42 | FEBRUARY 1 • 2024 J
N

T

he quintessential Jewish 
expression of thanks, gratitude 
and acknowledgment is Baruch 
Hashem, meaning “Thank God” or 
“Praise be to the Lord.”
Chassidim say of the Baal Shem 
Tov that he would travel 
around the little towns 
and villages of Eastern 
Europe, asking Jews how 
they were. However poor 
or troubled they were, 
invariably they would 
reply, Baruch Hashem. 
It was an instinctive 
expression of faith, and every Jew 
knew it. They might have lacked the 
learning of the great Talmudic scholar 
or the wealth of the successful, but 
they believed they had much to thank 
God for, and they did so. When asked 
what he was doing and why, the Baal 
Shem Tov would reply by quoting the 
verse: “You are holy, enthroned on the 
praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:4). So, every 
time a Jew says Baruch Hashem, they 
are helping to make a throne for the 

Shechinah, the Divine Presence.
The words Baruch Hashem appear 
in this week’s parshah. But they are 
not spoken by a Jew. The person who 
says them is Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-
law. Rejoining Moshe after the Exodus, 
bringing with him Moshe’s wife and 
children, and hearing from his son-in-
law all that had happened in Egypt, he 
says, “Praise be to the Lord [Baruch 
Hashem], who rescued you from the 
hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, 
and who rescued the people from the 
hand of the Egyptians” (Ex. 18:10).
Three people in the Torah use this 
expression — and all of them are non-
Jews, people outside the Abrahamic 
covenant. The first is Noach: “Praise 
be to the Lord, the God of Shem” (Gen. 
9:26). The second is Avraham’s servant, 
presumed to be Eliezer, whom he sends 
to find a wife for Yitzchak: “Praise 
be to the Lord, the God of my master 
Avraham, who has not abandoned 
His kindness and faithfulness to my 
master” (Gen. 24:27). The third is Yitro 
in this week’s parshah. 

Is this significant? Why is it that this 
praise of God is attributed to Noach, 
Eliezer and Yitro, whereas from the 
Israelites, with the marked exception 
of the Song at the Sea, we seem to hear 
constant complaints? It may be simply 
that this is human nature: We see more 
clearly than others what is lacking in 
our lives, while others see more clearly 
than we do the blessings we have. We 
complain, while others wonder what we 
are complaining about when we have 
so much to be thankful for. That is one 
explanation.

GOD OF ALL HUMANKIND
It is, though, possible that a more 
fundamental point is being made. The 
Torah is signaling its most subtle and 
least understood idea: that the God of 
Israel is the God of all humankind, even 
though the religion of Israel is not the 
religion of all humankind. As Rabbi 
Akiva put it: “Beloved is humanity, for 
it was created in the image of God. 
Beloved is Israel, for they are called 
children of God.” 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Particular 
 Paths to a 
Universal God

