T33 (Tinyana) PNC - Yisro's Joy Over All the Good — The Convert's Body and the End of the End

'Vayichad Yisro al kol ha-tovah' (Shemos 18:9) — Chazal (Sanhedrin 94) say his flesh became chidudin chidudin (goosebumps, raised pricks). All joys are bound to their hour — the simchah of a wedding or a bris is only at its hour; if you look at the end, there is no joy in the world (sof adam le-mus, Berachos 17). But if you look at the end of the end — the ultimate purpose — there is great joy, because the absolute end is very good. From the side of the neshamah this is straightforward: 've-hineh tov me'od' — Chazal (Bereshis Rabbah 9) say that 'me'od' is the angel of death — death itself is the good that brings to the ultimate good. A tzaddik whose body too is pure and holy can rejoice with his body even when he looks at the end: 'ba-Elokim batachti, mah ya'aseh basar li' (Tehillim 56:5) — the flesh, his body, can do him no harm; 'af be-sari yishkon la-vetach' (Tehillim 16:9) — even for the body it will be good. But one whose body is not so holy, especially a convert (whose neshamah may be very high but whose body was formed from a tippah temei'ah, and that cannot simply be exchanged), cannot rejoice with his body when looking at the tachlis. So 'Vayichad Yisro al kol ha-tovah' — beyond the good, beyond the visible benefit, looking past it, he was sameach. From the side of the neshamah even looking at the end is great joy. But 'his flesh became chidudin chidudin' — his flesh specifically, his body. Because as a ger his joy could not extend to his body when he looked at the end.