Parsha of the Week

As will be recounted shortly, the people left Refidim and journeyed a short distance to Mount Sinai. Because of all that had happened since Moses left him, Jethro, the former ruler of Midian, took special pride in being Moses’ father-in-law. When he heard about the Splitting of the Sea and the war with Amalek, he came to meet the Israelites shortly after they camped at Mount Sinai. Besides these two events, which motivated him to join the Israelites in the desert, Jethro also heard about all that God had done for both Moses and for His people Israel – Moses’ spiritual stature being equal to that of the rest of the people combined – specifically, how He provided them with the manna and the well, how He repulsed Amalek, and most of all, that GOD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

So Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Moses’ wife, Zipporah, after she had been sent away,

and her two sons. The name of the older one was Gershom [“a stranger there”], because Moses had said, “I have been a stranger in an alien land.”

The name of the younger one was Eliezer [“my God is an aid”], because Moses had said, “the God of my father came to my aid, and He rescued me from Pharaoh’s sword.”

Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came to Moses, together with Moses’ sons and wife, leaving the comfort of his home to go into the desert where Moses was encamped, to the Mountain of God, Mount Sinai.

He sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am on my way to you, so please come out to greet me. If you do not consider my being your father-in-law sufficient reason for you to honor me, please be informed that I am coming together with your wife, so for her sake you should come out to greet us. If this is still not enough, know that she is coming with her two sons. Come out for their sakes.”

Moses went out to greet his father-in-law. When Aaron and his sons saw Moses go out, they followed him, and the rest of the people then followed suit. Jethro was thus accorded great honor. Moses prostrated himself and kissed Jethro, they inquired after each other’s welfare, and they entered the tent.

In order to encourage him to join the ranks of the Jewish people, Moses told his father-in-law everything that GOD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, as well as all the travail that had befallen them on the way, at the Sea of Reeds and in the attack of Amalek, and how GOD had rescued them.

Jethro rejoiced over all the good that GOD had done for Israel by having provided them with manna and the well and teaching them parts of the Torah. But he rejoiced most that God had saved them from the hands of the Egyptians. It was reputedly impossible to escape Egypt, yet here an entire nation had succeeded in fleeing. At the same time, Jethro was pained over the suffering of the Egyptians for, being a Midianite, he was of Egyptian stock.

When Jethro heard how the Egyptians had drowned in the Sea of Reeds and had suffered the very fate that they had wished to inflict upon the Jews, he said, “Praised be GOD who rescued you from both the hands of the Egyptians, a difficult people, and of Pharaoh, a difficult king, and who liberated the people from the authority of the Egyptians.

Now I know that GOD is greater than all the deities – and I am familiar with them all – for He has done what no other deity can do: He has foiled a nation’s intent by turning the very scheme that they plotted against others, against themselves!”

In order to complete the story of Jethro, the Torah now jumps ahead four months, to 10 Tishrei of the following year, 2449, when Moses descended Mount Sinai for the last time. When Moses descended the mountain, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, offered up an ascent-offering and peace-offerings to God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law while Moses served them. The religious atmosphere and discussion at this meal rendered it a holy event; as such, it was as if the participants were eating in the presence of God.

It was on the following day, 11 Tishrei, that Moses sat to judge the people, assisted by Aaron, his sons, and the 70 elders. All the people stood respectfully around Moses as he judged the litigants. Moses spent only part of the day adjudicating disputes, but since he did so honestly and correctly, God considered it as if he had toiled in this task from morning to nightfall. The same holds true for any honest judge.

When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing to the people, letting them stand while he sat, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why are you alone seated, while all the people stand around you as if from morning until nightfall? It is only in a king’s presence that everyone is required to stand; in a judge’s presence only the litigants are required to stand.”

Moses replied to his father-in-law, “It is not because I want to comport myself like a king; it is because the people come to me to seek instruction from God.

Whenever one of them has a legal matter, he comes to me, and I judge between a man and his fellow, and I make known God’s rules and teachings. I received the teachings directly from God, and by teaching the people myself I can share with them something of my own experience of Divine revelation. My objective is not to simply teach them the dry laws, but to impart to them the underlying Divinity of these laws. This is why I teach them myself and have them stand in my presence.”

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.

You will surely wear yourself out, you yourself as well as Aaron, the 70 elders, and this entire people that is with you, for this matter is too weighty for you; you will not be able to do it alone.

Therefore, listen to me. I will give you advice, and then consult with God as to whether to accept it. Implement my plan only if God agrees with you as you present it. Here is my plan: You be the people’s representative before God, and you convey the cases they bring you to God when it is necessary to inquire of Him how to judge a case.

You will caution the people regarding the rules and the teachings, and inform them of the path they should follow and the deeds they should do in general. You should indeed teach the Torah to the people yourself, in order, as you said, to impart to them your experience of having received it directly from God.

But when it comes time to apply the Torah’s teachings to legal cases, this should be done by individuals who are on the people’s level and can therefore relate the Torah to them. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that these teachers – and their successors throughout all ensuing generations – transmit your teachings faithfully, you must select these teachers by means of your prophetic vision. Thus, you must discern, from among all the people, men who are well-established, not needing to ingratiate themselves with anyone, and who possess the following seven qualities: they are God-fearing; they are men who command respect on account of their integrity; they ‘hate’ money, that is, they are sufficiently unattached to their wealth that if they owe someone something it is not necessary to bring them to court to get them to pay (anyone more attached to his money than this can be easily bribed and is therefore unfit to be a judge); they are righteous; insightful; able to deduce new laws from legal precedent; and of good reputation. Appoint these individuals over the people as leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens. The leaders themselves should also have access to judicial authority in case they need it. Thus, since there are 600,000 adult men, appoint 600 leaders of thousands, 6,000 leaders of hundreds, 12,000 leaders of fifties, and 60,000 leaders of tens.

They will judge the people at all times: they will bring every major case to you, and they will judge every minor case themselves – to ease your burden by sharing it with you.

If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to bear up, and all the people who are presently helping you judge the people as well – Aaron, his sons, and the 70 elders – will be able to come home after their day’s work unwearied.”

Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.

Moses chose well-established men from among all Israel and appointed them as heads over the people: leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, and leaders of tens.

From this point on, they judged the people at all times: every difficult case they would bring to Moses, and every minor case they would judge themselves.

Jethro remained with the Israelites for over seven months after this in order to supervise the implementation of his plan. When they were about to leave Mount Sinai, on 20 Iyar 2449, he decided to return to Midian to convert his family to Judaism before rejoining the people on their journey into the Land of Israel. Satisfied that Jethro had successfully completed the task of setting up a judicial system for the people, Moses sent off his father-in-law, and thus Jethro set out on his way to his homeland.

The Torah now returns to the historical narrative before the episodes with Jethro. Before God offered the Torah to the Jewish people, He offered it to the Edomites and the Ishmaelites, but they refused to accept it.23 On the first day of Sivan 2448, the third month after Nisan, in which the Israelites had left Egypt, they came to the Sinai Desert, where God told them He would give them the Torah. The anticipation they felt on this day over receiving the Torah is to be re-experienced daily, for we are to study the Torah with the enthusiasm characteristic of a new experience, as if God gave it for the first time that very day.

They left Refidim in a unanimous spirit of repentance for having doubted that God’s presence was among them, and arrived in the Sinai Desert still in this inspired spiritual state, camping in the wilderness. They began to prepare for the Giving of the Torah. Although each individual related to this event differently, they all realized that it would forge them into one nation under the same God. United in this religious-national consciousness, Israel encamped there as one united people. Unfortunately, this was the only time throughout their trek in the desert that they were so united in spirit; at all their other stops, there were individuals or groups who dissented against the community or rebelled against God. They camped facing the mountain at its east side. The top of Mount Sinai was covered with cloud, and remained so continuously until the Giving of the Torah.

The following morning, 2 Sivan, Moses ascended Mount Sinai to God. GOD called out to him from the mountain and said, “In general, when you teach the people the Torah, you must first say each lesson gently to the House of Jacob, i.e., the women, telling them the outlines of the commandments and the rewards for their observance. Since women are more naturally predisposed toward spirituality, this will be enough to ensure that they observe the Torah’s commandments. In contrast, after you teach the women, you must relate the lesson bluntly to the male Israelites, specifying all the punishments and details of the commandments in order to ensure their compliance. But now, tell both the women and the men exactly as follows, no more and no less:

‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians: because of their depravity, they deserved to be punished even before they enslaved you, but I only punished them on your account. Furthermore, you have seen how I carried you swiftly, as if on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Me on the night before the Exodus: you were dispersed over the whole land of Goshen, but I assembled you together instantaneously at Rameseis when it was time to leave. Also, I figuratively carried you on the wings of griffon vultures when you were encamped at the Sea of Reeds: the eagle carries its young upon its wings in order to protect them from the hunter’s arrows; similarly, I placed My cloud between you and the Egyptians in order to intercept the arrows they shot at you and the rocks they hurled at you. You have also seen how I brought you to Me by choosing you from among all nations to assist Me in implementing My plan for the world. You have seen all these things firsthand, and you know that I did all this in order to bring you here to give you the Torah.

So now, you will enter into a permanent relationship with Me, provided you are willing to bind yourselves to Me in two ways: (a) you vigilantly heed My voice, performing My commandments, and (b) you keep My covenant, i.e., bond yourselves to Me supra-rationally and unconditionally. Although undertaking to perform My commandments is a serious commitment, you will find that if you make this decision now, it will become easier for you as time goes on, for the first step is always the hardest. In any case, once you enter into this relationship with Me, you will be for Me a treasure cherished above all nations. It is My prerogative to choose you for this relationship from all the other nations, for the entire world is Mine; I am in no way limited in My choice.

Furthermore, you will be unto Me a kingdom of nobles, who will rule over the other nations; and finally, you will be a holy nation, wholly dedicated to My purposes, rather than to simply maintaining and enhancing the orderly, physical functioning of the world.’ These are the words that you must say now to the Israelites – no more and no less.”

Moses came down the mountain and summoned the elders of the people, and presented before them all these words that GOD had commanded him.

All the people responded together and said, “All that GOD has spoken, we will do.” With this, they expressed their willingness to enter into a covenantal relationship with God. The following morning, that of 3 Sivan, Moses ascended the mountain again and conveyed the people’s words back to GOD. Although this was not technically necessary since God is omniscient, Moses did not take advantage of this fact, but fulfilled his mission with due (and didactic) propriety.

GOD said to Moses, “I am about to come to you in the thickness of the cloud, so that all the people will hear when I speak to you, and then they will believe both in you and in the prophets that succeed you forever.” Moses descended the mountain and relayed this message to the people. When they heard that God intended to speak to them via Moses, they objected, saying that they wanted God to speak to them directly. They said, “We want to see our King!” The following morning, that of 4 Sivan, Moses ascended the mountain and reported the people’s response to GOD.

GOD then said to Moses, “If that is the case, go to the people and prepare them as follows, today and tomorrow: In order for them to receive the revelation they are requesting, they must be ritually pure. They must wash their clothes and ritually immerse them.

Second, they must ritually immerse themselves. After immersion, they will all be ritually prepared for the Giving of the Torah on the third day from today, 6 Sivan, for on the third day from today, I, GOD, will descend on Mount Sinai and give the people the Torah in the sight of all the people.

Since My descent onto the mountain will temporarily sanctify it, you must make a boundary for the people all around that will proclaim, ‘Beware of ascending the mountain or even touching its edge.’ You must also tell them explicitly, ‘Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death.

No hand may touch it, for whoever does will be stoned. In accordance with the procedures for execution by stoning that will be detailed later, the transgressor is to be first cast down from an elevation twice his height; if he dies from this fall, there is no further need to stone him.Whether animal or man, if he crosses the boundary around the mountain he will not be allowed to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast from heaven, signifying the departure of the Divine Presence from the mountain, will the mountain revert to its mundane state, and they may then ascend the mountain. The horn will be that of the ram that Abraham sacrificed instead of Isaac.”

Moses came down from the mountain and went straight to the people in order to convey God’s message to them, rather than attending to his personal affairs. He prepared the people by having them first wash their clothes and ritually immerse them, and then ritually immerse themselves.

Moses said to the people, “Keep yourselves in readiness for a three-day period; do not ‘approach’ a woman, i.e., engage in marital relations.” He then built a fence around the mountain. The remaining events of this day as well as those of the following day will be recounted further on.

On the third day after this, 6 Sivan, as morning dawned, God began the process of revelation on Mount Sinai, before the people had assembled there. God was even more eager, so to speak, to give the Torah to the people than the people were to receive it. There was thunder and lightning, and a heavy cloud on the mountain. There were three degrees of obscurity surrounding the mountain: darkness, a normal cloud, and a thick cloud. There was an extremely loud blast of a shofar, and all the people in the camp trembled.

God’s presence was palpably coming from all four directions toward the people, in order not to overwhelm them with the intensity of a direct revelation from only one direction. Nonetheless, His presence was felt approaching chiefly from Mount Sinai, accompanied by a retinue of some of His angels, like a bridegroom going to greet his bride. In response, Moses led the people out of the camp toward the Divine Presence, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. God uprooted the mountain and suspended it over the people, threatening to crush them under it if they would not accept the Torah. But the people accepted this compulsion willingly by lovingly crowding under the mountain. Seeing this, God had the people retreat and lowered the mountain back to the ground.

Mount Sinai was entirely asmoke, because GOD had descended upon it in fire. The fire was slightly above the mountain but it was close enough to burn the vegetation on the mountain. Its smoke rose up like the prodigious smoke of a limekiln but in fact much higher, for the fire reached up to the midst of the sky, and the entire mountain quaked violently.

In contrast to the sound of a shofar blown by a mortal person, which dies out as he runs out of breath, the sound of the shofar was here at first heard softly, so the people could get used to the volume, but it grew increasingly louder without any break. When God later articulated the first two commandments, He spoke over this sound. When Moses spoke the remaining eight commandments, God responded to the weakness of his mortal voice by amplifying Moses’ voice so that it could be heard throughout the entire camp.

GOD descended figuratively upon Mount Sinai, onto the peak of the mountain. GOD then summoned Moses to the mountain peak, and Moses ascended.

GOD said to Moses, “Go down; warn the people not to break ranks and move toward GOD to gaze better upon Me, lest they touch the mountain and many of them perish. Even if only one of them were to be lost in this way, I would be as pained as if many of them had died.

I will allow the firstborn – who officiate as priests who come near to GOD to offer up sacrifices – to ascend the mountain somewhat. But they should not abuse this distinction; rather, they must also ready themselves to remain at their stations, lest GOD cause a breach among them by killing those who break ranks and venture too close.”

Moses replied to GOD, “I do not need to warn anyone. The people cannot ascend Mount Sinai, for You have already warned us, saying, ‘Make a boundary around the mountain and sanctify it.’”

Yet GOD said to him, “Go, descend, and warn them again. It is prudent to instruct a person about how he is to behave both in advance of the moment of action and again when the actual moment arrives. Then you must ascend again to the mountain peak. Aaron will ascend part way with you to his station, lower down on the mountain, and the priests – the firstborn – will ascend to their station, lower still. But the people must not break their ranks at all to ascend to GOD, lest He cause a breach among them.”

Moses went down to the people and conveyed this instruction to them a second time. At the Giving of the Torah, all the Israelites “converted” to Judaism, i.e., became legally responsible for fulfilling whatever the Torah obligates them to. The mixed multitude, however, were “converted” conditionally. They did not receive the status of full Israelites until later, after the incident of the Golden Calf.

God then spoke all these words – the Ten Commandments – from out of the darkness, the fire, and the cloud that covered the mountaintop. The people responded to the preceptive commandments by saying, “Yes! We will!” and to the prohibitory commandments by saying, “No! We will not!”

The first commandment: “I am GOD, your God. This means that you are now officially obligated to fulfill all My commandments. However, your relationship with Me is not merely contractual; you do not consummate it simply by discharging your legal obligations to Me. For I am the one who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of Pharaoh, where you were slaves. By freeing you from Egyptian slavery, I have made you, in effect, into My slaves: your lives are from now on to be totally oriented toward your Divine mission and you no longer have any ‘private lives’ at all.”

The second commandment: “You must not possess any idols of other peoples’ deities as long as I exist, i.e., ever, or wherever I may be, i.e., anywhere. These ‘deities’ are worthless; they do not answer those who call upon them.

You must not make yourself a sculpted image or any other type of likeness of anything that is in heaven above, on earth below, or in the water lower than the earth, surrounding it, even if you do not intend to worship it.

And if others make such idols, you must neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, GOD, your God, am a zealous God in this regard. For those who hate Me and worship idols, I am a God who remembers the premeditated sins of the fathers, adding their demerits to those of their descendants, but only up to the third and fourth generation, and only if these descendants also worship idols.

But, in contrast, I am a God who shows kindness for at least 2000 generations to the descendants of those who love Me and worship Me alone out of that love, and for 1000 generations to the descendants of those who observe My commandments solely out of fear or respect. Such is the difference between being motivated by love and being motivated by fear or respect.”

The third commandment: “You must respect God’s Name (the Tetragrammaton). You must not swear by the Name of GOD, your God, in vain, by using it to swear that something is something that it manifestly is not. For example, you must not swear that a tree is a rock. For GOD will not absolve anyone who swears by His Name in vain.”

The fourth commandment: “Remember and observe the Sabbath day continuously, thereby keeping it holy. ‘Remember’ it by anticipating its arrival during the preceding week; for example, if you come across some special food item, set it aside for the Sabbath. ‘Observe’ the Sabbath by refraining from performing on it all categories of prohibited work.

Six days must you labor and do all your work. But even if you have not finished all your work during the six preceding workdays, nevertheless,

the seventh day is a sabbath dedicated to GOD, your God; you should behave on the Sabbath as if all your work has been completed. You must not do any work – neither you nor your son or your daughter. Even though your children are not technically obligated to observe the commandments until they attain majority, you must nevertheless not permit them to engage in any form of forbidden work. Your bondman and your bondwoman are forbidden to work, since they are obligated to observe all the prohibitions that you are. You may also not make your animal work. Your convert who is within your gates is also forbidden to work.

For in six days GOD made heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is within them, and He rested on the seventh day, even though He did not need to rest since He did not become tired, of course, by creating the world. Rather, He rested in order to set an example for you. GOD therefore blessed the Sabbath day by ordaining that, in the future, a double portion of manna would fall on Friday, allowing us to rest on the Sabbath – and this indeed happened, as you have seen – and He sanctified it by ordaining that, in the future, no manna would fall on the Sabbath, thereby preventing us from pursuing our material needs even if we had wanted to. This too happened, as you have seen.”

The fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days be lengthened in the land that GOD, your God, is giving you. The opposite is also true: if you do not honor your parents, your days will be shortened.”

The sixth commandment: “You must not murder.” The seventh commandment: “You must not commit adultery, i.e., conduct extramarital relations with a married woman.” The eighth commandment: “You must not steal people, i.e., kidnap.” The ninth commandment: “You must not bear false witness against your fellowman.”

The tenth commandment: “You must not desire your fellowman’s house. You must not desire your fellowman’s wife, his bondman, his bondwoman, his ox, his donkey, or anything else belonging to your fellowman.”

When God began to speak, all the people witnessed God’s voices and the flames, the blast of the shofar, and the mountain smoking. They miraculously saw God’s voices and the blast of the shofar even though these were sounds. When the people saw God’s voices they shuddered, retreated from the mountain 12 mil (= 24,000 cubits, approximately 11.5 kilometers or 7.2 miles), beyond the outer limit of their camp, and stood at a distance. The ministering angels descended, calmed them, and transported them back to the mountain. The same thing happened after they heard each subsequent commandment.

After the people heard all 10 commandments, their leaders and elders said to Moses, “True, we have seen that it is possible – with outside help – for us to hear God’s words directly and survive. But we want to receive the Torah in the framework of our own, natural existence. Therefore, from now on, you speak to us, and we will hear God’s words from you, but let God not speak with us directly, lest we die.”

Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come in order to raise you up in the esteem of all other nations, and He has appeared before you in this awesome way in order that you be imbued with the awe of Him and the awareness that there is no deity beside Him, so that you not sin.”

Yet, God agreed with the people, so when it came time for the next communication from Him, the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near through all three degrees of cloud: the darkness, the normal cloud, and the thick cloud where God was present.

On the day after God gave the Ten Commandments, Moses ascended Mount Sinai for a period of 40 days, as will be described later. While he was on the mountain, GOD said to Moses, “This is what you must tell the Israelites: ‘You have seen that I spoke with you from heaven: although you heard My voice issuing from within the fire atop the mountain, you also sensed that it originated in heaven. Since you have seen this yourselves, no one will ever be able to convince you otherwise. Furthermore, although I caused all the heavens – including the highest – to descend atop Mount Sinai, this did not render the spiritual realms any less transcendent. Therefore, do not attempt to depict in material form the sublime spiritual revelations you have experienced:

You must not make a physical representation of any of the angels that you saw with Me in heaven. Nor may you make any replicas of the two gold cherubs that I will instruct you to make and place in the Tabernacle that I will instruct you to construct for Me. You must make these cherubs out of gold; if you make them out of silver, I will consider them idols of silver. And even of gold, do not make more than two, for if you do, I will consider the additional ones idols of gold. You must not make for yourselves cherub-figurines for your houses of prayer or study, erroneously considering them some kind of ‘medium’ or ‘channel’ for My presence. They are only for use in the Tabernacle, and they will serve as a conduit for My presence only when I wish them to.

You must make an Altar for Me and place it directly upon the earth – not upon columns or on a base. This Altar is to be a copper-coated wooden box that you will fill with earth whenever you set it up. When you make it, you must have in mind that you are making it for My sake. Next to it you must sacrifice your ascent-offerings and your peace-offerings from your flocks and your cattle. Wherever I allow My Name to be mentioned – i.e., in the Tabernacle (and later, in the Temple), when the priests bless you at the end of the daily morning sacrificial service – I will come to you and bless you by resting My presence on you.

I will later on command you to erect an altar when you first enter the Land of Israel, for the purpose of rearticulating My covenant with you. I will instruct you to build this altar out of stones, rather than as a copper-coated wooden box filled with earth. When you make Me this altar of stones, you must not build it with hewn stones, for if you lift your sword over a stone intended for the altar to cut it, you will profane it.

You must not ascend My Altar on steps, so that your nakedness not be exposed over it.’”