Greetings from Kansas City and welcome to Torah Thoughts from Adas Israel the Jewish Congregation of Northern Iowa and based in Mason City. Glad you're here. Me? In Kansas City for business this week and yes, the Kansas City Chiefs are playing football on Sunday and the town is running in high gear. While I'm not going you can tell football is in the air.
Parsha Yitro
This week we read from Exodus 18 - 20 and the selection is called Yitro as it reads, "Now Moses' father in law, Jethro, the chieftain of Midian, heard all that G-d had done for Moses and for Israel, His people that the L-rd had taken Israel out of Egypt." By the way, Yitro is Hebrew for Jethro.
This is a pretty big deal because Yitro is a major ruler of a great nation and a pagan. And for him to take notice of what had been going on becomes something of importance in allowing people, other than the Jews, to know G-d. Oh, and he is also the father in law to Moses.
Yitro is so impressed that he converts and becomes a follower and an adviser to Moses telling him that he needs some help in judging all the cases that come before him. So, Moses listens and does what his father in law says.
The Money Thing
One of the pieces of advice that Yitro gives to Moses is to appoint judges that can not be swayed by money: "But you shall choose out of the entire nation men of substance, G-d fearers, men of truth, who hate monetary gain..." What valuable insight and something that we should also remember when we are appointing not only judges but also electing leaders.
When someone does something only for financial gain there is a problem. Note that Yitro says they must fear G-d and they must be truthful and that is linked to actually hating financial rewards. And the Torah tells us that when this is accomplished there will be...peace.
The Warm Up
Now things are about to get serious. G-d says to Moses that he needs to hear from the people that they are ready to follow Him. Note...G-d should already know what is in the hearts of the people but they must actually say it. It's not enough to simply think you are going to follow the laws of Hashem...you must acknowledge it with voice.
Of course the people are all in at this point. They have seen the wonders and now they are ready to accept the yoke of faithful followers.
Sinai
If might surprise you that there is total agreement between Jews, Christians and Muslims on what is about to happen. All three of these main world religions believe as part of their doctrine that G-d descended upon Mount Sinai and gave the Torah to the Jewish people? In fact, they all consider the prophets of the "Old Testament" to be authentic conveyers of G-d’s truths.
To be sure after we agree on that part...things take a turn. However, at least we have that.
Have you ever wondered why so many hospitals, recovery centers, and medical facilities are named Mount Sinai? On the surface this seems to be a very random and rather odd name to associate with healthcare.
This week’s Torah reading gives us a clue. In this week’s portion we find the following verse, “God shall descend before the eyes of all the people on Mount Sinai” (Ex. 19:11).
The implication of this verse stating that everyone was able to see G-d descend is that even those who had been blind could actually physically see G-d descend. A two thousand year old Jewish tradition therefore concludes that an incredible miracle occurred prior to the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai: Everyone was miraculously healed.
In other words, all the sick, infirm, and handicapped were cured at Mount Sinai. We can now understand why almost every large city has a hospital or medical facility named “Mount Sinai.”
The Commandments
We now get to the Ten Commandments. What is interesting about this is that there are truly another 603 commandments. After all, each time G-d says to do something or not to do something it is truly a...commandment.
In addition, did you know that there are differences in the Ten Commandments as stated here in Ex. 20:1-14 and then later in Deut. 5:6-18. It makes for great table talk around the Shabbos Table with the kids.
The portion concludes with the Almighty telling Moses to instruct the Jewish people not to make any images of G-d. They were then commanded to make an earthen altar; and eventually to make a stone altar, but without the use of a sword or metal tool. Why is that? Because tools made from iron can be tools of war and death. G-d wanted to people to pursue...peace.
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful Shabbat!!
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