Jethro heard about all that G-d had done for
Moses and for His people Israel
Exodus 18:1
After hearing about the Exodus from Egypt, the Splitting of the Sea, and the war with Amalek, Jethro went to meet Moses and the Jewish people, who were camped at Refidim, a short distance from Mount Sinai. He now decided to become a Jew.
The Splitting of the Sea, the war with Amalek, and Jethro’s conversion to Judaism were all prerequisites to the Giving of the Torah.
We must relive these events in our daily lives, for G-d gives us the Torah anew each day, granting us new and higher insights into life every day from the infinite well of the Torah. But before this can happen, we must first subdue our inner Amalek, i.e., silence our doubts about Divine providence.
Then, we must convert our inner Jethro, i.e., win over the part of us that still prefers to serve the idols of excessive material desires, despite what we know to be the truth.
But in order to take these steps, we must first “split the sea and enter it,” i.e., temporarily immerse ourselves totally in holiness, through our morning prayers and regular Torah study. The Divine consciousness we experience this way enables us to bring a higher awareness into all aspects of our daily lives: eating, earning a living, interacting with others, and so on.
Then, when we make time during our day to study the Torah, we will be able to uncover new insights that make it eternally relevant, thus hearing G-d’s voice from Sinai on a day-to-day basis.
—from Daily Wisdom #1