What does he remark about yetzias mitzrayim? “Now I know that Hashem is greater than all powers.” Rashi explains that Yisro appreciated yetzias mitzrayim to a much greater extent because of his pursuit of the emes. He studied and worshipped all the avodo zoros in the world in order to try to find the true religion. All of them disappointed him.

He merited having a son-in-law like Moshe Rabbeinu and a daughter who was worthy to be Moshe’s wife, partly because he sought the truth to an incredible degree.

Yisro identified what most impressed him about from the entire process of yetzias mitzrayim: “ki badovor asher zodu alei’hem”. Targum Onkelos says he saw the dikduk hadin of Hashem in dealing with Egypt.

Rashi at the beginning of the parsha quotes two of the three reasons for Yisro’s conversion that the midrash cites: Kriyas Yam Suf and Milchemes Amoleik.

What could it be in the war with Amoleik that would inspire Yisro to come join Klal Yisroel?

Amoleik represents the concept of evil for the sake of evil. Eisov struggled with Yaakov for supremacy while still in his mother’s womb. Rashi explains that they were struggling over who would inherit the two worlds. Rivka when to Shem and Eiver who told her that the world will be split between Yaakov and Eisov. When one is dominant, the other is subordinate. Who determines who is up or down? Yaakov. When Yaakov is fulfilling his mission to represent emes and ruchniyus and send that message to the world, then Yaakov is up and Eisov is down. Eisov is violence and brute force.

There are two ways one can conquer the world and dominate it. One is with physical power and one is with spiritual and moral superiority. Eisov cannot tolerate Yaakov and his approach to the world. Adolf Hitler, yemach she’mo was very articulate as to why he wanted to get rid of the Jews. Without knowing any of the mamamorei Chazal to this effect, Hitler explained that the Jewish people could not be tolerated because they represent the idea of a soul and a conscience and bris miloh. This meant that the Jews stood in the way of Hitler’s vision of conquering the world through physical violence and brute force—denying any force of spirituality in the world.

Having a conscience means that a person has a neshomo which naturally strives to do what is right and good and wants to connect to something higher that is above physical forces and brutality. This idea is represented by Klal Yisroel.

A bris miloh represents the idea that the human body has kedushoh. It carries on it the bris we have with Hashem. This idea that we can spiritualize the life of the body is what Yaakov represents. Eisov cannot tolerate it. It is antithetical to everything Eisov stands for. Amoleik, who is Eisov’s offspring, is absolute evil.

When Hashem takes Klal Yisroel out of Egypt with 10 makkos, it revolutionized the civilized world. It shattered all the firmly-held beliefs in the reality of avodo zoro. Hashem alone runs the world. Kiryas Yam Suf achieved two things. One, is that it demonstrated Hashem has absolute power over the physical world and no laws of nature can stand in His way. When He shatters the laws of nature, He shows that when they are functioning regularly, they are only functioning as Hashem’s tools to allow people to live an orderly life, and not independently. Second, Hashem will show the tremendous dikduk hadin which allowed every Jew to see how each egyptian received exactly what he deserved for persecuting them.

Amoleik could not tolerate that such messages were being sent to the world through what was happening to Klal Yisroel. Amoleik’s intolerance for anything good and spiritual shows that he is absolute evil with no redeeming qualities. When a person doesn’t believe in the existence of a realm of ruchniyus that is beyond the physical and should impose restrictions on the physical, when a person believes that all there is to life is the body and physical power and domination with no higher goals of the neshomo, then the world moves into a direction of absolute evil.

What gives Amoleik the ability to act on their agenda against ruchniyus? Klal Yisroel gives them their ability-- when we become weak in our resolve to carry our message to the world. When we hold on to our message strongly, and that is our identity and reality, then Amoleik fades away. We cannot afford to retreat even a little bit.

Yisro saw all this. He saw the epic struggle between Yaakov and Eisov and Amoleik who represents pure evil.

He saw the absolute dikduk hadin at Kriyas Yam Suf. And he saw at Mattan Torah that Hashem has given us a complete approach to the world which stands against Amoleik’s purely materialistic and mechanistic approach to the world. Yisro saw the Torah’s approach and Klal Yisroel’s message of making ruchniyus the biggest priority in life, and he was attracted to it. He came to join Moshe Rabbeinu who sent for his wife and children. Moshe told Yisro about all the things Klal Yisroel had been through and how Hashem has consistently watched over us. Moshe was trying to draw Yisro closer to Torah.

This is astounding. A man whose life is pursuing truth and abandons everything to see first-hand what Hashem has done for Klal Ysroel, yet Yisro still needs encouragement from Moshe to go the next step. Yisro is still troubled over the massive loss of Egyptian life.

We need to appreciate that Yisro and the Egyptians have a history. 82 years ago, Yisro, Iyov and Bilaam were all advisors to Pharaoh deliberating over the decree to drown all the Jewish baby boys in the Nile river. Yisro protested the decision and couldn’t be party to it. Even silent consent was unconscionable to him and was so repugnant to his search for truth, that he had to flee Egypt. For this, he was rewarded. He became Moshe’s father-in-law. He gave up a powerful position for the sake of the truth. But Yisro is still conflicted.

As much as he sees the truth and is pursuing emes, he has not yet made any irrevocable commitments. He still identified with his former associates. It was a struggle to turn his back on his entire past life and assume a new identity. It was a struggle to renounce his former world and follow the truth to the end.

He gives Moshe sage advice as to how to judge the Jewish People, his advice was accepted, and now he returns to his family. Why is he going back? To convert the rest of his family.

But in Parshas Bahalosechoh, we get a different perspective of Yisro’s return to his homeland. He cannot throw his fate entirely with the Jewish People. Some people can see the emes and appreciate the emes, but cannot bring themselves to abandon their comfort zone and give up everything to live the emes fully. Yisro knows what is at stake. He knows that joining Klal Yisroel means joining the destiny of Klal Yisroel, and its difficult history-- the unrelenting reward and punishment that Klal Yisroel must live with. It is a consequence of the uncompromising bris with Hashem.

So Yisro is being torn between his ideology, and going back to his family, his property and his social position. Moshe is worried that Yisro is leaving because he won’t be getting a portion of Eretz Yisroel—this will make a bad impression for future converts. Yisro saw all the miracles in the midbor and he has the opportunity to become a part of the Am Hashem. But he hesitates because of his family and his real estate. So Moshe makes a deal to give Yisro an plot of 500x500 amos near Yericho—one of the most fertile areas in Eretz Yisroel.

What is amazing about Yisro is how much can a person see the emes and still be torn by other considreations that hold him back. We see this theme in many personalities in Sefer Bereishis. We also see this theme emerging very subtly after the battle between Barak and Devorah vs. Sisroh and the King of Cana’an. At the end of the battle, Sisroh flees and finds refuge in the tent of Yael the wife of Chever haKeini. He was a descendant of Yisro and strangely enough the Novi tells us, made a pact with the kingdom of Cana’an. This is why Sisroh fled to his territory because he thought it was friendly territory. Why did Chever Hakeini make a pact with the enemy of Klal Yisroel? Apparently, because he wanted to hedge his bets. Chever HaKeini, like his ancestor Yisro, couldn’t make an absolute commitment to the emes. He couldn’t make that final irrevocable step.

Who are the Eirev Rav? You could imagine how impressed they were by all the miracles in Egypt which inspired them to join the Jewish people and leave Mitzrayim. But seeing all the miracles and being impressed with the gilui Schechinoh of makkas bechoros was not enough for them to make an absolute commitment. They didn’t go through what Klal Yisroel themselves went through. They weren’t tested and purified by the slavery of Mitzrayim to emerge spiritually mature and capable of total subordination to the will of Hashem. They lived the easy life and were not prepared to endure hardships and sacrifices to follow Hashem. They wanted all the benefits of being close to ruchniyus without having to pay a price. These types of people always bring down Klal Yisroel.

We pay a price, but there is the tremendous benefit of having that intensely close relationship with Hashem. We are His Mamleches Kohanim and Goy Kodosh.

But for some people, even with a tremendous quest for truth and inspiration towards ruchniyus, it is not enough. When people immerse themselves in a Torah environment and they finally understand what life is all about and are about to make that commitment, hesitate at the edge. There is always a “but…”

Yisro was a very principled person with a conscience. He couldn’t make peace with sheker and gave up a lot to pursue the truth. And now he was faced with making an irrevocable choice. Join Klal Yisroel and be a part of Jewish history, or stand and watch on the sidelines. It is much easier to be a Ben Noach with no bris with Hashem and no dire consequences for failure to live up to the high standards of the Torah.

Remember what Billaam said—he wanted to get everything Klal Yisroel will receive when he dies. But he didn’t want to live his life that way. In the end, he died a violent death at the hands of Klal Yisroel in the battle against Midian. There is a price and there is reward. There is no such thing as reward without price.

Some people have an innate ability to see the emes and appreciate the emes and want to reap the benefits of the emes. But to live the life of emes day-in day-out takes another level of maturity. Only 20% of Klal Yisroel achieved that maturity and left Egypt alive. They went on to go through the midbor and stood at Har Sinai to say na’aseh ve’nishmah. They can found Klal Yisroel. The other 80% didn’t make it.

Then we have the hangers on. As much as they can acknowledge the truth, some can make that final step and some can’t.

There is an interesting gemara in Yevamos about how to teach a prospective ger about becoming a Jew. You tell him about various mitzvos and aveiros, but you also tell him about Jewish history and the sacrifices and hardships that are involved in joining the destiny Jewish People. You tell him about the price that is paid for becoming a part of the Am Hashem. What defines this people is their connection with Hashem. It is a total identity of kabbolas ol malchus shomayim.

Some people can see the emes, and only a few can say that is who I am and this is my entire identity. Once you are a sincere ma’amin in Hashem and really understand what it means, you cannot go halfway.

Yisro recognized the truth, but he is conflicted about all kinds of considerations. So we have to give Yisro a little incentive and he joins Klal Yisroel. But he ultimately leaves and a few generations later, we find his descendants making a pact with the Cana’anim just to be on the safe side.

It is a tremendous leap. But that is what Klal Yisroel is all about. We follow Hashem into the wilderness without provisions and without any back-up plans. We go all the way. That is who we are as a nation.

Each individual in his own life at one point he has to recognize the emes, and then he has to decide that this emes is how he is going to define his life. That is why the story of Yisro comes right before the story of ma’amad Har Sinai. Because, after all the inspiration and the wondrous nissim, Hashem demands a decision and commitment. This is going to define my life and who I am going to become.