Summary

Parashat Yitro continues the journey of the Israelites across the Sinai desert. Before returning to Egypt to help the Israelites to gain their freedom, Moses had left his wife, Zipporah and his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, with his father-in-law Jethro. Hearing that Moses and the Israelites have gained their freedom, Jethro brings Zipporah and her children to the Israelite camp. Moses tells his father-in-law about the Israelite liberation and they offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. In the morning, Jethro observes that the people are bringing all their problems to Moses. He suggests that the burden is too great for one person to bear and advises Moses to choose trustworthy people to share leadership with him. Moses takes his advice. Three months after entering the Sinai desert, Moses and the Israelites camp at Mount Sinai. Moses goes to the top of the mountain and God speaks to him, giving him the Ten Commandments. Below, the people hear thunder and see lightening from the cloud which covers the top of the mountain. They remain at a distance while Moses communes with God.

Commentary

I have often wondered why one of the eponymous moments in Israelite and Jewish history Matan Torah - Revelation, the giving and reception of Torah – would appear in a sidrah named after a non-Israelite priest, Yitro (Jethro). A midrashic tradition (traditional rabbinic interpretation of the Torah text) understands that Jethro converted but in my view this is a rather forced understanding.

Another thought is that Jethro is to be compared with Amalek, who in the last sidrah came only with war in mind against the Israelites. Jethro comes and goes only in peace.

Yet another is that Jethro’s actions might provide a subtle emphasis on what follows at Mount Sinai. He sees Moses taking sole responsibility for adjudicating the people’s issues and suggests a devolved system that is the foundation stone for nearly all judicial systems today. We are all encouraged to be involved in the judicial system, formally through jury service or volunteering to be a local magistrate, a Justice of the Peace or informally when we campaign to bring justice for a cause about which we feel strongly.

In the same way and more we are all encouraged to ‘stand at Sinai’. Franz Rosenzweig (Jewish German Philosopher, 1886–1929) believed that at Sinai, the people did not hear words. What happened there and left a lasting impression is that the people encountered God. It was at Sinai that the people began the process of searching out what God wanted of them. We can of course choose not to engage or to see ourselves on some journey either towards God / truth or perhaps as Liberal Jews, God / a perfect ethical world. Neither do we have to engage in the judicial system. However, Yitro’s model suggests power / responsibility devolved down towards the individual. When we do not engage, we devolve power / responsibility into fewer and fewer hands.

`It (Torah) is not in the heavens, that you may say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” ’ (Deut 30:12)

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