Parshat Yitro 5767

Yitro is a fascinating Parshah. In many ways it is really the heart and soul of our religion. It presents us with the key passage of the Torah: the Ten Commandments, and one of the theological premises of Judaism: the idea of revelation.

While I suspect most of us don’t go about contemplating revelation every day, we do sing about it when we come to synagogue. In the Yigdal we chant, Lo kam b’yisrael k’moshe od, navi u’mabit et temunato; No one arose in Israel like the prophet Moses who saw God face to face; Torat emet natan l’amo el al yad nevee’o ne’eman bayto. God gave His Torah of truth to His people through His faithful prophet, Moses. We also affirm this idea in the blessings we say before reading the Torah: asher bahar banu mekol ha’amim v’natan lanu et Torato. We say,God chose us from all the nations and gave us HIS Torah.

Revelation, then, is the premise that God revealed Himself at Mount Sinai and gave us our way of life. However one understands this idea, whether one assumes that God literally spoke to the people, or divinely inspired others to write the Torah, or whether one views this as a myth, has far reaching implications for how one views one’s relationship to our way of life. Even more important is what one considers the content of that revelation to be, or whether there is content to revelation. If the Torah is literally the word of God, then one is commanded by God to act a certain way and live a particular way of life. There can be no ifs, ands, or buts. But if one understands revelation as anything but the literal word of God then one introduces a human element into the authority of Torah, and one places the onus of interpretation in the hands of human beings.

It seems so very simple. It is either/or. Either the Torah is the word of God, or it is a document created by human beings. Either we are commanded to act a certain way because God said so, or we choose to do so for a whole variety of other reasons. One might choose to live by the Torah because it is our historic and cultural document, or because it is a product of the generations, or because it contains a deep spiritual message. In the end, what we do is an individual choice and not a matter of “commanded-ness.” In a sense this is the overwhelming preoccupation of all modern rabbis. It is the dividing line between orthodox and non orthodox Jews, and it is the central question that separates those who are committed to Halacha from those who are not.

In the recent discussion over the issue of homosexuality in the Conservative Movement, this has been the question which has come up most often among our congregants. Wrestling with the decision of the law committee, some have asked a question, which goes something like this: “I don’t understand how the Conservative Movement could make such a decision. How could they change something that is written so explicitly in the Torah?” Whether or not these people have thought through their own theological assumptions, their beliefs are apparent in what they are asking. What they are really saying is, “If the Torah is written by God how can we change it?”

Ironically, these people are not asking –“If the Torah comes from God why don’t I live by it? Or for that matter they are not wrestling with all the other changes we have made through the ages as Conservative Jews. But that is a discussion for another time. The question of revelation has implications not only for Rabbis or the Law Committee but for how we each see our responsibilities as Jews to God.

I’d like to suggest this morning that the question of Torah min hashamayim, the question of revelation is not an either/or question, not for modern Jews and not even from the perspective of the Torah, itself. For in fact Torah comes in many shapes and forms – and one of them is human.

It seems to me that the context in which the Ten Commandments and the story of revelation appear in this week’s Parshah suggests that this is a far more complicated issue. Consider the name of this week’s Parshah: Parshat Yitro. Isn’t it fascinating that the Parshah that contains the Ten Commandments is named after a pagan priest? Yitro of course, is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moshe and his spiritual mentor. When Moses fled from Egypt, he stayed with Jethro and eventually married his daughter, Tzipporah. At the beginning of today’s parshah Jethro shows up with Moshe’s family in tow and stays with Moshe for a short visit.

During his visit Jethro advises Moshe on how to apply the teachings of the Torah. While visiting, he finds his son-in-law overwhelmed with the task of judging the Israelite people. Everyone with problems or grievances comes to Moshe seeking a solution. Recognizing that Moshe cannot handle these problems alone, Jethro suggests that Moshe to set up a system of judges, “men who fear God, trust worthy men who spurn ill gotten gains” and he tells him to “set these over them as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens…” According to Jethro, Moshe’s job should be to handle the most difficult cases while others will decide the simpler issues. Moshe takes Jethro’s suggestion to heart. He sets up a system of judges to handle the daily affairs of the Jewish people. In the course of doing so, Jethro the gentile priest has a profound influence on the governance of Torah.

It’s no accident that this story appears in conjunction with the giving of the Torah. In fact this story most likely reflects and event which took place after the giving of the Torah at Sinai. That would explain why the people of Israel had so many questions and grievances. As a newly observant nation with a brand new covenant, they were trying their hardest to follow the laws that God had given them. Jethro and Mount Sinai, then, represent two aspects of revelation. Sometimes we experience revelation in the voice of God and sometimes in the advice of our fellow before returning home.

Parshat Yitro contains two sources of revelation. One is Divine and the other is human. Each has a profound affect upon the people of Israel. Truth is revealed not only in thunder and lightening on the top of a mountain and in the sound of the shofar; it is also revealed in the gentle suggestions of a gentile prophet who teaches his son-in-law how to apply God’s laws to their daily lives. Parshat Yitro, the Parshah of revelation is named after Jethro to remind us that we can hear the voice of God in many different places. It is not either/or; either in the commanding divine voice or in the sound of human wisdom. Jethro’s teachings become part of the way of Torah. We continue to experience revelation in the study and application of Torah to our daily lives, in discourse, in discussion, in teaching and learning. When we listen to the Torah on Shabbat morning we hear the sounds of Sinai. And when we ask questions, and seek answers, and share our knowledge and curiosity with others we are at Sinai as well.

Is all discourse on words of Torah “Divine revelation?” Not necessarily. I believe that for Torah study to lead to revelation we first must begin by embracing our choseness. One must believe that God chose us to live a life of Torah. When we are called to the Torah for an aliyah first we say: Asher bahar ban mikol haamim, God chose us from among all peoples. There is nothing chauvinistic about this statement. The choice here is not “from” but “to.” It is not about us being better or more fortunate but believing that this is what God wants us to do. Only then can we say, v’natan lanu et torato, and Therefore - He gave us this Torah. The Torah is not ours to discover until we accept our responsibility to live by it. Revelation is not ours to experience until we recognize the responsibilities of choseness.

Revelation, after all began not when God spoke at Sinai, but when Israel said, Na’aseh v’nishma, we will do and we will listen. Only then were they were worthy of standing at Sinai.

Jethro and Mount Sinai are the two poles of divine revelation. One is as important as the other. The application of God’s teachings takes place when we open our ears and our hearts to God’s presence not only as it issued from Mount Sinai but as we continue to experience it in the people around us and in the study of Torah.

There is a teaching that all of us were already present at Mount Sinai. Who knows? Maybe we were all there. If that’s true maybe you or I remember something that past generations have forgotten. Each of us has something to teach, something to impart that comes from God that we heard on that fateful day generations ago. But our Parshah goes even farther than that. Even Jethro, the pagan priest, has something to teach. No one has a monopoly on wisdom or on Torah. God can speak through a gentile priest as well. Revelation is not an event long ago but an on-going process in which we participate even today.

Today, let us affirm the words of the people of Israel, Na’aseh v’nishma. And let us be open to the sounds of God’s revelation in our daily lives!

Shabbat Shalom