…Joseph mentions the Egyptian priests, whose land was not nationalised during the famine (47:22). Yitro was a Midianite priest. In the ancient world there was nothing distinctive about priesthood. Every nation had its priests and holy men. What was distinctive about Israel was that every one of its members was to be a priest; each of its citizens was called…
First in Yitro there were the Aseret Hadibrot, the “Ten Utterances”, the Ten Commandments, expressed as general principles. Now in Mishpatim come the details. Here is how they begin: If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything . . . But if…
…2:18), a second time when Yitro sees Moses leading alone and says: “What you are doing is not good.” (Ex. 18:17) We cannot live alone. We cannot lead alone. As soon as Moses sees the seventy elders share his spirit, his depression disappears. He can say to Joshua, “Are you jealous on my behalf?” And he is undisturbed by the…
…the silence, we can hear the kol demamah dakah, the still, small voice of God, telling us we are loved, we are heard, we are embraced by God’s everlasting arms, we are not alone.[6] [1] Mechilta, Yitro, Bachodesh, 1. [2] Ibid., 5. [3] Ibid. [4] BBC television, first shown 1977. [5] Koren Shalem Siddur. [6] For more on the theme…
The revelation at Mount Sinai – the central episode not only of the parsha of Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole – was unique in the religious history of humankind. Other faiths (Christianity and Islam) call themselves religions of revelation, but in both cases the revelation of which they spoke was to an individual (“the son of God,” “the…
…Educational Companion Torah Trivia: this week’s answer Answer 1: The six parshiyot are: Noach, Chayei Sarah, Yitro, Korach, Balak, and Pinchas. Interestingly, four of these six are named for non-Jews. Answer 2: The inanimate object that is described performing a human action is the earth, as it says “and the earth opened its mouth” (Bamidbar 16:32). The inanimate object that…
…Egyptian taskmaster hitting a Jewish slave. Moshe intervenes and kills the Egyptian. The next day, Moshe sees two Jewish slaves fighting and tries to help. However, the Jewish slaves reprimand him for his actions the day before. Moshe runs away to Midian. There, he rescues Yitro’s daughters from bullying shepherds, marries Tzipporah, and settles into life as a shepherd. However,…
The Summary This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks. In Yitro, Bnei Yisrael received the headlines – the Aseret Hadibrot. And now in Mishpatim, we get the details. The first law? The treatment of slaves. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Why begin here? Why does Mishpatim – the first full…
…as a whole, whose land Joseph did not nationalise; and Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, a Midianite Priest. The priesthood was not unique to Israel, and everywhere it was an elite. Here for the first time, we find a code of holiness directed to the people as a whole. We are all called on to be holy. In a strange way, though,…
…blessing. Being alone, from a Torah perspective, is not a good thing. The first time the words “not good” appear in the Torah is in the verse, “It is not good for man to be alone.” (Gen. 2:18) The second time is when Moses’ father-in-law Yitro sees him leading alone and says, “What you are doing is not good.” (Ex….