There are only a handful of Torah portions named after individuals. Noach, Yisro, Korach, Balak, Pinchas, and if you want to get technical, Chaya Sarah. Putting Chaya Sarah aside (since she’s not actually in the parsha, it doesn’t quite fit this mold), but looking at the other titles, you may notice that these individuals have one thing in common… that they have NOTHING in common!

Noach, Yisro, and Balak aren’t Jewish! Korach and Balak are the bad guys in their Torah portions. The act that makes Pinchas honorable doesn’t even happen in his parsha. It’s bizarre. And to top it all off, what may be considered the most important parsha in the whole Torah, the acceptance of the Jewish people to actually become the Jewish people, followed by the reading of the Ten Commandments… is given the name of a Priest of another religion! Why does Yisro deserve his name to be attached to this exalted reading?! 

If you ever want to understand a person, don’t look at what they say, look at what they do. When the Torah mentions these individuals, what verbs come next? 

Noah (Berishis 6:9)

Noach walked with God – אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ
For Noah, walking with Hashem he was known as a tzaddik (essentially a Jewish saint.) But at the same time, he may not have been righteous enough to save the rest of the world. 

Yisro (Shemos 18:1-5)

Yisro heard – וַיִּשְׁמַ֞ע יִתְר֨וֹ Yisro took – וַיִּקַּ֗ח יִתְרוֹ֙ Yisro came – וַיָּבֹ֞א יִתְר֨וֹ
At the beginning of parsha Yisro, the Torah describes him with three verbs. He heard about all that happened to the Jews in Egypt. He took his daughter and grandsons, and he came and joined the Jews. 

Korach (Bamidbar 16:1-3)

Korach took – וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח and rose up – וַיָּקֻ֨מוּ֙ לִפְנֵ֣י and assembled against – וַיִּקָּֽהֲל֞וּ 
Korach infamously conspired against Moses to usurp his authority. He took other Jews and made a conspiracy and that assembly rose up and confronted Moses. 

Balak (Bamidbar 22:2-5)

Balak saw – וַיַּ֥רְא בָּלָ֖ק Moav became terrified – וַיָּ֨גָר מוֹאָ֜ב He sent messengers – וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח מַלְאָכִ֜ים
Balak, the King of the Moavites, got the message of what the Jews had done to the Emorites and his kingdom panicked, so he solicited the help of the wicked prophet Bilaam. 

Pinchas (Bamidbar 24:7)

Pinchas saw – וַיַּ֗רְא פִּֽינְחָס֙ and rose up – וַיָּ֨קָם֙  Pinchas took – וַיִּקַּ֥ח
Pinchas commits an act of religious zealotry, slaying a Jewish prince and a Midianite woman while they were brazenly and publicly fornicating to protest against Moses (while they also performed idol worship.) Interestingly enough, this event happens in Parshas Balak. Pinchas is rewarded in the very next parsha which is given his name sake. 

Okay so those are the players. What connections can be drawn? First off, I’m going to sideline Noah as he seems to be “complete” in the sense he is already walking with God. For the rest, there seems to be three stages. Perception. Decision. Action. (FYI – Screenwriting follows this model. Inciting incident. Debate. Decision to act.)

Seeing is Believing. But is it enough?
For Balak and Pinchas, they both saw an event. Pinchas experienced the breakdown of his brethren falling into temptation and becoming corrupt. He decided to rise up against it, and finally literally took action against it. Pretty straight forward. 

Balak saw a threat and he and his nation became terrified. Was that a decision? I say yes because he could have decided to make peace with the Jews and become allies. Instead, he gives into fear and makes an offensive move against the Jews.  Yisro, however, hears about his life changing event. He doesn’t see it first hand. His decision point is to take everything he has and then come join Moses and the Jews. Why was hearing enough for Yisro to make such a life change? 

I think what the Torah is telling us is that hearing and listening can actually be more important than witnessing. 

When I was 16, I was in a car accident. I was sitting still at a red light, two cars crashed and plowed into my stationary vehicle. It all happened so fast, I actually couldn’t understand what actually occurred in the collision. Only when I got out of my car, surveyed the damage and mentally pieced together the evidence of the wreckage, did my mind start to recall the events of one oncoming car running a red light while another car traveling perpendicularly, collided with it. 

My brain had to create a story after the fact. That’s not to say all first hand witnesses don’t know what is happening. But in many cases, an individual has to piece together more information and construct a story for an event to have meaning. But we also have imperfect memories. And an event that means something to us one day may fade in its emotional significance the next. 

When we listen to the stories of others, the experiences of others, the facts that are outside of us, it is a lot harder to intellectually dismiss a reality. When continuing to act on the choice we’ve made becomes more difficult, if we can minimize the importance of the inciting event, we just might forget what it was all about. But if we go back and listen to the story, we can recommit. 

The Jewish people witnessed God speak at Mount Sinai. But every generation afterwards didn’t. That’s why we have the mitzvah of Shema, listen. In fact, the tradition to cover our eyes while we recite shema may be an indication that trusting our perception alone isn’t the most reliable way to find the truth. We have to stop, shut out the distractions, think deeply, and then listen. Which is precisely the verb used for Yisro, shema.

What about Korach? 

Notice I’ve left Korach out of the discussion thus far. What did he experience which sent him on his path? What was his perception verb? Nothing. Korach’s verbs are took, rose up, and conspired against. It doesn’t matter what happened, Korach was going to spin it for his own purposes regardless. Some people have their agendas set before the event even occurs. Unfortunately, there’s no getting through to them.

Ultimately, these five individuals establish how we relate to new information and what we do with it. I think it is important that it’s not Avraham or Moses that are given these parsha titles because it’s so difficult to relate to the pillars of our faith. Instead, these individuals were surrounded by those who felt differently. Noah literally had the whole world against him. Balak’s kingdom was terrified. Pinchas was in the middle of a riot. Korach had to build his conspiracy. Yisro was the only one who actually had walked out on his society before hearing his truth. That’s why he was ready to listen.