Yitro 2008 This week’s Torah Portion is Yitro or Jethro, the name of Moses’ Father in Law. Jethro comes to Moses and the Israelites, after hearing about the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. Jethro advises Moses to set up a court system. Then God instructs Moses to ask the people whether they will accept God’s Laws. The Israelites will be treasured by God. They will be a kingdom of priests and a Holy Nation. The people, to their credit assent. They prepare and sanctify themselves for 3 days and, in the words of this portion, “Moses brought the people forth toward God.” to hear the 10 declarations, or rather, the 10 commandments. The event that we call the revelation, involves us on many different levels. We are drawn in as spectators, as believers or disbelievers, and we are drawn in because, as we are told in Deuteronomy, the covenant made at the revelation was made with those present and also with us, with those not present.
The event can be seen as the culmination of all Israelite history up until that point: as the reason for God choosing Abraham, inspiring Isaac with awe, reassuring Jacob, blessing Joseph, and taking the Israelites out of Egypt. It was in order that God’s laws become known and that God become known among humankind, that the revelation came to be. Until the revelation, God was the One who chose to be in relation to several special people, to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, helping and guiding them. After the revelation there was a fundamental shift. The 10 commandments gave us the power to be in relation to God, at our own choosing. In effect, we chose then to be able to choose now. The 10 Commandments and the decrees that follow answer the question, “How can I relate to God?” The 10 Commandments and the ethical mitzvot are a toolbox filled with tools for building a relationship with God.
In the musical, My Fair Lady, Eliza sings to Freddy, the young man courting her, “Don’t talk of stars burning above, if you’re in love, Show me!” This is what God is waiting for: the acts that show God that we want to be in relationship with the Divine. As Abraham Joshua Heschl writes, “Revelation lasted a moment. Revelation was the beginning. Acceptance continues.” Our acceptance of the Ten Commandments can only be shown by the use we make of them. In a sense, there are over 200 tools in the toolbox, the other 400 odd commandments being for the Levites and concern sacrifice. The first 10 mitzvot are the most important, the ones we depend on to build our relationship with God. Each commandment is an instrument by which we can effect a change in our relationship with God, for the better, or for the worse. The 10 commandments are timeless and Divine: Unlike every human code of law, never changed or improved upon in over 3,000 years. Devised just for us; tailor made by the One who knows us and who created us. They are the baseline: the minimum we are expected to keep: the ones that we are deemed able to keep as opposed to one like, “Love you neighbor as yourself”: a commandment that we will never reach but are expected to strive toward. There are really only nine commandments: Don’t Covet, Don’t lie in court, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, honor your parents, remember the Sabbath, don’t say God’s name in vain, don’t worship idols. The 10th commandment, really the first, God exists, is phrased this way: “I am God, your God, who has taken you out of the land of Egypt from the House of Bondage.” This is the God of our history, not just an abstract God, but a real force in our collective memory and in the puzzle of our existence. Anyone who wishes to know God and have a relationship with the God of our history: with the Divine Presence, has the means by which to do so. When Moses led the people toward God, they left the familiar and entered the unknown: a miraculous present in which contact with the Divine became reality. The Jewish spiritual path leads to that reality, a true means of contact whose steps are endorsed by God, having been given to us by God. It is open to any of us who desire God’s presence in our lives. The tools are there: to leave the familiar and enter a place where knowledge of the Divine is possible, taking hesitant steps toward the holy. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi taught, “this is what humans are all about: this is the purpose of God’s creations: to make for God a dwelling in the physical world.” Those that choose to walk along this path choose not only great blessing and happiness for themselves, but also the joy of helping God in the fulfillment of the Divine Plan: the realization of the vision of a nation of priests; a holy nation, and we hope, a holy world.