Moshe and Zipporah –

Is this a strange match or a match of convenience?

Once Moshe discovered his Hebrew background, he became increasingly involved with his brethren, so much so that he risked his life to save one of them and because of that act he was forced to cut himself off from his adopted royal home.

It is thus quite surprising that Moshe married the daughter of priest, a Cohen of Avodah Zora (idol worship).   This fact raises the question of whether he specially chose girl from the family of Yithro.

Rabbeinu Bachaya, in his commentary on the Torah, explains that Moshe was a hunted man. There was a warrant out for his arrest for the murder of a government official. Moses knew that Pharaoh would arrest and imprison him at the first opportunity. Therefore he sought protection at the home of a ‘Cohen’, a priest. The priests were the only group in Egypt who retained ownership of their property when Pharaoh, under the advice of Joseph, nationalized all the land, as mentioned at the end of the previous Parshah. The priests therefore, were to some degree, under less governmental control, and less likely to be subject to royal threats and pressure. For a fugitive such as Moshe this made a marriage to a Cohen’s daughter a wise choice.

The question still remains of why Yithro would give his daughter’s hand in marriage to a refugee? Yithro had seven daughters. A man with seven daughters to marry off cannot be too particular about potential suitor’s background and protest against a shidduch (match) because of a legal problem in the chatan’s (groom’s) background

When Yisros daughters saw Moshe at the well and brought him home Yithro saw a potential hatan. Moshe must have stood out as being of regal bearing etc and Yithro saw a potential hatan notwithstanding Moshes problematic background.  Moshe from his point saw that it was in his interest to marry one of Yithro’s daughters and acceded to Yithro’s suggestion.