Comentário sobre Êxodo 18:27

וילך לו אל ארצו AND HE WENT HIS WAY INTO HIS OWN LAND, for the purpose of making proselytes of the members of his family (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 18:24:2).

וישלח משה את חותנו, for he did not want to join the fate of the Jewish people by going with them to the land of Canaan. He had said clearly: לא אלך, “I am not going, for I am going back to my own country to my birthplace.” (Numbers 10,30) Perhaps this was due to his being of advanced age; we encounter such reticence to move to a better place when David offered Barzilai a home in Jerusalem and he declined, citing that at his age he would not enjoy what Jerusalem had to offer anyway. (Samuel II 19,38) He preferred to be buried with his father and mother. Yitro’s sons (and daughters?) however definitely joined the Jewish people in their journey to the Holy Land, as we know from Judges 1,16 where they are described as the children of the Keyni, the father-in-law of Moses. Bileam also prophesied concerning their future in Numbers 24,21.

Moshe sent his father-in-law off. He honored him by escorting him part of the way. This proved that the honor he showed him when he first arrived was not merely for the sake of his wife and children, whom Yisro had brought with him.

Converting his family. [Rashi knows this] because otherwise, why was the sending attributed to Moshe? Perforce, because it was to convert Yisro’s family. And [the Torah considers] this to Moshe’s credit, for it is written, “The children of Keini, Moshe’s father-in-law, ascended from the city of palm trees with the children of Yehudah. . . and dwelt among the people” (Shoftim 1:16).

וישלח, “he accompanied him, (when Yitro left for home;)” This is what he had learned from Avraham, who after royally hosting the angels saw them off by accompanying them some distance as reported in Genesis.ואברהם הולך עמם לשלחם :18,16Some commentators believe that the entire episode reported from the beginning of chapter 18, took place after the revelation of G-d at Mount Sinai when the people received the second set of the Tablets, Moses having smashed the first set. Moses had descended from the Mountain with that set on the tenth day of Tishrey, and the verse beginning with the words: ויהי ממחרת, “it was on the following day, etc.” would have been the 11th day of that month. (18,13) What had been reported prior to this, i.e. Yitro’ arrival, being welcomed, and offering sacrifices all took place still on the tenth, after Moses had arrived and placed the Tablets in the ark which had been prepared for it. This corresponds to the way Rashi explains all this at the end of Parshat ki tissa, (Exodus 33,11 and 34,29. Compare Rashi on Deuteronomy 1,9 on the whole subject and the apparent contradictions there.) Whether Yitro had arrived at the camp of the Israelites prior to the revelation or subsequently, there is unanimity amongst the sages that he did not return to his homeland before the second year in the month of lyar when the people made ready to proceed to the Holy Land, having been encamped around Mount Sinai for almost an entire year. If the line reporting Moses accompanying Yitro on his departure occurred in the chronological sequence reported by the Torah, then both he, Tzipporah, Moses’ wife, and his two sons would have belonged to the only generation that ever experienced such a revelation. If the Torah did not report events in their chronological sequence, we have to make peace with the fact that Tzipporah and her sons did not experience this event. [Yitro’s experiencing it or not is of secondary significance in the opinion of this editor. Ed.] The fact that neither of Moses’ sons are ever mentioned again by name in the Torah lends some support to the opinion that they had not stood at Mount Sinai.