Today we look at Yitro, Exodus 18:1 – 20:23 – Moses’ father-in-law Jethro arrives at the Israelite camp, advises Moses, converts to Judaism, and then Moses receives the Ten Utterances*. Drama and special effects – this is a big reading!
The people don’t get to approach close to the thunder and lightning of Mount Sinai – they remain at a distance and let Moses go encounter the Divine on his own.
Truly, who can blame them or God? The people have already proven themselves to be fickle, and we haven’t even gotten to the Golden Calf yet, and God seems to be an angry and dangerous supreme being – sometimes an emissary isn’t a bad thing.
While we want to solve all of our problems on our own, recognizing when we might best team up with others shows great wisdom and insight. Moses and the Israelites both admit to limits in this reading.
For Elul, recognize that all is not up to us alone. We share the planet with each other, we can work together on our burdens too.
*Jews tend to refer to the text known as the “Ten Commandments” as the “Ten Utterances” – in the Jewish division of the text the first utterance, “I am God”, isn’t really a commandment. Furthermore, by the Jewish counting, there are 613 commandments in the Hebrew Bible.
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When taken as a whole, togetherness and community are the mainstays of our faith. We are here together and therefore the plan must be a plan of togetherness. Even in the greater universe, the planets rely on the stars and their moons to maintain the balance that is required for life. A ladder with just one rung is not a useful tool, but a ladder with many rungs can take us to the stars. We are like Legos. We are designed to interlock so that we can create something together, that we could never make alone. I mean that literally. We are atomic particles are we not? And yet, an atom cannot compose a symphony, nor does a single cellist make an orchestra.