Parshas Yisro - Parsha Stumpers

~ Something to Think About ~

פרשת יתרו

Parsha Stumpers

By: Daniel Listhaus

1. What did Yisro hear that no one else did?

2. According to the one who holds that Yisro was attracted by the fact that B'nei Yisroel won the war against Amalek, what was so special about it? Granted they were untrained, but still the B'nei Yisroel had an army of 600,000 men between 20 and 60. Certainly it couldn't have been such a tremendous surprise that they won.

3. Rashi writes that Yisro had 7 names. One of them was Yeser – which became Yisro after he converted. If so, didn't Yisro really only have 6 names at any given time?

4. Yisro is called Choveiv because of his love for the Torah. Why did Yisro receive such a name any more than Moshe, Aharon, or any of Bnei Yisroel in the midbar?

5. (18:2) Rashi sounds good in the broad sense but what specifically was Aharon worried about? Moshe’s wife and children would not have become slaves? Moshe was from shevet Levi?

6. Yisro came over to Moshe and asked “What are you doing?” Moshe responded, “Judging the people and helping them with their questions.” Yisro then clarified and said that he meant why is Moshe the only one judging instead of creating a system of ranks where more people could be helped at a time. What was this conversation between Moshe and Yisro? And why didn't Moshe think of this himself?

7. Where did Yisro get his “da’as Torah” from which seems to have been good enough to match Moshe?

8. (18:21) Where did Yisro get his qualifications from that he suggested be requirements for people to judge k’lal Yisroel?

9. When describing Moshe's two sons the Torah writes “Shem Ha'echad Gershom...” and “Shem Ha'echad Eliezer...” The Torah refers to them both as “The first” even though Gershom was older because Eliezer was named for an earlier event that Moshe experienced. What is the significance behind each of their names? And why did Moshe name his first son for a later event and his second son for the earlier one?

10. The Aseres Hadibros are a Pangrammatic Lipogram (consists of all the letters in Hebrew Aleph Beis except for one). Which letter is missing? Why? [See Parshas Yisro - The Ten Commandments: A Pangrammatic Lipogram]

11. The Aseres Hadibros in this week's parsha are slightly different from the ones found in Parshas Va'eschnan. What are the differences? Why are there differences?

12. (20:5) We see that Hashem is referred to as a “jealous G-d”. How could we understand Hashem’s “jealousy”?

13. There are many examples throughout chumash that one should knock on a door before entering, as to not startle those inside. Where is there an example in this week's parsha?

14. Rashi (18:7) writes that he does not know who bowed to who but when the passuk says “ish”, we figure out that it refers to Moashe....How could Rashi be so sure? Yisro too is called an “ish” by the torah (see Shemos 2:21)?

15. Why in the aseres ha'dibros does Hashem refer to Himself as the one who took us out of Eretz Mitzrayim, and not the One Who created the world?

16. How could Hashem give us such a commandment not to desire something? How is it possible to control our emotions to the point of not having a feeling of wanting something?

17. Why wasn't the Torah given in Eretz Yisroel?