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Moses and Joseph Went Out to Meet Their Fathers

Jethro's dust showed on the horizon. Moses did not send a runner. He put his own feet on the road, and the camp poured after him.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Moses Left the Camp
  2. Joseph Harnessed His Chariot
  3. The Flock Walked Into Emptiness
  4. The Pillar Walked Ahead
  5. Glory Before the Elders
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Moses Left the Camp

Moses saw the dust before anyone brought him the name. Jethro was coming, the priest of Midian, the man who had given him a house when Egypt wanted him dead. He did not send a runner. He did not wait in the tent for a father-in-law to approach a prophet. He went out to meet him. He put his own feet on the road.

Leaders of thousands went after him. Leaders of hundreds. The seventy elders. Aaron the high priest. Then the camp itself poured out, a nation learning by watching how a son-in-law honors the one who took him in (Exodus 18:7).

Moses did not weigh dignity against dignity. He spent it. The greatest among them became small on purpose, and the road filled with people who had not been asked to come. Dust got in their teeth. Children ran to keep up. Someone near the rear asked why the prophet was walking, and nobody answered with a speech. The answer was the walking.

Joseph Harnessed His Chariot

In Egypt, Joseph heard that Jacob was coming down. The viceroy did not stay on the throne. He harnessed the chariot himself (Genesis 46:29). Leather in his hands. Horses shifting. An old shepherd waiting in Goshen who had once blessed him in a Canaanite field.

Who sees the second-in-command of Egypt hitch horses for his father and stays home? Pharaoh's servants went. Elders of the household went. Elders of Egypt went. Joseph moved first, and the court scrambled after him.

The wise inherit honor (Proverbs 3:35). Honor was not a speech in a palace. It was public motion toward the one who gave you life. The son who had worn a coat of many colors now wore empire, and still the first motion was toward an old man.

Wheels turned toward Goshen. The viceroy's face was not a mask of rank. It was a son's face, late and hurrying.

The Flock Walked Into Emptiness

Before the road to Jethro, Moses had already learned to walk ahead. He drove Jethro's flock to the farthest edge of the wilderness (Exodus 3:1). Rabbi Johanan said he went because he foresaw that Israel would be lifted through that emptiness. The mountain of God waited at Horeb, not in a court.

The sheep walked forty days and tasted nothing, the way Elijah later walked on one meal. The flock was a sign. Israel would be called a flock. Moses would lead them forty years and die with that flock still outside the land.

When God later sent him, Moses asked after the people the way a lover asks after a household. How many pregnant. How many infants. What potions for the mothers. God answered with the footsteps of the flock. Learn them by walking their path.

The angel appeared in fire only after the shepherd had gone far enough into waste. The fire was meant to warm his heart, so that when Sinai burned he would not flee. A man who has already stood near flame can stand near more of it.

The Pillar Walked Ahead

The Lord went before them by day (Exodus 13:21). He fills heaven and earth. Why walk ahead of a camp like a guide?

The pillar of cloud went in front, a body of weather walking like a person. Shade on their faces by day. Fire over them at night. The nations saw it. Homage was the expected answer. They did not bow. They slaughtered the people the cloud had led.

A valley is named for that refusal. Nations will be gathered to the valley of Jehoshaphat, not first for idolatry, but for scattering God's people and heritage among the nations. Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom a wilderness while Judah is inhabited. Blood held as not innocent waits for the day the Lord dwells in Zion.

Honor denied on earth is not forgotten. The God who walked ahead still keeps that docket.

Glory Before the Elders

The Holy One said, in this world I have allotted honor to the elders, but in the world to come, before His elders shall be glory (Isaiah 24:23).

Moses going out to meet Jethro and Joseph going out to meet Jacob, two sons meeting their fathers, were not private family manners. A viceroy's chariot and a prophet's feet taught the same motion from opposite ends of power. Rank did not stay home. Rank walked.

The camp that watched Moses leave the tent learned a law thicker than feeling. Soft talk about grandparents would not have filled a road. Feet filled it. Wheels filled it. The pillar still walks ahead of a people the nations refused to greet.

Moses did not send a messenger. Joseph did not wait in the palace. Honor goes out on foot.

MosesJethroJosephJacobHonorElders
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From the tradition

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma, Vayigash 7Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

And Joseph made ready his chariot (Gen. 46:29). R. Yudan said in the name of R. Aibu: Two men were accorded more homage than any other men in all the world; they were Jethro and Jacob. It is written that when Jethro came to Moses, Moses went out to meet his father-in-law (Exod. 18:7). Who would imagine Moses going out and other people not going out with him? Would not the leaders of the thousands and the hundreds go out, and would not the seventy elders and Aaron, the high priest, go out?, if he went out, would not all Israel go out with him to meet Jethro? Similarly, when Jacob came to live with Joseph, it is written: Joseph made ready his chariot and went out. Who, upon observing Joseph going out to meet his father, would fail to accompany him? Would not Pharaoh’s servants go out, would not the elders of his household and the elders of Egypt go out? He went out to fulfill the verse The wise shall inherit honor (Prov. 3:35).

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: In this world I have allotted honor to the elders, but in the future world: Before His elders shall be glory (Isa. 24:23).

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Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 14Midrash Tanchuma

Translation of the source text.Midrash Tanchuma -- Torat Emet · Public Domain

"And he led the flock behind the wilderness" (Exodus 3:1). Rabbi Yochanan said: Why was he heading toward the wilderness? Because he saw that Israel would be raised up from the wilderness, as it is said, "Who is this coming up from the wilderness?" (Song of Songs 3:6). The ascent is from the wilderness, the Torah is from the wilderness, the manna and the quail are from the wilderness, the Tabernacle is from the wilderness, the Divine Presence is from the wilderness, the priesthood and the kingship are from the wilderness, the well is from the wilderness, the clouds of glory are from the wilderness. Therefore, "And he led the flock behind the wilderness."

"And he came to the mountain of God, to Horeb" (Exodus 3:1). Rabbi Shimon ben Yosi said: Moses's flock went forty days and tasted nothing, just as Elijah, may his memory be a blessing, went, as it is said, "And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights" (1 Kings 19:8).

"And he led the flock behind the wilderness": it foretold to him that Israel, who are called a flock, would perish in the wilderness. "And he led the flock": it hinted to him that he would lead Israel forty years. And he too would be confined with the flock in the wilderness. And even when Moses asked about the needs of Israel, when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, Go on My mission, Moses said to Him, "Tell me, you whom my soul loves" (Song of Songs 1:7): how many pregnant ones are among them, how many are with young among them, how many bundles have You prepared for them, how many remedies have You prepared for the pregnant ones among them; "tell me, you whom my soul loves." The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, "If you do not know, O fairest among women..." (Song of Songs 1:8). Therefore, "And he led the flock behind the wilderness." Once he reached Horeb, immediately "the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire" (Exodus 3:2). Why in a flame of fire? In order to encourage his heart, so that when he would come to Sinai and see that fire, he would not be afraid of it.

Another interpretation: And why in a flame of fire (labbat esh)? From the two parts of the thornbush upward, for the heart (lev) is set from the two parts of a person upward. And why from within the thornbush, and not from within a great tree, and not from within a date palm? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I wrote in the Torah, "I am with him in trouble" (Psalms 91:15). They are placed in subjugation, and I too am in the thornbush, in a narrow place. Therefore from within the thornbush, which is all thorns.

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Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 5Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

And the Lord went before them by day (Exod. 13:21). Has it not already been said: Do not I fill heaven and earth? (Jer. 23:25), and also: The earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3)? Why, then, does Scripture say: And the Lord went before them? In order to reveal to the nations of the world the extent of His love for Israel, so that they would pay homage to them. However, not only did they not pay homage to them, but they slaughtered them most cruelly. Because of that it says: I will gather all the nations, and will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they scattered among the nations (Joel 4:2). It does not say “Because they committed idolatry” or “committed sexual crimes” or (were guilty) “of shedding blood,” but rather: For My people and for My heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations. And it says also: Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness (ibid., v. 19), while at that very time Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. And I will hold as innocent their blood that I have not held as innocent (ibid., v. 20). When will that be? When the Lord dwelleth in Zion (ibid.).

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