Verse Ex18-04a discussing how God saved Moses from the execution attempts of Pharoh states and the name of the other was Eliezer: 'for the G-d of my father was my help, and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.' . The underlined words saved me from the sword of Pharaoh' echo a reference to the verse where it shows that Pharoh wanted to kill Moses. Verse Ex02-11:15 states And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And he went out the second day, and, behold, two men of the Hebrews were striving together; and he said to him that did the wrong: 'Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?' And he said: 'Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? thinkest thou to kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian?' And Moses feared, and said: 'Surely the thing is known.' Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.

Sermonic points: Although this story is well known perhaps there is a sermonic point that Moses did not remember that Jews wanted to kill him. Instead he remembered that Pharoh wanted to kill him. Here, at an early stage we see Moses as savior of the Jewish people. Moses blamed Egypt and what had happend, not the Jews themselves.

Rashi employs the methods of homographs - single words with multiple but related meanings. The Hebrew word studied is Sin-Resh This word has three distinct meanings
• Expert: Verse Gn40-16 illustrates this usage When the expert baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph: 'I also saw in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head;
• Leader: Verse Nu22-13 illustrates this usage. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the leaders of Balak: 'Get you into your land; for HaShem refuseth to give me leave to go with you.'
• Manager: Verse Ex18-21 illustrates this usage. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear G-d, men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be managers of thousands, managers of hundreds, managers of fifties, and managers of tens.
Using the homograph rule Rashi explains that the fundamental unifying meaning of Sin Resh is leader, manager. This leadership can be expressed in three ways
• A leader in a field such as baking, wine making
• A leader in a geographic region
• A leader over a certain number of staff.
There is a subtlety in this Rashi that is often overlooked. The whole point of the homograph method is that the form of the words is identical. In other words the phrase Sin Resh, manager of X can equally refer to a situation where
• X is a geographic place
• X is field of endeavor
• X is a number

A miscellaneous rule in Biblical Grammar states that the pronoun for himself when used in a sentence functions adverbially to indicate that the activity of the sentence was done for personal reasons.

A good example of this occurs in Nu10-01:02 And HaShem spoke unto Moses, saying: Make for yourself two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shalt thou make them; and they shall be unto thee for the calling of the congregation, and for causing the camps to set forward. Rashi comments on the personal aspect of making the trumpets by providing three possible methods of personal aspect.
• Make the trumpets for yourself--only you can use them.
• Make the trumpets from your own funds
• The trumpets are used for your assemblies

We now turn to Ex18-27 which concludes the chapter describing how Jethro recognized the superiority of the Jewish God over other gods. The verse states And Moses let his father-in-law depart; and he went for himself into his own land. Rashi explains the personal aspect of Jethro returning home: He went home to transmit his new found belief in the Jewish God to his family and friends. Here Rashi gives a reasonable interpretation of personal aspect that is consistent with the overall chapter contents.

Advanced Rashi: The more scholarly reader will note that there appears something missing in this Rashi interpretation. After all even if for himself connotes personal aspect and even if Rashi's interpretation is consistent with the chapter, still there seems to be a giant leap from personal aspect to a statement that Jethro went to convert his family and friends. Perhaps Rashi gained support for his idea using the reference method. Verse Ju04-11 states Now the Kenite club, who was of the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent near the terebinth in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. We are not told what the nature of this Kenite club was; all we know is that they separated from the other Kenites and that the club was founded by Jethro, Moses father-in-law. It seems reasonable that this Kenite club was devoted to discussions and informal teachings and presentations about the Jewish God which Jethro had discovered from his son-in-law, Moses. Such club functions are very common. The focus on a different religion would also explain why the club had to separate from the other Kenites.

Notice how this Rashi is made more plausible by the combination of two Rashi methods-- the grammar method and the reference method. This, the use of two methods, is typical of advanced Rashi.

Acknowledgement: There are many Biblical verses with the words for himself. Rashi consistently interprets them as connoting personal use. After compiling a list of them my brother, the Honorable Neal Hendel of Beer Sheva pointed out that Ex18-27 should be in the list and needed extra explanation. This observation led me to spend considerable time on it till I found the reference in Judges to bolster the Rashi.

Notice the alignment in verse Ex24-01:02 discussing the closeness to God during the revelation:
• And unto Moses He said: 'Come up unto HaShem, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu,
• and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off;
and
• Moses alone shall come near unto HaShem; but
• they shall not come near; neither
• shall the people go up with him.'
The aligned verselets indicate three stages of nearness to God during the revelation
• Moses: Comes closest
• The elders: They ascend the mountain but do not come closer
• The nation: They are prohibited from even ascending the mountain

The above alignment clarifies verse Ex19-24 which also discusses the closeness to God during the revelation: And HaShem said unto him: 'Go, get thee down, and
• thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee;
• but let not the priests and
• the people break through to come up unto HaShem,
lest He break forth upon them.' Hence the Rashi comment:
• The people were prohibited from ascending the mountain
• The elders were allowed to ascend the mountain but were prohibited from coming closer to God (like Moses)
• The people were prohibited from even coming up the mountain.

Sermonic points: The above verses emphasize a doctrinal point of Judaism, the superiority of Mosaic prophecy. For although the elders were allowed to ascend the mountain their prophetic status of closeness to God was not as great as Moses. Since Moses had a higher state of prophecy it was important that the Torah be received by him and not by people with inferior prophetic status.

Note the contradiction in the following verses.
• Verse Ex20-19 discussing the revelation states And HaShem said unto Moses: Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel: Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. ;
• Verse Ex19-20 also discussing the revelation states And HaShem came down upon mount Sinai, to the top of the mount; and HaShem called Moses to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.