The Brotherhood of Seekers

There is a certain common bond between a specific type of religious person, regardless of religious beliefs and practices. The serious seeker of God shares something with other serious seekers because they are all trying to head in the same direction, even if they firmly believe others have made a wrong turn. I often think that I have more in common with certain serious Catholics than with some of my fellow co-religionists.

R. Baruch Simon, in his recently published Imrei Barukh on Shemos, makes this point in answering the question why the Torah needed to tell us that Yisro (Jethro) was a "priest of Midian." What literary point is made by this added description? R. Simon quotes R. Simcha Zissel Broide, in the latter's Sam Derekh, as explaining that Yisro was searching for God and his elevation to the status of "priest of Midian" was an example of this, as was his subsequent abandonment of this false religion when he learned of God's miracles for the Children of Israel. The description "priest of Midian" was thus a praise of Yisro. He was an honest seeker, and for that he deserves our respect.