do we find it related that he returned after he had let him go and he had taken departure? And if you object that there (in the section in Numbers which Rashi has quoted as evidence that Jethro’s departure took place in the second year) it does not mention Jethro at all but Hobab, and that the latter was not Jethro but the son of Jethro, then I reply that Hobab is identical with Jethro and not his son, because it is written, (Judges 4:11) “of the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses”.

ויהי ממחרת, “it was on the morrow;” according to the plain meaning of the text the day referred to is the day following the meal just described. The previous day had been spent in honouring Yitro so that Moses did not have time to sit and judge the people’s complaints. Rashi’s explanation of the word ממחרת commences with the words that it was the day after the Day of Atonement when Moses had returned from Mount Sinai for the thirdtime. [This would have been way after the sin of the golden calf. Ed.] You might ask how it was possible for Moses to sit in judgment of the people at such a time, when all their sins had just been forgiven, and especially in view of the fact that the Torah testifies that immediately after Moses’ return on that occasion Moses assembled the people (Exodus 35,1) and after briefly explaining that the building of the Tabernacle which was to commence forthwith did not override the work prohibitions of the Sabbath, and that that work was completed already on the 25th day of Kislev of the same year (second year after the Exodus), we must understand the line describing Moses as sitting judging the people, does not refer to all the people who had problems lining up at that time, [after Moses for over 120 days had not spent a single full day in the camp since his ascent to Sinai to receive the first set of the Tablets. Ed]. He dealt only with the problems of the individuals who were not busy with donating for the Tabernacle or helping Betzalel in its construction. Rashi himself, in his commentary on Exodus 34,2932, comments that after descending from the Mountain, Moses sat down to teach Torah to all those not preoccupied with the building of the Tabernacle. Rashi in his commentary on our verse here writes: “this paragraph has not been written (or inserted) in the chronological order of events, seeing that the words: ויהי ממחרת, seeing that Moses did not part with Yitro who returned home until the second year of the Israelites wanderings as we know from Numbers 10,29, something even admitted by the scholars who claim that Yitro had arrived at the camp of the Jewish people already before the revelation at Mount Sinai.” If the lines in Number 10,29 referred to an event before the revelation, why did the Torah not record that Yitro did not even stay for that event? Moreover, when we read in Judges 4,11, that the descendants of Yitro at that time had lived near Kedesh near the shores of the sea of Galilee, how come that their even leaving their homeland Midian was not mentioned anywhere? (part of Rashi on our verse) Our author continues: Yitro, in Numbers definitely declined Moses’ offer of becoming part of the Jewish people, when he said: “I will not go (with you).” (Numbers 10,30) If this statement were to apply to a point in time before the revelation, i.e. that our paragraph describes events before the revelation, what was the point of Moses being quoted as debating Yitro’s remaining with the Israelites at a time at least a year later?We have a verse in Proverbs 14,10: לב יודע מרת נפשו ובשמחתו לא יתערב זר, “the heart knows of its soul’s bitterness; a stranger does not share its joy.” Our sages in an early version of Midrash Tanchuma, interpreted this verse to mean that G-d did not want that Yitro should share the joy of the Jewish people at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, as this was reserved for the people who had endured the hardships of slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. At any rate, Moses did not bid farewell to Yitro at the time discussed here. If he had come to the Jewish camp prior to the revelation, then he had had to temporarily withdraw during these days before rejoining the Israelites for almost another year. As soon as he returned from his temporary absence he observed Moses teaching the Torah, and he questioned the fact that the people had to stand, and that Moses had not appointed any delegates at all. When we read in verse 27 of our chapter that Moses bade his fatherinlaw farewell, and the Torah adds that he returned to his homeland, it is clear that he had bid him farewell once before when Yitro had not yet returned to his homeland.

ויהי ממחרת, “It happened on the following day, etc.” according to Rashi, this was the day following Yom Kippur, on which day Moses had returned from Mount Sinai for the third time and after G–d had forgiven the sin of the golden calf, and he had brought down with him a second set of Tablets inscribed by G–d Himself. Rashi is forced to explain it in this way as there had not been time between the revelation at Mount Sinai on the sixth day of Sivan, for Moses to have sat down to deal with the people’s personal problems, as on the day after the revelation he had been invited to the top of the mountain where he spent 40 days studying the Torah, and when he descended with the first set of tablets which he smashed when seeing the people dance around the golden calf, and his spontaneous return to the mountain to ask G–d to forgive the people seeing that they had cleansed themselves from their sin as best as they could, and the active idol worshippers had been executed. He had been invited to ascend the mountain again and bring with him a set of Tablets which he had carved out of the rock himself, and on which G–d had inscribed the text of the Ten Commandments a second time. These events have not been recorded in the Torah in their chronological order just as the events culminating in the Israelites departing from Mount Sinai have not been recorded in their chronological order; We read in Numbers 10,29 about Moses entreating Yitro to remain with the Jewish people, something that could not have occurred until the second month of the second year, as he speaks about the impending journey of the people and these are recorded as having broken camp on the twentieth day of that month. When Yitro is described as advising Moses to appoint delegates to function as judges of civil cases, this is reported in Exodus chapter eighteen, before the revelation had been reported. Moses could certainly not have sat down judging the people before the Torah had been revealed to him. Rashi therefore accepted the version of the Talmud tractate Zevachim folio 116, according to which Yitro had not arrived in the camp until after the revelation, i.e. after Yom Kippur, as how could Moses have had time to welcome him, eat with him, etc., between the revelation and the Day of Atonement, i.e. the tenth of Tishrey? Furthermore, as argued in the Tanchuma, G–d did not see why seeing the people had undergone hundreds of years of hardship in order to qualify for the revelation at Mount Sinai. Yitro who during all these years had lived tranquilly in Midian, should be granted the same privilege without having done much to earn it? [According to our tradition the privilege of being present at the revelation is one of three privileges that must be earned by having gone through יסורים, great hardships.