Draw Near With Your Right Hand - the Rule Jethro Taught Moses

There is a rule the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael transmits in the name of Rabbi Eliezer, and it is more practical than it first appears. A person who comes to convert, who comes to draw near to God and to Israel, should be pushed back gently with the left hand and drawn near warmly with the right. Not the other way around. Never rejected with both hands. That, the Mekhilta says, is the lesson God taught Moses using Jethro as the example, and Elisha's rejection of Gehazi as the warning.

The text is brief and precise. According to the Mekhilta (Tractate Amalek 3:32, 2nd century CE), God said to Moses: "I am the one who drew Jethro near and did not distance him. You, too, when a man comes to you to be converted, he does so only for the sake of Heaven. You, too, draw him near and do not distance him."

Jethro was a Midianite priest. He had, according to tradition, explored every form of idolatry before concluding that none of it was true. He arrived at the Israelite camp after the crossing of the Red Sea, brought Moses his wife and sons, and sat down to eat bread with Moses and Aaron and the elders of Israel (Exodus 18:12). The Mekhilta elsewhere records his declaration: "Now I know that greater is the Lord than all the gods" (Exodus 18:11). A Midianite priest, after a lifetime of theological investigation, reached the same conclusion the Israelites had been living. God drew him near. That is the model.

The instruction to Moses is not simply about how to treat individual converts. It is framed as a reflection of how God Himself operates. The verse God quotes comes from (Jeremiah 23:23): "Am I only a God from near, says the Lord, and not a God from far?" The Mekhilta reads this as God declaring His own nature: I am the one who draws near, not the one who distances. That is what divinity looks like in practice. Not a God who keeps His distance from the impure, the foreign, the doubtful, but a God who moves toward them.

Moses is being told to embody that same quality. When someone comes seeking, do not make the barrier so high that the seeker turns back. The left hand provides the gentle resistance that tests sincerity. The right hand pulls in. Both are necessary. But the right hand is the dominant one, the stronger one, the one that determines the outcome of the encounter.

The counterexample is Elisha and Gehazi. Gehazi had served the prophet Elisha faithfully and then disgraced himself by secretly accepting the gifts from Naaman that Elisha had refused, and lying to Elisha about it afterward (2 Kings 5:20-27). Elisha's response was total and permanent. He rejected Gehazi with both hands. No path back, no second chance, no right hand extended. The Mekhilta names this as the wrong model, not because Gehazi did not deserve rebuke, but because the posture of rejection-with-both-hands forecloses the possibility of return entirely.

The Mekhilta preserves several accounts of notable proselytes that illustrate what this welcoming posture produced. There is the proselytess Beluria, who had studied so deeply that she could hold her own in theological debate. These are conversions that happened at the margins of the Israelite community, among people who had seen enough to decide this was where they belonged. The tradition wants to know what happens when a foreigner decides to cast their lot with Israel, and the Mekhilta's answer is: God notices. Moses should do the same.

Rabbi Eliezer's teaching arrives inside the Amalek section of the Mekhilta, which might seem an odd placement. But the juxtaposition is deliberate. Amalek attacked Israel from behind, targeting the weak and the stragglers at the rear of the camp (Deuteronomy 25:18). The contrast being drawn is between the one who attacks the vulnerable from behind and the one who extends the right hand to the seeker who approaches. What kind of community do you build? One that strikes from behind, or one that reaches forward?

The practical instruction holds across every generation. Push back gently to test sincerity. Pull in firmly with the dominant hand. And remember that God, who drew Jethro near when Jethro had spent a lifetime investigating other gods, sets the standard. The one who comes seeking comes only for the sake of Heaven. That is enough reason to extend the right hand.